Your cost of living will depend on your circumstances. Are you living with someone to share rent, etc.? If not, rent will consume a substantial amount of income. Are you someone who cooks at home on a budget well or are you someone who buys coffee on your way to work, grabs takeout for lunch, and goes out for dinner most days? How will you get around the area? Will you need to factor in car payments and insurance?

One of the most expensive towns. Need to buy a house? Highest property taxes in the state.

It's $$$$

You can move to any of the surrounding towns with much less cost of living

2.2k to 4k a month as take home? Even at 4k a month Princeton would be a tight budget with current housing prices unless you land a place with a roommate... or several.

You’re finding the difference because everyone is going to live their life differently. Are you buying a new car every year? How about eating out? What kind of place do you want to live in? What do you do for entertainment? We can’t really answer this question for you.

I work for the university, specifically the national lab on route 1. If possible, depending on you commuting circumstances, I would try to not live in the immediate area unless it’s 100% required. Not that it isn’t an amazing place to live and work, it is, but it’s going to cost you $$$$. I would look at Cranbury, Lawrenceville, Hamilton, for cheaper alternatives while still being only a 10-20 mins commute. West/East Windsor are nearby too, though typically more expensive then the other suggestions.

Realistically, if you’re looking to rent in the Princeton area without roommates or a spouse with income, have a car for transportation, and still have a small amount left over so you aren’t sitting in you apartment all weekend, I would think $80k a year to start, even that might be pushing it, we’re talking about one of the more expensive areas, in one of the more expensive states, in the most expensive region in the US.

Suggest you look in surrounding towns like West Windsor, Plainsboro, and Kingston. They will still be expensive but much less than Princeton and depending on where you wind up you would be a 5-10 minute drive into downtown Princeton or 15-30 minute bike ride. For a one bedroom in the area you can assume a range of $2000-$2500 in rent. In town you will start at $3000 a month.

I live in one of the surrounding towns about 15 minutes from Nassau St. I pay around $2,200/mo for a 1 bedroom apartment. The cost of living in this area (and most of NJ) is expensive. I would say you'd need to be making at least $4,000/mo take-home to "make it" here and that's w/ making smart financial decisions and w/o any big expenses (Ex: Like a $500+/mo student loan payment). There are cheaper places to live other than where I am, but not TOO much cheaper if you want to be close to Princeton. I know a studio apartment in some of the Princeton complexes cost more than my 1 bedroom here. You've got to do some research for options. I saw someone suggested $80,000/yr for the area, and if you're living alone I think that's a realistic number. Of course, I'm a stranger on the internet w/ experiences limited to my own, so other might have different opinions. I wish you the best of luck!

I make way more than that and I can't afford to live there.

Also, not that great of a crowd there imo.

I would avoid unless you know how the play the system designed against the working class.

Yes, 4 is tight even surrounding Princeton for a apartment.

You should try Trenton. Way cheaper.

Understand that Rt 1 is a very busy rd and can be choked with traffic even off rush hour. Rt 206 north of Princeton is usually busy but often it’s only around rush hours gets slowed down b/c if traffic. Princeton is a cool place to live (I lived in West Windsor right by N.E. Corridor train lines) but that area is pricey. There are neighborhoods in Princeton that are more Hispanic that cater to people working for the wealthy in Princeton and these >may< be less expensive. This area is predominantly to the west of Witherspoon rd going north out of town. If you don’t need to live in town, check out areas north of town up to Hillsboro or go West towards Hopewell or Pennington. Good luck finding your new digs!

Edit to add: you should go have Bent Spoon Ice cream at least once when you’re there.

2200 as income? In PRINCETON? Not sure if that’s enough for even South Jersey

Nah. Hopewell and Pennington are both extremely expensive. Not quite as expensive as Princeton but not much cheaper

2200 a month is not enough to live in NJ, period. You can't afford to live anywhere in NJ on that salary without government assistance which you can't get because you're not a US citizen (I assume because you wrote 2.200 instead of 2,200)

Princeton is one of the most expensive places to live in NJ. 4,000 a month = 48,000 a year. Still not enough for NJ, especially not Princeton.

To put how expensive it is to live in this state - 58,000 for a single person per year qualifies for government assistance with rent aka low income housing, in every single county in this state. In Princeton, you can make up to 74,000 a year and still qualify for low income housing.

Even in Trenton 2200 a month will be hard to swing