Rent expenses advise

Submitted by Vegetable-Delicious t3_126wzde in personalfinance

I’m a single graduate moving to the Bay Area for work this year. The rental scene for 1 bedroom units seems to be quite expensive. However I value privacy and I am done sharing with roommates. Is spending ~2.8k pm on single bedroom units okay considering I’ll be making 200k TC before taxes. I would probably be getting a car once I move. Apart from that I do not have any big expenses planned out for the coming year. I also do not have educational loan or anything to take care of. Any financial advise would be appreciated! Thanks

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GeorgeRetire t1_jebfzsa wrote

>Is spending ~2.8k pm on single bedroom units okay

Seems like a lot. It's up to you.

What are your alternatives?

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Vegetable-Delicious OP t1_jec1uq0 wrote

Find some room mate. Share with them. Would come to 1.8k. Will probably save 1k a month that way.

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GeorgeRetire t1_jee9syj wrote

But you wrote "I am done sharing with roommates" so I'm assuming you have already ruled that out?

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goingback2back t1_jebg3yi wrote

Sure. General rule of thumb is no more than 1/3 of your gross pay, but obviously this doesn't make sense after a while. There'd be no reason for you to spend 66k/yr on rent for 1 person.

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[deleted] t1_jebhyfs wrote

[deleted]

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Vegetable-Delicious OP t1_jebj11n wrote

Thanks. 2.8k here is including utilities and others here. I found one at Santa Clara for 2.4k. Seems to have what I am looking for. It is less than 3 miles to my office. I could look for apartments farther away but I fear not being close to my other friends and I’ve heard the traffic there can get quite annoying. This is a big decision and I am quite scared for sure.

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Admirable_Nothing t1_jebwyev wrote

Where in the BA? There are parts of it that $2800 won't touch a 1 Br and parts of it that you can just make it on that. But when you move to a HCOL area for housing you simply need to pay the local freight whatever it is.

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Vegetable-Delicious OP t1_jec1il8 wrote

Santa Clara. Found one for 2.4k. With utilities and electricity would go up to 2.6-2.7k.

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Admirable_Nothing t1_jec4n36 wrote

Sounds like a great deal. And as you stated it is close to work. Sometimes 3 miles can take you over a half hour at the wrong times.

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Raveen396 t1_jebz6u6 wrote

I live in the BA and make about the same TC, but I split a 3BR with my partner and pay about $2800/month rent.

It's perfectly livable and I still save a good amount of money, but really depends on your spending and how much you expect to spend.

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Vegetable-Delicious OP t1_jec1qrr wrote

Honestly, not a big spender. I have always grown up saving much more than I spend and perhaps that is why this decision is a difficult one to take.

Btw, is 2.8k your portion of the rent or for the entire apartment?

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Raveen396 t1_jec3fwq wrote

It's for my portion, the total rent is $4k and we split it $2800/$1200 since I make significantly more.

At $200k TC, it's pretty doable. Depending on where you're working and how often you have to commute, driving across the BA can be a huge pain due to traffic.

We could have found a smaller/cheaper place that was further away, but I live close enough that I can bike to work in 15 minutes and I'm satisfied with paying a bit more and reducing my commute.

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Vegetable-Delicious OP t1_jec3suo wrote

Thanks. This gives me a bit more confidence :) Even though my office doesn’t mandate being in person, this place is within 3 miles and I am hoping to bike to it whenever possible. And I agree on paying more for less commute and better access to everything.

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Raveen396 t1_jec4iq1 wrote

Question; you did mention your TC is $200k, how much of that is salary vs RSU? If your mix is something crazy like $100k base and $100k RSU it will be dicey, but if you have a more normal split (80%/20%) I think you'll be fine.

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