And

A poorly articulated point/question from the previous ramble (sometimes it feels good to go old school livejournal style) was whether it’s better to overextend yourself and be comfortable otherwise or be frugal and make compromises? My natural inclination is to find a cheaper apartment, but I kind of don’t want to. The thing is that the $585 one bedroom of yore would now be equivalent to $1,400, except that there aren’t any one bedrooms for $1,400 (and $585 was unusually cheap even in Queens in 1998). A friend was telling me about a woman she knew, a nurse getting a divorce, who just moved into a share in Crown Heights and pays $1,400 for her room. $1,700 is more like the low end for a one bedroom in a second tier or below neighborhood. A “nice” building probably starts at $2,100 in these same areas going up to $2,900 minimum for the prime neighborhoods. It’s a little outrageous considering salaries aren’t rising for anyone I know. Mine is stagnating—what seemed good in 2011 just seems ok now–while my expenses nearly doubled in 2013. Ok, the end.

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