How do people live in New York City on an Editorial Assistant’s salary (25,000 to the low 30’s with overtime)?
I would love to hear some feedback from people who are doing it.
It seems like a lot of people I interned with lived in Brooklyn or Queens but that is still pretty expensive.
Ed2010™
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thanks for your post.perhaps
thanks for your post.perhaps you will like links of london friednship.
Huh? How lavish is your life
Huh? How lavish is your life that you can’t live on that much? Bizarre.
Lavish?
Anyone living on their own with bills, rent, and loans to pay back cannot afford to live on 25k, especially once you add in commuter costs. I used to make 28k and couldn’t even save any money at the end of the month. My student loans are $500 alone each month. Leemb128
I did it too
Yeah, student loans suck. But you just have to find places to make sacrifices. Move to Brooklyn or Queens. I live in Brooklyn and support myself, student loans and all, on much less than $30K
i did it
it’s not pretty to live in nyc on 25k, but it’s totally possible. i did it years ago and paid $675 a month rent to live in a not so nice neighborhood in brooklyn that i shared with a friend. i ate eggs and veggie plates a lot and rarely bought clothes or went out to dinner. it really wasn’t that tough for me. i didn’t have loans since i had a scholarship, but my roommate did and she deferred them for a couple years until she could afford to pay monthly.
the reality is that assts at conde nast start at 28k. that’s the truth and it’s what you have to do to get your foot in the door with magazines. if you can’t cut it, then choose a new field. we have all done it and it’s really not that tough.
I can’t defer the interest
I can’t defer the interest on my loans, which is basically as much as my regular payment every month. If I didn’t have my bf paying our rent I really don’t think I could survive on such a small starting salary. Everyone’s situation is different and anything is possible if you work hard enough so you’ll just have to see how it works out for you. Leemb128
as someone who lives 30 mins
as someone who lives 30 mins from NYC, I have to accept I may be stuck in suburbia a little longer if it means being able to live above the poverty line in NYC in the future. Trust me, NYC isn’t so fun when you’re broke, starving, and miserable. And unless you have your parents pay your rent for you, your measly starter salary will JUST cover rent for a half-livable space. Meanwhile there’s a decent chance that a receptionist could make $50K. But we freshfaced, Ivy and J-School Grads must be the polymath EAs: admin. assts, writers, editors, copyeditors, and glorified gophers for sometimes half that. The irony is brutal. I understand “why” but it doesn’t make it sting any less.
This is one reason I am seriously considering the freelance route. Or at least for awhile. Then transition into mags when I qualify for a midlevel position. My aims aren’t necessarily editorial anyway: I primarily want to write, not conceptualize the layout and content of a book. I’d be open to that prospect one day in the future, but I’d need to maintain my senior writing duties (as opposed to switching over to styling - which I also enjoy doing, but so does every other female in this industry). We need some intelligent, fearless women writers. To yes, write about fashion as something more than a vain gimmick. It’s not that tall of an order to fill (but advertisers make sure that it is).
But back to the OP - either save up, scrape bottom, suck it up and work a job for which you’d have qualified while still in high school, or get ready to live hand to mouth. Ah, the noble asceticism of the young ed hopefuls. :/
luzhin your post is exactly
luzhin your post is exactly why I DON’T want to be in New York. I’d rather be comfortable in Podunknowhere, USA than struggling to get by in New York just for the sake of being in NYC. I don’t know about anyone else, but I like to be able to pay my bills, save and still have a little play money before the next paycheck. Bless you all who are able to make it work.
Depends
You have to take into account any debt you owe from school as well. If you’re making 30k as an EA, but have 40k in loans to pay back, then living in Manhattan would most likely be a no-go.
Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.
- Nikos Kazantzakis
Thanks!
Hey all, thanks for the feedback. An HR rep from Conde Nast told me $25,000 on an interview and I was pretty shocked. Maybe other places pay a little better.
How to live in NYC on an EA Salary
I had experience living in New York City when I was in art school 5 years ago. I really enjoyed my experience, but like you said, it can be hard money-wise to live in Manhattan. Thankfully, I had my family’s help. I lived in the school’s dorm with a roommate. We always spilt the food shopping. We each paid for things like milk, fruit, etc (the basic essentials). In order to save money, I sometimes made my own lunch to bring with me. If you are looking to get furniture, believe or not, you can find some decent items in a second-hand store. I have always been good with money, but I really learned how to budget after staying in NYC, especially since art suppiles are expensive. If you have a common and sense attitude, you will be alright. Good Luck.
If you are getting your
If you are getting your numbers from Ed’s salary report, they’re pretty outdated. Most jobs start at 30-35 now, so don’t be afraid to ask for that.
I moved to Manhattan on 30k/year—I didn’t want to live in Brooklyn or Queens, so my roommate and I ended up finding a place just on the edge of Spanish Harlem in a 5th floor walkup.
Things that I immediately opted to do without: cabs before 11:30pm, manis/pedis/general makeup madness at Sephora, shopping anywhere but sample sales (seriously, take advantage!), buying salad for lunch every day, going out for drinks every night, buying a new top or dress for every date/party.
Things I am SO glad I never started doing: drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, coloring my hair—I wouldn’t have been able to afford any of it. Also, REALLY glad I stopped using my credit card, because it can be hard to keep up if you get behind.
It’s just important to budget for the things you care about. Rent eats up a ton of money, but one of the perks of working publishing is getting to go to a lot of cool events, media parties, etc., so you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a busy schedule, plus I haven’t paid for a magazine since I started, since we subscribe to everything. I also asked for museum memberships for Christmas so it would be free for me to go whenever I wanted, and made a point of going to free events around the city. I am much happier going out to an incredible dinner twice a month than I was buying a new dress at Forever 21 every week. It’s important to cut out the little things because you don’t want to live in New York and not be able to enjoy living here!
Oh, PS, things NOT to ever skip: health insurance and putting money in a long-term savings account. It may hurt now, but if you never have the money, you’ll never miss it, and if you get sick you’ll be glad you have it.
It’s tough for sure, but
It’s tough for sure, but it’s definitely doable … you just have to be prepared to not live a luxe life for a while. Basically most of your money will be going towards rent. So it pays to find the cheapest you can (while still feeling comfortable). Brooklyn and Queens may be pretty expensive in comparison to the rest of the county, yes, but this whole area is … so you find the cheaper (but still safe) parts (even if this means living in Jersey) and you get roommates. As you’re looking for apts, try to find a place where you won’t need a car. Then comes the small stuff … don’t buy lots of furniture and stuff to decorate your apt, use what you have or what family will give you instead; forego cable tv; make do with your cell phone and no home phone; bring your lunches to work and try to cook your dinners at home; resist the starbucks temptation; only take cabs when your safety necessitates it; give up getting your hair colored and find cheap cuts; don’t get into the habit of getting manicures/pedicures; don’t go “window shopping” or get catalogs as you will undoubtedly buy stuff you don’t need, etc. Granted if you’re working at a fashion mag, the shopping/hair/nails stuff might be tough to give up fully, but try to keep them to a bare minimum. If you think all those things are important to making you happy, it’s going to be tough on you. But if those things seem like obvious solutions, you’ll be okay. And soon enough your salary will grow enough to let you afford some of those luxuries and more.