I'm reading "Affording New York/How a Hairdresser and Painter Lives on $70,000 a Year in Chelsea" (NYT). The 750 square foot studio apartment, in the Hotel Chelsea, costs $2700 a month.
"Affording New York" is a series. I love seeing how people express who they are by how they economize. This is the case of someone who's really splurging on food and television and making it work by harshly scrimping on travel and anything that might be shopped for. Gerald DeCock, 67, lives in a great part of town and he just stays put, getting the most out of that precise place. It's not just money he saves. He saves a lot of time by avoiding all shopping and staying off the subway and every other form of transportation. Frankly, this way of life is appealing quite aside from the question of making it fit $70,000 a year.
పోస్ట్లు
44 కామెంట్లు:
"I have traveled widely in Chelsea."
Sounds like he works for cash, so $70K is really $70K. He'd need about twice that if he was paying NY taxes.
Also at his age, he probably doesn't eat much. A restaurant meal could be doggie-bagged for one or two more meals.
His life really is how city living should work. How it used to work not too long ago. CC, JSM
I love seeing how people express who they are by how they economize.
I love it too…and I love seeing you love it!
So he eats out and doesn't cook. That must be expensive. Lets say he makes 72 thousand/year just to make the math easier. That's $6000 month. He pays $2700 (assume it includes utilities) and $300 for his internet and TV. That leaves him $3000.
Then you have payroll taxes, healthcare, and income taxes. Dont know if he qualifies as low income and gets a subsidy for heathcare. But lets say he nets 80% of his $6000. That leaves him with $1800/month for restaurants and everything else.
Thats doable. No car. The "He forgets to eat" sounds like BS to me. He's still getting his 2000 Calories a day somehow.
But with $60/day he can basically eat out and enjoy himself.
Is his first name Loves?
Is he collecting Social Security? And is that part of the $70K? Of course if he's been working for cash his whole life, maybe he never paid into it. CC, JSM
I find the story a refreshing change from the perennial 'We are making $500,000 per year and are going broke." I salute Mr. DeCock for making hard economization decisions and sticking with them.
If he was buying groceries at his local market and cooking himself, he'd probably be spending at least as much. Gotta say, I think he's living in spiritual poverty.
If we assume heating and electric are part of the $2700/month rent on the studio apartment, then this leaves him $93/day for eating. Of course, I am sure some of his expenses are being ignored here but even if it was just $40/day for food that is well fed even in NYC.
Woke up, it was Chelsea morning
And the first thing that he did
Was to look outside his window
At the traffic and sidewalk
He had a simple wish to eat some fish
And maybe find his cock
I read this guy's name and imagined a 1970s Hervé Villechaize running around a public bathhouse yelling .......
FWIW Peter Marshall, the guy who hosted Hollywood Squares, was born Pierre LaCock.
Good for him. It's a lot different from living like Donald Trump whom Forbes estimates his net worth at approximately $6.5 billion dollars in NYC.
"this leaves him $93/day for eating"
I am coincidentally in NYC for work today, and my per diem is $92.
By the end of the article, I almost started to like DeCock.
As long as we're making irrelevant observations, it's also a lot different than living as a bum on the street.
Double-action pistols have a decock lever, so you can safely return the hammer to its normal position without having to mess with the trigger. Range officers will say "scan...decock...and holster" when you've finished a string of shots. CC, JSM
He says it's not rent-stabilized, but the rent has only gone from $2000 to $2700 in 32 years? I'd guess market rent for a 750 sq ft apartment in that neighborhood would be closer to $4000. Something is missing from the story (or I missed it).
"If he was buying groceries at his local market and cooking himself, he'd probably be spending at least as much."
How is that possible?
I hope his art gets critical recognition, so future generations of giggling schoolboys can go to museums and demand to see DeCock. CC, JSM
Ocean, bodega and independent corner grocery prices in Manhattan are rather inflated. You might not save much or any money vs buying restaurant food. CC, JSM
The entire premise of the story is that DeCock doesn't venture far from his apartment. If you've ever been to Manhattan, and gone into a neighborhood bodega, the prices are quite high, especially from an out-of-town perspective. Whatever you think of as a modest shopping haul, multiply by 2.5 - 3x. That's only my limited experience, maybe some NYC residents can weigh in. I've always found that city at least twice as expensive as I would expect to pay.
Dude should sell T-shirts with his paintings and "WE LOVE DeCOCK!!" on them. Would probably garner enough to pay off the mortgage for that couple struggling on $500K, let alone his own future rent. CC, JSM
On the other hand, delis have gigantic sandwiches, Chinese restaurants give out huge portions, there are low-priced pizzas, etc. Restaurants can be pretty cost-effective if you go to the right ones. CC, JSM
Good for him. It's a lot different from living like Donald Trump whom Forbes estimates his net worth at approximately $6.5 billion dollars in NYC.
The very definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Take a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with Trump and make it about Trump.
"Restaurants can be pretty cost-effective if you go to the right ones."
If it works for him, that's great. As for me, once I'm home in the afternoon, the last thing I want to do is go out again to get something to eat.
Phrasing good grief
"Take a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with Trump and make it about Trump."
Hating someone so much that all you do is think about him? Yeah, that's pretty retarded.
He probably voted for mamdani (it will not work out well)
This guy reminded me of a childhood friend, Rodolfo Núñez, a painter/hairdresser, who lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, for decades. He had a love/hate relationship with Brooklyn, because he lived in a rent controlled apt with a landlady that he felt was trying to get rid of him. Until about 10 years ago, he bought his own place. He loves NYC. He will never leave.
Eating out I can see but not making coffee at home? Even at Keruig cup prices it would probably cut his spending on coffee in half
Rodolfo is brother to my uncle's wife. Related I guess, but not by blood.
Wow. OK. If prices were 2x what I pay here (supermarket) then Yeah, eating out might be a good choice. And the guy is a vegan.
Yeah, but you have to do it in NYC. No thanks.
$24.00 enchiladas?! WTF?
Despite being portrayed as the opposite, this is a failure of imagination. What is the appealing part? If someone wanted to torture me, this is how they would force me to live.
Have we seen he and joy behar in the same room
Between SS and two PT jobs, I net about $43K per annum. I couldn't afford the crazy rents in the area I lived in, so I pay $200 a week for a tiny waterfront efficiency and devote seven hours of routine property maintenance at this five-unit apartment building and marina. I get a 30% discount at my Fresh Market job, but I still have to shop carefully, along with Walmart and visits to two food pantries. I recently put $2,000 of my savings into a 2011 BMW Series ! convertible because my other car's electronics got fried and no longer worked. I made ONE payment and the head gasket blew. That is at least $3000 that I don't have. My mechanic is letting me drive a spare car at a decent daily rate. I am 71 with no assets and crappy credit -- so it repo city for that car. No more car payments or car insurance. I hope to get one of those Air B&B type car rental beaters until I can save enough cash to buy a decent car. I'd say FML, but on 4/28, I had 32 years of sobriety and my health is much better. So I count my blessings.
Jim at said...
"I read this guy's name and imagined a 1970s Hervé Villechaize running around a public bathhouse yelling ......."
LMFAO! Fantasy Island was great television.
Althouse,
You misspelled "appalling" right at the end.
With a name like DeCock I suppose I wouldn't leave home very often either.
Which, of course, given my juvenile sense of humor reminds me of Biggus Dickus.
To me, that sounds like life in Purgatory if not outright Hell.
I can't tolerate New York City for longer than 36 hours. At this point in my career it is doubtful whether I will ever set foot there again, and I certainly won't miss it if not.
"I hope his art gets critical recognition, so future generations of giggling schoolboys can go to museums and demand to see DeCock. CC, JSM"
"I'd like to see the DeCock Exhibition. And maybe your collection of Hunter Bidens."
Good for him, leading the life that suits him at the pace that suits him. Sure, there’s all kind of comments that could be made about what he’s forgoing, but it sounds like he’s hit a pleasant groove of semi-monasticism. Not a bad life in one’s late sixties.
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