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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DC: Educated, advance degree is the norm.

[b]New York: Few extremely wealthy, rest are poor. (agree about finance exec assholes).
[/b]
San Fran: Advance degree not needed. Few lucky nerds, others are just wannabes.

LA: Uneducated, only few make it in Hollywood, fall back is porn industry.[/quote]

This is so true. I have a few friends who are truly well off (family money + self-made success),[b]but so many more friends well into their late 30s who are just scraping by in NYC.[/b] And this is after living there for nearly 20 years. They'd have a much better quality of life if they just lived somewhere else.

Glad I got out after 9 years. [/quote]

I agree with this wholeheartedly.  If you aren't on the path to riches in NY by ~30 years old you need to get the hell out of there.  You can easily rent an apartment in your 20s and have a blast.  But once you try and start a family you're either signing up for a lengthy soul sucking commute or continuing to rent for life.  Renting is fine but not when it's such a large percentage of your income like it is in Manhattan.   Our friends there are renting 5k plus tiny two bedroom apartments for kids and will be forking over serious cash for private schools and preschool.  They spend every penny they have.  You could live in another city and purchase a home and have it paid off before retirement. Not to mention save much more money.  However, for some people it's worth it to live in NY I suppose.  I think there are some great cities and towns in America and would rather live somewhere else (Denver, DC, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin) and not spend most of a high salary on rent and a nanny.  [/quote]

I know a few really well-off people in Manhattan - that's the way to do it. The friends who've struggled smartly left. What's the point of living there if you're just going to be stressed?

[/quote]

Another issue with NYC is the extended adolescence the city encourages. I have MANY single female friends in NYC in their late 30s, making $80-100K, with zero prospects for marriage and still living with roommates in a rental apartment. They'd love to settle down with the right guy, but guys in NYC still single in their 30s have no desire to get serious. They are on an endlessly spinning hamster wheel of 12 hour work days, grinding it out on the subway, dinner with friends, bad dates, partying, and lugging their laundry to the launder-mat.  Miserable![/quote]

How does working 12 hour days = "extended adolescence"? [/quote]

Working 12 hrs day IMO is not extended adolescence but it is an extension of the work hard play hard lifestyle of a 25 yr old. Certain industries in NYC - like finance and law - just require 12+ hrs/day for crazy compensation. But the reality is if your life becomes working from 9 am-midnight and you embrace being a workaholic or if it's 9 am to 9 pm and you're out to drinks nightly after that, it becomes impossible to have or maintain any kind of family life. [b]Back in my NYC days, if you finished off work around 9-10 pm and weren't going out with the crew - whether work friends or friends - bc you hadn't seen your spouse and kid all week, that was viewed as "lame" - and not by the 25 yr olds but rather by the 35+ crowd.[/b] [/quote]

And it is really obvious!

This is what I miss about NYC, actually. That and the spontaneity. It took me a very long time to adapt to the DC plan ahead mentality.

I hate to pick on DC because I love it, but this reminds of one of my qualms (as a former New Yorker). If people don't want to do an activity after work, the excuse is always "I'm too busy with work." But that is patently false, because in NYC people are just as busy with work. Be honest DC people, you don't want to hang out because you want to see your family! Totally fine. I think [b]the "I'm too busy with work/overworked" shtick is played out.[/quote][/b][/quote]

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