Related Posts
What’s the average salary range for a GAS?
More Posts
Why is the stock market bleeding today?
Any info on the agency Heartbeat in NY?
Any recruiter in search of a Scrum Master 🙂
Additional Posts in Advertising
Hi fishes! I volunteer with The Art of Good, a creative collective helping small businesses affected by the pandemic. They are seeking a little help from a media professional. Need an SEM POV for a small business looking to change their name and relaunch their brand. This is non-paid. More about giving back while in-between gigs. :) If you can help out or want to learn more, please reach out to me via LinkedIN. Thank you!! www.linkedin.com/in/karenkohn/
Best headhunters in nyc?
Cool job offer for AD

The new Volvo commercials are 🔥🔥🔥
Which agencies are going through layoffs
Any word on Swift in Portland?
What do y'all know about Konrad NY?
New to Fishbowl?
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.



You take any free meals or drinks you can get.
If you're an AAE on that salary you will be making a lot more than most other AAEs in this town
Seriously.
Roommates, meal prep and Bushwick.
Bushwick is big. I live in Bushwick and my commute into midtown is an hour each way.
I lived in Santa Monica on a $40k 60+hr job. Grow up and learn how to budget life is how.
I made 60k in Bushwick when I first moved here.
My tips: NYCID card gets you free museum and venue and other memberships. Now you have something free to do every weekend.
When you work late and can expense a dinner, save half for lunch the next day.
Cook your own food! Scavenge after a meeting let’s out.
Don’t adopt your coworkers lifestyle. Delivery lunches, equinox memberships, multiple restaurant dinners during the week. Many advertising people come from money so it can be easy to adopt their lifestyle inflation.
Try to resist the pull of NYC nightlife every weekend. Stay in and play board games, watch movies, read, etc.
Save Uber’s for when you REALLY need it. Late nights for safery, downpours for comfort. The subway, the bus and your feet are awesome.
Work your ass off and after a year advocate for yourself (and gravitate towards people who care about your advancement) and maybe you’ll get a bump and get to go out a bit more or eat a bit better.
I made 65K as a Sr AE in NYC in 2010, living in Manhattan in a crappy place for $1600. You should be fine as an AAE on that salary. Make a budget and stick to it. There are living conditions for every budget in this town...
Maximum rent you can afford is $1500/month. This means you need a roommate in order to live somewhere decent. Limit yourself to one cab ride every two weeks, max. Don’t eat out more than twice a month. Bars, no more once a week. Don’t get takeout for work lunch, bring your own.
Then a year later quit that job for another that pays $120k so you can finally breathe.
I’m at a holding company and we offer discounts on phone bills. Along with offering transit reimbursement for MTA, MetroNorth and Path riders. Other tips:
Enjoy free meals and drinks at industry events and client dinners;
Snag free beauty and skincare products (from clients after their activations);
Use RTW discounts and codes so you always look the part and don’t absorb closet space;
Build and sustain year-round, media relationships across outlets. I’ve secured BPC products, an Amazon Alexa, Google Home Mini, MK watch, home appliances and more from top-tier media contacts. Companies pitch them in excess for seasonal guides, and they have a surplus of product leftover in November and December. Leverage these relationships to save where you can.
Hahaha 😭, thank you E1! Glad these could help.
i was making $35k living in a 4-bed in bushwick. still wonder how i survived that year, but it’s doable.
Surviving on 38k with one roomate. Think you’ll be okay
Drink less.
Roommates, or a trust fund.
Same as sf. I did it on 35k. Had a roommate, ate all three meals if I could at the office. Always went out any time it was offered cause I knew it would be good and booze and sometimes entertainment. No car. Minimal bills. Looking back making more than 100k more now I have no clue how I pulled it off.
One doesn’t.
I'm here on way less than that. Find a great place with roommates and don't spend frivolously, you'll be fine on 60k.
You will be able to pay for rent but not much else, and stick to a firm budget. You could potentially find a place with roommates outer borough for 1000 or a little under a month, but I would say 1400-1700 a month with roommates is typical rent-wise. New York is an incredible city and you get out what you put into it- plenty of fun to be had without shelling out major cash on food drinks trips etc
Making 50 and the living’s fine (...limited savings, but fine for the short term)