Another thing to consider is moving South. Go to Bangalore or Chennai. I was making like $1500 per month for a .NET gig in Chennai in 2007 at a body shop. Nothing fancy. Just some ASP.NET stuff. $100 is way too low. In Kochi, Kerala, even day laborers get Rs 600 a day. That'll be at least $200 per month.

You definitely don't need $5000/mo. to pay bills in NYC, except maybe if you're trying to raise a family on your salary alone in a fancy neighborhood. I live very well on $2000/mo., and could easily cut that without excessive sacrifice by moving to a less happening neighborhood with a bit longer commute than my current 35 minutes (say: parts of Jersey City; Sunset Park or Ditmas Park, Brooklyn; Jackson Heights, Queens; Inwood, Manhattan; Riverdale, Bronx; Stapleton, Staten Island) and cooking more of my own food.

If your salary is $5,000; you get about $3,000 to $3,500 in pocket after taxes, health insurance, social security and other deductions.

I live quite far from NYC in White Plains, rent for 1 bedroom apartment here is $2400.

PS. I am sure there are people surviving for $500 a month in NYC, but that is not the lifestyle most developers desire when they have job offers for $80,000 to $120,000. In fact, most developers I've met say they want to make $10,000 per month to quit their job.

No doubt, I'm sure the IRS would love to know how he lives in NYC on $2k gross...

$2k/month is $24,000/year, at which income the IRS does not take nearly as much. According to the IRS calculator, he would be paying $1,628 in income tax. Add in payroll tax and that's $3308 total. So his after-tax income is not far off from $2k at $1724/month.

Assuming he has roommates, his rent and other fixed costs will be less than $1k, so he will be ok, if rather Bohemian.

I mean spending $2k/month on everything, not living on a $2k gross salary. Plenty of people in less-well-compensated industries do that, though— it just means more compromises in terms of living arrangement or commute or neighborhood safety or ...

You can even own a modest apartment on that salary: http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/789809-coop-3131-grand-concou...

My Manhattan living expenses at the moment are about $1000/month (rent, utilities, monthly metro card, and phone plan). It's not really all that hard.

I live in Staten Island and rent for a 1 bedroom is $800 in a nice neighborhood and new house - you could get a 1 bedroom in NYC for $2400.

si != nyc ;)

Jokes aside, I'm in a Crown Heights 1br for < $,1200

Hey I'm in Crown Heights too! 1br for < $1625

Yes, CH varies quite a bit, and you can find a 1br for > $2200 tbh.

You can definitely find a 1BR apartment in brooklyn for <$2000/month. And a two bedroom for not much more, if you look.

While I agree with your initial numbers, you can get a decent apartment in White Plains around $1700 (or less if you find a deal, have lower standards, don't mind commuting, etc.).

Source: used to live/work there and just checked on craigslist.

You can rent a large bedroom in Manhattan with great subway access for $650-800, if you don't mind a 20 minute commute to midtown.

If you can't survive on $3,000-$3,500 a month here, you have a spending problem, not an earning problem.

maybe you should room with akgerber...

Its quite difficult to live "very well" in NYC on $2000/month. It was several years ago when I lived there, worse now. Where exactly in NYC do you live? In Staten Island, which is pretty far from Manhattan, it was more than $800 for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in 2001. The was just a normal apartment, not a big one or anything.

So that leaves around $1000 for everything else and any savings.. which means I think you are exaggerating when you say you live very well.

I have a roommate, which is pretty essential to affordable living in a place with expensive real estate. I live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which is a very different neighborhood from what it was in 2001. I eat out a lot, travel reasonably often, ride bikes on the regular, attend events regularly, and so on— it's certainly possible to spend more on lifestyle, but I don't think it would make me much happier.

Tech job benefits certainly help keep expenses reasonable, too.

Yes, selling plugins and themes is quite profitable and learning experience. I used to sell OpenCart themes while i was in college and used to make over $400 per month with only a couple of days of work.

I was just looking at CodeCanyon. Have you done it? can you give me a little more detail on how it works?

Browse through the listings to get an idea of what is selling. http://codecanyon.net/page/top_sellers

They have quality standards that you must meet to get approved. Browse through http://support.envato.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/List/Inde... to find out more.

http://codecanyon.net/make_money/become_an_author

For the guy/lady below: Hey there! I work at Envato and am involved in the day to day operations of the marketplaces, including CodeCanyon. Please feel free to email me any questions at sid at envato dot com

FYI: if HN prevents you from directly replying to a comment you can click on "link" to access a reply page directly. That's actually what I just did to reply to your comment.

I'm still not completely sure why HN does that to be honest, especially since the heuristic appears to be pretty random.

I think HN tries to discourage long, protracted comment trees.

Wow, definitely didn't notice this earlier. Thanks!

email sent

I just signed up. Do you just upload random things that you think will sell? or is there somewhere I can see what people want?