What makes living in New York worth it?<\/a><\/p>\nWeixun Hu enjoys what might sound like the ultimate professional perk. New Yorkers pay some of the country\u2019s highest taxes on their income, more than $12,000 on average per person between state and local governments. But Mr. Hu\u2019s income tax this year? $0.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because Mr. Hu, 32, who was born in Guangzhou, China, conducts social development research at an international organization, where most employees are exempt from national income taxes or reimbursed for the cost. His gross and net income are one in the same; he earns roughly $110,000 after his insurance and pension contributions.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hu became one of New York City\u2019s 3.1 million foreign-born residents nearly three years ago, after reassignment from a post in Bangkok in the summer of 2023. But he quickly ran into a hurdle: finding an apartment with no credit history, no tax returns and no one to co-sign a lease.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds very cool that you don\u2019t pay taxes,\u201d Mr. Hu said. \u201cIt also creates a lot of problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
He discovered that many of his co-workers landed in a handful of pricey residential developments including Stuyvesant Town. Yet renting there felt worlds apart from Thailand\u2019s capital city, where a luxury studio in a high-rise condo with a rooftop infinity pool and premium gym might run $600 per month.<\/p>\n
So he found a studio in Long Island City, Queens, where he has in-unit laundry and falls asleep to the sound of waves hitting the shore near Hunters Point South. His employer subsidizes $700 of his $3,900 rent, and utilities and internet cost about $150 monthly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much better value compared to renting in Manhattan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Saving for Tomorrow<\/p>\n
A good deal of young adults in New York City don\u2019t know how to drive, and expect to remain renters for most of their lives. Not Mr. Hu.<\/p>\n
He puts away $2,000 or so a month into a high-yield savings account, aspiring to buy a car. His sights are set on a Mazda CX-5. But he expects he\u2019ll need to pay upfront in cash, another consequence of lacking a credit or tax history \u2014 and it\u2019ll take about three more years to build up enough.<\/p>\n
Eventually, he wants to own a home. \u201cI know most people in New York City don\u2019t care,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for me, it\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Hu also supports his parents in their retirement, sending about $3,000 every three months. As their only child, he feels both a sense of guilt for living about 8,000 miles from home \u2014 and an obligation to pay them back for their sacrifices.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re single. You don\u2019t have a wife. You don\u2019t have kids,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018So all your money is yours.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Excuse me, my parents are still alive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In other ways, though, Mr. Hu fits the profile of an everyday bachelor: He rarely cooks meals at home. \u201cMy oven is basically storage space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather, he searches for affordable deals on Too Good To Go, a popular app where restaurants sell excess food at a discounted price. His No. 1 spot is Chinese Musician in Greenpoint, which offers a three-course meal for $9.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, Mr. Hu does the $16 tonkotsu ramen at Nishida Sho-ten on 49th Street for lunch, an $8 lamb over rice meal for dinner from the halal truck in front of Bellevue Hospital or a hot dog for $3.25 from Gray\u2019s Papaya. He\u2019ll swing by the Dollar General in Astoria to stock up on his favorite drink, Coca-Cola Orange Cream.<\/p>\n
And he saves up for an upscale dining experience every couple of months. He recently feasted at the Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud\u2019s steakhouse, La T\u00eate d\u2019Or, where he spent roughly $300 and ordered what he called the standout filet mignon.<\/p>\n
The Lions Over the Knicks<\/p>\n
For any sports buff, it\u2019s an incredible time to live in New York City.<\/p>\n
But for Mr. Hu, ticket prices to see the Knicks play at Madison Square Garden felt \u201ca little bit off-putting\u201d \u2014 and that was even before their championship run. So he started religiously following basketball at Columbia, going to games that often run $10 to $12 on the Morningside Heights campus.<\/p>\n
Yankees games, where a 400-level seat might run $45, are a no; he opts to watch the Columbia Lions up close at Robertson Field in Inwood without charge.<\/p>\n
He is willing to spend up to about $300 on some singular sports showdowns. He can still recall how Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 flew down the field at MetLife Stadium during a Real Madrid match against Borussia Dortmund last summer.<\/p>\n
Typically, though, he elects for low- or no-cost events like this spring\u2019s edition of the Madison Avenue Gallery Walk.<\/p>\n
And he regularly joins free lectures at the Asia Society, where he has a complimentary membership through his employer, and at local universities like N.Y.U., where he\u2019s met the minds behind two of his favorite video games, The Elder Scrolls and Monument Valley.<\/p>\n
A Sense of Wanderlust<\/p>\n
Ever since Mr. Hu can recall, he\u2019s felt a magnetic pull to experience the world. And few things embody such a yearning as aviation.<\/p>\n
He sometimes goes to Canarsie to watch planes land at Kennedy International Airport, studying the way pilots pull up the nose of their aircrafts and slow the descent before touching down. He\u2019s even found others who share his passion on walks in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
And traveling draws him even closer to his hobby.<\/p>\n
He spent $4,400 on a trip to Guangzhou last June to fly for the first time in an Airbus A380, the only full-length double-deck aircraft in the world. Qatar Airways is one of the few airlines that still has an active fleet \u2014 so Mr. Hu arranged his trip by way of Doha.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people treat it as bragging,\u201d he said. \u201cBut no, it\u2019s just to admire such an incredible machine that\u2019s very rare to be seen these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird, niche hobby, but I\u2019m happy spending my money on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a young man living in his seventh country \u2014 after Belgium, China, Italy, Poland, Thailand and the United Kingdom \u2014 he appreciates that as \u201ca foreigner in this city, you don\u2019t have to worry about whether you stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s relished exploring from Crown Heights to Jackson Heights, taking the train to a random stop and popping into bodegas to chat up the owners. He considers Staten Island \u2014 and its Chinese Scholar\u2019s Garden in Snug Harbor where adult admission costs $5 \u2014 to be a hidden gem.<\/p>\n
And when he boarded the U.S.S. Bataan during a past Fleet Week, he felt obliged to tell a Marine that he was Chinese. \u201cHe said: \u2018Oh, no worries at all. Everybody can be an American\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I still don\u2019t think it\u2019s a value option for the money,\u201d Mr. Hu said of New York City. \u201cBut there\u2019s something so unique, and I think it\u2019s that inclusiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to go to the world,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world comes to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66625,5286,174,49713,24616,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-280904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-airlines-and-airplanes","tag-budgets-and-budgeting","tag-content-type-personal-profile","tag-cost-of-living-and-affordability","tag-income-tax","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}