How to budget in New York City

There's no doubt that living in a metropolis like New York City can be exciting. There's never a shortage of entertainment options — Broadway shows! Concerts! Museums! — or shiny career opportunities for the ambitious.

But as any current (or former) New Yorker will tell you, it can also be expensive. Make that really expensive.

The rents in this town are some of the highest in the country — three times the national average, according to a recent study. And while you may be able to save money on certain expenses — like transportation by taking the subway instead of owning a car — the temptation to splurge on too many fancy dinners or indulge that shopping habit can be tough to resist.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

So how in the world is someone even able to go about living in NYC on a budget?

To find out, we asked three people — living in three different boroughs and earning very different incomes — to divulge their big-city spending habits. Then we tapped David Blaylock, a CFP® with LearnVest Planning Services, to review their numbers and highlight where they're excelling — and where there may be some room for improvement when it comes to their finances.

The aspiring small business owner

Who: Morgan Cronheim, 25, waitress, Astoria, Queens

Income: About $50,000 per year

What she says: I've always been really good about money — separating what I need versus what I want. I'm able to put things on hold, like getting my nails done, if I have other bills I have to save for.

I want to start my own business — a local bar — by the time I'm 30. To get there, I try to turn saving into a fun game by saying things like, "Let's see how much I can put into savings over three months!"

So every time I work a shift, about five days a week, I put $5 into my one savings account. It's very stressful to set a goal like saving $100 a month, but $5 at a time feels manageable. And if I make extra money in a month, I deposit most of that into my savings account — sometimes it's close to $900.

I have friends who make the same money as me, but they are living paycheck to paycheck, so it makes me proud to be saving like this. I have no revolving credit card debt, and my monthly MetroCard is the only thing I put on my credit card.

What the CFP® says: Morgan has a lot of good things going for her — not least of which is mindfulness over spending, and a plan that makes saving money less overwhelming. She takes things in small bites, which is awesome.

However, one thing is missing here: How much will the business she wants to open cost her? What is her goal? Right now, she's just putting extra money into savings as she can, but I'd rather her say, "In five years, I need to have X dollars saved." And then make sure she has a clearly defined monthly amount that she should try to put toward that goal.

Once Morgan has six months of living expenses stashed away in an emergency fund, she can consider putting her extra money toward other goals — and even consider higher-yielding investments, such as CDs, to help her further save up for her future business. And if she knows she won't need the money to open her own bar for at least five years, the risks may be low enough to perhaps consider tying it up for a little longer in a brokerage account.

The entrepreneur

Who: Kenny Kline, 29, startup owner, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Income: About $100,000 per year

What he says: I'm living the dream as an entrepreneur, working in a field that reflects my passion. After saving $50,000, I recently launched a website called SlumberSage, which features mattress reviews and articles on how to sleep better. Both my wife and I are on the way up in our careers — but I still worry about our budget.

The mortgage on our two-bedroom place is our main expense. In addition, our property taxes and other associated fees are especially high at $800 a month, so it all takes up a lot of our budget and we don't spend much otherwise.

We're good at scraping by in New York: We don't go out to eat often, and we rarely buy new clothes. We also haven't been on a vacation since we moved here in 2012.

In the next few years, I want to grow my business and double our income, and we hope that we'll be in a more comfortable position to loosen our spending.

What the CFP® says: What's great about Kenny's budget is that he and his wife are frugal and smart to save where they can — their priorities are in the right place. But the couple's mortgage is too high, since I believe housing costs shouldn't exceed 30 percent of your net income. Ideally, they should be bringing in closer to $150,000 in order to comfortably afford their apartment.

Kenny's taken a big leap of faith by becoming self-employed, which can be done successfully — but you do have to watch your budget carefully. In order to save more, I recommend he really focus on ways to increase his income by fine-tuning his efforts to attract more visitors to his website.

As the couple's income increases — and there's a little more breathing room in their budget — they can consider looking at prioritizing a fun financial goal, like saving for a vacation.

The super saver

Who: Dan Nainan, 33, comedian, actor and voiceover artist, Chelsea, Manhattan

Income: $325,000 to $350,000 per year

What he says: I've been a professional comedian for seven years. And while it took me two years to even make my first $5 in comedy, now I book about 100 to 120 shows per year. I've also found that voiceover work in a major commercial can bring in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.

Where I'm doing well when it comes to my money is being very frugal without being cheap. I don't buy books (I go to the library), CDs, or DVDs. The one area that I splurge on, outside of the occasional nice Rolex, is technology, like the latest iPhone. And while I do spend money on going out to eat, sometimes it's with clients, so that's a deductible business expense.

I am an avid investor and have a lot of money in different funds — about one third in bonds, another third in a hedge fund and one third with a wealth manager. But one of the things I do need help with is retirement planning and being more aware of what's possible in that arena. I haven't set aside any specific amount in a retirement account.

What the CFP® says: Dan's doing really well at keeping his spending on non-necessities at a reasonable level, based on his income. And it sounds like he's saving a lot, which is also fantastic.

But my question is: "What are you saving for?"

He should have a timeline and specific goals, such as saving up a six-month emergency fund as quickly as possible or planning for retirement. Someone in his tax bracket, especially, should hone in on retirement planning in order to save money through deductions and have enough cash to sustain his lifestyle in the future. Otherwise, his taxable income may be too high, and he'll probably be paying unnecessary taxes.

I would advise him to look into a retirement account that's catered to self-employed people — and start maxing out his contributions, if possible. A SEP IRA, which currently allows for contributions up to the lesser of $51,000 or 25 percent of a person's income, as of July 2014, would be a good option to consider, based on his income and ability to save a large amount of money each month.

This story was originally published on LearnVest. LearnVest is a program for your money. Read their stories and use their tools at LearnVest.com.

More from LearnVest...

• Saving money on a tight budget
• The one-number strategy: a new approach to budgeting
• 4 people, 1 salary: How I save and splurge on $60,000