How to survive on $ 30 000 per year in one of the most expensive US cities
'29.03.2018'
Source: Business Insider
The cost of living in San Francisco is very high, so not every American can afford to live in this city. What can we say about a creative person who is not at all a programmer and not a doctor, has several underpaid jobs and is spinning like a squirrel in a wheel. Having made a program of large-scale savings on everything, actress Beth Wilmurt says that she fits perfectly with 30 000 per year.
Stage actress Beth Wilmurt told reporters Business Insider how she manages to live happily in San Francisco for most of her life - more than three decades, earning just 30 thousands of dollars a year. By the way, such a tidy sum, for some residents of the city, is a budget for one month!
Area Bay area many creatives, entrepreneurs and even locals find it too expensive - the lack of affordable housing and over-the-counter home prices have left the rental market empty.
In March, the average cost of renting a two-room apartment in San Francisco (3040 dollars) was about 2,5 times higher than the national average. According to the real estate website Redfin, San Francisco has lost more residents than any other US city in the last quarter of 2017.
What is her secret? The actress claims that she refused to use the Internet, cable television, Netflix and cars to afford to live in the city, and also rents housing with a fixed amount of rent.
Wilmurt told how she managed to stay in the city, in its most expensive and prestigious area, getting rid of those benefits of modern life that many people consider necessary. Instead of a smartphone, she uses a clamshell phone with a family package, where she shares 2 gigabytes of data with three other people.
Beth and her partner, Mark Jackson, the theater director, have been renting a one-bedroom apartment since 1996 for $ 500 a month in a flat-rent housing she calls a "real gold mine." True, Wilmour added that the house is falling apart and in need of renovation.
She has many jobs - Beth leads several groups of the local choir, both adults and children, teaches primary school in the Mission, conducts seminars in the summer camp, works as a nanny. The actress says that her lifestyle has always been driven by her creative goals. She hopes to stay in the area, but is aware of all the difficulties.
As Wilmart admits, only now, when she began to feel the first signs of aging, she began to feel insecure about the future financial status. Now the woman believes that it was worth less “fussing” and providing herself with more financial guarantees, while she used mainly a creative approach to difficulties and lifestyle.
How much money does it take to live in the San Francisco area without such hardships as Wilmarth? In one of his blogs, journalist Maya Buryakina is a sub-issue: we spent $ 7584 in March. Of these, life support payments (rental housing, buying groceries, etc.) accounted for $ 4255, plus expenses for children $ 2978. And $ 351 amounted to incidental expenses. Read more: Personal experience. How much is a month of living in California.
A much more modest amount - $ 2000-2100 per month can be met in the capital of California, Sacramento. Dasha Razzhigaeva writes about her experience in the article Personal experience: how much is a month of life in Sacramento.
