affordable apartment with rn salary

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I want to move to an apartment after I graduate this May with rent at about $3000/month. My salary will be $75,000/year (before they take out money). I won't be allowed to work over time at first because it's a residency program.

What ill save on: I have a car but from this apartment I can walk to the hospital for work, it's about 1 block away. My aunt can watch my dog for free.

I also want graduate school and will take out loans. I have no student loans from undergraduate. The hospital I'll be employed at gives money for grad school (5k a semester) and scholarships.

Do you guys think this apartment is affordable? Is it realistic I could even save money? I'm trying to think cost of everything. .and I figured I'd ask because those who lived on your rn salary will have an idea..thank you.

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Even if you took home EVERY penny of the 75,000, a $3000/month apartment is just about 50% of your take home pay. You need to figure out all your expenses:

Housing, Groceries, Bills, eating out, car payment (if you have one), etc. I'd take a look at how much you spend right now to figure these things out.

I personally would not be comfortable spending that much on an apartment - can you get a roommate? I'd much rather spend less on an apartment, and be able to save money.

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Let's say on average (including taxes, and all withholdings) you pay 30% on taxes and withholdings. That means you take home $52500 home. That comes to $4375 per month. If you spend $3000 on rent, that leaves you with measly $1375! I do not know which state you reside in, but in NYC you cannot even feed a goldfish on $1375 a month.

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Goodness you can even get cheaper rent in Vancouver than that. I have friends who rent an entire house and pay less than that... i wouldn't pay that much.

Try making a realistic budget of food costs, utilities, toiletries, savings and entertainment. That should give you an idea of how much to spend in rent.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Sorry, but I don't think it will be affordable. The recommendation is that your housing should cost no more the 30% of your income, preferably 25%. At 30% you should be looking for a place around 1500 a month.

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Housing should only take up about 1/3 of your take home pay. What is the average cost of an apartment in your area?

And FTR: I make a lot more than you and I have an entire house in a nice neighborhood in a very large city for less than half of what you're thinking about paying.

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Would you feel comfortable explaining to us what your job is that pays you such a high rate? NP? CRNA? Or something entirely unrelated to nursing?

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
Would you feel comfortable explaining to us what your job is that pays you such a high rate? NP? CRNA? Or something entirely unrelated to nursing?

75K/year isn't unrealistic for an acute care RN working full-time night shift in a high cost of living city. My new grad job works out to about 63K/year pre-tax working day shift with no overtime, and I don't work at the highest paying facility in my metro area, and only a moderately high COL area.

To OP: Try to see if you can find an apartment for less than 3K/month. 3K/month works out to 35K/year or slightly under 50% of your pre-tax pay. That ratio will likely leave you feeling financially stressed, and "housing insecure" on what many would consider a very nice income. If you take the rule of thumb that rent should be about 1/3 of your income or less that means you should be looking for apartments for $1,800/month or less.

I do recognize in some metro areas it can be very difficult to find affordable housing in close proximity to work, and getting all the way down to 1/3 of pay or less could be difficult, but I really urge you to create some mock budgets. What does it cost for cable? Electric? Health insurance etc? How much do you spend on food each month? Going out with friends/travel? How much do you want to be saving each month? Any debts/loans - what are the monthly payments there? Figure out all of your likely monthly expenses (including sending money to savings) and then figure out how much you can realistically spend on housing. If you really can't find cheaper housing, look at every other place in your budget you can cut money, or really evaluate the cost/benefit of living close to work vs further out with lower rents.

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The 'rule of thumb' is that your housing (all of it, rent, utilities, insurance) shouldn't be more than 1/3 of your TAKE HOME pay - which will be a lot less than 75k since you'll have to pay:

401k (you should start saving for retirement NOW)

Health Benefits - medical/dental/vision

Life Insurance (if you have someone counting on your income)

SS & Medicare deductions

Federal & State Taxes

Before all that you're looking at about $2500 per pay period - so you need to account for a variety of deductions BEFORE you sign a lease.

Then you have to account for a variety of other expenses:

Transportation - bus/train/car - if a car then buying the car, saving for repairs, gas and insurance

Food

Utilities

Loan repayment

Rainy Day savings

Entertainment

Clothing

Hair cuts

Personal stuff

It adds up. If you can find a cheaper place or get a reliable room mate, do it!

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Oh and I WISH RN's started out at $75k here! We barely even hit $50k :/ oh well.

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Specializes in NICU.
Oh and I WISH RN's started out at $75k here! We barely even hit $50k :/ oh well.

But you are not paying $3k/mo in rent (I hope).

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That is way too much for an apartment are you sure you can't find anything cheaper, or get a realtor to help you get your apartment price down for you ?.

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