How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
Glennys Torres’s door in the Bronx is, at once, a portal to a small business and a home. Stepping in, a cacophony of children’s voices rises from the first floor. Along the stairs that lead to the second floor are paper tapestries covered in finger paint drying in the midafternoon sun.
These are the early signs of a business beginning to flourish, but one that comes with risks.
For much of her adulthood, Ms. Torres, 36, worked long hours as a teacher’s assistant in Manhattan, living in her mother-in-law’s rent controlled apartment in the Bronx with her family of five.
But after 10 years, Ms. Torres felt as if her wages were stagnating at the same time the city was getting more expensive. Despite a decade of experience, she lacked a teaching degree, which prevented her from getting raises, she said.
So last year, Ms. Torres made the decision to leave behind the security of her job to start a day care — one that she hopes will eventually offer her family the ability to propel themselves across income brackets and ZIP codes.
“I know one day I’d like to have a house with a backyard where my kids can play and get dirty and I can garden,” said Ms. Torres, who immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic at 18. “I don’t need luxuries, I would still manage my business but just maybe from a house upstate. It would be nice to not worry about rent every month.”
Budgeting with Debt
Before opening the day care, Ms. Torres earned $46,000 annually, which amounted to roughly $36,000 a year after taxes. Her husband, Edward Torres, 39, works part time as a home health aide and his earnings brought the family’s after tax income to roughly $45,000.
The income wasn’t high enough to qualify for small business loans, so Ms. Torres took what little savings she had and poured it into the lease for the day care. That cost $10,500, including first and last month’s rent plus a security deposit.
The family now lives on the second floor of the building in the Wakefield section of the Bronx and operates the day care downstairs.
“I feel proud, but, at the same time, I feel a lot of fear because what happens if none of this works? What will I do then?” Ms. Torres said. “I used to cry every first day of the month because I knew rent was due. I still do cry — a lot.”
At first, the business was slow to take off. For six months, they only had one student. Ms. Torres would compose herself in front of parents, but would often go to an empty room to sob alone.
Today, the family pays $3,500 a month for a renovated 3-bedroom apartment and $3,500 a month to lease the unit below them for the day care. Utilities stack up: roughly $500 in electricity for both units, $200 for the family’s cellphone plan and about $80 a month for the internet.
Ms. Torres, who has an associate degree in business, used credit cards in order to finance her business. The family currently has over $20,000 in business related debt and has had to tighten the spending belt.
“Money right now, there’s not enough. Literalmente,” said Ms. Torres, speaking Spanglish. “Sometimes I feel bad, like I can’t do enough for my kids.”
Her husband earns $19.65 per hour, working 20 hours per week. The rest of the time he is at the center, driving children via a car-pooling service they offer. The family receives SNAP benefits for food, but estimates that they still spend almost $200 a month on groceries.
Affording Summer Camp
While working her old job, Ms. Torres struggled with where to send her children during the day. They would sometimes return home rattled from free summer camps offered by public schools. There were fights, unruly children and overworked teachers, she said. Leaving them at home in front of a screen was no better.
With the day care, she can keep an eye on her children upstairs while she runs the business downstairs. Most importantly, she makes sure none of the children are glued to their devices.
“I have a zero electronics policy,” Ms. Torres said. “If you are with a kid and he’s on a tablet, he’s not processing the world around him. But if you give him a paint brush and a canvas, you see his personality start to come out.”
The day care’s name is a nod to this value: Little Creators Daycare.
The family caught a break with The Fresh Air Fund, which provides sleepaway camps to children in underserved communities, including free gear, transportation and lodging. The family enrolled their three children in a camp set up in honor of 15-year-old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, who was a victim of gang violence in the Bronx.
Ms. Torres’s oldest son, Ryan, 16, has attended for eight years and is a camp counselor in training. Her other two children, Darius, 11, and Evander, 10, are returning for their third summer.
“I wanted them to be in nature, play in the dirt, get dirty,” Ms. Torres said. “When they came back saying that they couldn’t wait for next year, I knew it was the right decision.”
New Business, New Opportunities
Ms. Torres uses free time to pick up extra work. She prepares paperwork for other day cares, earning $150 per consultation.
After months of struggling, Ms. Torres now has nine students, which pulls in roughly $4,500 a month — just enough to break even. On a recent Tuesday she fielded calls from families hoping to enroll their children. Business was picking up.
“I can feel things are starting to turn around,” Ms. Torres said. “The parents love me, and I have five stars on Google.”
Over the past year the family has had to cut out gifts, activities and expenses in order to focus on the business. Ms. Torres and her husband used to go on frequent dates, but they last went out on Juneteenth. They went to a happy hour at Pier 26, spending less than $50 on a glass of cabernet sauvignon, an order of calamari and a chicken appetizer.
Good news arrived in the spring when Ms. Torres learned that she had qualified for the city’s 2-K program. She expects eight to 12 students in the fall at a higher price point per student than traditional day care, and she will also be able to offer “after-school” day care when the 2-K day wraps up.
When she told her landlord about the new income he cut her a deal: He said he would give her four months rent free as a way to invest in her business so that he could keep her as a long term tenant.
“There was one point when I said to my husband, ‘I think I’m going to give this house back and go back to your mother’s,’” Ms. Torres said. “That wasn’t long ago and my husband said, ‘Stop, you have the experience to do this. You can do this.’ He was right. I left my job for this. I can’t backtrack. This is New York City.”
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
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