I meet a lot of younger people on their way into show business. They’re panicked, stressed out, overwhelmed and scared to death. They’re being told everyday why things aren’t going to work out. How they will never be able to afford to live in LA and pursue their dreams. And then good luck when they get here and good luck finding any job and good luck even getting in the business at all. I mean, it’s a wonder they get out of bed. So let’s breathe and lets start with the idea that every dream is achievable. Every desire can be met. It may not unfold the way you thought it would, but it will unfold. I remember what it feels like to be seventeen years old with a big dream and a lot of desire and no money or financial backing. I moved here from New York and I worked a minimum wage job (actually three minimum wage jobs). I figured it out and so can you. The first thing that usually crops up in the panic on the way to Hollywood is living in a city that has high rents.
When I moved here I was seventeen and minimum wage was about three dollars an hour. I worked three jobs, one was full time and the other two were part time and I put in about seventy hours a week. Even back then, a minimum wage worker had to have more than one job to survive. My first bachelor apartment was three hundred dollars a month. It didn’t have a kitchen, no bathtub, no parking and no laundry. I also had no phone (because I couldn’t afford it) and the utilities were included. Seventy hours a week at three dollars an hour after taxes is about one hundred and thirty dollars a week. It took me two and a half weeks just to make the rent, so although things have changed, it was the same struggle that demanded the same passion and desire to survive and more than one job was a necessity. However, lets assume you can only get one full time job at nine dollars an hour. After taxes, you’re taking home about two hundred and eighty dollars each week or a little over eleven hundred dollars a month. I decided to try a little experiment and I went on a hunt to see if I could find an apartment in Los Angeles that is affordable on the salary of one full time minimum wage job…there is hope.
I found an area in Los Angeles called Westlake; it is close to downtown Los Angeles. There was an apartment building (I’m not here to promote any business, but it was easy to find online) and they had studio apartments for around five hundred dollars a month (some were a little more depending on size). It was small bachelor apartment, about two hundred square feet (like most NYC apartments). It had a kitchenette, a closet and a bathroom with a bathtub. You could be working a minimum wage job and still afford this apartment in Los Angeles. That’s with one job. I had three. If you add the extra thirty hours I put in you’ll be taking home close to two thousand dollars a month. You can see it’s not impossible. Not everything may seem ideal but you’re young and you’re starting out. Nothing is going to be ideal at first… you build to “ideal”. Before that you do whatever you can to make things work.
I know you may be thinking, “but when do I have time to work on my career?” Well, you don’t at first, but that’s ok. The first six months to a year should just be about finding your footing here and respecting the fact that you are experiencing some major life changes. If you can find at least two jobs and an apartment to get settled into as you’re figuring out your way around Los Angeles, you’re miles ahead of those who just land and can never get settled. For the unsettled, life continues to solely be about finding a place to live. I see it happen everyday. My first two years in Los Angeles, I moved sixteen times… it gets in the way. However, if you can figure out a way to work, get settled and still find the time to make some dreams come true, good for you and go for it! But if it seems impossible at first, give yourself the breathing room to settle in.
I understand the example I gave is just one apartment building and one situation. So I asked my twenty something friends what their living situations were and here are some of the ways they are surviving.
- West Los Angeles, three people sharing a two-bedroom apartment, paying $400.00 a month and partitioned the living room into her private space.
- Woodland Hills, two people sharing a one-bedroom apartment, $500.00 each.
- Koreatown, two people sharing a $1400.00 one-bedroom apartment, $700.00 each.
- Highland Park, two people sharing a two bedroom, for $1000.00 paying $500.00 each.
- Culver City/Palms one bedroom, lives alone $1275.00
- Sliver lake one bedroom $1150.00 lives alone.
- Burbank, a studio, lives alone $625.00
- North Hollywood, three people sharing a three bedroom for $840.00 each.
Just about everyone had to pay utilities, some had laundry, some didn’t, some had parking etc. The ones that were paying $700.00 or more expressed their situation as more stressful than the others. Most had flexible jobs (good for them) and they all said they eventually found the jobs that paid over minimum wage, from twelve to fifteen dollars an hour.
My suggestion is to keep your rent payment under five hundred dollars (especially if you’re working a minimum wage job). It’s really no different from what I had to do when I was starting out. Although my monthly rent was only three hundred dollars, I was making six dollars less an hour than what minimum wage is currently. Now you can make a minimum of nine dollars an hour and it’s possible to find a rental for five hundred dollars a month. First problem solved! Good luck and I’ll be exploring more ways on how to overcome other obstacles with affording Los Angeles in future pieces!