🗽 The price of feeling alive
Hey there,
It’s Jaime here with some personal reflections.
A year ago, I was walking down the street in New York City with my friend John Morrison and asked, “How much does it cost to live in New York?”
He said, “All of it.”
And you know what? That may have been sarcasm, but he’s right.
No matter how much you make, New York takes it all. There’s too much to offer, too much to take. And nothing comes cheap.
I just moved from Florida to Brooklyn with three kids. I know! Most people go the other way.
Florida had sun…but after a while, I was missing something. Not money, not convenience. Energy. That quiet, invisible current that comes from being surrounded by people trying, every day, to make something happen.
Here’s what I’ve gathered so far for what “all of it” can look like in numbers:
- Coffee:$7.50 for a cappuccino (including tax and tip, gotta be nice)
- Pick-up salad:$20.
- Daily transport: somewhere between your effort and $10.
- Rent: anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 a month (sending the most capitalist city into socialism)
- Kids: tuition can run from free…to $60K a year, per child.
So that’s like…a trillion dollars. After tax.
And in other (average) metrics:
- Sleep: My kids help me sleep LESS than the 5.9 hours New Yorkers average per night
- Transit: Almost 1.5 hours a day on average, the longest commute in America. Thankfully, mine is only 30 minutes
- Steps: 7,900 a day, 20% above the national average. And you still miss your Oura Ring target
- Caffeine: cups a day. Sleep is optional. Coffee is not.
So yes. The city takes.
It takes your money, your time, your sleep. It takes your comfort. It tests your limits daily.
But it gives you momentum. And requires you to bring your edge.
When I look around, I realize everyone here is giving all of it too. And everyone brings their edge.
Founders, operators, bankers, marketeers, waiters, fashion designers…you see them on the streets, and they’re all giving everything they have to be in New York.
So here’s to New York and to everyone giving it all.
Enjoy the week!
Jaime
Things we’re digging:
- 📸 A year after the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in Washington Square Park, the finalists are still getting recognized. Only in New York could looking vaguely famous get you a modeling gig.
- 🐦 A rare-to-the-US cuckoo bird touched down on Long Island. NYC’s pigeons remain unimpressed.
- 🎄The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has already touched down in NYC. It’s 75 feet tall, weighs 11 tons, and still somehow won’t be the biggest thing blocking foot traffic in Midtown.