Tuesday, June 8, 2010

$0.88

Living in New York City, you grow accustomed to paying ridiculous prices for everything from haircuts to suspiciously vague school fees (student life fee). The upside is that in the majority of places you go outside of the U.S., cost of living is half as much and in most cases much less.

In China, any poor college student can live as well as your average New York City investment banker. I present to you the $0.88 haircut, with complimentary before-and-after shampoo.



I feel pretty and spoiled.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Unexpected Cash on Hand

Accompanying my excitement as I waited to start my internship in Shanghai was my resignation to the fact that I am not getting paid. Sure, they’re reimbursing the plane ticket (quite expensive), and providing housing (ridiculously expensive) but I could still use some cash on hand! As happy as I am to be money neutral for the summer, I decided to let my old vice, Poker, back in my life.

With $55 in my account the night before the flight, I did not meet the minimum requirement of $100 to withdraw cash from my account. Rather than slowly build back up to a playable bankroll, I decided to just shove it all in. Half an hour and one super-turbo tournament later, I was $172 richer!

Divide that by .5 hours and my hourly rate is:

$344/hour

If only cash always came so easily.

Poor College Student Summer Housing Fail

Poor college student wanted to save money this summer by subletting an apartment near campus. Campus gates are on 116th and Broadway. Campus housing is about $3100 from May 23-Aug 15, and on 114th or 115th and Broadway. My sublet is $4900 (including $1200 deposit) from June 1-Aug 31, on 123rd and Amsterdam, while the last 15 days of August will be wasted due to travel, and free housing for people doing orientation.

Worst poor college student fail in the history of poor college student fails.