Rent day comes but once a month

(Note: If you're looking for practical advice on renting an apartment...)

(That's how I console myself.)

The first day of the month is my least favorite. Why? The rent is due. Truth be told, I pay too much for rent. It's the one area where I haven't pared my budget to the bare bones. My apartment is a very nice rent-stabilized one bedroom with beautiful hardwood floors, large windows, high ceilings, and an old, deep porcelain bathtub that affords me baths that are like unto going back to the womb.

It's a nice apartment. I like it a lot. It is precisely where I want to be, and its many nooks and crannies make it a paradise for my cat. He tells me he has no intention of moving and will consider abandoning me in favor of the next tenant if it comes to that. I reminded him that I have the power to send him to the pound at any time, and he shut up about it.

Don't think I'm living beyond my means: The fact of the matter is that I don't have the option of downsizing my rent. I have no choice but to keep this place because any landlord around here will reject my application since I don't have a stable income.

When I got this place, it was a great deal, and it's still a great deal. These deals do not come along very often in any borough of New York City, let alone in a great neighborhood like mine. The rule of thumb is that if you find a nice rent-stabilized apartment, you keep it. The senior tenants in my building (the ones that have been here for decades) pay a fraction of what I pay thanks to rent stabilization. If I can hang on to this place for ten more years, it'll be like getting rent for half price.

Rent stabilization is a beautiful thing. It leads to stable neighborhoods because people don't want to move, and it indirectly diverts some wealth from rich landlords to ordinary working people.

The problem is, when I got the place, I had a job and could easily pay for it. Now it sucks me dry month after month. Just when I start to think I'm getting my feet under me -- BAM! -- the rent comes due again, and I'm broker than broke with 30 days to scramble for next month's rent. It's insane.

Broke again -- I hate rent day.

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