When I first moved to New York in 2013, I faced steep student debt and initially had no full-time job. I struggled to pay my loans, my $800 a month rent and everyday expenses, and the experience was pretty miserable.
That was my choice, and I was a lot better off than many of my peers.
But as I scrolled through Instagram FB, +0.28% photos of my college classmates traveling in Europe, or noticed that my friends were living in much nicer apartments in more desirable parts of town, I sank deeper into my anxiety about just how I was going to make this all work.
Certain friends seemed able to afford “bottomless” mimosa brunches, every weekend trip to the Hamptons that came up, and every happy-hour invitation, without breaking a sweat, despite having jobs that didn’t seem to pay all that much.
What a relief it would have been back then for me to read a “Money Diary” like the one that became infamous this week on the website Refinery29.
The “Money Diaries” series, which I have been reading regularly for the last several years, details a week in the life of an anonymous diarist. The diarist, who in Money Diaries speak is known as the “OP,” for “original poster,” writes down every expense for the week, as well as monthly expenses such as rent, savings, healthcare costs and car loans.
Commenters weigh in on the diary, often with critical commentary about spending too much in one area, or not enough in another.
Refinery29 relies on submissions for the series, and attempts to feature diarists with diverse incomes and in different U.S. states, or even international cities. They’re so popular that some have been included in a new book.
And an important point about them, for this particular controversial week: They’re not financial advice columns. They’re just a journal about every expense someone is willing to write down.
So I was surprised this week when a diary from a 21-year-old New York City intern caught so much backlash. The diarist, a marketing intern in HR consulting, disclosed that she makes $25 per hour, which probably works out to about $50,000 a year.There’s nothing unusual about that for a first job in New York.
What better way to expose the lie on social media than to read about it — in black and white?The controversial part: She has no student loans — her parents pay for her education in full — plus they give her $800 a month in allowance. She pays no rent, although her share of a one-bedroom apartment in the West Village is $2,100. Her parents pay for that, too. Her grandfather wires her $300 each month as well.
The criticism on Twitter TWTR, -3.29% was swift and harsh. YOU SHOULD NOT BE WRITING ABOUT MONEY, one tweet said, in all caps. As of Wednesday morning, that particular condemnation had been retweeted 23,000 times and favorited 80,000 more.
YOU SHOULD NOT BE WRITING ABOUT MONEY pic.twitter.com/kt8Rjsn6oM
— tessa b (@tessabahoosh) July 17, 2018
