26-year-old bookstore manager lives in New York City on $53,000 a year: 'It's hard, but it's so worth it'

This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which examines how people earn, spend and save their money.

In August 2022, Eileen Tyrrell sat in a rented moving van on the way to New York City, ready to build a life there. A recent college graduate, she moved from suburban Chicago without a full-time job lined up, relying on freelance writing and $3,000 in savings to get by.

"I remember seeing the skyline in the distance, and all of a sudden it just hits me that this is reality," Tyrrell tells CNBC Make It. "All of my worldly possessions are in this van right now, and they're coming with me to that city. It was really scary too, but so exciting."

Living on uncertain income in one of the most expensive places in the world wasn't easy, Tyrrell says, especially early on, when she was piecing together freelance work and seasonal jobs. But today, Tyrrell still lives in Manhattan and earns about $53,000 a year, including her $45,000 salary as a bookstore manager — a life she says feels meaningful, even if money is tight.

"I love my job," she says. "And I feel very lucky to get to say that, because I have so many friends who kind of hate their jobs."

Here's a look at how Tyrrell, 26, makes her income work in New York, including living with two roommates, carrying almost no debt and keeping her everyday spending low.

Tyrrell graduated with a civil engineering degree from Iowa State University in 2022, even though she knew before finishing school that she didn't want to pursue a career in that field.

"I remembered that I'm not really a math and science person. I'm more of a language person. I love books. I love reading and writing," says Tyrrell.

That same year, a close friend already living in New York found an apartment in the city's Chelsea neighborhood for about $4,410 a month and invited Tyrrell to be one of her roommates. Split three ways, the rent would be $1,470 a month — and because the apartment was rent-stabilized, annual rent increases would be capped, helping keep housing costs predictable over time. Tyrrell took her up on the offer.

After moving, Tyrrell received an engineering job offer that would have paid $67,000 a year, but turned it down. "I didn't move to New York to check a box or do the same thing that I had already been doing — the thing that didn't fulfill me," she says.

Instead, she pieced together freelance work and odd jobs to cover her bills, including a seasonal part-time role at a bookstore.

"I always pictured it as more of a stopgap job," says Tyrrell. "But once I started working in a bookstore, I just fell in love with it. It's so rewarding to recommend books to people and to be surrounded by a community of readers and writers all day."

That experience eventually led her to another bookstore job in Brooklyn, where she now works full time as a store manager.

"When I moved here, I told myself that I was going to slow down a little bit and think about what I wanted to do as far as finding meaning in life and finding a job that was really fulfilling to me," says Tyrrell. "I wanted a job that filled my cup every day."

In addition to Tyrrell's $45,000 salary at the bookstore, she'll bring in around $8,000 this year from side gigs, including freelance writing, pet sitting and, more recently, TikTok, where she earns money from video views.

In September 2025, her total spending came to about $3,477, which she says was higher than usual because she was catching up on some bills. Here's how her expenses break down.

• Rent: $1,566 for her share of a three-bedroom apartment
• Food: $531 on groceries and dining out
• Discretionary: $527 on travel, donations, household goods and entertainment
• Utilities: $312 for Wi-Fi and electricity, including backpay to cover previous months
• Insurance: $158 for health and renters insurance
• Transportation: $131 on public transit and ride-hailing services
• Subscriptions and memberships: $109 for AMC A-List, Preply language app, cloud storage, HBO
• Savings: $93
• Student debt repayment: $50

People often ask how Tyrrell affords to live in Manhattan: "I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's hard, but it's so worth it," she says.

"For me, it comes down to three things: I don't have a lot of debt. I have very reasonable rent and I don't spend a lot of money," she says.

Housing is by far her largest expense, but living with roommates in a rent-stabilized apartment keeps her monthly rent well below market rates for her neighborhood. Annual increases have been limited to roughly $30 a year, Tyrrell says. Similar three-bedroom units in the area are currently listed for around $7,000 a month, compared with the $4,698 Tyrrell and her roommates pay.

Her only debt is about $2,800 in student loans, with a monthly payment of $50. She has always avoided credit card debt, paying off her balances in full each month.

"I have such a small student loan because my parents and my grandparents paid for probably 60% of my college expenses," she says. "That's also a huge privilege."

Outside of rent, she keeps her spending low by limiting dining out and shopping. Most of her furniture and household items were brought from college or given to her by friends.

As of September, Tyrrell had about $1,900 in savings and investment accounts, including roughly $425 in a high-yield savings account for emergencies. She's rebuilding that fund after a larger-than-expected tax bill in 2024 and hopes to grow it to about $12,000 before shifting her focus to investing.

When she does splurge, it's usually on experiences, such as traveling to visit friends and family in other parts of the country.

Otherwise, much of her social life in New York is also low cost, often centered around long walks in parks, meeting for coffee instead of drinks or spending evenings watching TV with her roommates at home.

"A lot of my friends are in a similar boat financially, so a lot of what we do is very affordable," Tyrrell says.

Recently, Tyrrell has found an audience on TikTok through a video series documenting day-to-day life in New York as a "normal person," often showing her commute, shifts at the bookstore, meals cooked at home and how she winds down after work.

"So much New York content is so glamorous and excessive," she says. "I want to show people that normal life in New York is not what you see online most of the time."

And at this stage in her life, Tyrrell says she's content with the tradeoffs she's making.

"Where I'm at right now is so rewarding and so meaningful," she says. "I have a job that I love, I have a life that I love and the financial stability is not quite there. But for now, it's a tradeoff that I'm comfortable with."

Tyrrell says she's not focused on chasing what she calls a "capital-C career." Instead, she says she's found meaning in building a life rooted in her neighborhood and community, including volunteering every week with a local mutual aid group and feeling connected to the people around her.

She says she often thinks of the Oscar Wilde line — "With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?" — as a way to frame how she thinks about money and fulfillment.

"It's so corny, but I've used that to reassure myself so many times that it's OK that I'm not making a lot of money and that it's OK that I'm living on this tight budget," she says. "I have freedom, and I have books and I have the moon, and that is enough for me a lot of the time."

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