City Guide Preview and Structure

Level 1 - NGMI

May 08, 2023

Welcome Avatar! It is City guide time!

This will be more of an outline post so you know what to expect on the paid stack. As usual, times change quickly so we’ll do our best to focus on cities we have a good pulse on (and provide up to date information in the paid comments section). Before reading any of them or even asking questions about them, it is best to understand the “perspective”.

If you’re 18 years old and trying to travel with $75 a day, our guides are unlikely good for you. Similarly, if you’re 50+ and traveling for leisure/sightseeing it probably isn’t the best for you either. Our guides are set up under the assumption that you have a decent paying job/career/online income and that you are single.

As a note, we do take cultural observations so at the end we’ll provide a “high-level” opinion on if the city would be good for families or not. As a simple note it doesn’t take a Turbo Autist to realize bringing four kids under the age of 8 to the Vegas Strip isn’t the smartest decision. Bringing them to a place like La Jolla, California certainly beats Miami. So on and so forth.

On that note. To reiterate. We assume you have decent income and are single. We’ll provide a few options depending on where you are in life. There is nothing wrong with being 21 versus 30s. As an example there you would want to be in the lower east side of NYC if young and when you have a lot of income… you’re better off in SoHo/Tribeca and potentially the Central Park area depending on your personality.

Part 1: General Structure

Each city guide is going to be outlined as follows: 1) general story/stream of consciousness walking through initial part of the city, 2) major attractions to see when in the area, 3) Nightlife/Food venues if there are big ones to highlight, 4) what the culture/personality of the people represents and 5) a rating scale of 1-10 where 1 is the worst and 10 is the best.

Before anyone gets upset, these are simply opinions. If you’re an outdoor person you’re probably not going to like a lot of our opinions since we have a thick “city slicker” vibe. When we write about the rating we’ll include an explainer of “what it is good for”. You can adjust it based on your own values.

As a simple example, if you enjoy group settings and food the most, you’ll like Mexico City a lot more than someone would like a place like Dallas. While they are both great in different ways, Mexico City has a heavy group feel and Dallas is quite easy to navigate solo.

Since this is BTB, you can imagine a lot of grey/questionable things will come up related to the city and we’ll provide a direct opinion on them. This will include why the culture operates the way that it does. When you should go if traveling. And. What you should know before clicking buy on that direct flight.

Part 2: Living Arrangements

For the USA, we’ll outline living arrangements for age bands. We steer away from this level of detail for international cities since the rules/laws/regulations get too cumbersome. For international cities you’re better off getting a nice hotel or renting an AirBnB close to the central “fun” part of the city. What you decide upon is based on your income level

As a rule of thumb on living arrangements, you do not want to “lose your advantage”. Not sure how else to explain it. If you’re 21-23 years old there is absolutely no point in renting a large 2 bedroom apartment or living in an extremely nice part of the city. This is reserved for people born into money. If you’re a normal person on the “come up”, it is called a “come up” for a reason. You have to scale up the socioeconomic ladder. This isn’t possible if you’re saddled with debt and unable to get your WiFi $ up and running.

By the time you’re in your 30s, you’ll know what cities you enjoy and what cities you do not enjoy. This is yet another reason to avoid the dreaded trap of immediately buying a home as soon as you can afford it. Well. This is probably one of the worst time periods to do that anyway so you have two reasons to avoid that trap.

For the USA people we’ve stated the following as the best cities in 2023: Dallas, Miami and NYC/LA as a tie. This alone should give you a good feel for the content going forward. We can’t put NYC or LA into the top because you need money. This is not really debatable.

LA and NYC are also quite different culturally. If you enjoy larger social circles and driving, you’re in LA. If you prefer fast access, hustle and bustle its NYC. The reality? The typical person is simply never going to “enjoy” either city to its potential due to restrictive cost of living expenses.

In our opinion NYC is head and shoulders above Los Angeles. The problem is that you cannot go into NYC making $200,000 a year and thinking you’ll “have a great time”. While $200,000 goes a long way in a place like Dallas or Houston, it is not going to do much for you in terms of living a real NYC experience.

On that note, we’re not here to judge preferences. However. We won’t listen to people saying “$100,000 is great in NYC!” it simply isn’t true. NYC as it relates to this side of the web is Manhattan and $60,000-$70,000 after taxes is barely going to cover your bare bones living expenses in NYC.

Part 3: Predictions on the Future

Take this with a big grain of salt but it’s fun to do. We’ll do a short write up on what we think the city looks like 5-10 years from the time of the post. Will it be perfect? No. Will it be entertaining? Certainly. Nothing like going down in a ball of flames or hitting it out of the park when trying to make a 5-10 year prediction on a major city.

One good example is Chicago. Our bet is that you should visit now before it goes downhill even more. Won’t be surprised to see the city completely overrun by passive aggressive rich people + homelessness + crime in the future. That was the fate of San Francisco. Therefore we have a good template for what Chicago looks like in the future.

On the international side we’ll do the same since it’s purely for entertainment. We’ll drop as much knowledge as we can on how living there “works” but we’re not going to go further than that. While visiting a place for a month will give you some good information, it does not compare to packing your bags and living there for 1-2 years straight.

This should probably drop a few hints on our view of 2023/2024. If we think layoffs pick up this usually means a lot of international travel and people needing to “find themselves”. It’s a pretty good time to drop city guides so when you find the “love of your life” in the Eastern Europe you’re well prepared to know the truth. IYKYK.

Don’t go there unless you’re financially set for life. If the cash goes so do the girls.

Part 4: Questions on Your Situation

When city guides drop in their organized fashion you’re free to ask questions related to them. However. Please be specific on what your goals are. Financial situation, age band etc. If you’re not willing to provide this it is best to avoid asking questions. If you’re 22 and single vs. 32 rich and single, the list of places we’d tell you to visit would change drastically.

If you’re uninterested in our opinions or city guides that’s also fine. You’re more than welcome to stay on the free section of the website. Just don’t tell us the cost of a Venti Starbucks drink is too expensive if you value the information we’re dropping here.

Part 5: The Big NO Region

We get questions about kids/marriage, religion, politics and even adoption. Being realistic here, you should not be asking a black cartoon bull with a bowtie about these serious matters. Our views are pretty simple on this topic: 1) you should decide your personal life at that level - kids/marriage, 2) you can believe in any religion you like, 3) don’t care who you vote for since no president would blink if you disappeared tomorrow and 4) please only adopt a child if you’re going to be 100% responsible and treat them as your own - think this is obvious.

The reason this is a “no” region is that there is no benefit in bringing that crowd to the BowTiedJungle. It doesn’t help anyone. Most have a feel for our views based on random comments on Twitter. We don’t think kids should be allowed to change their genders before they can legally drive, drink or vote. We also don’t think a UBL (universal basic living) coupon is a terrible idea if AI takes the majority of jobs (you don’t want millions of people with nothing to lose roaming around).

As you can see there is no “bucket” or one size fits all to our stances. While it does lean right on many topics, in the end, we’re well aware that no one in any political party would care if we dropped dead tomorrow. It wouldn’t even register for a split second. We’re not naive.

All of this means that you should save yourself first. If you’re financially set for life, you can help your family, your community, your friends, your city etc much more than if you’re busy protesting the latest “atrocity” that occurred on CNN. Once you’re set, you will make an impact that *could* last generations. Don’t be fooled into thinking that volunteer work is better than building infrastructure, creating jobs, creating better education systems and generally advancing society as a whole. Again. Save yourself first. Then. Save everyone you care about.

Our website is dedicated to money (saving, investing, finding new business opportunities etc.). There are more important things than money.

We’ll say that again. There are more important things than money.

Many say we have never said that in the past but it has been said annually for 10+ years now. Your health, your family/friends/relatives are all more important than money. That said, it is our focus on this side of the web.

For serious matters like your actual life, you should consult with people closest to you that know you the best. Not a cartoon bull on the internet.

Part 6: Quick Preview!

We already did one quick overview on San Francisco. It doesn’t take a genius to know that you should avoid that city at all costs. If you’re a single girl looking for a well off tech guy to marry, perhaps you should take a look. Even then you’re probably better off in the Menlo park area since SF has become a war zone.

Here are some other cities to look forward to:

Domestic: Miami; New York City; Fort Lauderdale; Austin; Dallas; Houston; Phoenix; Los Angeles; San Diego; Cincinnati; Philadelphia, Baltimore; Atlanta; Nashville; Vegas (and more)

International: Frankfurt; London; Milan; Paris; Bogota; Medellin; Cali; Cartagena; Mexico City (DF); Gudalajara; Cancun; Santo Domingo; Punta Cana; San Juan Puerto Rico; Rio de Janeiro; Sao Paulo; Tokyo; Seoul; Bangkok; Reykjavik; Warsaw; Panama City; Montreal; Toronto; Vancouver, Cairo (and more)

We have first hand experience in these cities and more. We’ll also utilize people in the jungle/contact lists to get updated information before clicking the proverbial publish button. It should be fun (and useful) as more and more jungle people inevitably quit their W-2 (AFTER 2X POST TAX INCOME) and decide to travel a bit.

On that note… Back to the tent.

Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by an anonymous group of Ex-Wall Street Tech Bankers and software engineers who moved into affiliate marketing and e-commerce. We’re an advisor for Synapse Protocol 2022-2024E.

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