Correction: $46K

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/13/nyregion/nyc-budgeting-affordability-torres.html

Glennys Torres’s door in the Bronx is, at once, a portal to a small business and a home. Stepping in, a cacophony of children’s voices rises from the first floor. Along the stairs that lead to the second floor are paper tapestries covered in finger paint drying in the midafternoon sun.

These are the early signs of a business beginning to flourish, but one that comes with risks.

For much of her adulthood, Ms. Torres, 36, worked long hours as a teacher’s assistant in Manhattan, living in her mother-in-law’s rent controlled apartment in the Bronx with her family of five.

But after 10 years, Ms. Torres felt as if her wages were stagnating at the same time the city was getting more expensive. Despite a decade of experience, she lacked a teaching degree, which prevented her from getting raises, she said.

So last year, Ms. Torres made the decision to leave behind the security of her job to start a day care — one that she hopes will eventually offer her family the ability to propel themselves across income brackets and ZIP codes.

“I know one day I’d like to have a house with a backyard where my kids can play and get dirty and I can garden,” said Ms. Torres, who immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic at 18. “I don’t need luxuries, I would still manage my business but just maybe from a house upstate. It would be nice to not worry about rent every month.”

A woman in a pink shirt prepares macaroni and cheese in a kitchen while children in a corner listen to a person reading a book.

Glennys Torres and her family have drastically cut back their spending to start a day care business.

A boy pushes his mother in a swing.

Starting a new business has presented all sorts of challenges, but Ms. Torres recently got good news about a new opportunity for the day care.

Budgeting with Debt

Before opening the day care, Ms. Torres earned $46,000 annually, which amounted to roughly $36,000 a year after taxes. Her husband, Edward Torres, 39, works part time as a home health aide and his earnings brought the family’s after tax income to roughly $45,000.

The income wasn’t high enough to qualify for small business loans, so Ms. Torres took what little savings she had and poured it into the lease for the day care. That cost $10,500, including first and last month’s rent plus a security deposit.

The family now lives on the second floor of the building in the Wakefield section of the Bronx and operates the day care downstairs.

“I feel proud, but, at the same time, I feel a lot of fear because what happens if none of this works? What will I do then?” Ms. Torres said. “I used to cry every first day of the month because I knew rent was due. I still do cry — a lot.”

At first, the business was slow to take off. For six months, they only had one student. Ms. Torres would compose herself in front of parents, but would often go to an empty room to sob alone.

Today, the family pays $3,500 a month for a renovated 3-bedroom apartment and $3,500 a month to lease the unit below them for the day care. Utilities stack up: roughly $500 in electricity for both units, $200 for the family’s cellphone plan and about $80 a month for the internet.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5882267&forum_id=2",#49996233)