How to invest An1 bonus
1st year MM, $40k pre-tax bonus, Total comp of 150k…not great but I have a job so who cares.
How should I invest the bonus? I have 10k in HY savings account, took me all year to build that fund so no Roth / 401k contributions yet. Should I get started on that or buy a real estate investment in a LCOL city my extended family works in? I could probably get a house that already has tenets for less than $120k overall. I am a NOOB in investing and wondering if it's better to do the accounts thing or try to get into real estate at an attractive rate (would only pull the trigger if I can get
The fact that you work in high finance but are thinking about buying some investment property in a tertiary city you don't live in, but hey, it's ok - Cousin Greg works for the local realtor and he's got your back..... before you've even contributed anything to your Roth our 401k is astounding. It's people like you that have enabled the rise of multifamily syndicators like Tides and Rise48 lmao.
all things considered, they're doing pretty ok
Thanks for the dunk on me you're so helpful. You reallllyyy got me there bud. FWIW it's established real estate related work but not trying to doxx my self lmao, anyone else?
The course salesman Section 8 slumlords in his Instagram feed have infiltrated his mind
Focus on maxing tax advantaged retirement accounts first. Real estate can wait until the rest is sorted out.
tax advantaged accounts first - 401k, Roth IRA, HSA, etc.
Seriously listen to me. Don’t ignore this comment, it’s important. It’s behaviors like these that keep poor people poor. You are falling for a trap.
You are going to hear stories of people making amazing and fancy returns whether it’s going yolo on Tesla or buying real estate early that make you jealous and desire to come up with some scheme to get rich quick. The reality is there is no get rich quick scheme, you are just taking a shitload of risk and potentially hurting your future. Likely, your most likely outcome on the path you are on is making some poor investment decision, having that investment perform poorly, you shrugging it off, then the investment performing really poorly and you scrambling to exit the investment and accepting a huge loss. I’ve done it, I have friends that have done it, and people will do it in the future. Below is how to be responsible with your bonus:
It’s boring and passive, which frustrates people, but it is the way to actually build wealth and passive income. The reality is most of your earnings right now are contained in the knowledge and salary you will earn in the future. However, you are finally entering the ability to be financially independent and with that comes a large responsibility. Don’t try to be fancy and get rich quick or you are no different than someone who buys a lottery ticket with the same goal.
You earned your bonus, now fight to keep it and place some in treasuries and the rest in VOO. Forget about both. Treasuries are in case you get laid off, the VOO you keep and sell when you are getting ready to buy a home.
if you read advice from investors like warren buffet or Ray Dalio or economists like fama, French, asness—all will say the same thing:
The best thing for a young person to do is put their money in the S&P and forget about it. Everyone else tries to be clever and they end up losing due to fees or performance mean reverting.
why not buy 0 dte options on SPY? you can get outsized returns if they go in your favor.
also wouldn't ray dalio say to invest by giving him ur money
Because you work in finance and compliance will not approve a 0DTE options trade.
Good advice. Would only add that income threshold doesn't matter for Roth IRAs since you can always just backdoor it.
Then you pay the upfront tax bill which is pretty shit. A lot of hassle with it as well. There’s advantages to a Roth, but for most people it’s not going to be that different at the end of the day. The real question is in retirement is your income really going to be that much higher then if you added the conversion to your present day salary today?
Put in NANC. The Nancy Pelosi ETF
Either index fund or a HY savings account - your top priority as a banking analyst should be investing in yourself first (you are on a career track where a 40k investment will likely not be a substantial impact in the long run vs getting promoted / PE job / etc). I worked with someone who tried to buy and rent an apartment and he wasted hours and hours on that - absolutely not worth it when you’re in IB.
The economy sucks, I would keep things liquid too in case you get laid off or whatever.
As others have said just put it in a 401k and forget about it
How much savings should you have built up before contributing to 401K? 6 months salary?
You really want to meet the match because it’s really basically free money and an exceptional deal.
If you are badly cash strapped, look into a company called lendtable. Basically gives you a loan to meet the contribution for the match that you then pay back later.
I’ll note you can take cash out of a 401k early, you just have significant penalties. Also, you can gradually up your 401k contribution toward the end of the year if you are very nervous about cash early on.
All that said, if you are making more than 130k annually, I see no reason why you shouldn’t be able to max your 401k and save 6 months of savings in a single year. Some basic math:
130k - 23k is 107k. If state and federal taxes get you to 70% of that, you should have about 75k. If you spend 4k a month you’d spend 48k that year and save 27k which is ~6 months of savings.
But to answer your question, I might be diligent about tracking your expenses for a month and see where things shake out. I personally might contribute like 5% of your paycheck early on just so you know how it works and how it is set up, then as the end of the year gets closer up your contribution knowing that you are about to get a bonus. The dollar number I would hit partially depends on your rent and expenses, but if you are that cash strapped, your expenses really shouldn’t be more than 5k, so 25k would give you 5 months which is pretty solid. If you keep 5% then make sure you get the full match before the end of the year, you’d be doing great. Also, just being honest, losing out on not maxing your 401k the first year out of school isn’t the worst thing in the world, just you want to save for retirement eventually and as mentioned above the tax advantages accounts are ways to get ahead and pay less in taxes which is more money in your own pocket.
Just to clarify, you only saved $10k of your base and contributed ZERO to 401k/Roth?
Wtf did you buy 😂
HCOL city, livimg comfortably close the office rather than a rat’s nest. 1-2 extraordinary health expenses. Do the math then provide a response with some value thx
“1-2 extraordinary expenses… do the math blah blah blah”
Bruh, you didn’t say anything about health expenses in your original post.
Regardless, you’re an idiot for not contributing to your 401k to at least get the company match.
Going to chime in as well. Expense management is a learning thing and it’s a marathon not a sprint, but it seems like there’s some bad budgeting going on. I highly recommend getting an app like mint just to understand where the dollars are going and making some adjustments in behavior. I’m not trying to be an ass, but something isn’t adding up—these expenses are really bad. Like family of 4 or VP’s spend less than you bad.
Yeah HCOL is a thing and sure health expenses can hurt, but we are talking about you spending like 8k a month or 6k a month with a 24k out of pocket medical bill. Further, if that’s the case that you had medical bills like that, you really should be looking at a HSA. These are pretty egregious expenses that to me seem more like you are just plain living above your means and not basing your spending in your financial reality.
I make the point on a ton of these threads. There’s 3 types of people:
If you are trying to live like other analysts and don’t have parents that are going to give you a downpayment for your first house and pay for your kids educations, you need to seriously check yourself. It’s very easy to think it’s normal and ok to live like other analysts because they are your peers, but they aren’t playing by the same rules as you are.
Get a budgeting app and maybe eat out less or try to take advantage of your companies expense policies more. There’s also a chance that you should move and extend your commute a little bit to save a grand or so on rent.
This stuff is so simple and its shocking how little people get it
1. Contribute to 401K up to company match, its free money
2. Build 6 months of an emergency fund in a HY savings account. Yes you can earn a higher return in treasury bills but its not worth the hassle/transaction costs of having to roll T-bills each month or however you set it up.
3. Find a robo advisor and set yourself up on "max risk" (you are 22 and going to be working a long time) and just dump money into it as you can, maybe set up an auto deposit from your checking account once a month, as you make more money you can up your monthly contribution to this account. The robo will build a portfolio of low cost ETFs and will rebalance and do all the tax loss stuff for you, all you do is deposit money into the account. Ideally you don't touch this money until you need it for a big purchase of some sort, I started at 22 and I don't think I ever made a withdrawal from the account until I bought a house at 32.
In terms of budgeting, it was really never something I had to think about. I always lived within my means and never felt like I had to skip out on something I really wanted to do because it was too expensive. Rent is going to be your biggest expense so finding a way to still be comfortable while getting that down helps, I always lived in what I thought were pretty decent places but had roommates until I was 28, that helped keep costs down in a big way. I never minded it and you pretty much just sleep there, in S&T I felt like I was never home and I'm sure bankers are home even less.
VOO.
Those are all great options you're considering! Given the different paths you can take, there's a lot to weigh, from tax advantages to potential for immediate cash flow.
If you're new to investing and ever find yourself wondering about other lucrative avenues, my background might be of interest. I work with real estate partnerships and franchise brokering, helping people diversify their investments while maximizing both returns and creating opportunities for passive income. The beauty of some of these options is that they allow you to put your money to work without requiring a day-to-day time commitment.
No pressure at all, but if you'd like to explore some of these options, I'm always available for a casual chat. Either way, it sounds like you're off to a promising start in your investment journey!
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