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What Can I expect from my living standards? Apartment, food, going out, savings, ect hhjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
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You'll be just fine. Just dont blow on stupid things. Blows my mind you'd ask if its enough...
Well. I know it is a good amount of money.
Im not worried about making it to my next rent payment, but I wanted insight/detail into what should I expect in terms of:
Apartment location
Apartment Size
Money for going out
Savings
It is more than enough. This forum can be an echo chamber in the sense that $175K a year in NYC seems like chump change, but the reality is that there are plenty of people living in Manhattan, let alone NYC, on 60K-70K a year all-in. Banking is such an anomaly when it comes to pay out of college that it skews people's perspective on how much money you actually need to live reasonably well.
Stick to a good budget between saving and spending, particularly when it comes to food and housing. Properly set your expectations for housing, especially if you want to live in Manhattan, and know that there are significant trade-offs between square footage, location/neighborhood, and quality of your apartment.
You'll be fine!
Thank you for understanding the question and your reply!
Appreciate it
I spent so much as an intern this summer on $120k living a lifestyle more expensive than I ever have before and still managed to save several grand. Going in I thought I'd go broke from what I've read here.
Do you have debt?
Fortunately no
You will be just find if you choose to live with a roommate.
If you're expecting to live alone and in a nice area, that's going to be tough because you're looking at 4k+ at the moment. If you're willing to have a roommate, you can live just fine. For reference, I started living in NYC making $250k base and paying $4.8k in rent for a one bedroom in a desirable area. I was generally able to save 1-2k a month after maxing my 401k and lived well. If you were able to find rent for less than 4k and were fine saving very little, you can still have a nice lifestyle. Just know that you'd be running it pretty close to the red and that doesn't leave you much breathing room for unfortunate life events if they do manifest.
Or you could always live in a walk-up instead of a limiting yourself exclusively to brand new luxury buildings.
very easy to find a decent sized studio in a nice neighborhood for 2,500
Where are you seeing listings in Manhattan for sub 2.5k for a studio?
Haha. Good luck with under $2500 bud
Looking back at it, would you say it would have been a better idea to have saved more or rent (something less than 4.8k, maybe a not so desirable area) or do you think it was a good decisions in terms of quality of life?
I want to save but I also want to go back to a nice place when I am done with work that I can relax and have people over.
Well, not really. Keep in mind that this was my base salary and so ~$5k a month was eminently doable since I was pretty much banking my whole bonus. The affordability test for NYC is that your salary be a minimum of 40x your monthly rent. So someone making $200k would still qualify for a $5k rent payment (just). I felt between the $50k cushion (my base was $250k vs $200k) and my bonus, I was actually pretty conservative! Sure, I could've saved some more money but I'm walking distance to work, have a washer/dryer ensuite, central air, 700 sq ft of space and floor to ceiling windows in living room and bedroom (no real balcony though). Certainly if I were making less, I'd also scale down my living budget accordingly.
You started living in NY on 250k base doing IB? Did you move here from somewhere else? Surely that’s not grad numbers
No, I lateraled as a VP to Manhattan. At the time, that was the base (since gone up to $275k as has the rent on that same apartment I had, haha). And don't call me Shirley.
lol, it still blows my mind that people think having a 100k+ salary in Manhattan is not enough. I grew up in the UES with two parents with a combined salary of 110k and they got by just fine (one younger sibling as well). You won't be buying tables every weekend, but plenty to do in the transplant side of NYC.
Yeah but maybe your parents were able to pay down their apartment/house before real estate prices blew up
Based on a 100k salary it's almost impossible to live alone reasonably close to your office because of the 40x rent requirement which limits you to $2500/month max and after taxes, rent, food, you won't be able to save much if at all
I grew up in the 60th-80th street range in a rented apartment.
Transportation in NYC is ridiculously easy. The train from Yankee Stadium to Coney Island takes an hour and twenty. That is the middle of the Bronx to the South of Brooklyn.
Me and my friends and almost everyone I know live in Murray Hill/Chelsea/Kips Bay pay less than 2k for a 2-3 bedroom. I really do not know where the people on this forum search for places where they derive that they need to pay 2k+ for rent. Get roommates and you will be fine on a 80k salary let alone 175k.
100k in NYC is dust money...you need at least $150k - $200k to function as a normal human being
Or you just know people so you don't have to pay covers/get invited to open bar parties like my friends in fashion/marketing do on their 50-60k salaries.
You'll be fine, just don't wiff blow.
I'm an A1 at a BB and I feel broke as shit.Don't listen to the people trying to compare you to someone who is 37 making 60k and lives in a studio with his girlfriendYou have to pretty much eat out every meal. Not living in Manhattan is so inconvenient and will make your life hell with IB.You have to pay for conveniences with this job that people that make less or similar money in more normal jobs do not have to pay for."175k" is actually 110 base salary post tax and 401k it's less than 6k a month. A decent apartment is at least $2300/person (sorry if you're paying less it is a shithole either apartment or neighborhood) Personally don’t love the idea of coming home to crackheads during my 100 hour weeks so I live on UES/UWS. This leaves you with maybe $3500 a month to pay for everything else in a city where a salad bowl is $20 and a normal weekend at the bars not balling out is $200.For full disclosure, I came from an upper-income background so surely I'm at least somewhat biased but there are lower-income peers in my analyst class that also feel like we aren't making that much money. It's really mostly on paper at least until bonus hits
Something doesn't add up.
Edit: Never mind, saw that you actually meant to say 110 base. Title of this thread is confusing.
I am A1 as an analyst 1
I think that is maybe what $100k 3 years ago gets you as crazy as that sounds
I'm at $175k base and no, its not much at all. I'm having a tough time saving. Higher inherent costs associated with this type of occupation (student loans, no time to cook, attire, expensive networking, etc.).
You can expect roughly 3 rats, 1 panhandler, a low to medium whiff of pee and a middling amount of frustration with the MTA on the daily commute, and a significant mix of sweetgreen, cava, chipotle and halal carts in your diet
Lmaoo fucking facts. Interned for 3 months and this is what my life consisted off. Will try to avoid by finding a place with walking distance and cooking myself lmao 😂
I was having a hard time saving as well. Ordering from third party apps like DoorDash and Uber is a big waste. Also if you can walk, do that instead of cab- you get the exercise. Also avoid going to brunch and learn how to cook. There are some cool VR apps that teach you how to cook if you want to learn.
This can’t be true. I suspect you have a wife and kids.
Please please please let’s not turn this place into Blind. I just went there and some loser was posting about how $550k salary is “unlivable” and “lower middle class” at best. Let’s not make this place similarly delusional.
I think we can all find a balance here. Yes, some people do tend to exaggerate about how high salaries are "barely livable". But NYC is, factually, a high COL and high tax state. So it's good to have these discussions about what people can expect once they are here from people willing to give that (realistic) advice.
That's definitely a valid point, but it's way more subjective than people might think, that's all I'm saying. You could very well be making high 6 figures and living paycheck-to-paycheck in NYC if you choose to live in a 1 bedroom luxury high-rise in Manhattan, eat out everyday at upscale restaurants, and blow your money on random shit - I've seen this happen up-close. I also know of many people living on 60k or lower salaries making it work, while also being able to live a decently comfortable lifestyle. Also depends on if you are single, married, have kids, have debt, etc.
My general motto is, despite the high inflation recently, if you can't live a decent lifestyle as a single person with no dependents making over 100k, you are doing something seriously wrong and need to take a hard look at your spending habits.
All about perspective mayne. When I first got to NYC on a banking salary I though I was balling. Came from a middle class background in a small town and parents didn’t buy me anything so had to work throughout high school/college if I wanted to get something for myself. Not posting this as an “I’m better than you, I worked harder than you” type of statement, but when I got my first real job in NYC I could legit buy myself anything I wanted within reason and it felt so cool. I could go out to eat whenever I wanted, but myself new clothes, get a new laptop - and still have money left over. A lot of people don’t have that luxury. Over the past couple years I’ve sort of slipped into the mindset that I don’t have enough, and although NYC has gotten considerably more expensive, I can still pretty much buy myself whatever I want - car, vacation, clothes, nice dinner, whatever it may be. I think people get a really warped idea of what “normal” is especially when we see so much toxic wealth flaunting trash on social media. $175k, even in NYC, is way more buying power than most people have.
This is exactly it, that's why the post above about $175k being enough is controversial.
The rabid materialist mentality is not rational, it's like a form of madness, and people have no frame of reference if they go straight from growing up comfortably to attaining a nice, salaried white collar job. People treat life like it's a superficial contest, but you only lose if you waste your time and hard work trying to play it. It becomes a lifestyle, wasting money on things you don't really need just because it's something to do or it's expected in your social circle.
If your whole lifestyle and social circle revolves around going out and spending money, where would it be if you couldn't afford do those things? If you are smart with your personal finances, $175k is way more than enough. It's enough to gentrify Brooklyn if you want more space to live in. I work remotely, but if I had to be physically near Wall Street, I'd either live in Manhattan proper or more likely commute from somewhere North of the city in the Hudson Valley with some trees and fresh air.
Dang seeing replies here about NYC being fine @175k. I hate to admit that Vancouver/Toronto wouldn't be as cushy.
Nah, Toronto isn't as bad. $175k goes farther there than Manhattan - after you include city tax, there isn't a huge amount of tax arbitrage and while rents are definitely high, it's not as high as Manhattan. Although I think a lot of it has to do with how many more options there are to spend your money in Manhattan vs Toronto (or any other city for that matter)
Tent in Central Park at best and tent in Jersey at worst
Personally I’m stressing out bc the $120k base i got offered for finance is not really enough . Will have to commute from Connecticut or Westchester . For you $175k is pretty good but don’t expect a big or luxurious apartment . Do you have a car , or do you plan on bringing one with you ?
Not enough for what? You say this like you will have to live on food stamps with a $120k base lmao. Do you realize that even in NYC you are among the upper echelon of earners in the entire world for your age group? Get a grip.
Perhaps it doesn’t pertain to you, but a large % of kids in banking I have met come from a very well-off backgrounds where they’ve gone to prep school, Ivy leave colleges, and are from top zip codes in the US. Nothing wrong with that at all, but banking is just the next step for them. If a $120k base as 22 year old in NYC is your idea of a downgrade in lifestyle from what you have been living like your whole life, I don’t really know what to tell you man. Not saying this is you, but come on.
I hear you, I get that. FYI, I am 32, and I was grinding making dog poop money until about 2019. Started my MBA program in Aug 2021.
You will likely have to give handies in the restroom of hogs and heifers but so long as the carpal tunnel doesn’t act up because of the arduous hours of modeling you should have sufficient cash flow for a burn rate of 18 months until…
175k is the new 100k
Interesting reading these perspectives. As a first year analyst in a LCOL (Charlotte, Dallas, Richmond) I go back and forth on whether I’d rather be in a bigger city / financial capital or whether it’s not worth the extra cost (monetary and otherwise). Tough to know.
How the fuck are people saying they can’t save on 110K base? Lemme add up my general expenses as an A1. Keeping in mind dinner is comp’d basically every weekday.
- rent+utilities: $2500
- lunch (30x/month, $17.5 avg): $525
- dinner (10x/month, $80): $800
- drinking (10x/month, $100/night): $1000
- drugs/random shit: $500
this seems like a pretty lavish lifestyle for a 23-yr-old right out of college. With student loans, you’d obviously cut out some of the random expenditures above, but this is all BEFORE bonus, which you’re banking entirely.
Am I missing something?
Yes you’re missing taxes you moron.
$110k in NYC is ~$2,300 per paycheck before healthcare and 401k, etc.
call it $500 for lunch and you have $1,800 / month to cover everything else
most people have expenditures for work clothes and dry cleaning that add up quickly too.
your math leaves $3k/month to save on ASO salary and is overspending on analyst budget take home
no excuse to not save if you’re in Atlanta or Chicago - way cheaper
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