Broke Analyst - NY

Is anyone else who started in the fall feeling like they're broke? Assuming you max 401k, you're left with ~5k. 2500 to rent another 800 to food (that includes brining some stuff from home some days) 200 on skincare/soaps few for medication few for utilities, you're left with like 500-800 bucks maximum. For a job that's supposed to be the best out of undergrad this is not thriving. I haven't asked but I can tell other analysts are getting bankrolled by mom/dad when they're sending Casa Cipriani and Zuma every other weekend. I've gone a few times (never paid) but holy shit are we being stretched thin. 

181 Comments
 

you contribute 12% of net comp or 12% of total allowable for 401k (~22500 401k limit)?

 

Yeah similar situation to me though my medication costs $200+ after insurance, power bill / water / internet $300

$5000

-$2500 rent

-$800 food

-$300 medication

-$400 CC bill

-$400 power / water / internet

-$100 misc

ends up with about $500 leftover each month, which if you try to fit in a couple of dates a month, a streaming subscription, trying to save a bit, it does feel like I’ve been struggling a bit on money the last year.

When rent was $1750 it did feel like I was very well off on money, but with lease ending beginning in the summer and new studios looking to be $3kish have been having to find a roommate lol

 

getting to 800 on food was a journey. I still cook at home sat/sun and then bring lunch in or dinner in w seamless combo during weekdays. Are you meal prepping or how are you knocking it to 800?

 

bro 3600 for a 2 bedroom.... or even 3600 for a 1 bedroom flex... not in 1 million years. not in an even remotely safe area and not one that is walkable or where there wouldn't be mold in your shower. 

 

did my stint after undergrad in NYC but if I was doing it again in todays environment, I'd 100% do it in Chicago. QoL is much much better and still has most (not all) of the allure of NYC

 

Max 401k with bonus, not base. 800 on food... when you're not expensing meals, are you eating out for every meal? This figure could be a lot lower, even if you're eating quality foods. 

 

when bases were 85 (2019 pre the vid) rents was way way lower and food was also min 20% cheaper. reducing 401k contribution is silly. would rather just bite it now and see benefits down the line especially since going to be hitting other tax savings ceilings 

 

Analyst 1 in IB - Cov

when bases were 85 (2019 pre the vid) rents was way way lower and food was also min 20% cheaper. reducing 401k contribution is silly. would rather just bite it now and see benefits down the line especially since going to be hitting other tax savings ceilings 

Then don’t complain about not having enough money to enjoy NY when you’re young.

There is no reason to max a 401k this early on using base salary

You can still find very reasonable rent if you put in a bit of effort and don’t expect to have doorman and new building

 

For a job that's supposed to be the best out of undergrad this is not thriving   ---- not true. assuming you do 70hr / week (200k all in). You can do the same hours at 1 tech (200k all in) + 1 startup (100k + equity upside). 

 

Agreed but I pretty much spend little to nothing on eating and am also not in NYC which helps a lot. Dinner expensed (never eat breakfeast so not an issue) and then bring or buy a small lunch. Most other meals are oatmeal or ramen. I know this will sound like a troll but it true and my breakdown below:

Non-NYC:

No 401K at all = $6,500 monthly

$2,100 Rent + Utilities

$200 Food

$200 Rare Misc.

That's it. No I don't own any streaming services or spend otherwise. 

 

$2,300 a paycheck (x 2 a month)

-$1,300 month rent, parking and utilities (split in tier 3 city)

-$1,000 student loans

-$1,000 credit cards (always maxed, need bonus)

After a ~10% Roth contribution I am usually out of money by the end of the pay period and relying on credit cards again

I don’t go out as much anymore. Maybe 2 a month. I just can’t afford it/have time.

I don’t have enough money to even buy clothes

 

dont live alone you're a 1st year analyst lol the fuck? Most people have roommates until they hit their late 20s/early 30s. Your entitlement would be hilarious if you werent being serious. 

 

I lived alone when I was an analyst (back in 2016 with the $85k base). Rent was just under $2k a month, so I had to accept that I wasn’t going to live large for a while if I wanted my own place. Once I got roommates and cut my rent in half, I felt as if I’d just gotten the biggest raise of my life. Do that, or lower your standards until you move further up the ladder.

As a first year analyst, you can:

1. Order seamless at the office every night that you work late. Don’t go home and waste your own money on food. Make the firm pay for it.

2. Shop at Whole Foods or cheaper for groceries. Do not go to the fancy local organic grocery stores.

3. Take the subway or walk whenever you can, don’t Uber unless you feel actually unsafe (or the firm is paying for it)

4. Don’t contribute to 401k from base salary past your firm’s match. Use your bonus to get ahead on savings.

5. Make friends outside of finance / trust fund circles. Good to keep perspective (it might not feel like it but you are still earning nearly twice the median NYC household income in base salary alone) and discover new ways to have fun.

 

Even if you live with roommates, it's still likely gonna be 2-2.3k a month if you wanna live in a luxury doorman building. Flex 3's aren't going at anything less than 6500 if you want to at least be reasonably close to the office by subway. Sure, you could live in brooklyn or queens with roommates to maybe get down to 1.8k, but if you're making 6 figures at 22 you can afford to live in a nice building with roommates.

Blame the ridiculous rent market. I think 2.5k is probably the max an analyst should spend on rent, but there are some who even spend 2.8-3k for a studio. 2.5k if living by oneself is not a bad deal especially with how crazy rents are.

Also, OP's problem doesn't exist. They're acting like they're broke and not saving but are putting away 20k pre-tax in savings. Of course, they won't have multiple grand left over after taxes.

 

Maxed out 401k at 22 year old is thriving. Most adults can’t do that.

And that’s without factoring in bonus which is where the majority of your savings will come from.

 

never had bad spots. Just the occasional one that was always super annoying. got on tretinoin and that seems to have helped. still a tiny bump here and there. tried accutane but couldn't handle the burning sensation in the cheeks/redness. 

 

Apologies Mr. VP. I'm so sorry Mr. VP. I will make adjustments Mr. VP. 

On a serious note, would you max 401k from bonus or from salary or is there really no difference?

 

‘$500 of fun money’ includes money to save for rainy day fund / changing leases when you inevitably find a new apartment (up to $1k in moving costs, +1-2 month of rent ($1.5-5k in brokerage fee). Saving for a trip you might want to take as well at some point

Taking someone on a date here is yeah about $100. Add in any health condition you might have that can increase medication costs…

My buddies in a smaller city making $40k a year have more than $500 in ‘fun money’ a month lol

 
teaktable

'$500 of fun money' includes money to save for rainy day fund / changing leases when you inevitably find a new apartment (up to $1k in moving costs, +1-2 month of rent ($1.5-5k in brokerage fee). Saving for a trip you might want to take as well at some point

Taking someone on a date here is yeah about $100. Add in any health condition you might have that can increase medication costs…

My buddies in a smaller city making $40k a year have more than $500 in 'fun money' a month lol

Not after sticking $20k into a 401k they don't.

 

Nah, dog. Maxing out a Roth IRA, for instance, for the first ten years and leaving it alone for the rest if your life will make you more $ total than leaving it alone for the first ten years then maxing it out for the rest of your life. Compounding interest is BIG here, man.

 

Incoming An1 on $100k base NYC.

Im getting like 4.8k/month after insurance and 401k deductions based off some online calculator. Is this accurate?

I just want a decent place to live with no roaches/rats/mice, is this reasonable?

~2000-2300 rent

~1500 student loans

~200 utilities

~260 groceries 

~455 entertainment/misc (going out, subway, ubers, etc)

I've already accepted that little no saving will be happening until bonus hits

 

you understand that $260 on groceries is $8 a day right? Are you eating off the dollar menu at McDonalds every day and on weekends? 

 

Yeah I mean...out of habit I eat the same meals everyday for months on end. I'm very strict with my diet so my grocery bill is pretty low since its basically chicken/rice/beans. If I eat out or indulge I categorize it as an entertainment expense, $455 gets me $105/wk to blow on whatever, I assume this is going to go up but I'm using this as a baseline.

 

1500 on student loans is wayyyy too high...are you an MBA grad or something? No reason you should be hyper-accelerating payments otherwise.

I took a very untraditional approach to break into banking and went to college twice (2nd undergrad done in 3 years). Doubled down on student loans and somehow got my seat, was very lucky and had to claw my way in. This is literally the minimum pmt haha, in hind sight I should have crushed the GMAT and did an MSF but I didn't know any better at the time. It sucks so bad but only up from here I suppose?

:'-)

 

Not sure if relevant but wanted to share for reference.

MM PE (not US), bundled with my wife (we're both 25-26, with prior IB experience at both MMs and EBs/BBs). 

6k$ AT + 4k$ AT (wife, LMM PE) = 10k$ AT

- 1.5k$ mortgage

- 700$ food

- 200$ gym, tennis, other sports

- 2k$+ car (G82), insurance, parking, gas, tyres

- 300$ misc (parties, meds, etc.)

So left with around 5k$. On top of that like 30-45k$ AT bonuses (yeah they suck, this year was closer to 30k for us both). Means around 100k$ saved per year for a couple of next years, while living quite a good life (sometimes) at 50-70 hours weeks, she's fully WFH. 

EDIT: we don't have anything like 401k, though

 

I'm an unreasonably cheap person. I live in NYC for reference. I work in PE now so make a little more but to save money:

  • Don't pay for streaming, learn how to watch things for free or use free trials. (that's probably $40-80/mo for some people).
  • Expense every meal you can. Eat Sweetgreen, Chipotle (no rice), or Cava to stay healthy. Go in for a few hours on the weekends in the morning. Make it a routine: gym, stop by office, can be ready to day drink by 1 pm.
  • Don't pay for coffee, just go for a walk instead.
  • Don't pay for Uber, walk, or take the subway. When I was an analyst this was one of my biggest expenses and it took a few weeks to get used to walking places. If you are a guy of decent height 5'11"-6'0"+, it's really not as unsafe as people make it out to be, just don't act stupid and don't make eye contact with people you want to avoid. I've walked over an hour home at 4am and didn't even have a slight issue.
  • Get a flask, fill it up, and take it out with you. Get sparkling / seltzer water at the bar (for free) and spike your cup with booze from a flask. Otherwise, you are paying $15-20 for a vodka/tequila+soda?
  • Don't live alone. Live with roommates or live with a S/O. No one expects you to live alone until your late 20s at the earliest. It's lonely af and if you find a clean & trusted roommate doing the same thing you are doing you won't run into any issues.
  • Don't get caught up in lifestyle inflation. Many of my close friends make almost double what I make working in public markets and are more willing to splurge on rent and travel. Do what makes sense for you. A lot of them give me shit for doing this stuff but you gotta do you.

Do an honest evaluation of your spending. Most of the time without realizing it there are 1/2-off the expenses that you are incurring but probably not including in your calc which is why you feel broke. Not the case for everyone but definitely for a lot of people I know.

 
Most Helpful

This thread and it’s comments truly highlights why the quality of analysts is going down. Imagine working 80-100+ hours a week and having to eat rice and beans to get by or have to decide whether you’ll be able to save anything for retirement. Or getting told you need to cut out medicinal soaps to get some savings. 
 

What’s even more laughable are the older commenters who not only try to claim this is normal but act shocked that the unicorn analysts are no longer working for them. 

Array
 

Lmao 100% on point. These washed up senior aso and VPs come on here to bitch all the time about their juniors or the "age of entitlement" and then go on to blame WFH as a reason for poor work quality...

The tops kids don't want to work for rice and beans...yall are losing them to tech, social media and other industries LOL

Lmao nobody losing anybody worth having to fucking "social media" lmao

 

A year ago these analyst posts were mostly about “what $10K watch should I buy?”. Maybe try listening to adults that have more than a 1 year sample size of being an adult.

 

Not a year ago but pre-Covid. I was here when those threads used to be around. The complaints on the quality of analysts has been post-pandemic so the point you are bringing up doesn’t take away from what I’m saying. The market has changed dramatically in the past few years including the cost of living and finance is getting left in the dust. 

Array
 

Yup, some of these guys were making 85-100k in nyc when you could find places to rent for 1200 per month in New York and live alone.

For some reason they can't see that the cost of everything has almost doubled, I know the official rate of inflation is 7% or something, but things like haircuts now cost 40 bucks at a minimum when a few years ago you could do it for under 20$, the price of everyday things have gone up dramatically.

Plus you factor in the bullshit 5k+ broker fees that everyone has to pay now and its even worse

 

Your problem doesn't exist. You're acting like you're broke and not saving but you are putting away 20k pre-tax in savings. Of course, you won't have multiple grand left over after taxes. Only contribute up to the employer match to get the free money. Then, use the rest to contribute to your own investment accounts on Robinhood, Fidelity etc.

 

My advice for living broke-enjoy doing broke shit. In high school, when I was making piss-all trying to get my summer job pocket change to last me a year, I spent a disproportionate amount of time in the grocery store. I'd look at labels, inspect produce, be all picky and whatever-you're already spending money on it, so might as well have fun with it. No in-and-out bull. Sometimes went with my grandparents or my boyfriend at the time. This works better at smaller-sized and/or "neighborhood" stores.

 

shit then how does the rest of americans live?

In apac

$6000 post tax base

$1000 rent

$1000 food (not chicken rice and beans some proper meals cooked by chefs)

$500 misc/going out

=$3500 left every month+bonus

this pretty much covers everything

we dont have 401ks tho

 

Never thought about this. Not necessarily the cleanest approach but hey... chicks love beards so I'm in

 
Analyst 1 in IB - Cov

 For a job that's supposed to be the best out of undergrad this is not thriving.

Just about everyone coming out of undergrad has grandiose visions of how they are going to be living the life and be able to afford some amazing lifestyle when they graduate, then reality sets in. You'd be in a hell of a lot worse position in just about any other industry. Do your best to not focus on what others have, trying to keep up with the joneses is a good way to never be happy.

 

Everyone is pretty much saying 401k (which is the right answer here) but think it should have a bit more context.

Just wait for your bonus and contribute that to your 401k -- that is going to be at the highest tax bracket anyways, so get the most tax savings there. You'll still max out your 401k over the year, but have more normal cash flow management. 

I lived in Chicago as an ANL1, but granted $85k + a lousy bonus thanks to a down year was more than enough to this. I paid ~$1100 in rent so I get that is likely doubled now, but the incremental $25k in base salary should cover that. Either way, not worth stressing at this age. You can find ways to contribute over the limit in future years (e.g., Backdoor Roth IRA) that can serve as a way to 'catch-up'. With the delta in bonus between Year 1 and Year 2, you are really only losing out on one year of market performance which (especially with the current environment) isn't the end of the world.

 

Interesting. So rather than contribute at all to the traditional 401K, put it at 0% contribution and then switch to 100% contributions at bonus time at which point it will be easily maxed out given the pre-tax contribution. Otherwise the bonus will be "taxed" 50% (yes I know it's technically just withheld but you're losing out on the money for literally a year)...seems like the only issue would be making sure HR/payroll department actually does this correctly since it's a pretty specific two-week window

 

Yep that's pretty much it. In my experience (worked at a BB and in PE), it was a fairly common move and you'd either be able to allocate directly on the HR portal (think it was called 'incentive allocation') or you could just let Payroll know you were planning to do it and they'd remind you to change your allocation before (this was the case when I was at my PE firm, much smaller company so interfaced with Payroll directly). Again it was pretty common and most people did this. Frankly you could ask another ANL / ASO who has more longevity if they ever did it, and if so, the process; I'd be a bit surprised if no one else at your bank did.

You'll get a two-week+ heads up on what your bonus number is so you can plan accordingly.

Probably not a bad idea to continue contributing a bit over the year in case your bonus is below expectations, but it doesn't have to be 50/50. I'd imagine your bonus would be >$20k.

 

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