How much did you save as an associate? (2024 edition)
With only a couple months left till the end of my ASO years, curious how much my fellow to-be-VPs have saved up so far. I'll go first. $500k.
Far from f*** you / retirement money, I know. Think I saw a few years back an ASO3 who saved up nearly 800k, but I'm just happy that I have enough not to constantly worry about near-term future.
This includes sign-on, stub and full year bonuses, money in 401k, but not unvested RSUs. Not a diversity hire, so no DEI bonus. Investment gains have been fairly minimal as I've kept most in savings / checking account as my wife and I were anticipating a home purchase and wanted as much cash in hand for a potential down payment.
Associate 3 - Non-EB Boutique M&A.
Have just shy of $750k, majority in the S&P / 401K, and $50k in a convertible note (participated in friends startup angel round).
That’s without college loans since I was blessed to have parents pay for my college, so $500k sounds reasonable assuming you had to pay off college yourself.
I definitely overspend a bit on rent and meals haha but other than that, rarely do expensive travel / large purchases ($1k+).
that's incredible, nice job on the investment returns
Haha I appreciate it, though outside of the S&P my investment returns are…let’s just say discouraging me from HF recruiting lmao
Would probably be $50k+ richer if I had just stuck to index investing smh my head.
What's a DEI bonus?
Bait
yup clearly a bait
No it's a real thing. They have diversity fellowships etc. It's not cash comp but it's like $50k towards the MBA2 year tuition.
believe op is referring to the diversity sign-on bonus. Typcially $50-60k on top of the $50-60k standard ASO sign-on
correct, diversity sign-on bonus
It’s a bonus for having certain body parts which provide you privilege in corporate North America.
No F***in way - how is this legal? Just looks like a way to get around wage discrimination laws
How old are you if you don't mind me asking
^^. I'm assuming Asso3s are 27 (since 2 years analyst, 3 years associate). $750k at 27 is quite a bit.
My SO linked me some tiktok of a guy interviewing people in central park and people in their early 30s were saying they only had like $20-40k in their bank accounts.
Confirming am 27 (about to be 28). Our bank is 3Y AN / 3Y ASO.
I'm 28
Just got promoted but saved $200k from 2 analyst years. I’ll be honest I’m a broken soul now. But no one can tell me shit cause I have $200k!! Safe withdrawal of 4%, can I just retire now and live in Vietnam?
probably not. ive run this calc under a hundred different scenarios and you need $2mm to be able to sort of retire and coast for rest of your life while still be able to live a somewhat upper middle class lifestyle
That sounds low tbh. Also depends what age you retire. $2mm is nowhere near upper middle class if you want to retire in your mid-40s for instance.
Don't specifically know about Vietnam, but definitely can retire in 200k in a country like Nepal or Thailand - potentially Vietnam. You can just backpack around insanely beautiful locations like the Himalayas and the beaches in Thailand for dirt cheap prices and live off interest income.
Think I saved about $550k, excluding unvested stocks. Had some student loans from business school.
Only 2.5 years in banking, and wasn’t working for much of 2020… have about 250k id say across 401k, brokerage, and Roth. Came out with about 40k in student loans and that’s down to 5k now… slow and steady
At end of my associate 3 (but before my associate 3 bonus) I was at $550k excluding 401k which was probably $100k-ish not sure
End of associate years had ~$500k
Ending this year will have $950-$1mm. Am a VP2 this year.
Paid off $30k student loans
in line with mine. post my VP1 bonus should be close to a milly.
Wrapping up ASO1 year (25 years old), currently at c.350k and expecting to be at 500k with year-end bonus in a few months. Not including any unvested compensation. Boutique bank NYC.
Parents paid for school so very fortunate on that front, but otherwise graduated with a $0.00 NW.
you're expecting 250k as AS1 bonus? that seems insanely high
lmao, i am 25 just graduated undergrad and have 300$
dont have a job in in but still grinding so one day I can post on this thread.
he’ll yeah brother good luck
MBA Associate 2 at BB
About 500k
Wife has about 75k
Also have a 2 year old, but LCOL area, spent about 50k in savings on b school plus loans. Missing those two years of savings hurt my souls but finally feel “caught up”
Hoping bonus and one more year get me to 750+ and can feel fine leaving with solid buffer
must have a chunk of pre mba savings because otherwise the numbers as an associate 2 (ie one full year bonus) dont get you there. See the most aggressive numbers below
Signing + Stub = $120k
Aso1 = $175k
Salary over time period: ~$300k
so round about $600k pre-tax and pre-any expenses. honestly even as as associate 3 you only get there if youre living like a pauper and wife is doing day to day expenses
Banked summer intern pay
50k sign on
Saved 2k+ a month during stub period and maxed 401k of 20+
40k stub bonus
Saved 2k+ a month during year one and maxed 401k 20+
100k+ bonus
Saved nearly 3k a month during year 2 and have maxed 401k of 20+
Whatever the difference is there was saved in my 4.5 years prior to b school plus market growth throughout
Dang these are some biig numbers. I presume this is the norm in the US. I doubt folks in London are this well off
I myself am a VP2 in Ldn and nowhere close. Though I did an MBA, which was goddamn expensive
.
As a data point, I was an associate 3 2017 and had 500k in cash/taxable and 250k in 401k and 200k in Roth IRA (opened that when I was 16).
But I had the advantage of having winners for parents who paid for college, and had been investing in the S&P 500 every month since 2011.
500k is a good amount to have saved, especially if you don’t have parental help or your spouse works some mediocre job.
As a data point, I was an associate 3 2017 and had 500k in cash/taxable and 250k in 401k and 200k in Roth IRA (opened that when I was 16).
But I had the advantage of having winners for parents who paid for college, and had been investing in the S&P 500 every month since 2011.
500k is a good amount to have saved, especially if you don’t have parental help or your spouse works some mediocre job.
Are you over $5mm now? If so what is your target # or no real goalpost in mind?
No, I’m not near 5mm sadly. I blew 500k one year gambling super high stakes. I also have had some major life expenses like business school / elaborate wedding / buying an apartment.
Because my dad is generous and I married someone also well off, I was able to weather the gambling loss and never really felt it. Otherwise, I think that could have broken me mentally.
I think about your question a lot. What would I need to retire right now and just walk away. Sadly, to retire early on the NYC area and be able to live well, I think you need $7-$10mm.
To answer your other question, and I have this info top of mind cause I just met with a lawyer to help plan, I have about 500k in cash for a downpayment on a house I’m trying to buy, 800k in my 401k, 300k in my Roth IRA, 500k in spouse 401k and 50k in spouse Roth IRA. Also, have 100k saved in 529 plans for my young children.
I also own two apartments, but luckily have renters that almost cover the mortgage, so that’s like break even. Unfortunately, both home values have not appreciated at all. My wife also has a ridiculously jeweler collection that I could probably liquidate for a few hundred k if I had to, but I don’t think it makes sense to count luxury items in you’re net worth calculations.
If you told me at 18, this is where I would be before 40, I would be amazed. But in NYC you can’t retire early with this if you have kids and want to live an upper middle class life. And my wife is amazing but she loves to keep up with the joneses I have learned, so I think my early retirement dream is gone.
There is also frustration I feel, and I realize this is a first world problem, because I know my dad and father in law could start giving me and my family some of my inheritance now, and relieve my stress and let me switch to a more chill job, but they won’t and obviously I can’t just demand that money. So I’m stuck working long banking hours.
I think banking is a great career to always be upper middle class in NYC. But I don’t think it lets you escape the rate race the way PE and HF can. It also comes with a lot of stress, but if you can marry someone who believe in FIRE or marry someone who doesn’t want kids (which to me makes for a selfish life), you can retire early via banking.
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