How much do you save?
This is especially for all my AN1’s out there. How much did you save your first year? How much did you spend? NYC specifically interests me.
Ever since moving to NYC I’ve realized how easy it is to spend
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Excluding 401(k) I saved $25k. Thats now sitting at $50k thx to the market which is nice. No one is getting into investment banking for the money you make as an analyst or associate. $25k or $50k is a drop in the bucket over the long term. You should absolutely be conscious of spending and aim to save all your bonus. I wouldn’t base my geo location based on that tho. Just me
does the 25k include bonus or is that just base?
Yeah pal that includes bonus. Keep in mind that bonus is basically cut in half due to nyc taxes. I did max out roth 401k so I guess I saved 30k (pre tax) of my base
I have a detailed budget of all my income/expenses that I consistently update manually. I recommend doing the same, but up to you. Currently live in a Tier 2/3 city. Note that my parents still cover my phone bill and car insurance. Figures below include maxed out 401k/IRA.
Year 1 - Saved ~$80k, spent ~$39k.
Year 2 - Saved ~$83k, spent ~$44k.
Year 3 - Projected to save ~$93k, projected to spend ~$47k... been going on more trips this year.
How do you get time to travel?
Work for a boutique and we don't set unrealistic deadlines. I have closed 5 sell-sides in ~2.5 years, but don't work on the weekends much and rarely stay past 7:30pm. Everyone covers for others when they are out.
Enough to afford coke and hookers
nice
Analyst in CHI. My rule is to max out my 401k, spend my salary and save 100% of my bonus. I know some analysts i work with save more but I personally would rather get the incremental enjoyment of spending my salary to get a nicer apartment, take a few fun weekend trips, and eat at nice restaurants more often. You’re only young in a fun city once and (IMO) the marginal 10-15k you save or whatever won’t be material long-term. But obviously to each their own.
During my first analyst year in NYC right out school I think I was able to save nearly all my bonus plus a good amount of my salary. This was in 2016. Maybe the number was like $50k after all taxes and such, so like $70k in today’s dollars. Maybe it was a bit less as I don’t remember exactly and am giving my past self the benefit of the doubt.
That said, I was fairly frugal with spending compared to most analysts in my class. Maybe 1 or 2 (out of 30) were even more frugal than me, but I was likely in the “bigger saver” category for my crop.
As a % of my paycheck: 20% for rent & housing costs, 10% for food (ish) then I invest the rest
401k maxed and saved essentially 100% of bonus, excluding big life events (engagement, wedding, honeymoon)
Analyst years = saved 0% of salary
Associate years = saved 10-20% of salary
VP+ years = saved 30% of salary before kids; 0% saved w/ kids
lol at the kids part. They'll get ya
AN1 also remember you get a good amount back from tax return which should boost the savings a bit. Maxing out 401k can get you close to 30k with company match + 10k form tax return and cash saved from base. with a 30k post-tax bonus. should get you to a solid 70-75k as AN1 and additional 80 as AN2. 150k from first two analyst years
Wow, can I ask what your expenses look like? Rent + COL + extra spend?
Spend base, bank bonus is the standard in IB
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