Is Ending 1st Year W/ $35K In Savings Good?
Hey guys,
Particularly my fellow analyst class. With our 1st year coming to an end, I wanted to gauge where savings sat for people generally. I'm ending the year w/ $35K saved (this is pre-bonus). Roughly half in investments and half liquid. I graduated without loans so am pretty glad on the lack of debt I'm under. Hoping for a bonus in the $30K - $40K range as well (have been told I am top bucket but bonus figures not announced and am expecting a haircut on the overall pool for obvious reasons).
Are my spending habits in line w/ people around me? Am I over / underspending? I don't feel like I'm living frugally, I go out pretty frequently and never hold back on a purchase I feel like making.
Any savings you have at year-end is good. Keep it up!
I ended the year with ~45k in savings in a LCOL city with 100% of it in cash (need to get to investing it sooner rather than later). Would say my biggest cost was rent (averaged around $1,500 per month). No debt.
Would’ve been >50K if you just DCA in spy
Hindsight is 20/20 - could have easily become 32k as well.
Completely depends what city you’re in. I think that’s pretty dang good, especially in one that’s higher cost of living. One thing I noticed too was needing lots of things for the first time as a newish grad, but once you have those don’t need to get them again
I think that’s decent especially pre-bonus.
Tips:
You should have a budget in excel
What I do every time I get payed, instantly transfer my entire paycheck except for $450 into my investment account and dollar cost average into my ETFs.
That way I only have $450 to spend for the next 2 weeks, live frugally yet still have fun and go out !
Im assuming you also take out necessary expenses (rent, insurance, maybe car payment etc) out before you move the money into the investment account right?
Curious - 35k across cash and 401k? Is that net savings over the last 1 year (excludes any previous savings and investments)?
trying to benchmark myself as I’m in a similar spot (ignore title)
Correct. I'm an International so paid off my loans through college with a variety of grants, scholarships and jobs. Basically graduated with net nothing. Half of the $10K signing bonus was spent on furnishing the apartment and the other half on flights, lease applications, security deposit etc. This is basically the amount I've saved since started from close to 0 last July.
Pre-bonus I’m at $3k cash, ~$10k 401k, ~$9k in investments. So a total of ~$22k. MCOL with rent of $1,700.
If that’s a $35k pure cash figure you are definitely well above average so nice job on that.
Considering that half of Americans cannot pay a surprise $400 bill I think that is extremely good. If you consistently save like you will be a millionaire in your 30s (assuming you are increasing your earning too).
Just ended my first year in NYC. Pre-bonus, I have 35k in my 401(k), 5k in my HSA, and about 7k across my Roth / traditional IRA accounts.
How do you have $35K in 401(k) after a single year? What was your % contribution and did you start with 0?
Its across two calendar years so he's not capped at 22.5k but at 45k for now.
Not too crazy imo if his company matches well assuming he’s maxing it—considering the market’s YTD return
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