NYC 1st year analyst savings

I've seen people here say spend your base and save your bonus but with the likelihood of bonuses being low this year it's making me anxious. Wondering what other 1st years in nyc have been able to save?Personally, I've saved maybe $1-2k. That said, I've been truly enjoying the city. Thinking I might need to tighten up the spending a bit now though.

edit: For those responding 50k, i’m asking about pre-bonus nyc 1st years. Basically wondering what people are saving on a monthly basis

33 Comments
 

Last year I saved and invested ~40k. Thinking of meal prepping on Sundays to save on food costs

 
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Saved $1-$2k damn 🤣🤣🤣🤣 NYC is really like that, that’s fucking brutal.

You should have at least $5k saved up my guy

 

I’ve saved just a bit over 1k / month. Expensive rent but don’t eat out at expensive places often and pregame ~90% of my drinks on nights out

 
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All in I've saved ~18k since starting in July 2022. Getting taxed at ~34% right now since my 2022 AGI won't be super high since I started mid-year which helps a lot. So far, I've put 8k into my Roth 401k and 10k into my bank account. I also maxed out my HSA ($3650) this year but not counting that in the total 18k figure. 

My rent + utilities is ~2200 / month. On average, I spent ~300/week on other items (food, going out, bars, clothes, etc.). Trying to be frugal in case banks start axing first years. 

 

As an analyst don’t worry about saving too much from your base salary beyond your 401k contributions to get the match and a small buffer in case shit hits the fan. You can bank the bonus when it hits to make up for it and start to save meaningfully from your base salary once you become an associate. It takes about 100k a year to live comfortably in NYC with where rent, food and entertainment are today.

Just my two cents, but of course depends on your personal financial situation (if you started with no savings, high student debt, etc.)

 

Saved $3k/month from salary, $10k 401k matched at $10k, and 100% of post-tax stub for $85k total savings over my first 12 months (stub at 6th month), adjusted for tax returns. Not including $9k from $15k gross signing bonus ($94k total).

$1500 rent/utilities in NYC left me with $350 discretionary spending on the weekends since I only used Seamless during the week.

I’m sure it’s obvious but… I’m proud that I was able to do that. I really recommend it for the peace of mind it offers during the tough spots of your first year.

 

Didn't track super closely because I also had a decent nest egg through work and lucky trading in college around ~75k when I started. Put $2k/month towards 401k to max it out and never felt it in my budgeting or spend as I became accustomed to seeing the netted amount in my direct deposits. Invested the whole bonus as well. Having decent money early on is definitely great for peace of mind if you can and I appreciate it much more than any incremental happiness of blowing more money and banking on making more in the future. That would stress me out more than anything. Also the comped dinner / Ubers and the fact that you work all day (and we had free lunches during RTO after COVID for a while) means your spend should be very little if anything during weekdays and even if going all out on a weekend, it should be pretty easy to save 1-2k a month off of base. Not including any large student loans of course

 

I had about $200K total saved by the end of my 2nd year across all accounts (not in NYC/extremely frugal) invested it all aggressively at the start of last year and am unfortunately down over 70% on my portfolio. Now I wish I had been less frugal and spent more on experiences and enjoyed my time or put a small down payment on RE or hell even just buy a nice car. 

I wouldn't listen to the older folks on this forum who tell you to save and invest every penny. They were born at the right-time and I don't think we will be so lucky. I would just enjoy yourself but that's just me knowing what I know now :(

Dude. Down 70% and assuming you work at a bank that only lets you invest in indicies, you clearly went all in TQQQ. That’s on you.

Don’t give bad advice to others just because you bought leveraged products🙃

Everyone should just VTI and chill

 

Lol this forum will have you thinking you should share a room with two other people in a 4 bedroom 1 bathroom in one of the shittiest parts of the nyc area and eat pbjs for lunch and breakfast everyday in order to save the majority of your base post-tax. In all reality this is going to make you miserable if you’re working IB hours. Not to mention, most of the analysts I know were not all too concerned with saving a lot on their base. Even saving 1k a month is probably on the high end of what your average 1st year is saving.

 

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