Personal Finances in IB

Hi all,

I am an incoming IB analyst in the regional European office of a BB bank who wants to start building saving habits.

My salary after taxes and deductions will be c. 1900€/month and I was thinking of creating a separate bank account to track my expenses that would split as follows:

- 1120€ (58%) on rent, utilities, cleaning, and food
- 450€ (24%) on savings of which 300€ would be invested on equities' ETFs and 150€ on cash savings
- 350€ (18%) on discretionary items like gym, restaurants...

Going to the point, the main concerns I have are:

- Would investing 1/2 the money in an ETF replicating the Nasdaq and 1/2 in an emerging markets ETF be enough to have a relatively diversified portfolio with expected positive returns in the long run?

- Is 350€ a month on discretionary items too little? I feel that building social capital/bonds by going to eat out with people from the office/colleagues is money well spent. How did you guys manage to strike a balance between going out and saving money? Also, would it be worth asking the firm to pay a certain amount of money in species if I already know I will be spending that amount on eating out?

- Does anyone have any specific advice regarding personal finances when you are starting out in IB?

Thanks a lot in advance!