I'm graduating this semester and signed an offer making six figures. Based on my interviews I'll be working roughly 60 hours a week with (almost) free weekends. My work life balance will be as good as it gets for a high finance role. I came from a poor family and this is the most anyone has ever made right out of college.
The money is life changing, but what am I supposed to do now? Is my life really just to work and invest at this point until I can retire? Six figures seems like a ton of money. But I've been doing the math and honestly, if you live in the city it doesn't go very far. Having a car is not practical when parking costs as much as my hourly wage. Traveling is a ton of fun, but my job needs me to be in the office so I can't go very far. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, but I'm just figuring out what's next in life after college.
I grew up upper middle class and went to semi-boarding schools and had an international education. Every summer was spent in Europe or Asia. I wanted a new gadget or a car when I got my license? No problem.
After my degree and work kicked off, I had the exact same question, except my quality of life was far worse than my childhood and personal life based on my family income. I felt embarrassed when I realized I couldn't afford the zip codes I wanted to live in, finally saw the value of a car in hours of work I had to put in, and also thought I want my life and time rather than the job.
Fact is, nobody really knew what they were getting into before they really had to do it. The lesson of a job (or running your own shop) comes from learning the value of money and time.
Just follow the song dude, follow these 10 simple steps and shape the world to your liking.
I fucking died laughing holy shit this is so funny! Where did my man get this from lol? 😂
YouTube
100k+ at 60 hours/week is pretty good, but you're right that it doesn't go that far in the city. That money just means you can have a reasonable (shared with 1-2 roommates) apartment, go out to dinner, and enjoy hobbies. But it's not that life-changing after you pay all the expenses you'll have in NYC.
Find some hobbies and a group of friends. Go out while you're still young, date around. There's tons to do in NYC and if you want to travel there's lots of weekend trips accessible by train/short car ride (look into Zipcar for weekend trips)
Being unsure of what to do post college is normal but just never say no to doing things, try to get out of the house
Damn that buys a nice house in a nice neighborhood in Texas.
No offense, but I call bullshit on you growing up poor, making 6 figures and not knowing what to do with it. Only people I have ever met who grew up comfortably have that kind of dilemma.
If I were to guess you grew up middle/upper class and for some reason convinced yourself or your parents convinced you that you were working class, I have quite a lot of friends like that who grew up in Kensington and on the Upper East Side who went on ski trips every year but constantly have talks about how they grew up in poverty because they only flew business class for their yearly ski trip. And now they never have anything of interest to spend their money on despite pulling in a ton yearly.
With 100k, I would save as much in year 1 then find some hobbies to spend it on, that could be literally anything from video games to escorts to art or you could give some of that money away to people in need.
For me personally, I used all my internship money to fix up my podcast, get new DJ gear and clean up my instagram which paid off immensely last year.
Coming from someone who grew up in a single family home, finding people in need around you like family who need a few extra hundreds would not be hard so giving back to your community would not have been that hard to think of, again why I called bullshit on you growing up poor.
You had to pay to do that? Why couldn't you just delete posts yourself?
I have posted about this before, I have a side hustle as a social media influencer and DJ. I got verified on instagram and wanted to have a more hollywood look so i rented sports cars, got designer clothes and a photographer and got to work
I know TONs of people who were poor, made money, and are now fairly miserable. Money buys comfort but ultimately not happiness or meaning.
Even if you don't know anyone personally with this background, just look at celebrities. Plenty of them grew up poor, became ridiculously wealthy, and are now depressed and doing drugs / acting crazy.
You're actually setting up a lot of poor kids for failure by spreading the myth that if you're poor, all you need is money and then you'll be happy instead of getting people to think more holistically about their life. I think OP's post is great and very real.
Fair point. It depends on your definition of poor and if having multiple children changes that number. We had a roof over our heads and both my parents stuck around. But we had utilities and internet shut off multiple times. Going to bed hungry wasn't uncommon. Money wasn't being spent wisely which my siblings and I didn't have control over until we left. So by some standards no, we weren't "poor" but we certainly weren't upper class.
...you paid someone to "fix" your instagram? What does that even include?
I wish I had something more insightful to say, but I just wanted to say that I'm in the exact opposite situation lol. Grew up well off and now considered poor. Feelsbad. But it makes you appreciate life for what it is I guess.
Sorry to hear man. What happened?
Grew up poor, didn’t make 6 figs until few years after undergrad. What now? Save and invest as much as you can within reason so you can buy real estate and start accruing wealth. One day, move your family to a nicer home in the burbs.
But first and foremost - allocate a slice of your bonuses for yearly travel and entertainment. At least 2x trips a year if you can wing it, or maybe 1 long trip and a longer thanksgiving or Christmas + NYE break
what´s next in life? depends what you want. I can't answer that for you so I'll just tell you what I wish I knew and what I'm glad I was aware of once my income was good
I wish I did this right after I graduated college
Awesome list, and I just realized that I'm slowly morphing into #2 incarnate, time to steer the ship far away from that wreck
Better to notice and be aware than be a zombie who's unaware. You can do it bro, just gotta start somewhere! Throw shit up on the wall and see what sticks, and don't worry about doing what's popular or age appropriate
+1 Brofessor, this is pretty close to what I did post-grad and I am extremely grateful. Huge emphasis on living with friends and living below your means. You can always ball out when you're older but no one needs a 3k a month 1 BR apartment right out of college.
I assume that if you went from poor to 6 figures you have an ambitious persona and you can conquer goals. The next big thing which could occupy your mind would be planning to start a business and to develop it in the same way as you developed your career so far.
You are the family bank now. You are also the family lawyer. You are also the one who has to make sure the younger cousins find their way too now.
Truly most of the advice on here is from people who want it all WLB/wealth/exciting-work etc...All that stuff is great.
But in reality understand you are the first person in your family that can create long-term wealth so while your job is 60hrs/week you should be spending 20hrs/week into ways you can create passive income later, growing that wealth and maybe even taking the "risky chances". Think about it no one in your family has ever been able to properly use leverage, tax planning...This is an exciting time but also possibly some pressure.
Great comment.
Being able to help those you care about is a great gift, as unforeseeable events will come (and 90% of them aren't good) such as hospital bills, helping them with rent/mortgage... basically echoing what you just said
First off, congrats on your accomplishments. You should feel really good about that. Secondly, life is about far more than money. Yes you need enough to do the things you want, support a family, fund a retirement, but life is about the journey, not the destination. Your journey has led you to this great opportunity. Hopefully you enjoyed it without being overly consumed by the destination (your job). Now a new journey begins. New friends, colleagues, experiences, etc. Enjoy them. See what life has to offer. As others have mentioned, it's a lot of $ but won't go as far as you think. It never does. Try to live a bit below your means so you can start amassing a net worth. Figure out what you enjoy in life along the way. Your liquid net worth will enable you to make choices downstream. Learn as much as you can. Finishing school is referred to as both graduation and commencement. They have vastly different meanings. I'd focus on the commencing part and launch.
Learn how to KEEP your money. It is relatively easy to earn it, keeping it is hard. Learn how to say NO.
The woman you end up being with has as big, if not a bigger, impact on your finances than your career and lifestyle choices.
Choose wisely here. This is where a lot of men go sideways
Sound advice. Many people end up spending what they earn.
I would say first - congratulations! Take a moment to celebrate what you’ve achieved.
Then, see this as just the beginning. There is always the next pay rise, the next promotion, the next job. With a higher income, you’ll have more flexibility to choose what you “want” to do, rather than what you “need” to do to make ends meet
May I ask what gig you managed to get out of undergrad?
Acquisitions analyst at a REPE shop. Select Leaders has tons of roles.
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life.
Grew up working class so when someone fortunately told me that there was something called IB that pays you 6 figures but I don't have to do anything illegal or any manual labor, went straight at it. In PE now....what have I done with that money? Well if you're actually from a poor background...typically you either blow all of it or you hoard all of it. I hoarded it, so now I'm at a point where I can move to a diff role because I hoarded and invested money while my peers spent it recreationally. You'll find that when you're not used to taking vacations / dont have expensive lifestyle habits, you can save a lot of money in the finance industry.
Long story short, if you're actually from a poor background .... go save some money and not be poor...you're asking this like you've been in the game for 10 years and have a huge nest egg when you haven't even earned a paycheck yet ... if you dont know how to allocate your after tax savings from a 6 figure salary when you have no money and maybe some debt....
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