London edition: How much have you saved?
I have seen a lot of these type of threads but they all relate to the US so thought I would start one for London. So how much have you saved? Include any portfolio/investments or assets you own so if you own a house include that .
Age: 29
Role: Investment Banking VP
Savings: £200k total across cash and investments. No house, still renting.
Thoughts: I'm a little disappointed with my savings, I felt I could have done much better.
Curious to hear from others in London.
why specifically for london?
Do London is such a good city what do you mean?
i have a friend working at london big 4, pretax 40K GBP. can't save anything
[edited]
That’s p good, why did this get so many MS?
No idea 😅 clearly nobody brave enough to say it
Not saying it's justified but OP's getting MS because they lucked into fortunate circumstances.
that's incredible well done for the success. I understand your family loaned you some money but I'm a little confused how you managed to accumulate ~£1.5m net worth so early in your career? Especially given you came from Big4 which has very low salaries. Would be great if you could provide some details around how you managed to build that. thanks
[edited]
Oh and I should add - never underestimate having a stable partner throughout the years and the magic it does to your finances. I wouldn’t have saved half as much if I wasn’t able to split the costs all these years, also didn’t have someone to back me financially when I was running out like during my MBA.
I would say in general relationships matter a lot. I had friends loan me 20k when I needed it even if they weren’t rich (were waiting to save more for a deposit), I levered my family’s connections for my commercial tenant and for all the construction supplies, negotiating discounts, etc. There is no way I would have done it and made it this profitable at market terms if I was to be ripped off by every contractor. I could go on…
I think you're getting ms because it's an obvious silver spoon. It might make sense if you'd spent your 20's at a market maker or a successful hedge fund. I've barely managed to save half as much over my whole career as what you inherited in one go.
I beg to differ. I came to the UK and studied in a very sub standard university here because I just didn’t know better when I was applying. On top of my poor academic credentials I am Eastern European and a woman and have faced plenty of discrimination, especially 10 years ago before the me too movement. I started in the big4 because there was nothing else that would consider me at the time.
I have been fairly transparent about the help I’ve had along the way, and I appreciate it wasn’t something accessible to everyone. But you’re discounting what I did with that and the value I managed to add to it. I’ve saved aggressively despite what you deem as silver spoon.
If I compare myself with the analysts we hire (private schools, excellent universities, family holidays in Maldives, some living at home and paying no rent, etc) I find it hard in that context, seeing the people around me in IB, to call myself a silver spoon.
My reading is that about 1M (400k + 600k) of the 1.5M is family money, one way or another. So likely >8% CAGR return over perhaps 5-year, which makes sense. Caveat is that the valuation of the real estate assets are likely to be way down if mark to market, as I assume those are still based on 2021 multiples.
Why are you disappointed? Did you spend on things that were worthwhile? Could you have sacrificed on things that would have let you save more?
£13k after 4 years of audit (just qualified a few months ago), and it would have been much less had I gone skiing with my friends, to Australia/Japan or to any other holidays I held back on. Will probably do an MBA next year so who knows when I'll have a positive net worth. At almost 29 years old and coming from top private schools and unis in the UK it feels a bit rough but just gotta keep grinding. I am going to Australia this September on holiday but hopefully by the time I do this MBA I'll be able to at least pay for my accommodation , whether that's in the US or INSEAD, though the massive mountain of debt really scares me. I'm honestly just hoping my career takes off like a rocket ship in my 30s! I have no idea how I'd have kids otherwise, my school costs £30k/Yr now!
Being a US citizen I also can't invest in the UK (well, I can't take advantage of the ISA scheme at least) which makes this all even worse, I'll renounce that passport unless I move there at some point soon.
OP you're doing incredibly well and honestly, even for someone ambitious who went to international/good private schools, this is pretty incredible savings to have by your age, really well done!
i got like 200 pounds rn
1st year AM analyst - saved 18k on a 60k base
important to note that I got a very good deal on my rent
Associate 1 @ an EB
Have around £100k in savings (ISA, …), £35k in pension and £25k in student loan (which I’m paying down as slowly as possible given very low interest rate on it)
Going to wait a year or two and sell my ISAs for a flat deposit.
Are you currently renting?
Yes
Interesting - I took the opposite view and paid off the loan as I don’t expect S&S ISA returns to exceed the extortionate interest cost over the next 3-5Y (and just to have the weight off my shoulders).
Granted the tax-like repayments provide a safety net, but at one point before the cap was implemented, the cost was above 13%!
Very low interest rate on your student loan? Bro, depending on which plan you're on you are paying either 7.6% or 6.25%....
I’m from continental Europe, one of the large commercial bank here has a partnership with my business school and they were able to provide me with a €50k student loan @ 1.0% (i.e I’m better off paying back as little as I can and put my money in a ISA @ 5.5% instead)
Is it really this hard to save in London? I had like $120k saved after two years of banking in the US (not nyc)
Tax rate gets higher on average - over £150k the marginal tax rate is ~47%
Then lifestyle plays a big part
~5 years of professional work experience
£260k in equities (made some good and bad investment decisions over COVID and then afterwards). £10k cash (should be £30k as an "emergency supply" so will top up after bonus) and I guess ~£100k in equity value in my flat?
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