What were your 'milestone' purchases?

What did you buy to celebrate your first SA offer? The day you converted? Or maybe the day you moved into your first NYC/London flat?

Not attempting to as pompous, I feel this type of thing is a very interesting glimpse it other peoples' thoughts, lives and aspirations. Makes everything seem a bit more 'real' and is a good distraction from the endless virus related news.

I bought my mom a louis vuitton handbag (not a tremendously expensive one, but don't worry we'll get there ; ) and I bought myself sony mx3's and kit for a sport I play when I got my summer offer xd

Any meaningful items/experiences you'd like to share : )

 

-First Summer Offer: Several hundred pounds of top shelf weed for me and my housemates. Took my then girlfriend to a nice restaurant

-Second Summer Offer (Rip conversion lol): Bought a new acoustic guitar and some GMAT prep books. Bought my little sister some jewellery and a coach backpack for her 17th birthday.

-Day I converted: Took my mom and siblings to a steakhouse and paid off some debts my mom was in (nothing massive, just some credit card stuff and overdue rent)

-Day I signed my first NYC flat: Took my current girlfriend to a 3 Michelin starred restaurant

-Day I finished FT training: Disneyland tickets

 
Funniest

Who else though he was referring to pounds as in lbs, and thought we were dealing with el chapo here.

 
Controversial

nothing because I rather put cash into investments accounts and retire early instead of buying materialistic items that only provide short term gratification

 

Eh, not a fan of this actually. Let’s say you earn £10k over a SA gig (obv it’ll actually be less than that due to rent/travel/food etc) and are able to buy an etf that produces an 8% annual return.

I feel like the £800 you get will pale in comparison to the relivable happiness you can get from reminiscing on life milestones like this. Once you start working as an analyst, the initial 10k you can contribute to your investments will be extremely negligible than the amount you will end up investing as you work throughout the years. Obv I’m not compounding, but I’d rather have say £290k saved up in the bank by the time I’m thirty rather than £300k but be able to think back at the ‘start’ of all of this and how far you’ve come since then where hopefully your future indulgences will be far more substantive than the little things we buy with a summer job say.

I think it mainly depends on where you were in life prior to the milestone. Didn’t have an enormous amount of money growing up and dressed somewhat plainly through uni. But dropping £2k on say a new wardrobe of staples can be an enormous upgrade in the quality of your life.

Apologies about the wall of text, was just on my mind.

 

agree and disagree, because you can always spend that money later and have even more left over.

I agree for things that improve your life and that’s the example you used - getting a new wardrobe, eating better quality food, saying it’s ok to Uber around, etc. etc. are all quality of life improvements that are sensible things to buy.

but what about buying a car or watch new vs used/vintage, etc. - saving 10k there is sensible. I disagree with what you’re saying because you’re still making good decisions and the way you framed what you’re saying is that it’s somewhat novel or against the grain. you can sell a watch or gold that holds certain value, but there are always things you can buy that aren’t worth it- can you make an argument against buying designer clothes (not necessarily quality)? curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on this. I’d say ~5% is great for just “blowing money” like vacations or alc/weed/drugs/etc.

thoughts? I think it has a lot to do with personality / character / life experiences that decide what lifestyle you’re ok with. in the end, just because you make good money doesn’t mean you manage it well. the thing is you won’t be able to retire on 290 or 300, and saving a bit extra to retire 5 years early or having good money management May allow you to retire 10-20 years early and live comfortably.

 

6cab59

nothing because I rather put cash into investments accounts and retire early instead of buying materialistic items that only provide short term gratification

short term gratification? my sauna has a 10 year warranty.

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

My family has always gifted me stuff for milestones. Got a Mont Blanc pen for passing my first real exams (think A-Level/SAT with highest marks) from my mom, got a nice watch from my dad when I turned 20. So not really into buying myself things.

Did go to Asia for 3 weeks after my summer internship after converting. Was planning on going to Africa for 2/3 weeks before my FT jobs starts in but needless to say Covid killed it.

 

I do agree, but I think you have to get to a certain point before experiences start eclipsing items in terms of marginal increases in happiness.

Doesn’t have to be a lot - could be simple things like well fitted clothing, enough of a variety to ‘dress well’, a decent skin care routine etc. If that makes sense, all imo anyway

 
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Got my SA offer 2 days ago. Bought an expensive jersey with my 1/2 the value of my signing bonus

Edit: To provide more clarity, I bought a signed jersey of my favorite athlete. I would say who it is, but the team fan base is small, and it could definitely dox me

 

You got a signing bonus for SA? I'm London, don't think they do that here...

 
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Im giving my parents 1/4 of my bonus this year and banking the rest. I originally had planned to buy a decent used watch (think omega, tudor, tag) but after reflecting on it for some time, I determined the coolest thing I could do with my bonus is save it.

I grew up lower middle class but always had the best life growing up - always had a ton of really close friendships and from a very early age I knew that I was beyond lucky in that regard. After experiencing college and my first year as an analyst I legitimately laugh at some seniors and peers who dont even realize how seduced they are by wealth -- im talking about things such as when you inquire about a ski trip, and rather than talking about the actual skiing/mountain, the person on the other end talks all about the fine dining, the quality of the resort, etc...but never about the actual skiing. i never have and never will give a fuck about any of that. I do not consider the external perception of what i do to enjoy life. i do things like ski because i naturally enjoy it and it makes me happy.

So, my thought is that if i find myself perniciously corrupted by the fantasy of great wealth when im older, i hope that i will remember that I was the kid who did not buy anything fancy with his bonus because he promised to never turn into one of those people.

 

Good on you. It looks like you're an associate. How big a bonus we talking here?