What’s your monthly / annual burn rate?
Curious how much folks on here spend. Mine comes out to about the following (30, NYC):
- Rent and Utilities: $6,250
- Dining Out: $1,000
- Subscriptions (Netflix, NYT, Prime, etc.): $250
- Daily Lunch / Coffee: $1,000
- Groceries: $500
- Transit (Ubers, etc.): $500
- Weekend Trips: Varies, but prob ~$1,000
- Clothes, random purchases: $500
- Vacation (1x / year, allocated monthly): $1k
All in about $12k/month / ~$150k annually, which feels like it’s too high but idk where I’d cut that would have material impact (biggest portion is fixed rent, which is unfortunately the reality in NYC). Where’s everyone else at?
Based on the most helpful WSO content, your burn rate aligns with the high cost of living in NYC, especially for someone in their 30s. Here's a breakdown of typical expenses for NYC professionals, as highlighted in WSO threads:
Your $12k/month or ~$150k annually burn rate is on the higher end but not unusual for NYC professionals. The biggest opportunity for savings would likely come from reducing rent (e.g., considering a roommate) or scaling back on discretionary spending like weekend trips or dining out. However, as WSO threads suggest, these lifestyle costs are often seen as part of the trade-off for living and working in NYC.
Sources: Millionaire by 30, Millionaire by 30, Managing Your Money - Building a Personal Financial Model, Can someone help me with budgeting? 170k as a 22 year old is absurd to me., Managing Your Money - Building a Personal Financial Model
I mean you could prolly cut most if not all of those categories by 20% each pretty easily
Couple years older here. Similar aside from a large saving on rent (primarily comes from living with girlfriend who also works in finance). My subscriptions only include Prime, but then offset by a gym membership / classes. Daily lunch and coffee is much lower as I've forced myself to drink office coffee (most offices actually have good coffee, people I find pretend it's bad so they can get a walk). Otherwise I probably spend a bit more on entertainment and vacations.
12k on one vacation is pretty wild, if I'm reading that right.
I used to think so too, but it adds up quickly. There is airfare (tickets for partner / kids / family, even if just economy), nicer hotel stays (not even 5*) still runs several hundred per night, taxi and car rentals, food and entertainment, some shopping, maybe incidentals like a dog sitter, etc. Explains why most of my childhood holidays were just camping... If OP is a bachelor, then it does seem a bit bougie for a single week.
Not if you to go somewhere other than Florida.
Easy to spent $1,000 a night in Europe, if not $2,000 for a great hotel. Don't want to be sitting in coach on the way over or pinching pennies on dinner either.
Guy says all that and acts like flying economy is a non starter. Lol what a clown
A week even in somewhere like Santorini, which has ballooned in price would be 2k USD for a nice suite with a private hot tub in a really lovely location. A four star hotel in central London is similar.
I'm not suggesting normal hotels either, these are luxury ones.
~$50/day on lunch and/or coffee sounds VERY high to me. Where are you eating lunch? Nobu? Even Sweetgreen/Dig Inn/Chopt will only run you around $20, and it's tough to make a single drink at Starbucks cost much over $10. If this number is real, then consider investing in a superauto espresso machine, and eating places slightly less expensive. I'm able to do about $5/day between taking an iced triple shot from home on the subway with me, drinking the office nitro cold brew, and a Trader Joe's salad for lunch.
Second, $500/mo for transit also seems a bit high. The maximum monthly for the subway is ~$130. How often are you taking Ubers on your own dime? Frequently the subway is actually faster, and it's statistically safer too.
Third: $250/mo for subscriptions? The three you listed total $50/mo. Please tell me that cable/internet/phone are lumped in there as well. I know Bloomberg news is about $50/mo, but if you have a terminal, you should just be able to log in using your terminal account and it'll give you everything for free.
99% sure it's either kids or a private taxi for the burrito
Will comment as I've been looking for a thread like this to assess my own burn. Might not be relevant to you, but:
Age: 25
Overall, most months I end up at $6-7k of expenses and I've been trying to get this down to $5-6k but there always seems to be something random that throws it off. I'd even be happy with sticking to $6k/month but largely want to avoid huge spike months that get up to $8-9k which probably happens 3-4 months out of the year (vacation, christmas gifts, 1-2 splurge purchases a year, moving/furniture). If anyone has any tips/tricks/strategies?
my guy is amortizing his PP&E haha
The following is split with my spouse:
-mortgage and utilities: $5500
-cars and insurance: $1500
-Student loans: $750
-gym, cell phones, subscriptions: $500
-spending (eating out, grocery, etc.): $2000
-vacations: probably ~$1000
Total: ~$11,000
Only $8-9K burn rate per month. Rent is $3K in low COL city. I go out to dinner 4-5 times per week and hit up the bars with classmates 1-2 times per week. Car paid off, I mostly walk and Uber maybe 1x per week. I love buying Collars and Co shirts and sunglasses.
NYC
$2.3k rent/utilities (live with SO, this number is my half)
$1k restaurants/entertainment
$1k travel
$1k student loans
$250 groceries
$250 gym/clothing/other
Purposedly kept it at low costs due to an unstable job (I wouldn't be surprised if I get laid off this winter unless my consulting group picks up more client projects, senior partner claims he can protect us but I'm skeptical). Living with family at the moment and sold my car awhile back for some liquidation (family has a few spare cars that I can use whenever anyway).
Gym: ~$80
Subscription: $50, only have one streaming service
Eating out: ~$50-100
Groceries: ~$200-300
After taxes and expenses, I put away about ~7K monthly (savings, 401K, investments etc.). Contemplating a move to the NYC / North Jersey area at some point. Already have a lot of money saved up, just don't feel comfortable doing it in this job market. Would suck to move / get fired and deal with high monthly expenses for at least a year of rent.
150k seems kinda high for a single dude right?
6k rent? I am renting out my 2 bedroom apartment for 8k a month or 4k per person and it’s in a really nice building. Your rent seems high, unless you really wanna live alone.
Everything else seems ok, save for the fact your one yearly vacation is 12k? As a single dude, seems very high. Are you flying business or spending a lot on hookers that week?
If you’re feeling the money pinch, just cut down on your Ubers, random purchases and weekend trips for a while.
I haven’t don’t a budget check in a few months, so this was a good exercise. My monthly data:
I’m closing in on 40, just moved to CT and married with kids -
Mortgage 1 - 16k
Mortgage 2 - 8k but get 8k rent
Mortgage 3 - 3k but get 2.8k rent
Utilities and house maintenance - 3k
Dining out - 2k
Groceries - 1.5k
Gas/Train/Uber - 1k
Random shopping: 2k
Weekend trips: 2k
Vacations (allocated monthly): 2k
Comes out to 380k annually. Combined HHI is a million, so let’s say after tax and retirement contributions, it’s 500k. So able to save and invest about 120k a year.
No school or daycare?
Luckily school is public for now. But I totally forgot to factor in my nanny. I think we pay her like 1k a week. Sad I completely forgot a 52k a year expenditure.
Thanks for the depressing me this morning.
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