How much money to "feel rich" in a city that's not NYC/SF?
Given the recent, trending, and seemingly absurd conversation about how $1 - 1.5M seems to not be enough to feel rich in NYC, I was wondering what thoughts PE folks might have about other big but slightly less expensive cities (Chicago, Denver, Austin, DC, Boston).
Realizing that of course child care/help is expensive and private schools can really add up it still seems absurd that anyone could not feel at least relatively wealthy when earning a household income of ~$500k unless you literally have 4/5 kids and decide they all need to go to $50k/year schools.
Can anyone who has a family in these types of cities add any perspective?
Not one of the cities on your list, but you'd start to "feel rich" pretty quickly in Philly. Maybe around $300k all-in for a single person, $500-600k for a couple/family. The difficult part is that there are not many seats available that pay that well.
Curious to hear what Bostonians think about this.
Probably not too far off from NYC - COL down there isn’t much different. You do save a solid amount from the lesser taxes though.
There is so much variability here - if you're somewhere like Baltimore or Cleveland, you can probably feel rich off ~$250k per year given how cheap Real Estate is and modest tax rates, but the issue is you are basically locked at working at 2-3 companies/firms for the rest of your life in these areas to achieve that kind of income. "Tier 2" cities like Boston or Chicago will bring that number down by a little bit, but not by much. Best markets for "feeling rich" while having more than a hand's worth of options would probably be Philly, Houston, Dallas, Miami, etc.
If I could do my current job from a non NYC or SF city I would feel comfortable earning what I make now. As is I’m basically working paycheck to paycheck.
People need to stop Saying "sf / nyc". NYC prices are well above 2019 whereas SF is well below. The gap has never been higher. NYC now stands alone as the most expensive in the us and even the world (see latest rankings). It's gotten ridiculous
How’s Chicago like?
Bump on Boston. Let’s say a family of 4 kids, wife doesn’t work. Any numbers from people with families in Boston?
+1 on Chicago and Boston
Feels like a VP salary at a place like GTCR / BDT / MDP would be amazing in Chicago. Same with Bain and THL in Boston. Those places probably give you significantly more buying power in their respective cities.
I’m in Chicago in PE/HF and I’m a single dude making ~$500k over the last couple years, but the reality is as a relatively normal person in Chicago your burn rate is unlikely to be that high. Most people in Chicago are midwesterners who aren’t going out “flexing” all that often (and don’t work in finance), and if that’s your social circle you never feel a need to keep up with the Jones’ the way you might in NYC. Layer on the fact that as junior to mid level person it’s not super easy to be doing a bunch of international travel or other expensive extended trips (I generally do one full week a year) and you end up just saving a bunch of money. Not a bad outcome by any means, but it’s not exactly a super extravagant life (although I admit it really could be if you were willing to cut your savings rate).
For more senior people, the same BS you get in NYC still applies in Chicago (a big house in the city is a few million, private school tuition is $40k+) but some might say the suburbs are a bit more accessible in terms of affordability and public schools.
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