How much money to "feel rich" in nyc?
How much would you need to make and what kind of lifestyle (type of house, vacations, level of savings etc). And single vs married ?
Im 9 years into my career and feel like I'd need 2.5x if not 3x my income and I'm single with no debt
Funny thing is I’m in MF / UMM PE and even the junior partners don’t feel rich in the city. It’s only when you start hitting your stride into your 40s where you can start getting significant cash flow. So until you get to that point, you’ll need to live off $500K-$1.5M a year which is obviously a lot by any normal measure, but when you have a family / kids in NY, it’s actually not that much. Most VP / Principal level folks at that make in that range don’t own their homes and if they do, it’s usually a 1-2 bedroom as anything more than that in a desirable part of the city is $2-3M at least with $15k+ per month of mortgage payments.
Yes exactly. Seems like outside of some super differentiated early stage liquidity event the only solution if that's your priority is to just delay family till late 30s? I.e. don't incur that cost until you can comfortably absorb it? That's not without a significant personal cost obviously (depending on the person)
What a sad excuse not to have kids. “I make a million a year but I can’t afford them”. Just admit you don’t want a family…
$1.5 MILLION US DOLLARS A YEAR is not that much for a young family?
Some of you here really need to get a reality fucking check lol.
Why would anyone live in NY under those conditions? If you’ve saved up $2-3m as a principal in PE just leave and live like a king anywhere else
Impossible’s probably a stretch, but NYC definitely accelerates your career, and there’s a huge cachet to people in smaller cities who came up in NYC (even though people in those offices don’t like to admit it)
Source: started my career in a Dallas/Atlanta type of city, moved to NYC a couple years ago and have seen my career take off, both in terms of compensation (I live way better here than I ever did before and still save way more) as well as things like the types of roles headhunters reach out for (global brand names, whereas before it was usually regional stuff).
When I go back and meet with friends / contacts from my old city, they usually publicly say things like “crazy, enjoy the taxes” and then privately say things like “super impressive” or “I’m jealous, seems like an amazing opportunity”. Tied into all of this is the fact that I moved to a much higher profile firm / role, but that’s kind of the point - jobs like this didn’t really exist where I was before, even in 2023
If you’re married and have kids, give in to the dark side and come to the suburbs. Places like Bronxville and Scarsdale on the NY side, or Summit and Chatham on the NJ side. Top notch public schools if you want to forego the $40k/yr expense of private, land, space, no homeless around your house, no needles on the ground, functional local governments, an actual sense of community.
All depends on what you define as “rich”. Family? How many kids? Schooling? Vacations? Things you enjoy doing?
You’ll get lots of inflated answers here. People think private jet, multiple homes, etc.
I started feeling very well off at $500k when single.
I think it really depends on what you consider well off. At $500K a year and being single, you never feel like eating at nice restaurants is a reach, but you certainly can’t afford to live in a super luxurious apartment or fly business / first class. For example, if you make $500K per year in finance, you probably get half or 60% of that through base salary which ends up being $12-15K per month on an after tax basis. You probably shouldn’t spend more than $5-6K on rent which ends up being a 1 bedroom / 700-800 square ft apartment in West Village or Soho in a decent building. You certainly wouldn’t be able to afford a second bedroom or a car so I don’t think that’s considered well off especially when your counterparts making $500K a year in any city outside of NYC / SF probably has a 2,000-3,000+ sq ft new apartment with a BMW / Mercedes so everything is relativez
That’s the thing, it’s all relative as you note. $500k a year I could afford business class etc. So I would eat basically wherever I wanted, travel many times a year, and lived in a nice place. Sure $500k in Charlotte would have been a more luxurious life, but I also had all of nyc to explore.
Again, all depends on your definition of well off. I’ve lived in nyc at all income levels (well ok up to high 7 figures) and I always have people around me complaining that they aren’t actually well off. Now it’s the “well I don’t fly private” crew or similar. Everyone always finds a reason why they aren’t rich enough.
I legit don’t get it my parents raised me and my sister with 40k yearly income in nyc, obv in the hood but stil
Yea these answers are crazy lmfao. My family had a 45k salary to support 3 kids in NYC. Getting paid $100k straight out of college still feels like a luxury to me.
These answers are absurd lmao. These are definitely the kids who come from rich parents and are now realizing how much it takes to actually continue the lifestyle they grew up on. Sometimes I think maybe growing up lower middle class is a blessing because even as a first year analyst I felt pretty damn well off. For the first time in my life I could buy whatever I wanted and not have to worry about burning through my whole bank account. All about perspective
My household income is ~1mm a year and if I didn’t have parental help on top of that I would feel squeezed living in the city with 3 kids.
I think for a family, you need 2.5mm pre tax to coast in nyc/San Fran.
You make $1M per year and you still need help from your parents? That’s actually crazy
In nyc if you make decent money as a W-2 employee, you basically pay 50% tax.
So how far can 500k really take you in nyc if you want to “feel rich” and have kids?
Mortgage, childcare, car, max retirement accounts and 529 plan is basic life stuff. To feel rich, I’d like to send my kids to private school, fly business and eat fancy dinners.
Ofc I live better than most people. But with great parents and in-laws I wouldn’t feel like a 1% in nyc on just 1mm pre tax.
What I never understand is all my colleague who marry losers when they are living in a tier 1 city. So many friends marry chicks who only bring hotness to the table. It’s nyc man, there’s plenty of hot AND rich chicks to grab.
When you’re young you think seven figures is this mythical amount that means your life is set.
But taxes, especially in a liberal state like nyc, really hurt people like me. Upper middle class trying to scratch their way into the 1% get owned by taxes. Basically 50% I pay.
So my dad and father in law has helped me out. They paid for b school and helped with a down payment on my second apartment and when we go on vacation I make them subsidize airfare and hotels.
Look, do I really need their help? Probably not.
But I told them you can help me now, or I inherit it later and probably pay some sort of silly estate tax. And they aren’t stupid. They make sure they see where their money goes. If I was blowing it on entertainment, they would tell me to f*ck off. But they see it goes to stuff that makes their grandkids lives more comfortable, so they basically do it without me even asking.
And in turn, I will safeguard the family money and hopefully grow it, so my kids and their kids get help.
The same way some families marry young and have kids young and stay poor, I hope my family keeps having smart kids who grow the money and we never have to struggle. Although I’ve noticed that money and loving parents doesn’t always equal a smart and ethical kid.
I make $500k and live with my girlfriend who makes $250k. Neither of us has debt. I would say we feel, maybe not "rich", but extremely comfortable with no budget, living a life that 99% of people would consider rich.
We spend $5k on rent, split 67/33. I spend probably $100-150 a day average on eating / drinking (weighted toward weekends) with occasional Michelin Star meals, drop $1000 here and there on clothes, travel somewhere small (like a weekend trip) maybe once a month and go to Europe for 1-2 weeks every summer and winter with first class flights and upscale hotels. I still save $125k+ per year (should be more north of $150k this year). If I needed to tone the lifestyle down I could eat at home / in the office, stop buying trendy shit, and travel more reasonably and probably save an extra $25k+ a year, but I'm very much enjoying my late 20s.
The big differentiator is kids - I neither have them nor want them, so I'm able to live a pretty upscale lifestyle while still saving for retirement (and all of this excludes carry, which I value at zero but which would supercharge that retirement account).
If you're talking about truly wealthy, jet setting, yachts, etc. - I would say that starts in the mid-upper 8-figure net worth space, but that varies a lot less with location and is a lot less dependent on "income" vs assets
Agree that’s a comfortable life, but you basically are renting and that’s very literally the definition of not being rich. At $500K a year, you can barely afford a $1.5M home in NYC which is basically a 1 bedroom apartment in West Village lol
Renting is an asset allocation decision, same as anything else. I have partners with 9 figure net worths who rent their primary residence. I could buy a place in one of the outer boroughs today, in cash for some of them, but I like my current setup
I have to take the other side here and just comment on how out of touch this thread is. Some of you guys have some serious lifestyle creep and/or just grew up extremely well off. $1.5-$2mm just feel middle class????? Holy shit lmao. I am in my late 20s and I make around $200k a year and my gf makes around $100k a year and we feel rich. Contrast to the way we grew up, I can buy pretty much anything I want within reason, go wherever I want to eat and travel wherever I want to go. I feel as though I have a pretty high degree of financial freedom.
This thread is an embarrassment. Top three awful posts:
3rd place: you need 20mn liquid to feel rich, unless you are 30 with 15 which is rich.
2nd place: $500-1,500k a year is tough to live off of until the carry dollars flow in
1st place: I make $1mn a year and get support from my parents.
you all need a serious reality check as to how good you have it.
Did you read my post? Or were just eager to join the other first years and show the boomers they are greedy?
The question was “feeling” rich in nyc, the most expensive city in the world.
I said I make a million and in nyc you don’t feel rich. Yes, I’m in the 1%. But I don’t feel rich in nyc cause of the high cost of living. But I do feel rich because I have rich parents who help me out.
Do I need their help? Of course not. But they want to give money now rather than wait for me to inherit it. When my dad says hey would you like an extra 100k for your down payment because I don’t need it, should I say no thanks dad I’ll wait to inherit it?
I’m thinking it’s jealousy from people with losers for parents, but wouldn’t people like you be jealous if I was a trust fund kid and just spending money? Wouldn’t the fact I earn my own negate your jealousy? Or do you get annoyed im rich and have rich parents. Like you feel it’s unfair or something?
Cause I can see a trust fund kid eliciting jealousy but why would someone who earned their own keep piss you off? Is it just a general annoyance at rich people?
LMAO. This has to be the most out of touch take I have ever read on this site. “Losers for parents” = don’t subsidize their kids lifestyle despite them making $1mm+ per year. Holy shit bro I think you need a reality check. People aren’t mad that your parents help you, they’re mad because you are so cavalier about asking for money despite being a top 1% earner and acting like life would be unbearable without it.
Nobody gives a shit if you’re rich or your parents are rich. People think you’re a dick bc you act like a dick.
I think this thread actually answers the question quite well—there is no amount of money that makes you feel rich in NYC. The amount of people and wealth means there is always another rung to climb. The one reasonable answer said, “partner level, mid 40s-50s. Aka, when you retire maybe then you will look at some of the places people own and think, “yeah, I could afford that”.
You aren’t competing in finance in NYC, you are competing with literal royalty, the best celebs and athletes, and inherited money that has diligently worked for generations to build wealth even wealthy people could only dream of.
Unless you leave NYC, you will always feel poor. There’s simply too many ultra wealthy people, so there is always another shiny object. I’ve heard established partners complain because they aren’t ken griffin wealthy. On top of that, the culture of one-upping your consumption means people need to keep making money otherwise they will go bankrupt. It will never be enough.
The way to be wealthy is to budget responsibly and save every month for long term purchases while also having multiples of that as savings. As an example, if you have a $1m house with a few kids running around and spend $12k a month, or ~150k a year, you will feel very rich if you have $3m saved and aren’t outspending your earnings. The way to feel poor is being worried if you lose your job you are screwed or if you have unsustainable spending. Real wealth is having passive income exceed your expenses. I.e. if you can earn 5% on $3m, to cover your $150k of expenses a year, all earnings after that are just adding to the pile and extending your ability to spend and cover expenses.
I think it’s hard to feel wealthy taking about income. Income doesn’t make your feel secure because taxes take so much of it. Post tax savings accumulating are where you feel like a king.
I feel "rich" off my VP base (ignore title) alone. I can live in a 1 br apartment in a nice area of NYC, max my 401k + pile money into my brokerage, spend money freely on the weekends doing 99% of what I want to do (though I grew up poor AF so I am not one of those who have rich parents and golf or ski as expensive hobbies). What people on this thread are calling "rich" I would define as "wealthy", which is the next tier up. I am single which makes this all possible, but I'm shocked at how much money people here think is required to raise a family.. If my parents could raise me on $40k/year, I think you'll be alright on $1mm