Bonus Spending Szn

Sup

Now that the threads on bonuses have started and are being populated with 90% useless info and no numbers, thought I'd see what people are doing with theirs this year. Saving? Probably smart. That's the route I'm taking this year. Spending? Less smart but probably more fun. What are you buying? Maybe that new Rolex you've been eyeing, the new consoles, workout equipment, whatever. Would love to hear your bonus plans.

132 Comments
 

I'm boring and am knocking out student loans + a pelly given it's first year out of school. 

Guy I work with who just got the VP-> director promote used his as a down payment on a house in Quogue - I thought that was dope. Seems like every director-promote buys the future country house and keeps the pied-a-terre as a matter of course. 

 

I usually invest everything but 10k, which I spend on vacations and stuff. I'm not really worried about my job prospects going forward, and I will stay in banking for the long-tern, but I do think it's wise to put away most of your bonus for the sake of compounding returns.

I don't know... Yeah. Almost definitely yes.
 

Does this seem kind of low? Maybe I'm calculating this wrong, but isn't total cost around $500 (PS5) + $1000 (Rose Bowl Ticket x 2 + few hundred for lodging) + $2000 (new laptop) + ~$2000 for gifts and clothes = ~$5,500, making his total bonus only $55,000? That's low for a buyout fund bonus at the ASO2 level, right? I probably was very conservative with my pricing though.

 

Question for you guys spending your bonuses - did you already spend your entire base salary as well?

The way I think about it, I haven’t touched my bonus until I spend the entirety of my base salary. Given my low spending during Covid, I’ve probably got $10k of after-tax base salary savings to go.

So my answer is... yeah I’m gonna splurge on some new clothes but I won’t really be spending my bonus.

 

Fair enough. To me it’s interesting to see others spending habits. If someone spends their entire base (excluding 401k) and then drops $10k on a watch as a first year analyst - that’s very interesting to me.
 

Just seeing how comfortable others are spending on luxury goods. I know someone who spent his entire $175k base and a good chunk of his bonus as a single guy in his twenties. Know another guy who lives on 50k per year despite making close to $200k. I feel like many on WSO edge towards the first example rather than the second. Nothing wrong with either lifestyle

 

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PATEK PHILIPPE

Grand Complications Split-Seconds Chronograph Perpetual Calendar

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$229,950

"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
 

Man that's harsh posting that on an analyst's question haha. But that's beautiful. Have actually become very very fond of the Nautilus recently as I used to hate the look

 

Fuck

"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
 

Probably going to save for a down payment. Otherwise was thinking about a standing desk but FSA can cover that.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

Bet it all that GME hits it out of the park. Been a big fan of Chewy for years and Ryan Cohen getting involved gives me confidence in the rest of the pivot thesis.

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Yeah this is an important question lo. Can't be living w that much CC debt (much less any amount of CC debt). Focus on better money management rather than waiting for the bonus to pay off your balance. Have a friend who did this habitually till he was a 3rd yr associate, though his balance was like 20K, and it fucked him for years. Terrible move

 

I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world. There has been some price appreciation among some models as listed below. You’ll have to pay for maintenance and expensive oil changes, but you could probably sell it for near what you paid for it if you do it correctly. 

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"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
 

Isaiah_53_5

I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world. There has been some price appreciation among some models as listed below. You'll have to pay for maintenance and expensive oil changes, but you could probably sell it for near what you paid for it if you do it correctly. 

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those are a little above the price i'd be in for.

i'm looking for something in the 80-150k range.

something cool that won't depreciate much and serve as a 2nd or 3rd car.

 

I auto dump my bonus into my 401k and that has helped me max out contributions every year for a while now. I already save a good portion of my base into a brokerage account so whatever is left from my bonus I'll just keep as "slush funds" to cover anything else throughout the year. Already have a Rolex Daytona, already have 0 cc debt, never had student debt, so the bonus money is just a nice extra. 

 

Curious too. Never had CC debt that couldn’t be paid off with the next pay stub. WTF are you guys buying?

 

Not sure if this applies to any of the other posters but hope it does, but a few months ago I put some new furniture on a new card with a 12-month 0% interest period that I’m throwing some bonus at to pay down. Wouldn’t have done it if I couldn’t have paid it all off whenever I decided but didn’t mind floating it for a few months given no interest. Paying any CC interest seems nuts and I’d rather sell investments to pay it off than pay interest given the rates.

 

Do you like how they feel once you have em on? Theyre too light for me, which was a big turn off when I looked at these. I kinda wanna know I'm wearing a watch, you know?

Dayman?
 

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Dayman?
 

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