Just finished my first year of banking....
And I actually have less than $2000 in my bank account. My rent isn't that expensive (~$1600) and I have no loans or anything that I've been paying off. I just found it hard to save and easily spend a good couple hundred every time I go out.
Is this normal? Keep in mind I haven't gotten my bonus yet, but I'm freaking out a bit that I essentially have the same amount of cash in my account as my friends who didn't even go to college.
u should start keeping a budget and tracking how much u spend per week...i had 25k saved before bonus after my first year...partly b/c i was in the office all the time
Sorry, but this is extremely poor money management. Did you contribute to your 401k? Open a Roth IRA?
How do you spend a couple hundred when you go out? Maybe look into getting cheaper drinks or pre-gaming instead of getting bottle service?
Yeah that is really poor money management dude. I also had $20k+ saved pre-bonus after first year. $70k at 35% tax rate leaves you $45k. After rent of $1500 = $27k After $500 per week on food / drinks / miscellaneous = $21k
If you're buying bottle service or buying girls drinks repeatedly every weekend then you're doing it wrong.
Also, do you mean $500 a month?
Anyway, I can feel the OP's pain and found it pretty hard to save after first year too, granted that I had to repay almost entire signing bonus for a student loan, had ~$3K taken out for a 401k, and didn't get my tax return (should be a big one btw for any first-year monkey) until after summer. In this job, bonuses are what you save, salary usually gets taken away from you by responsibilities and "irresponsibilities." You guys should also taken into consideration dry cleaning expense, any gym memberships, car/gas expenses if you drive (i.e. LA or SV), clothes expenses (probably the most underrated expense there is for guys). And $100 per going out night is not too crazy - considering you're going to a few bars / clubs, you're paying cab fees, entrance fees, a couple of drinks per bar, a few drinks for a friend or a girl you meet, comfort dinner before or after... You don't need to be doing bottle service to easily run above $100-$150 without noticing it.
Just save your bonus, you'll be fine.
Btw, pregaming before going out just sends you off to the world completely wasted before even starting your party. It's sooooooo easy to overspend in that environment, and then also have to pay for the pre-gaming effort =).
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-much-do-you-save-0
Looks like averages are 20-60k depending on bonus and spending.
I estimated 35% tax rate, might be more like 38%. No I mean $500 a week but that was being generous just to make a point. I don't spend that much per week on average.
$500 a week is 26k a year.
Haha my bad guess I calced $500 a month. Whatever OP still sucks at saving money haha.
If you're spending $200 every time you go out you're just being an idiot. Stop trying to pretend you make more money than you do. If not, you're going to be in this situation no matter how much you make. As others have said, pregame before you go out and stop getting bottle service- that's for douchebags. You should be able to save plenty of money as an analyst since you rarely have time to go out all night, and you really should consider making it a priority to put away 6 months salary just in case things head south.
Try to save $1K per month. Saving $2K per month is very challenging.
Your post-tax income on a monthly basis will be 70000 / 12 * (1-35%) = 3800. Set aside 1500 for rental then you get 2300. To spend 300 only for everything else including 401K, utility, dry clean, outing, new clothes and other misc items is mission impossible for most ppl so I actually would not recommend it for everyone. However, if you put in another 1000, that is sth quite doable and then you can save the other 1000 left every month.
I also wish $500/week translated into 6k a year ...
That is terrible. My first year I was saving 2K a month.
3.9K after tax -1300 rent -500 random ? Profit
Yes that's a better summary haha.
You guys saving so much can't really be 'living'. My first year, I didn't save anything at all, because I knew my prefitigous HF goal would allow me to save much more once I moved over to the buyside. After one year in a HF, my savings were multiples of what my striver loser penny pinching jew bro friends saved from banking. And when you can save $50k+ in one year, you really don't feel bad about not saving the extra $10k per year you could have had from banking.
Perspective boys. Live while you can. Your earnings will grow much much faster than your spending habits will.
I like this.
Apart from 75% of Analysts aren't going to go on to HF's, PE jobs. They're more likely to go to bschool or normal corp finance jobs where the 100K savings from your analyst stint are going to really be a huge boost.
lol
Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Olafenizer. You said your name was Greece, right? Oh I'm sorry, Spain, my mistake..
3.9k per month - no rent (live at home) - 250 bus/phone/gym - 250 lunch/coffee/dinner/drinks.
87% savings rate, living well within my means. feels good.
Do none of you guys have loans?
Try having a gf. Destroys your savings. I'm breaking even every month as a 2nd year analyst. More of a spend your salary save your bonus type of guy.
Reading this is making me feel like my money management has been god awful. Will avoid this returning to this thread to avoid falling into a depression.
You have no debt, $2K in the bank and can basically save your entire bonus. I wouldn't consider that too bad. Dial in your spending and try and bank more than just your bonus next year. Hopefully you actually bought shit and didn't just piss all your money away on drinks and food.
just fyi - standard in the industry is spend your base, save your bonus (at least your first few years). anything more is extravagant, anything less is ridiculous. of course it's not dogmatic (i.e. taking 3k out of bonus to spend on a vacation isn't going to matter in the long run) but all this talk of saving 1-2k/month as an ANALYST is ludicrous. you're young and living in NYC - if you're scrounging to save a couple hundred bucks/month, you're missing the point.
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