or 200k? or 50k?..Im currently a student and im hoping somebody can bridge the gap on what the expectation vs. reality was like once they actually started making that comp they fantasized about in school. was it as good as you expected? Is your current role Bottles and Models or 401k's and Honda Accords?
List out..
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Fixed Expenses(Rent,Loans,Etc,):
Overall Mindset towards money:
What is it like living on a $100,000 salary in New York?
Considering that the average bulge bracket starting salary is $85,000 + Bonus - it is understandable that users want to understand how far $100,000 will get you - especially in big cities. Our users commented below. Please note that the OP and many of the comments were made in 2013 and therefore the tax assumptions may be somewhat out of date.
{quote "Ricqles"]100k after tax is ~ 80k. Rent will take up ~ 20k / year if you are in NYC so you are left with 60K. Monthly entertainment expense of 1k or so on entertainment and another 500 on food (assuming you don't go to fancy restaurants and you stay late for dinners) will get you to 40K. That's the most you will get out of your 100k assuming you are frugal
Let's hope you don't have any student loans or other obligations. I know several 1st year analysts who live on credit cards before their bonus hit. (Posted 5/28/2013)[/quote]
Hate to burst your bubble, but if you live in NYC at $100k then you'll be paying around $43K in taxes between federal, state, city, social security, and Medicare. So your take-home per month is around 4750 in a very expensive city. Your paycheck will probably be a little more than that though because of state tax deductions.
Living in California / West Coast on $100 K
I'll chip in the SF/Cali point of view. 100K is definitely not a lot, though enough to be comfortable.Post-tax income: At 100K, you'll net 67-70K after taxes (you should expect a 30-33% effective tax rate)
Rent: Expect 15-25K, depending on the neighborhood and number of roommates. I would say 18K is median levelSo you'll net 49-52K before discretionary expenses, or 4100-4300 in monthly take home. Like I said, enough to live comfortably and certainly much better than someone earning 50K and getting 40K post-taxes.
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100k after tax is ~ 80k. Rent will take up ~ 20k / year if you are in NYC so you are left with 60K. Monthly entertainment expense of 1k or so on entertainment and another 500 on food (assuming you don't go to fancy restaurants and you stay late for dinners) will get you to 40K. That's the most you will get out of your 100k assuming you are frugal
Let's hope you don't have any student loans or other obligations. I know several 1st year analysts who live on credit cards before their bonus hit.
If your working 100 hours a week how are you spending $250 a week on entertainment? I get NYC bars are expensive, but do most analyst really spend that much?
$250 a week on entertainment is nothing, you can spend that in one night with ease, this is worse if you are trying to get laid, since I have a girlfriend I don't have to worry about that. That's how...
When I just started working, my pay barely covered my expenses. After paying some medical bills, I lived on credit cards for a few months... It was awful and I felt the whole education thing was such a waste.
$100K isn't a lot man. Seems like it, but it isn't.
@Ric - not to be combative, but I'd imagine way more than $20K in taxes in NYC. Between city, state, and fed I would put taxes at $30-35K.
Hate to burst your bubble, but if you live in NYC at $100k then you'll be paying around $43K in taxes between federal, state, city, social security, and medicare. so your takehome per month is around 4750 in a very expensive city. Your paycheck will probably be a little more than that though because of state tax deductions.
Yea hate to say it...but it is somewhat unrealistic to save 40k living in NYC on a 100k salary
I live in bumfk nowhere and have to pay between 25% - 30%. I wouldn't be surprised if the user above quoted correctly with 43% tax rate, esp. since I think bonus is taxed a lot heavier.
Agreed. I am not in NYC and my tax rate is higher.
Stop bitching TNA it's your fair share.
Bonus isn't taxed any higher than anything else. The payroll deduction generally is, but you get the difference back.
I'll chip in the SF/Cali point of view. 100K is definitely not a lot, though enough to be comfortable.
Post-tax income: At 100K, you'll net 67-70K after taxes (you should expected a 30-33% effective tax rate) Rent: Expect 15-25K, depending on the neighborhood and number of roommates. I would say 18K is median level
So you'll net 49-52K before discretionary expenses, or 4100-4300 in monthly take home. Like I said, enough to live comfortably and certainly much better than someone earning 50K and getting 40K post-taxes.
I know a first year biglaw associate living in nyc. His 160k becomes 95k after city,state, and federal tax (and apparently his income bracket doesn't qualify for student loan interest deduction).
586k is a lot when youre living in harlem and make your student loans disappear over night
You guys also need to take into account pre-tax deductions such as medical/dental/401k/etc. At roughly 80k in NJ (right outside of NYC in Hoboken/Jersey city) i'm looking at roughly a take home of $4500 a month (54k a year) after all those things. Then rent is 12k-18k a year if you live with a roommate. As much as 20k a year for an OK 1bdrm. I just decided to grab a roommate so I have about a 16k rent a year which brings me to 38k. Utilities are another 1200 a year, REQUIRED transportation (not including like cabs when drunk) about 1800 a year, food/vitamins/drinks/protein/etc (not including like luxury nice dinners with the GF or alcohol) generally becomes ~500 a month cost or 6000 a year. Phone is 1200 a year. This brings me to $27,800. I have a car so parking is roughly 2400 a year. Then I probably spend roughly an extra 600-1000 a month on bar tabs, drunken cab rides, occasional nice dinner with the GF, entertainment like movies/netflix/video games/sporting tickets/etc. Then the gym is roughly 1200 a year. This brings me to a total of around 14k I could save. Then things come up like car maintenance, doctors bills, prescriptions, work clothes, furniture, etc and other incidentals which surely comes a few thousand a year. Then maybe 1500-2000 for a vacation.
You are ending up at around 7-9k saving on 80k in a relatively medium COL area but with extra payments because of going into NYC to hang with friends if you want to have a comfortable, fun, but no way extravagant lifestyle.
500 a month of basic food stuffs? My company pays for my lunch and dinner everyday, 7 days a week. That said you are expected to be in the office for these meals.
Just remember the harder you work, the less free time you have to spend $$$ = more savings.
500 a month for just weekends and nights? Sounds reasonable. But a few outings can make that go by pretty fast.
What is it ACTUALLY like earning 100k??
I don't know, but it must be tough.
Yeah there's definitely no way people can live on anything under $100K in NYC. It's like the same people who think you need to earn over $500K a year to get by in NYC w/ a family.
100k in Manhattan sort of feels like being a few steps below middle class.
You can earn under 100k and live in NYC. One must remember that we have banker mentalities. Not saying you will like living in the ghetto but it can be done. I'll stick to the Lower East Side.
The problem isn't that people have banker mentalities. It's that $100k/year is not a lot of money if you want to live like a grown-up in Manhattan or a nice part of Brooklyn. Having your own non-shithole place on a $100k/year salary means you can't spend much money on anything else (good luck saving or investing anything).
Living with roommates in a shitty East Village walk-up is fine when you're 24, but it gets old pretty quickly. That same money in another city will get you a brand new condo in a hip part of town and a BMW in your garage.
What can possibly get old about 21 year old girls?
To add a bit of a different perspective, an IB analyst in Zurich gets around 100k base. Becomes ~85k take home after tax and social security. Rent is high, maybe 15-20k pa depending on where you live, then food is the next major expense since everything is so damn expensive, make it 10k at least. Health insurance is compulsory, starts at about 5k pa, and utilities are a lot too. But that leaves ~60k to do whatever the fuck you want. That's BEFORE bonus. Granted, not easy to get a job here if you're a foreigner, and not a whole lot of activity outside private banking and HF. But yeh, 100k feels pretty good man..
That's Zurich, SWITZERLAND, not Zurich Kansas. Didn't think that would need clarification in a banking forum..
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