How much does your lifestyle cost?
Fairly Simple. How much do you spend to maintain your lifestyle? What changes would you make to your lifestyle in the future?
As for me annually
Housing: $20,000
Books: $1,000
Cars: Still drive a crappy car and don't have plan to upgrade, $2,000 on gas
Food: $3,000 goes to grocery, around $5,000 goes to restaurants
Vacation: None, work too much
Clothes: $3,000 on clothing, $5,000 is for watches
Expenses: $3,000
$42,000 all in, I am pretty happy with my lifestyle and don't think I would increase at least until I secure that $500,000 a year, that's when I would start thinking about having family and such.
How much are you saving/investing?
My annual expenses look something like this as a college student. Tuition: $8000 (about $4000 each semester) Housing: $3900 (I live with 4 other guys) Food: $3450 No car: $0 Clothes: $75 Netflix/Hulu/Prime $250
Total annual expenses. $15,675 I don't plan on buying a car if I can uber/fly/train to my destinations. When I have a net worth over $20 million I'll pick up a Model X if they are still around. Not Employed Average annual income: From personal investments = about $12,000
As my investments grow hopefully they can cover all my annual expenses so that I can start getting a net profit. After college I assume my rent will increase to 14000 and tuition will be gone.
Most of my net worth is in long term equity investment, real estate and some small private businesses I own. I add in about $40,000 per year to my investment account (90% long term, 10% Trading). The more asset I buy, the higher my income is so I'm trying to get to a point that I wouldn't have to work for money anymore and just focus on running my own money.
Noice. $5,000/yr on watches? At first that sounded pretty out there to me but then I remembered what I've spent on various hobbies thoughout the years...
I've found as I've gotten older that I'm less likely to splurge on something not necessary. It all just accumulates and becomes junk you don't use. Also, after moving a few times I'm less apt to want to move the same junk again. I'm 31, so by no means far off from most on this site but I'm definitely a different person than I was at 22-24 and I imagine that's similar for everyone.
Housing - $21,000 Car - $4,000 (mostly gas and insurance. I road trip a fair amount) Food - $5,000 (idk - pretty much a shot in the dark here) Vacation - about $2-4,000 per year depending. Clothes - couple hundred, nothing extravagent here. Expenses - Pretty much built these into other categories.
I do save quite a bit but it's more of the "set it and forget it" variety. I couldn't give an accurate amount without some digging.
Enough to know to use "does."
oof, thanks for pointing that out
I remember being fresh out of college and even with a lot of fun expenditures I was all in at $60K. Well enjoy it now! Because I can promise you in 5-10 years when you are living in a city, married, and having your first kid it will all change... Have you heard of a babymoon or a push present?
Just the fixed charge coverage of my basic lifestyle (home mortgage/HOA, life / home / car insurance, subscriptions (e.g. 0 WSJ/AMZN Prime), tax accountant, charity (Bible says tithe 10%), annual credit card membership fees) easily runs >$100k.
Enjoy the DINK lifestyle while it lasts!
^THIS!
You're in finance, go make more money lol. Especially if you're in the PE industry!
I make plenty of money and have no complaints. I just think WSO skews to guys that humble brag their annual expenditures are like $50k all in. It's total BS. Trying to prep ppl for the real world.
If people want to talk about being cost conscience then I highly recommend going to the Isaia suits, Eton shirts, and Barney's New York outlets at Woodbury Commons the day after Christmas. $5K - $10K spent there = $15 - $25K in NYC.
Housing & utilities: ~$35,000
Misc. recurring expenses (gym, Netflix, Amazon Prime, cellphone): $6,000
Food: $6,000
Entertainment (drinks, movies, general going out excl. eating): $10,000
General shopping (clothes, household goods): $3,000
All in about $60k a year. Would probably be a lot lower if I didn't live in NYC. Plus imagine how much I'd save on taxes. Anybody know anyone hiring in Kansas?
In terms of money: about PS40-50k a year.
In terms of health: everything.
Cheesy, but I like it. +SB
Housing: $12-15k Car: $2-3k of gas and insurance (bought car used for $5K a few years ago) Cell: $2k Vacation: $5k (2x 2-3k trips a year) Partying/Food/Dates: $3k Hobbies: $2-3k
$28K and this is CAD so $20K USD.. and I expense everything so I dont pay any taxes.
You know you're Canadian when your annual cell phone bill = your annual hobby cost.
Yes, fuck Telus.
Close to 240k ttm but there are business reasons driving it up so IMO it's inflated. IE I moved to the US to run a portfolio company and had to pay like ~$6000 for immigration/e2 and incurred the typical moving fees. Doesn't help it was on two day notice either. My rent/living expenses are inflated too right now since I use a meal prep service and Uber everywhere while in the US vs cooking at home and using my car. Fly back home every 3 - 5 weeks, etc...
How much do you guys spend typically spend on a night out all in (ubers, drinks, drunk food, himilayan marching powder, etc)?
Like $150 if not doing dinner, closer to $400 with dinner
100-300 usually. Depends on the type of night out. Some nights go under 100 and others easily break a grand.
My lifestyle alone is like $36k but the girlfriend brings it closer to $50k and it’s absolutely worth it. Still saving money hand over fist so whatever.
She is a very normal person! All that money is really just the fact that I do more stuff than I would if I was single along with me paying her way on a vacation here and there.
$42k for both me and my wife- single income right now.
$12k housing $4k electric/cell/internet $8k for car ($400/mo payments, $1.2k gas, $1.5k insurance, some misc) $3.5k student loans $4.5k groceries $3k vacations $6k restaurants/entertainment/shopping/misc
We save close to 30% of after-tax income, and as income increases we'll upgrade our housing slightly (to about $16k) but will save the rest. We don't plan on any major lifestyle upgrade for a long while. Not wielding a huge IB income, but am living in a low COL metro.
Where are you living for 1k/month.....
Major southern metro- Phoenix/DFW/ATL
You don't need to make $500k to start a family dude...
Personally I would want a pretty big buffer just in-case the kid has special healthcare needs. Good friend ran into an issue with one of his kids and is spending like 60k+ a year in extra healthcare costs.
You can test the fetus for a myriad of congenital conditions now. Test can't be more than a few hundred, much better than 60k a year.
Had the same thought. With a goal like that, he may never have a family lol.
10000%
Contingency 20%
Housing (mortgage, HOA, utilities, etc.) - $3,942 Car (payment, gas, etc.) - ~$760 Phone - $115 Food & 'misc' - all over the place, as low as $600 to as high as $3K, depending on extracurricular. So total anywhere from $5,400/month ($65k/yr) to $7,800/mo (~$95K/yr).
I'm actually pretty happy with where I'm at since I live in a very high COL area. I have a base salary but my total comp varies pretty heavily depending on deal flow, so some years I've saved 70%+ of total income and others I've only saved like 10-15%. Really just depends.
monthly Housing - $1700 Travel -$700 (average) restaurants - $300 groceries - $300 car insurance - $60 gas - $200 misc./hobbies (skiing)/netflix - $500
live in an extreme cost of living city so i'm pretty happy with this mix. i never "go out" but do end up spending quite a bit on gas and gear for hobbies.
Are you a car guy or do you ride at all?
Nope, just drive an old prius to the mountains lol
I don’t know, but I spend more on insurance premiums than some of you do for everything combined. I think my out of pocket is probably $1,500 per month for health insurance alone (I’d have to check). Plus probably $6k for term life insurance a year and $5k a year for disability, cars, home, and umbrella.
How are some of you saying $3k per year in food? I probably spend $500 - 1k per month in just booze. I pull out $300 in cash every week and blow it mostly on lunch and drinks and crap, plus I still use my card for a lot of things.
After looking at my monthly balances over the course of about 6 months. I spend on average $8.33 on food per day. (Also a college student; so I am living like I'm in a third world country)
Last sentence was so brutal I physically cringed
Annual:
Housing: $11,500 (Rent and Utilities) Car: $1,750 of gas, insurance and maintenance Cell: $1,200 Vacation: $1,200 (I don't vacation much, I need to change this) Food. Household Items, Lunches: $5,500 Gym, Massage (The legit kind), Workout products: $3,700 Student Loans: $12,000
Total: $35,650
I've saved and invested the rest. (Which is over the above amount)
Wife and 3 kids, so very different scenario than most on here. Also have the luxury of not really having/needing a budget, so this is all VERY high level. Also, we’ve moved to a Tier 3 city in the last year which has helped dramatically.
Housing: ~$3k/month with utilities Car/insurance: ~$300/month (we own 2 newer model cars with no payments and don’t drive that far anymore) Groceries: $500/month Restaurants: $400/month Gym/Other Entertainment: $250/month Daycare: ~$1,500/month (was over $3k/month last year) Other Crap: $1000/month Vacations: $5k/year (fuck you Disney) Total Annual: ~$85-90k
Wow this is such a low budget with 3 kids and wife. CFO well deserved.
I don't really think so, we live VERY comfortably. The one big thing is that we actually rarely go out on dates right now (I don't really recommend that, but with 3 crazy boys in a new city it is what it is). So our Friday night is $40 at Panera or local sports bar or $25 pizza instead of $100 for my wife and I. Neither of us totally abstain from drinking, but at this point in our lives we RARELY drink so that certainly saves quite a bit.
Looking at my estimates above I probably actually spend a little bit more on Groceries and Restaurants, but I definitely spend less on housing.
Other than drinks and car payment, I'm not even really sure what else someone would spend on. The nice thing about where we live is that I have a nice house in a great family neighborhood (pool, splash pad, park, etc..) and it really probably costs me closer to $2500/month with taxes, utilities, etc.. That obviously doesn't happen everywhere.
My monthly bills are about $2300-2500 all in.
So as long as I am making $3500+ after taxes im good #sales
I drink/travel/save/invest the rest. Need to get better at the last two.
Single, late 20s, no gf, no kids, NE city (Boston/Philly/DC/NoVa)
This is based on 2018 actuals (single, had a gf most of the year, NYC, early 30s)
Rent: $34k
Food: $13k (I don't really cook, so this is all pickup/order in)
Discretionary - this encompasses bars, restaurants, Amazon orders, etc: $16,500
Vacations/Weddings/Bach Parties: $19k - I'm in the midst of an avalanche of weddings
Clothes/Other semi-durable goods: $2k
Recurring expenses (NYTimes, Prime, Hulu, cable): $1500
Gym: $2700
Phone: $1700
Dry Cleaning/Laundry: $1800
Electric: $1k
Misc: $1200
Total: ~$95k
if you had to cut back on one of these line items, what would go first?
Vacations and Discretionary. A lot of discretionary is dates and nice dinners which I could easily cut back on. Vacations I would just do cheaper trips - instead of a week in Capri maybe a week in Jamaica. If I cut back on dates & dinners out I could also cut back on food, since I would have more time/opportunity to cook.
I was thinking this is fairly reasonable until I saw watches.
Good lord writing this makes me hate Manhattan... Early 30's, live downtown, luxury building, yes I have a car which is one of my dumber purchases but whatever. Below is monthly, ballpark...
Rent: 4500
Food/Drinks: 1500
Car/Gas/Parking/Insurance: 1000
Cable/Internet/Peloton/Cell/Etc: 400
Ubers: 500
Misc Shopping: 500
8400/month more or less. Add in 3k for my golf membership and probably 15k for vacations and other stuff I am forgetting. About $118k per year, and I think that is likely low.
I also live in Manhattan and this isn't crazy. One question - why a car? Not owning one is one of the only "savings" of living in NYC. Also, $500 on ubers is a ton.
I like driving and bought (leased) one for myself as a 30th birthday present... don't ask, there is really no way to rationalize it. And you're right $500 a month is probably high now that I actually think about it, but somehow I always end up being the guy that orders the XL in the rain on Saturday nights when I go out with groups... that's my own issue though.
What course are you a member at? 3k isn't bad if it's somewhat close to the city and rounds don't take 5+ hours
Tier 1 City
Fixed (rent, utilities, phone, car insurance, etc): 2,250, 27k Staples (food, gas, etc): 750, 9k Stuff (clothes, random crap): 425, 5.1k Fun (bars, restaurants, sports, concerts, etc): 950, 11.4k Travel: 750, 9k Weddings (gifts, hotel, travel): 150, 1.8k - some years has been as much as 5k
Total: 5,275 a month, 63k a year
Save the rest and bank my bonuses.
For younger folks, I'd say save as much as possible in the early years. One you don't know how long you'll stay in fiance, ie high earnings, and second your wealth will compound so much faster if you have a lot saved young to invest and/or buy a house. Can always blow it out later but getting a couple hundred thousand saved early in your career cycle is the smart way to do it.
Guess I've always been PE oriented. Back in college, I used credit cards to do an LBO of my lifestyle. Graduated, grew top-line revenue, paid down debt, and made a successful exit. Almost debt free today, except for some student loans.
Mezz debt would've been cheaper, but at least I still have some chachkies from back in the day.
+SB, this one deserves more bananas.
Monthly budget roughly for me/wife/toddler: * 8k mortgage + home insurance + property tax * 2k daycare / child care * 1k health insurance * 1k necessary bills (phone, other insurance, utilities) * 0.5k food * 0.5k other life expenses = entertainment, misc purchases
= about $13k / month or conservatively ~$160k+ a year. (of which $100k is housing)
Just for fun, in my 20's living abroad DINK: * 0.5k rent * 0k child costs * 0k health insurance yolo / provided by company * 0.1k necessary bills (phone, other insurance, utilities) * 0.2k food * 0.6k other life expenses = entertainment, misc purchases * 1k travel
= $.4k / month or $16.8k / year (like 20% of my current costs)
Does your wife make a comparable income to you? Housing is crazy. And groceries seem low plus no fun (restaurants, dates, etc) budget?
Wife makes less but low six figures. Housing cost is high but we have quite a bit of cash saved up and invested. I'm thinking about taking most of that and paying down a large chunk of the loan which would get us to ~4,500 a month in housing cost rather than 8k. I'm not confident in investment returns going forward to outpace after taxes what we would be guaranteed to save in interest expense, especially now that in CA a large part of this interest expense is no longer tax deductible.
Groceries are low because of Costco and comped meals. Not a lot of time for fun but I do a lot of cheap and free things with the family such as the zoo (free), museums (free), beach (free) etc.
Monthly:
Rent + rent insurance: $1320 Gym: $140 Groceries: $400 Cable + Electric + Phone: $150 Probably one domestic trip a month: $500 a month average? Eating out (try to keep this close to 0): $200 Coffee (try to keep this close to 0): $15 Ubers: $150
Goal is to have a credit card payment around 1.5k each month. No car and commute is paid for by my employer. I don't buy much clothing and accesories.
Living in Honolulu -Have GF and she lives with me -Work in CRE
Monthly Rent: $2250 - (I pay below market rent. My landlord/friend got this 2b/2b condo as an 18th birthday present. I sublease the other room for $1k a month) Cable TV/Internet 300GB: $90 Electricity: $150 - $200 Water: $80-$90 Groceries: $400 - $600 Car/Insurance/Maint: $550-$650 Gas: $30 - $50 (I walk to work so gas usage is low) Parking: $150 Dining/Nightlife: $400 - $600 Cell Phone: $70 Health Care: $52.62 - (This is the most expensive healthcare plan offered, it could be less) Dental: $19.38 Emergency Fund: $500 Subscriptions: $70-$90 GYM: $40.89
Annual Vacations: $12k-$18k - it varies Clothing: $1k-$2k
This isn't an entire list of my monthly costs. I could cut back on quite a few things (Dining/Nightlife/Clothing), but fuck it you only live once.
That's a hell of a vacation expense. You would think living in Hawaii you could just do staycations.
Of course, you probably get tired of the same scenery all the time.
Worst part is I'm pretty sure I'm lowballing the amount.
Regarding Staycations: If I visit one of the other islands does it still count as a staycation? Sad thing is that if you add up all the expenses of visiting Maui or Kauai, it's still sometimes cheaper to take a trip to Asia
Post-tax annual income: ~$44,500
Rent/Utilities: $15,500 Food/Dining: $6,000 Transportation: $2,000 Clothing: $1,000 Misc: $2,000 Loans: $12,000
Leftover for savings/investment: ~$6,000
Damn some of y’all are absolutely crushing it.
Housing: $22,000 (mortgage, prop taxes, insurance) Food: $12,000 Clothing: $2,000 Vacation: $2,000 Future Baby (due Oct): Prob a total of $5,000 for nursery and all that. Car: $4,000 (loan payment) Leisure: $3,000
We save close to $50,000/year, including retirement. We live in Central Texas.
Early 30s, Greenpoint (Brooklyn), $75k total
Footnotes
what kind of place did you get for that rent?
Large railroad, two flights up, in front of a park. September will mark 8 years there and I know I pay more than most people in the area.
man i used to think i lived a pretty frugally. pls note i don't indulge in the whole, second home, nanny, hamptons, cars, etc and we do minimal shopping.
Per year:
so ~255k a year. our spending skews toward food and travel over material goods.
I take it your job tag needs updating with a lifestyle like that...
In a major city, not in the US or Europe. In USD: -Accommodation: 14,200 -Groceries: 5,400 (To be fair, I get fancy organic brands of everything, and I meal prep etc) -Dining: About 1000 -Public transport: 1150 -Haircuts: 400 (every fortnight) -Jujitsu: 2000 -Gym: 600 -Phone 160 -Clothes: About 400
So all up about $25k. I'm in my mid 20s, single. Rent where I live is a shit tonne more than the US generally, and relative to income probably higher than NYC even. Saving about 35-40%, which looks good but the amount is still nominally small.
You spend $2000 on Jiu-Jitsu and can’t even spell the name of what you’re training for - bravo.
In SoCal
Housing/Utilities: $1,100 Gas / Car Insurance: $400 Gym: $200 Travel: $500 Entertainment/Nightlife: $1,000 Food: $600-$800 Cell Phone: $60
Where the duck in socal do you live?
I have roommates
Mid-Atlantic, I spend around ~$40k a year. I used to track my spending more closely, but I live so far within my means that I've stopped keeping track. I just have rent/tithing/etc. on auto-pilot every two weeks, and focus more on earning more instead of spending less. I don't really have any expensive hobbies or interests (other than a wife!) so lifestyle creep hasn't effected me too much.
Rent: $1950 Food: $3000+++
I burn an ungodly amount of calories though, so food costs add up quickly. 7,773 on Saturday, about 5,550 yesterday and probably 8,000 today. I'm eating like I am a family of six. Its difficult in every aspect of the fact for me to consume enough calories.
I really really need a food sponsor. I'd take McDonalds or Wal-Mart - anybody. Circle K would be sick too actually for bike stops.
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