$200k+ salary, no loans. Mid 20s. What should I be doing with my money? Buy property? Index funds? Thank you in advance!

I think you need to speak to a financial advisor or based on your comments, your family office. Based on your comment of pedigree, my guess is that you probably come from money and I hope they taught you about these things and didn’t go the silver spoon you can do no wrong route. Regardless of this, some suggestions on FB won’t help you. You need someone to look at your complete financial picture (including trust fund and any other inheritance) and figure out what you need. Emergency fund is always critical and if you can, two years of expenses is a good start for real security. Max out all the retirement account options available to you (including the back door Roth IRA and Roth 401k) if you can. Bonds are a waste at your age unless you are using them as a hedge. Based on firm restrictions you might be locked into funds because stock investing is a PITA with compliance. If you can quality as a qualified investor, see if you can find a good PE / PD / hedge fund to put some money into. If you don’t want to buy individual property, maybe look at a commingled property fund. Usually a big buy in but more direct ownership. Of course there is also the long term pool of capital that invests in long term problems. So alt energy, alt transportation, food, water, etc. Owning and leasing out farmland can be profitable.

All depends on what you want out of life but, lets play this out....say you are 25, and want to retire at 50. You will want to take the 200k and split it as such to ensure you are covered til retirement age of 50, and to IRA disbursement without penalty: budget to live on 100k per year, or less. What is not needed, bank it to a cash fund. Max out the IRA! this is important. I will estimate an avg of 20k per year set into it for 25 years, and no additional cash sent into it for another 20(and will not take into account any matching). At an avg of 10% yearly increase in the account, you will be sitting on nearly 2.5MM at 25 years, and at 35 years this will be 5.5MM...but at 45 years it is worth 14.4MM! Take 50k and save that into S&P funds making an avg of 13% yearly...and dont touch it until retirement at age 50. That will be nearly 2.1M which should get you to age 70. At that point, use the pension, if it exists, any Social security, if still a thing then, and any savings along with the IRA which at this point will be valued at a whopping 14MM. This plan should ensure you have enough for any health or family issues that may arise over your life and allow you the freedom to live how you want in your later years. and you should have enough based on investment fluctuations to buy the big house with the picket fence and have your 1.6 kids and 2 dogs if you wish! Now go and take care of yourself and get to living, and by all means do not think you need to live to work!!!!!

Property. Every wealthy person I’ve ever met buys property.

Going to work on Wall Street but have no clue how to manage personal finances...How do some ppl get so lucky?

20’s I would focus on index funds. Property doesn’t necessarily make sense unless you’re in a city with reasonable property taxes and good property value appreciation.

When you’re in your 30’s, you may value the space enough and want nicer finishes than can be found in rentals and want to make the switch even if it’s not the economically maximizing thing to do with those dollars.

Good stuff, OP. However, it’s a shame you are asking for guidance on this forum when you work on Wall Street, make good money and have access to so many resources. You can do better than this.

Index funds like SPY, QQQ, VB

Emergency fund first. Make sure you have 3-6 months of expenses saved up. Then follow the advice above

Summer Associate should've given it away guys...

I dont get how so many young people are making like 300-600k a year and don't know what to do with the money.

I started work out of Grad School about 20 years ago . Minimal debt but also low salary - about 60K . Bought my first house 15 years ago . Now have 9 of them - with 4 paid off . My real estate philosophy was to be risk averse - essentially they are all individually cash flow positive . I probably could have maximized on appreciation but I chose to stay super conservative . Similarly I maxed out 401K throughout and invest a part of my savings in capital market - and about 6 years ago I started doing it through a wealth management company. If all goes well - I probably can retire by 55 and not have a lot of concern on $$ on cash flow basis on wealth basis . Also - we have always lived reasonably under our means .

Reparations

What job/title/school?
Your salary and age are my goals

6 pack of Dannon yogurts for the week ought to do it.

r/wallstreetbets

OP is simply trying to hear every valuable opinion, as you can learn anything from anyone, and simply filtering what works best for him/her.

Don’t be ashamed to ask. Probably a factor why you are where you are...

Wait a second summer associates are now on 200k? Where did I go wrong

One word: Robinhood. I’m up 60% this year.

You got that much money? Get a financial advisor.