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Mentor
I really don’t think anything you’re going to get here is going to be meaningful. Even the location where people are located is going to make a big difference. Investment styles. Health. Lifestyles, etc. Way too many factors. I can tell you that I’m a household of two and we just bought our first home, so our expenses for this year as astronomical as we’re furnishing 3000 square feet and undergoing renovations..
What exactly are you trying to gauge?
Mentor
We’ll probably be at upwards of 150k for the year not counting renovations. Household of two. Both of us are mid level attorneys with a gross net income of 430k (without bonuses).
Our expenses generally break down as follows: Around 60k alone between mortgage, property taxes, home insurance, and utilities. Throw in another 12k for travel towards the end of the year. 24k on food, social activities, gifts. Clothing another 10k. 2-3k on beauty expenses such as haircuts, spa visits, nails, etc. Oh and tons of Uber’s (we live in a city and opt not to have a car). And then a boat load of new furniture and other new home necessities.
Senior Associate
Manhattan / House in Westchester
Couple + 1 kid
$1.1mm pre tax a year (spouse is also top of the scale senior associate and I get above market bonuses)
$25k a month ($9k mortgage, $4k property taxes, $1k car and the rest is general spending with no childcare expense as MIL is childcare provider)
Nice. Do you live in Westchester or is that a second home?
DINK, 160k annual
Midlevel
Manhattan / 2BR
Couple + dog / partner works
~$275k take home this year
$12k/month expenses / $150k/year (including vacations and taking out engagement/wedding expenses)
Married DINK
House in NJ (suburb of NYC)
6k/month expenses (including mortgage/taxes)
+ 5k vacation
= ~80k annual expenses
Married. Spouse in grad school, no kids.
Roughly $72K/year in expenses (all in—mortgage, car, food, insurance, etc.)
(Will need to add $12Kish/year once student loan payments start up again. Probably $24K when spouse finishes school.)
Retirement/savings of roughly $32K/year. (Will go down once student loan payments start again.)
(Edited to change to annual $)
Married with a toddler. I’m in big law; my husband was smart enough not to go to law school. We live in a mid-sized city.
Total gross comp (not including bonuses, which vary from year to year): $510,000
Total yearly expenses (mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, hobbies, travel, estimate of unforeseen expenses (with my hobby, there’s always something!)): $126,000
We don’t have car notes and our student loans have been paid off, so that helps a lot. We also live in a less expensive area.
We have the rest divided among brokerage accounts, life insurance, and college savings plans.
Thank you! It wasn’t always like this. Took us a while to get here!
I think the true answer to your question for most biglaw attorneys is just that they spend close to 100% of whatever they make.
A1 - thanks for the insight though im a little confused by the implied source of your assumptions… do you ask your colleagues (upwards and downwards) straight up how much they spend in a year? and do they respond with idk or do they just say that bc they dont want to tell you the actual numbers? but the more data points the better for sure, so thanks!!
What is “DINK”?
__ __ No Kids ?
A1, thanks.
I spend < 40k per year. I am unmarried but live with a partner in HCOL city. Partner pays about 30-40% of shared expenses (rent, food, subscription services). I think my spending would be basically the same if I were single and living alone.