The spending diary of a 30-year-old investment banker: £1,600 a month on dates
According to our salary and bonus report, the average investment banking analyst earns £84k ($113.5k). In top global cities like London you can earn often earn upwards of £100k a year, but how far does that really go?
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Harry Billen, formerly of Stifel's investment banking division, moved into banking in 2021 from Deloitte, seemingly at around the age of 30. In a recent YouTube video, he revealed that he was on over £100k while working in IBD; he also broke down what he spent all that money on:
Gross Income: ~£8.3k per month
Net income (post-tax, pension and student loans): £4.5k per month
Rent and bills: £1.2k per month
Direct Debits (gym, phone contract, etc.): £300 per month
Food: £500 per month
Ad hoc toiletries and personal care: £200 per month
Miscellaneous spending: £1k per month
The remaining cash would either go towards savings (through a stocks and shares ISA) or more miscellaneous spending, of which Billen prefers the latter; "I'm a big believer that experiences make life," he said. While this would often involve going out with friends, he also said "there was a point in time I used to go on three or four dates a week... I'm paying for all of these and you end up paying between 50 to 100 quid on just a drinks date." This would mean he was paying £600 to £1,600 per month purely on dates. While that wasn't a frequent occurrence, he also had other big miscellaneous expenses, including studio time to launch his music career.
Billen, who joined Stifel in 2021, has been running a startup focused on surprise events planning since 2022. One of his bigger regrets when earning £100k was contributing to his pension. "I think about the present value [of money] and because I have a business... I need that money now."
Pay for junior bankers can be volatile due to how much of their compensation is reliant on bonuses. Billen said his bonuses ranged from double his salary to nothing at all. On larger bonuses, he said that 30-40% of it was immediately lost to tax; "genuinely, I thought I was getting paid in two [installments]," he said.
Billen said that "£100k does not go a long way in this economy" unless your only goal is to save money. "If I didn't have the business, if I didn't do my music, I could probably save a grand a month quite easy," he said. "I just don't do that."
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Photo by Sebastian Coman Photography on Unsplash
