Six figure salary right out of undergrad

Everyone in engineering and product management for sure. Sales, HR, etc depending on position but probably very close to that.

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My ds started at an MBB in 2018. Base was not six figures then. Think it was $90k at the time, but itā€™s now $110-$112 for those hired from undergrad.

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Yep. The going rate these days is around $100k-$120k for undergrads and $190k-$200k for MBAs.

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One of my favorite web-based shows (CNBCā€™s Making It) profiles an individualā€™s income and their budget and I have seen a few high early incomes from young people. Attaching two of my favorites (22 year old who never went to college making 200K per year while saving 90%+ of his income while not living with his parents, and a 23 year old making 172K per year who finished his masterā€™s degree by 21). I know that itā€™s not the norm to make 6 figures out of undergrad, but I enjoy hearing of young people have early financial success.

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I didnā€™t want to watch the full video, but I did look at the spending graphs. I appreciate seeing young persons with higher incomes investing/saving a large portion of income, rather than having spending closely correlated with income. I do something similar and invest (counting retirement, stocks, and iBonds as investmentā€¦ not counting CDs or T-bill) ~90% of my after tax + property tax income. My spending is low and uncorrelated with income changes. If I get a raise or bonus, there is no change in my spending habits.

However, the Tulsa kidā€™s spending is quite a bit lower than mine. Iā€™m surprised by just how low some of the metrics are. For example, the graph shows $425 for housing + utilities. A quick search online shows no apartments or non-motel/RV rooms in Tulsa for that $425 price. Is he sharing a room with friends and splitting rent? There are no auto or transportation expenses. Does he not drive? No expenses for shopping or entertainment?

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I too questioned that low housing cost - seems way too low to me

Heā€™s splitting rent. In affordable towns like Tulsa itā€™s not unusual for decent places to rent for $400-500 a room.

I live in a place that rooms rent for over $1000, so I understand why it looks suspect!

Itā€™s confusing. In the video his Dec spending is $12k. Is it YTD? But the savings are only $11k. Also where is his entertainment, transportation, medical, etc budget? So he only spends about $11 per day on food? I got the intermittent fasting. Many young people including my DD and her boyfriend do it these days. But his budget way too low to be realistic. He is about my DD age and making about the same amount of money but their budgets are very different. The 22 years old probably only has being working for a year. Plus some internships money. Where is his $200k savings came from?

The 22 year old started working right out of high school so he has been working for 4 years. He said he made $1500 a month as a 16 year old doing something with Minecraft. The one thing that could be affecting his budget is that he was given 10K to move to Tulsa in the 1st place, but he is only eating 1 meal a day, and his closet had like 1 week of clothes. I have watched my oldest live on an average of $1500 a month in one of the most expensive cities in America so the budget is possible if you are extremely frugal and have inexpensive hobbies. Also since was only 1 month of expenses in the graph, some of the expenses could have been front or back loaded (maybe the previous month or the next month was carrying more expenses).

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I didnā€™t watch the video past this expense chart. With expenses he listed I canā€™t imagine what would come up with $12k front loading. His annual expenses are at $12,420 The $10k grant is probably offsets his rent budget

Since it was only 1 month of expenses, maybe he didnā€™t have any transportation costs for the month? I work from home as well and I averaged getting gas about every 10-12 weeks in 2022 because I live so close to everything.

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Iā€™m all for saving and investment for old age but youth is also life, use some money to live comfortably and have some fun. Nobody has a guarantee to reach old age.

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Lots of inconsistencies in the Tulsa kidā€™s story. He got paid $10 K to live in Tulsa and is instead going to live in a van for a year. His expenses are missing key things like cell phone, medical, and any form of entertainment. Does that insurance include car, apartment, medical, and dental - again seems way low.

Not a fan of the second kidā€™s lifestyle either. Working 15 hours a day. Adding on extra work by tutoring and start ups with his family, because consulting isnā€™t enough. Traveling with points earned from work travel, sounds to me like he must do a ton of work travel to get those kind of points.

I honestly wouldnā€™t want my young adult kid to be in either of these kidā€™s shoes. However, they both seemed happy so to each his own.

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I believe the graph is saying his net take home pay was $12,732. He saved $11,697, which is 92% of take home pay and spent the remaining $1,035 on expenses. His $1k in monthly expenses were split up as $425 rent/utilities + $335 food + $241 insurance + $34 internet/subscriptions.

I agree that $1k in net expenses per month does not seem realistic, but I donā€™t think $335 in food is impossible. Thatā€™s near the middle of what the USDA calculates as monthly cost for food in Dec 2022 (see https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/media/file/CostofFoodDec2022LowModLib.pdf ) based on a basket of pre-selected foods. According to Mint, my average monthly food expenses in 2022 was $305/month, and this includes non-food items purchased at grocery stores. I donā€™t do intermittent fasting and instead eat ~3000 kCal per day. I eat the overwhelming majority of my meals from the grocery and had little restaurant expenses.

I am more surprised about things like the $425 rent and not having any additional expenses to speak of besides rent + food + car/van insurance. Itā€™s possible that this is not a representative month and he has lots of auto, shopping, entertainment, travel, home services, medical/personal care, ā€¦ expenses in other months. If so, why choose an unrepresentative month for the graph in the video? That largely defeats the purpose of showing a graph of monthly spending.

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Ditto! Thereā€™s no way Iā€™d want either sort of life and am glad my kids havenā€™t chosen it too. Yes, save - all three of mine save - but not to such an extreme that you miss life along the way. Plus, if the food budget is low, what are they eating, Ramen and other cheap junk foods? A healthy diet is helpful to enjoying life as one ages.

I have one is who super frugal and lives off the grid mainly eating what they grow, plus happily built his own small house on land they bought from their savings, but he still travels and enjoys lifeā€™s journey.

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Same here. Our S has always invested wisely while living a nice life. He sees every purchase as an investment and is not afraid of paying for quality. His income started high out of college and has increased quite a bit over the last 2 years, so his savings has increased while his spending habits have remained constant. Wonder if/when that will change?

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The USDA food basket I referenced earlier assumes 17lb of fruits and vegetables per month without sale prices, and still comes to approximately the same food budget as listed. There are many options for a single person to live on a $80/week grocery budget besides having to choose ramen and cheap junk food.

I think the bigger factor in a lower net cost for food is primarily making meals from groceries, rather than going to restaurants and bars/clubs. Of course different people receive different degrees of benefit from going out to eat. Some people get a lot of personal enjoyment from such activities. Others do not.

He said he eats the same one meal every day - that canā€™t be healthy!

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