The monthly spending diary of a director at a US investment bank in New York

This is the first in our series of anonymous "spending diaries" looking at the lifestyles in financial terms of people working in financial services jobs globally. 

Click here to follow our new WhatsApp channel, and get instant news updates straight to your phone 📱

We'll be running these regularly. If you want to participate, let us know. If you know someone else who might want to participate, let us know too. Contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Name: Withheld 

Rank: Director

Bank: Withheld

Role: Investment banking division 

Location: New York City

Salary: $300k

Bonus: Withheld (typically $300k)

Monthly salary remaining after tax and deductions for ex-wife and children: $7k

Monthly rent: $4.5k (shared with partner) 

Monthly spending: $3.5k

Monthly savings: Zero, from salary. 

Comments:  "I earn a lot of money and I have a good life - it would be crazy to earn the amount of money that I earn and to say that life is hard, but I'm also very careful with my money. 

I live very comfortably, but I also live modestly. I'm not materialistic; I rarely buy things like clothes, and I'm considered about what I spend my money on. I spend money when it matters and when it makes my life better.

I aim to live within my means, and I consider my means to be my salary. My bonus is fundamentally discretionary and when I spend beyond my salary and dip into my bonus, I consider myself to be living beyond my means. Sometimes I succeed in only spending my salary. Sometimes I don't. 

I usually eat out once or twice a week and I like going to the theater and the opera. On a day to day basis I try to be very attentive to my life at home and to do things that will create good memories for my partner and I. Travel also consumes a chunk of my discretionary income: when I have my children, we'll go to family-focused resorts together. 

I aim to save and invest as much of my bonus as I can.

 Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)