[WINii] Budgeting in NYC

Hi WINers!

Today's newsletter is all about living on a budget and making the most out of your money. 

You'll hear about Eva’s experience living in NYC on an entry-level paycheck. You'll also get some practical budgeting tips and some book recommendations to help get your finances in gear.

Let's do it! 👇

🏙️ Big City Living on a Budget

When Eva got the opportunity to move to New York City after college, she went all-in. She also learned a whole lot from the experience, including how to budget for big-city living on a $50k a year salary.

In Eva’s MoneyBites interview, she shares how she made it all work: from living with roommates in Hell's Kitchen, to cooking meals at home. She also shares how progressing in her career brought both highs and lows and why maintaining a healthy work-life balance is a top priority.

Eva and I also discussed whether or not her student loans were worth the college experience and her philosophy when it comes to paying them off. We wrap things up with a chat about aging parents and how a friend's tragedy shaped her mental perspective.

Check out my conversation with Ava here! 👇

🎧 Listen on Spotify 

💰 Stretching Your Salary

If you're fresh out of college or taking a step back financially to pursue a new career path, chances are you'll have to start small. As you work towards climbing the ladder and earning a bigger paycheck, making the most out of your current pay is super-important.

Here are some tips to help a small salary go the extra mile:

• Boost Your Benefits: Get familiar with all the benefits your company offers. Some employers have commuter benefits that allow you to pay for transportation with pretax dollars. You might also score discounts on travel and gym memberships. Big bonus if your company has a free gym onsite!

• All In One:  Take advantage of bundle discounts on internet and phone services. You can also save on insurance by bundling car and rental insurance together.

• Buy In Bulk: If your living space has the storage capacity, buy things in bulk at a wholesale club like BJ's or Costco. You can often save big on pantry staples like rice and soup. Pro tip: this philosophy also applies to things like transit passes. If you ride the subway every day, save with a monthly pass instead of buying single tickets each day.

When it comes to actual budgeting techniques, there's a flavor for every kind of saver! Here's a list of some of the most common methods:

• 50/30/20 Rule: Set aside half of your take-home pay for essentials, including any minimum debt payments. Then, set aside 30% for discretionary spending (dinners out, shopping) and 20% for savings and extra debt payments.

• Envelope Method: Through this old-school budgeting strategy, you'll create spending categories with their own envelope (paper or virtual). Fill each envelope to cover expenses. Once the envelope is empty, no more spending in that category. 

• Zero-based Budgeting: Here, you'll flag every dollar you earn for an expense or a financial goal up front so you have $0 in unallocated funds at the end of each period. 

At WINii, we use the waterfall method to help you build a financial flywheel. Once your financial system is set up, you can relax, knowing your money is working on your behalf.

📚 Budget Book Club

Whether you're just starting your career journey or getting close to retirement, budgeting tips apply at every stage. 

Looking for some fresh fall finance reads? Check out these books on budgeting:

• Rich AF When Vivian Tu started working on Wall Street fresh from undergrad, all she knew was that she was making more money than she had ever seen in her life. But it wasn’t until she found a mentor of her own on the trading floor that she began to understand what wealthy people knew intuitively—the secrets to beating the proverbial financial game that has, for too long, been male, pale, and stale... Building on the lessons she learned on Wall Street about money and the markets, Vivian now offers her best personal finance tips and tricks to readers of all ages and demographics, so that anyone can get rich, whether you grew up knowing the rules to the game or not.

• On My Own Two Feet Whether you've been living paycheck to paycheck or are saving for a down payment on your first home, this updated edition of the bestselling On My Own Two Feet will help you grasp the basic principles of money management. Written by Harvard Business School graduates and leading investment experts Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, this finance guide provides you with all the information you need to know to keep your everyday spending in check, save for big-ticket items or emergencies, and create a secure retirement plan. Thakor and Kedar's time-tested strategies have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and are now adapted for your specific needs, such as paying off your student loans or budgeting for your future wedding, so that you'll never be short-changed by credit card companies or banks again.

• Die with Zero (for FIRE pps) Imagine if by the time you died, you did everything you were told to. You worked hard, saved your money, and looked forward to financial freedom when you retired. The only thing you wasted along the way was…your life.
  Die with Zero presents a startling new and provocative philosophy as well as practical guide on how to get the most out of your money—and out of your life. It’s intended for those who place lifelong memorable experiences far ahead of simply making and accumulating money for one’s so-called Golden Years.

Happy reading! 🤓

Are you living and working in a major city? Do you have a strict budget or are you more "go with the flow?" 

Hit reply and tell us about it!

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Minki
Founder, WINii
Making wealth building actionable for women in tech. Empowering a million women to become millionaires!