The monthly spending diary of a London trader with two Teslas
This is the second in our series of anonymous "spending diaries" looking at the lifestyles in financial terms of people working in financial services jobs globally.
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Name: Withheld
Rank: Director
Bank: Withheld
Role: Fixed income trader
Location: London
Annual salary: £325k ($432k)
Annual bonus: c£163k
Annual investment income: c£50k
Monthly salary after tax: £15k
Mortgage payments: 0
Monthly payments on school fees: £4k
Annual spending on vacations: c£25k
Monthly savings from salary: 0
Comments: I've been working in this industry for a while. When I was younger, I was very careful to save as much as I could in order to pay off my mortgage. It was easier then, as I didn't have a family. While a lot of my colleagues were going wild with the money they were earning, I was putting it aside.
It's become harder to save from my salary now that I have children. School fees are expensive and are only going to become even more so. Most of my salary goes on expenses of one kind or another, but I try to save my bonus and the income I get from my investments. I manage my portfolio myself and it's quite time-consuming.
Personally, I'm quite low maintenance. I live on the outskirts of London and when I'm not working my main hobby is running. I'm a member of a running club and I just pay a low annual stipend and buy my running shoes and kit.
As a family, though, we spend a lot. Food is a big part of our monthly bill. We eat out a lot and probably spend up to £1.5k a month in restaurants. We also go on a lot of holidays - last year we were away around 25 days and spent about £1k a day.
Then there are the cars. We have two Teslas, which I love. They're so much easier than petrol cars and are free to run because we have solar panels.
I earn a lot less now than I did in the past. Pay in banking has steadily declined for years - it's not just me, but the industry as a whole. It's made it much harder to save large sums, and has made me thankful that I was careful with money when I was younger.
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