Bukola Ayodele, Roy Patterson and Brieonna Johnson live in different cities and work in different industries, but they have one thing in common: All three are all millennials who make over $100,000 a year.
CNBC Make It previously interviewed Ayodele, Patterson and Johnson for our Millennial Money series, which profiles people around the world and details how they earn, spend and save their money.
Here’s a look at each of their monthly budgets, as well as their mindsets toward money.
Bukola Ayodele makes over $200,000 a year
“I make sure that every single month I am allocating a little bit of money to hit my long-term goals,” says Ayodele, a 25-year-old software engineer who works in fintech. She makes $210,000 per year and lives in New York City.
One of her goals is to become financially independent, in keeping with the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement. She hopes to eventually earn enough off her investments to cover all of her monthly costs, even if she chooses not to retire early.
Ayodele is able to save $7,625 each month. She contributes $42 to her health savings account, $1,583 to her 401(k), $2,000 to a high-yield savings account and $4,000 to a brokerage account.
The rest of her salary goes toward housing, donations to her family, food, beauty, clothes, transportation, subscriptions and utilities.
Roy Patterson saves thousands per month
Roy Patterson is a 31-year-old IT project management lead at Cigna Health who lives in Philadelphia and makes $118,000 per year.
Patterson spends around $6,000 per month, $3,111 of which he puts into savings and investments.
Patterson’s biggest splurge is on skin care, which he considers a key part of his self-care routine. His product of choice: Biologique Recherche Lotion P50, which costs more than $100 for an 8.4 ounce bottle.
In total, Patterson spends around $630 a month on discretionary expenses, including travel, skincare, clothes and entertainment.
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Brieonna Johnson travels back and forth between two cities
Brieonna Johnson is a 29-year-old live-in nanny who makes $175,000 a year working in both New York City and Atlanta. Before the pandemic, she flew back and forth between cities each week.
“Usually I work seven days straight in New York City, then in Atlanta I’d work anywhere from three to five days,” Johnson says. Her boyfriend works for an airline, which allows her to fly free on standby, but if she ever has to wait more than a few hours for a flight, the family she works for in New York will cover the cost of the flight.
However, since the pandemic started, Johnson hasn’t been working directly with the New York family. She was put on paid leave and continues to earn her $130,000 base salary. She also earns $30,000 a year from the family in Atlanta and $15,000 per year as a travel nanny and a newborn child specialist.
Each month, Johnson puts away $1,925 of her salary into savings, split between a Roth IRA, Simple IRA and Digit. She’s also aggressively paying off debt; another $4,325 goes toward her student loans and credit card debt.
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Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.
