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Law student here. How about this, with a salary of 1 lakh per month salary at hand and minimum 50K bonus annually?

1. Save 10% of the salary at the outset. So, Rs 10K a month. Put 5K in savings, 2K in a flexi FD and 3K in some sort of investment plan based on your risk appetite.

2. Living costs minus rent: Spend 20% of the salary . Thus, 20K on food, clothes, petrol, OTT subscriptions etc.

3. Car: Spend 20% (20K) of the salary per month to repay EMI on a car worth Rs 7.5 lakhs.

4. Spend 10% (10K) of the salary a month on luxury goods like iPhone, Swiss watch, expensive shoes and expensive suits. That's not enough, so maybe buy an iPhone through an EMI model and a second-hand Swiss watch.

5. Spend 30% of the salary on rent. Thus, 30K.

6. Finally, 10% of the salary (10K a month) + Rs 50K bonus on the girlfriend. Assuming moderate maintenance, save 2K a month for her birthday present (Rs 20,000) and remaining 8K a month should cover coffee at Starbucks every week and 1 dinner a month at a reasonable restaurant. The 50K bonus should cover 6 dinners a year at a 5 star hotel.

How's this for a plan?
hey i'm also a student, but wouldn't you save more? and do you need a car right away?
Car is a essential dude, plus salary is bound to go up, one reco that I have is avoid lifestyle inflation else you will be doomed
Not in Mumbai! I used to be stuck in Parel traffic for hours. Finding parking spaces is painful unless you are going to a mall. I got so tired of being in traffic for 3-4 hours a day that I started taking the local! Living in Bandra. Working in Colaba
Please save more. 10% is nowhere close to enough. Should be at least 30%. cut down on unnecessary luxuries at this stage. And please don't have a car in Mumbai. It's a nightmare.
Suggest you cut back on the OTT subscriptions- you won’t have any time for them. Same with point 6, no time and you don’t sound like you got much rizz anyway.
Re savings, you can increase it buy not buying a car and using car pool or taxis instead.

Re OTT, just use pirated sites. You can get all the OTT content you want for free.

Re luxury watches, you can use Fossil or Tissot as a junior. People won't say anything.

Re girlfriend, she should pay the bills also, at least sometimes.
Bro you're not in college anymore, you can't just pirate. Its very embarrassing when your colleagues come over, and you want to watch the match/show/movie and you plug in some hard drive or laptop to the TV. You should have the latest OTT subscriptions on your smart TV (Hotstar, Netflix, Prime, Apple TV+) so that you can just turn it on, while your guests can take out cold beers from the fridge, and then sit around the couch to chill.
Ha ha, good comment! What a wuss! Babes, everyone watches pirated movies and streams coz it's too fucking expensive. The govt is squeezing every last drop of money from middle class people as income tax, to appease farmers with subsidies. So I'm not gonna give money to billionaire companies like Disney and Amazon.
When did LI become to plebian? This used to be a forum for the successful lawyers, and the soon-to-be successful lawyers. Now people are venerating piracy, when in reality it's (a) wrong, unfair to creators, and (b) cheap behaviour, which won't get you far; once you join a law firm, you shouldn't continue to have your middle-class college value system. You should aspire to a better lifestyle. An A0 can easily afford a nice smart TV in a few months, so why cheap out on OTT subscriptions? Like the post above said, you'll appreciate it once you have your work colleagues over for chilling scenes (that's how you network, build contacts). Ultimately in this profession, those that do that end up succeeding, those that treat law firms like tech jobs end up plateauing around SA/PA.

So if you really want the Partner cabin, then buck up and conduct yourself accordingly - dress well, be groomed, eat well, be seen at the right places, join the right clubs.
(1) too low, you won't even beat inflation with this sort of low savings rate

(2) too low, if you have anything close to the ideal T1 networking/social life

(3) this is a waste - why would you invest in a depreciating asset in a city like Mumbai (that too early career when its just your commute)

(4) what luxury goods will you get with 10K a month? Don't even think about going down that route till you make more money (A3/SA onwards)

(5) too low for any respectable neighborhood in Mumbai, with a practical commute to the office

(6) no comment on this buffoonery
My friend, you doing good. Adjust according as things fall out from the plan.

But here are few observations -

Short answer: Avoid car and increase investments, rest looks good for a happening life....enjoy it.

Long answer:1. Getting a car might not be the best financial decision. In a city like Bombay it can also be mentally exhausting to drive in such traffic.

2. Bumping up savings could help but not at the cost of living life in your early years. Having money to enjoy with your partner/friends holds higher value than putting it in a 7% FD and sitting alone at home.

3. Investments:

3k investments is very less to be honest. You have to start the magic of compounding at the early stage of life, hence adding a bit more could boost your savings substantially in the future. Try aiming it towards 15-25k per month depending on how happening life is during each month.

Further, instead of keeping savings in your bank account replace it with FD (unless you need that money in coming 1.5 years).

Also, you could be better off to not count bonus as your income for this financial planning as it will help you be more conservative.
How is this for a plan? - "Terrible" and "Amateur"

One suggestion - Please invest in educating yourself in managing finance.
Hi, I have a Boyfriend who back in the day (2021) made 35k in hand and I made 18k with my stipend. Ofc we live with our parents and hence food/utilities were taken care of by them.

Our dates include going to decent 3 star restauarants once a month where the cost of 2 would not exceed 1200/-. We went for movies once in 4 - 6 months because we were aware that it would cost us 500 pp. Both of us chose to invest in medium term and long term stocks and other investment instruments. Gifts were minimal for each other. We took a short trip to lonavala. We were well aware that the sacrifices we made were only temporary and definately worth a secure future.

Today our incomes have multifolded. Our medium term stocks are giving us returns (40% and upwards). Yet, there has not been a much change in our lifestyle barring the fact that earlier we used to plan our weekend dates and now we are planning our Wedding which is in Feb 2024
40%? Kuch bhi. Also girl careful putting in joint investments with ur boyfriend, things do go wrong and it's huge costs.
Axis Bank - Invested when it was trading around 700 in 2021, now its at 1020, IRCTC - invested at 350, look at it now and few more.

Just to clarify on investments - Our investments are in our own individual names, we do a lot a research on stocks and attend Finance and Wealth Creation Seminars
Congrats ❀️ You sound like a sensible girl and you both seem to make a nice couple!
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