A Week In Los Angeles On A $140,000 Salary

Occupation: Engineering supervisor
Industry: Automotive
Age: 30
Location: Los Angeles
Salary: $140,000 (this is base only. This year I’m projected to get around $65k in RSUs, pre-tax. I do get a yearly bonus but it’s not guaranteed — this year I got 9% on top of base salary).
Assets: Checking accounts: $2,225; emergency fund (HYSA): $7,500; travel fund (HYSA): $2,200; emergency fund investment account: $5,334; house savings investment account: $12,863; company stock account: $36,000; 401(k): $83,500; Roth IRA: $98,383; HSA savings and investments: $21,000.
Debt: $13,000 in undergraduate loans (I paid off my car a few months ago).
Paycheck amount (2x/month or 26x/year): $2,475 — this is post-taxes and deductions but pre-personal savings allocations.
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Housing costs: $1,915. I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment that I’m renting.
Loan payments: $242 (student loans).
Therapy: $480 (this therapist doesn’t take insurance).
Electricity & home gas: $50-$90 between summer and winter.
Cell phone & internet: $140
HBO Max: $18 (I share this with a bunch of people and they share Netflix, Disney+ etc. with me).
NY Times subscription: $20 (my Amex Platinum reimburses me for this every month so I don’t see it as a monthly cost but it rolls into the fee I pay every year).
Disneyland Magic Key pass: $70.75
Barry’s/Yoga class packs: $100, roughly? I’ll spend $250 at a time and it’ll last for a while. I was paying too much for unlimited memberships that I wasn’t utilizing enough for payoff.
House fund: $500
Emergency fund: $500
ESPP: $1,090
Pre-tax deductions: 401(k): $1,770; HSA: $300; health insurance: $28.

Renter’s insurance: $365
Auto insurance: $1,600
Chase Sapphire Preferred card: $95
Amex Platinum card: $695
Donations: $300 (I’ll usually donate to my friends’ and family’s causes whenever they’re doing fundraising, so around $25-$50 here and there throughout the year.)

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, my grandparents were doctors outside of the US and immigrated here with their children. My parents were born with an impairment that makes it incredibly difficult for people with the condition to work white-collar jobs — normally they’re supporting themselves through social security or working hourly service work where they don’t interact with many people — but my mom got two associate degrees and my dad got a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. When I visited their home countries with them as an adult it was clear how fortunate I am and feel to be a US citizen, compared to the conditions of the generations before me. For me, it felt like there was no other path. I did an undergraduate degree at a liberal arts school, which was mostly funded by scholarships I earned (plus needs-based) and my dad supported housing expenses. I also worked on campus every year to have some additional spending money.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
I got my first debit card and savings account around the time I was 10/11 and around then I learned about overdraw fees/too many transfers out of my savings account. My parents talked a little bit about saving for the future, saving for things that are important to me, along with other family members who gave money for Christmas/birthdays, but there wasn’t much conversation about the real cost of living expenses and how far the dollar goes or how to stretch it. They kind of let me do what I wanted with my money and saw how I spent it mostly on hobbies, clothes and personal food growing up. In many ways, my older sister and I were spokespeople for our parents when coordinating returns at stores or advocating for the lower price on the shelf versus checkout but I was never really engaged with what all of that meant for our family around money. I also never really asked for money outside of school necessities growing up, instead earning what I needed from my jobs. My parents paid for my car insurance, I paid for my own gas and basically everything else.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
I checked tickets at the tubing area at our local ski resort when I was 14. I wanted some spending money and a free season pass to learn how to snowboard. My parents never asked but sometimes I paid for our meals out, just because.

Did you worry about money growing up?
I don’t think I totally understood the degree of our family troubles growing up, even though it was mentioned to me. I didn’t fully have a concept of how much things cost relative to my parents’ incomes but I accepted the “nos” that were given to me pretty easily. I never felt like we were struggling even though I’m sure my parents were, looking back as an adult. My mom got pregnant with my younger sister somewhere in the early stages or right before my dad stopped working for an aerospace company and so it was a single-earning household for four years, right after the dotcom bubble burst, when I was aged 6 to 10. My dad ended up getting a job and moved across the country — we were meant to follow at some point but we never did. Somehow they still afforded to give me an allowance every quarter when I got good grades.

Do you worry about money now?
I do in this climate. While I know I’d be okay for a while if I were to get laid off, I worry about homeownership, having kids, and my parents’ ability to sustain themselves in retirement. I’m a little anxious in general but these things are definitely very present for me as my parents enter their mid-60s; I think about what it would look like to send them small monthly allowances once they retire.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I would say I became fully financially responsible for myself when I got my first post-degree job. I got off the family cell phone plan within a few months and was covering my rent and utilities. I have never asked for money since getting my first job. My dad and I went on a few international trips where he supported more of any shared expenses like lodging and groceries/restaurants, though I definitely chipped in for some expenses. Now we take turns more evenly on expenses and I will offer to pay for more meals with my parents and get them nicer Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/birthday gifts etc. I think my dad would help if I lost my job and if I really, really needed it, but I have a decent emergency fund and could sell investments to support myself for quite a while before I would ever ask them.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Every once in a while during undergrad, my grandmother would send me $100. My dad sent me $800 one summer for living costs at an unpaid internship. I don’t expect any money to come in upon any family deaths and don’t really want to plan on it.

5:15 a.m. — Alarm goes off. I try to get up early to avoid traffic on the way for my egg-freezing checkup appointment. I actually get up 10 minutes later, make coffee, eat a tortilla and lie on my couch and close my eyes for a little bit. I feel bloated! What did I wear to the last appointment, are they going to notice I’m wearing the same pants? Out the door at 6 a.m. I close my eyes for a little bit while parked outside the clinic, waiting for my appointment.

7:15 a.m. — Blood work and ultrasound. It’s day five of hormone shots and my reproductive health team wants to see how my follicles are developing for egg retrieval next week. I look at my investment accounts and the markets are down this morning. I track my net worth every month and I’m down $5,000. I love seeing progress month to month. Get back home at 8:15 a.m., log on and check emails. There are a couple of things from my boss to follow up on with my team. Whip up a hash brown, two breakfast sausages and two eggs mixed with spinach, cottage cheese and some nutritional yeast and ketchup before a quick team meeting.

4 p.m. — Late lunch after a meeting with my boss to talk about my team’s performance reviews after a recent structural change, and also how to balance the needs of the business with the career growth they’re looking for. He sells me on the structural changes opening up their time to take on side projects, which is what I’m interested in, too, by way of wanting to expand my team’s technical work. I also sit in on a listening meeting unrelated to my team’s areas just to see how my “competition” is doing (just kidding!) and have another 1:1 with a relatively new manager on how we’ll transition some of my team’s less exciting work over to them so that he and his team can experience some growth as well. I make pasta with cottage cheese, spinach, roasted garlic and a little lemon juice, inspired by some Instagram videos I saw and the new food processor I got earlier this month!

7 p.m. — Shots o’clock! These go so much more easily compared to the first day but nervousness always has me use antiseptic wipes on my skin twice in between shots.

9 p.m. — My on-again, off-again girlfriend, M., comes over to talk. She brings a Domino’s pizza and I grab a small slice. We’ve been trying to iron out issues all day but I feel like we’ve finally got to a place where we’ve been able to really hear each other lately. Things could be better, but growth? We don’t get to bed until midnight.

6:45 a.m. — I wake and turn around and doze for a little longer.

7:45 a.m. — I log on and see that my direct report asked for the day off sick because of a migraine this morning. I move our quarterly performance review to tomorrow and assign some work to another direct report.

9 a.m. — Breakfast! I have some of the leftover sauce from last night and throw it into my eggs, hash brown and sausage mix.

12 p.m. — Slow morning spent working on my own and my direct reports’ performance review, reviewing paperwork that my team worked on for approvals, and making weekend plans with M. I reach out to another supervisor to coordinate a mini work trip to support my newest hire with a hands-on learning opportunity with his downstream colleagues. My hormone medication refills came in on ice this morning and I put them away in the fridge. USA versus Zambia women’s soccer game! Heat up a slice of pizza with my air fryer during half time. I love Naomi Girma and it’s great to see Mal Swanson kill it! The team looks a little bumpy and is a pretty young team this year but definitely a different feel and play from last year’s World Cup.

4:30 p.m. — We deep clean my apartment for two hours in preparation for my mom coming in a couple days. Wow, it’s been a long time since I put stuff away. M. is really great at organizing and helps me prioritize what makes sense to keep out, what makes sense to keep more-or-less accessible and where things can be consolidated and harder to access. I moved into this apartment two years ago but I’ve never really been great at figuring out a good system and each item’s “home”. I feel slightly embarrassed and naked having her help me sort through a box with old ear plugs, craft projects I never finished and old retainers from when I did Invisalign. These are boxes I moved with but never sorted through. Organization is really hard for me!

6:30 p.m. — We take an ice cream break by the beach, my treat. It seems more expensive than it should be. $23.98

8 p.m. — M. watches as I do my shots, then we tackle my desk and take out the trash. I pack up some things and my medication to go over to her place. We stop at Costco for gas to fill up our respective cars. $41.75

10 p.m. — I notice a pimple on my face, which I don’t normally get. It must be the hormones. I eat another slice of pizza before taking a shower, giggling with M. about different ways to kiss each other. We go to bed around 11:30 p.m.

5:30 a.m. — Wake up for more blood work and another ultrasound today.

7:15 a.m. — Seven follicles in the 11-12mm range, so things are coming along for retrieval around next Thursday. I worry they’re still so small, since my care team said we should be on the lookout for 14-15mm ones but as big as 20mm, but I guess I also have a lot that are developing? A woman from my care team doesn’t seem concerned so I’m just trusting the process and my body and that things will happen the way they’re supposed to. I drink a coffee while there and think about getting McDonald’s because I’m hungry. I decide to wait to make breakfast at M.’s place.

8 a.m. — Toast a bagel with cream cheese, red onions and lox, fry up a hash brown and two sunny-side-up eggs, one with red onion and parmesan, the other with cottage cheese, and add a little ketchup to top. I love breakfast.

11 a.m. — Slow-moving morning. A team meeting, some women’s soccer replays and the opening ceremony. It’s very performance-based, which is interesting and dramatic emotionally but less cinematic per se? I eat some of a Mediterranean salad kit from Trader Joe’s and sprinkle over diced red onions after I finish talking with my direct report on her performance review. She shares that she got engaged last week! I’m really happy for her. I asked her about career growth and she gives me an answer that’s very doable, within my scope and easy to support, so I also feel happy because I know it won’t be difficult to manage the politics to give her opportunities to do so.

3 p.m. — I make a grilled cheese panino with turkey and three different kinds of cheese while watching the France versus Colombia soccer replay.

6 p.m. — Nap while M. goes to the spa.

8 p.m. — Shots and dinner! I have a beef tamale with cottage cheese and two Trader Joe’s taquitos. I put on this fun, permanent-style temporary tattoo that lasts for a couple weeks, something we found while cleaning yesterday and a style my little sister picked out. I put it on my boob just for fun. It says “resilience”, lol. A bit “live, laugh, love” but I don’t care. It’s very much something my little sister is all about and as corny as it is, I support her!

7 a.m. — Up and leave at 8 a.m. for dim sum with my cousin’s family. Her boyfriend treats us all.

12 p.m. — Traffic through LA this morning; must be a Dodgers game.

2 p.m. — M. and I do a quick bowling game on our way back to my apartment. I pay for us. I make three times more than her in salary alone so I pay for more of our dates; she’ll pay for dinner on occasions or other activities, and we usually split expenses for trips together. I win our game by nine points but I started out with a few gutter balls, haha. Her softball skills did her well. We made a bet so now I win a home-cooked meal. $26

3 p.m. — Traffic is still heavy to drive back to my place so we go grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. I pick up cumin, spinach, cilantro, diced tomatoes, scallions, a salad bag and shredded cheddar. $15.93

4:30 p.m. — We stay at M.’s place to wait out the traffic. I’m missing half of my ingredients to make the black bean tortilla soup for both of us that I had planned for tonight, so I make breakfast for dinner: two eggs with cottage cheese and avocado, one and a half hash browns, a bagel and lox and onion. I’m in the middle of marathon training. I did a half marathon two weeks ago and paused for this egg-freezing process. My appetite seems to be hanging around even though I’ve cut back a lot.

7 p.m. — Shots! M. takes some pictures; I imagine showing my future children this if I use these to conceive. We drive back to my place with her car around 8 p.m. and go to bed by 10:30 p.m.

6:30 a.m. — Up! Coffee by 7 a.m. and M. and I hang out until 8:30 a.m. We notice some bruising where my injections were over the last couple of nights. She made a joke about something last night while one injection was going in and I started laughing so I have a little spot there now.

9 a.m. — I start making us breakfast burritos while watching the second half of the Brazil versus Japan women’s soccer game. What a second half! Brazil is leading, then Japan scores two goals in overtime: one penalty kick and a regular goal in the last two minutes. The breakfast burritos have two eggs each, a hash brown, two sausages, tomatoes, half an avocado, and I add corn, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and ketchup to mine.

10 a.m. — I watch a little of the Spain versus Nigeria game while we start organizing my kitchen cabinets. M. notices I’m slacking (lol) so I go over to the bathroom cabinet. I start with the extra toilet paper organization but ask for her help. She comes over and starts asking me to filter through old Sephora samples and all toiletries/makeup travel bags but I get overwhelmed and ask her to slow down while I’m trying to make decisions about throwing stuff away or keeping/reorganizing. I set some things aside to put in my overnight bag to leave at her place. We finish up the bathroom and come back to reorganizing the kitchen cabinets and finish up with sweeping, swiffering and wow, I have so much more space than I expected. It feels like a new apartment.

12 p.m. — USA versus Germany women’s game! Sophia Smith and Mal Swanson are killing it! This game feels different too — it all looks a little cleaner than their first game against Zambia. I have to remind myself to go back to watch the replay of Australia versus Zambia — 6-5! We order tacos from Guisados (they just opened up a store nearby). I get a squash and veggie taco, carne asada, chile relleno, and a chorizo and potato taco. M. pays and picks it up. I ride along and it’s nice to see the outside, haha. It’s a nice day today and I’m also really happy about Lynn Williams’ goal. So great to see her shine on the world stage!

2 p.m. — We clean, clean, clean and decide to reorganize my living room layout. The plants move to the windows and my seating arrangement and desk now face the natural light. My apartment feels so much more organic and I start to think about a new coffee table and some other storage solutions near my desk to keep things clear and minimal.

6:30 p.m. — Watch House of the Dragon, have dinner and do my shots. I microwave a Trader Joe’s green chile verde bowl with rice and add cilantro, corn, tomatoes, avocado, cottage cheese, red onion and some lemon juice to elevate it. I eat it as a bowl with the tortilla on the side. Yum! I add a Harmless Harvest coconut water afterwards to rehydrate and wash it all down.

7:30 p.m. — We drive back to M.’s place, I give her a massage and we go to bed.

5:45 a.m. — Up for my ultrasound and blood work! I make a coffee and am out the door by 6:15 a.m.

7:15 a.m. — I arrive and hang out for a while waiting for my appointment, talking to my dad about his summer plans and helping him cancel an Amazon subscription for wiper blades and ibuprofen, lol. He saved a couple dollars by setting these up but now he has 1,500 tablets of ibuprofen because he couldn’t figure out how to cancel. I send my rent payment while waiting and browse Reddit.

7:45 a.m. — Appointment — my follicles are getting really big! They say maybe we’ll do the trigger shot today or tomorrow, depending on what my blood work results show today. I ask a question about something they noticed a week ago in my tests that could affect pregnancy in the future. I want to know more about what it means and when should I address it. I come back out and see that I got a parking ticket. I forgot that paid street parking starts at 8 a.m. and usually the appointment is under 15 minutes. This one took a little longer and I miss the meter maid by four minutes. $63

9 a.m. — I get home, respond to some Slack messages that came in this morning and turn on the men’s gymnastics replay. These men are so precise with their muscle control. Really beautiful! I make another breakfast burrito.

4:30 p.m. — I missed lunch because we weren’t clear on when I would meet up with my mom and her boyfriend for dinner, so I snack on a tea cookie — a sealed box of them was resurrected from the clean-out this weekend.

5:15 p.m. — My mom and her boyfriend have flown down from the PNW to help me with the retrieval. I asked them to come because M. and I weren’t in a good place to do this together as partners (and we haven’t been dating that long). There’s a kind of generational healing that I feel like is happening by asking my mom for her support — and also by her giving this to me unconditionally. It felt nourishing to see how she and her boyfriend dropped everything to come down and be there for me, where I struggled to feel that from her during certain periods of my childhood. We go to a Salvadorian restaurant. We catch up and her boyfriend talks about his process doing two rounds of failed IVF with his ex-wife and eventually using a donor egg, because they started in their 40s. I pay for dinner because they came down here on such short notice — I literally had my initial appointment with my reproductive doctor two weeks ago, with my cycle starting the following week. Now was the right time to do this. $77

7 p.m. — I show my mom my new apartment arrangement and she watches me do my shots. She reflects about me and my sisters and our childbirth processes. She asks me if my dad knows about my egg-freezing and I say yes and she thinks about him as a grandpa and starts to think about herself as a grandma. I offer them a bottle of red wine, some snacks to bring home and some things I’ve been meaning to give her since I saw her earlier this year, like a beanie that I can’t wear since moving to LA that used to be her dad’s, a gift I brought back for her from vacation, and a gift card in the shape of fun memorabilia.

8 p.m. — Watch the first half of the Zambia versus Australia game. Banda and Kundananji really shine in this game.

7:30 a.m. — Up! I reheat my leftovers from last night with a fried egg on top. SO GOOD. I jump into meetings in a couple hours until 12:30 p.m. with weekly 1:1s and cross-functional team updates.

9 a.m. — I turn on the women’s team gymnastics final and watch it on and off between meetings.

3 p.m. — The day gets away from me with meetings and random side requests, coaching my direct reports through next steps and getting project updates, with some reprioritizations and working through a new process flow. I have a couple different group chats going with trying to plan group housing for Coachella for next year, friends who just got back from Europe before the Olympics, and potentially another girls’ trip next spring before Coachella. Exciting stuff! Because I missed lunch and can’t wait until dinner, I eat one third of a leftover tamale and a fluffy piece of bread, as well as leftovers from last night’s dinner.

4 p.m. — Leave early to get Vietnamese food with my mom and her boyfriend. We get in right before they close. It’s fresh and great. My mom comments on how walking into my apartment was like a wall of heat and she kept thinking about it yesterday and how uncomfortable I must be. I tell her I’m okay and have fans and she insists on getting me an air-conditioning unit, saying it’s only fair since she got my older sister one. She’s not going to let me say no, so I let her. We wander around a couple different plazas in the area while she looks to bring back lunch for tomorrow and we stop by Home Depot on our way back to look at air-conditioning units. We look at a few different models and I read reviews before picking one out.

7:30 p.m. — We head back and her boyfriend explains to me how it works, considerations for where we install it, and then helps me set it up. “Dad” things but he’s good about it because he doesn’t force his role as a dad/stepdad, just supports when asked. I feel really taken care of.

8:30 p.m. — Trigger shot for retrieval in 36 hours! Here we goooooo!