Before we get into today’s Home Ec, The Purse is teaming up with Yahoo for a story on how much your teen is spending on prom night this year! We want to hear about everything from prom-posal supplies to the cost of the corsage! Fill out this form if you’re interested in sharing your story! Alicia will be reaching out!
I know we’ve featured a few eye-popping incomes recently in Home Economics (see the Houston lawyer, the Brooklyn lawyer, and the Chicago wealth strategist), and while I like to make sure we have a mix of locations and incomes, today’s entry was too interesting to pass up.
We don’t often hear people talk about the culture shock that happens when you grow up lower middle class but find yourself, as a young adult, pursuing a high-powered career that lands you among the one percent of top earners. What is it like when your parents can’t relate to your lifestyle, in part because you’re not yet 30, and you already earn eight times their annual income?
Today’s Home Economics isn’t a “woe is me” story—not by a long shot—but it is interesting to hear how the writer’s early drive and ambition took her from a lower-middle-class childhood in the rural Southwest to a prep school in Europe to an Ivy League university to a high-paying job in tech.
“It was a mix of luck and hard work,” she told me on the phone.
That luck and hard work have certainly paid off—and today she's in the enviable position of earning such a significant income that she’s able to experiment with what she enjoys spending money on in an effort to get to a place where she understands what’s worth the expense to her and what’s not.
But she’s also incredibly thoughtful with her finances, investing a big chunk of her monthly income with the goal of potentially being able to go “work optional” by her late 30s.
Want to share your Home Economics? Fill out the form here! We’d love to have entries from New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina!
Age: 29
Location: New York City
Relationship status: Single
About me: I’m a young-ish, high-income, New York City-based tech worker. I grew up middle class in the rural Southwest, and I am the first in my family to go to college. After college, I started my career in NYC, and these days I’m focused on building my career and thinking about how I want to use my money in the long term.
Income:
- Your job title/salary: Staff data scientist, $305,000 base salary, and in 2025, I received a $76,000 bonus and $244,000 in restricted stock units (RSUs).
- Your monthly take-home pay (paycheck amount after taxes and other deductions): $15,600
- Additional monthly income: I don’t consider my RSUs as part of my day-to-day budgeting. Once they vest each quarter, I sell them for cash and then opt to have 40% withheld. (NYC taxes are no joke!) Everything leftover goes straight to my brokerage. My company’s stock price has fluctuated some since I started the job, but it’s currently up ~20%.
- Total monthly income: $15,600
