A Week In Greater Boston Area On A $185,000 Salary

This Money Diary was written in the summer of 2025.

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Occupation: Data Engineer
Industry: Technology/engineering
Age: 27
Location: Greater Boston Area
Salary: $185,000
Joint Income/Financial Setup: Our joint income is $360,000. We share a SoFi savings account and use it to pay our joint expenses.

Personal Assets
Chase Checking: $5,289.44
Ally Savings: $5,101.90
Ally Investments: $59,213.36
Fidelity retirement accounts: $128,204.57 (I have just about every single type of retirement account you can possibly have because I was self-employed while working a full-time job for the first year after college).
401k: $52.084.27 (from my current job that I'm soon leaving).
HSA: $7,896.48

Joint Assets
SoFi Savings: $34,611.71
Condo: $532,438 (according to Redfin).
Car: $10,000
Debt: $335,324.33 (mortgage).
Paycheck Amount (2x month): $4471.5 (after taxes, health insurance, and contributions to retirement accounts).
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses
Housing Costs: $2406.09 (for a condo my fiancé and I own).
Loan Payments: $0
Netflix: $7.99
Classpass: $55
Pet insurance: $18
Utilities: $70-450 (winter is brutal for the cost of utilities in Boston).
Internet: $45
Phone: $0 (I'm on a family plan).
Savings: I automate $1000 per month from my checking account to my savings account, but I had to pause this to pay down all the wedding vendor deposits, which halved my savings account.

Yearly Expenses
Botanical Garden Patron Membership: $300
Exponent Membership: $100
Chase Sapphire Preferred Fee: $95

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 dad is a professor/researcher who has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, and my mom got her Bachelor's degree in Math. They were both first-gen college students. I got my B.S. in Math and Physics and my M.S. in Data Analytics. I had a full-ride scholarship in undergrad in addition to attending a college where my dad taught, and that gave me free tuition. The leftover money from the scholarship just went straight to me, and I used most of it for my half of the down payment for my mortgage.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
We didn't have conversations; it was mostly my mom yelling at us saying I couldn't go to my friends' birthday parties because she couldn't afford a gift. While my dad was doing his PhD, money was extremely tight since he was making $28K. A lot of the time we would just eat instant ramen for dinner and McDonald's for road trips (back when McDonald's was actually cheap). I don't think my parents were the worst with money, but you can't budget your way out of poverty. My younger sister is 10 years younger than me and grew up in a far more lavish lifestyle than I did because my dad then got a six-figure job and my family bought a house. I had to educate myself on things like 401ks and stocks using the internet. I watched YouTube videos from Graham Stephan (whom I find a little problematic now), but it was still helpful to start, even if his advice isn't perfect. I think that's the biggest lesson I learned from my financial journey that kind of applies to everything: it's important to just start.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was the summer right before college working as an international cultural adjustment coordinator for the university I attended to help international graduate students adapt to life in the U.S. The hiring manager said I got the job because I was trilingual (English, Mandarin, and Spanish). This meant mostly translating and filling out paperwork, but I also led several workshops on etiquette and slang, which was kind of fun, and I learned a lot about Indian culture since many of the grad students were Indian. It's a job I've been doing for my parents for my whole life so it was pretty easy. I applied for the job for extra spending money and because I get bored easily and wanted to leave the house.

Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes, it was a constant worry since my mom never had a full-time job growing up. At times, I resented her for it because all of my other friends were in dual-income families (and upper-middle class) and for most of my childhood, we were under the poverty line because my dad was a PhD student (that income is not meant to support a family). I thought with her Bachelor's degree in Math, she could get a job as a math teacher but she was never able to pass the exams. Now I understand it's very difficult to get a job, especially if English isn't your first language, and she wanted to devote her full attention to her three kids.

Do you worry about money now?
A little, but logically speaking, I know I shouldn't be. A couple of months ago I was so frustrated with my past job that I was about to just quit and look for a job full-time, but then I got an offer and started a new job. So I guess I feel comfortable quitting my job without one lined up nowadays.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I was financially responsible for myself since I was 18 because I had income from scholarships, internships, and the tuition waiver. I have money in two savings accounts and my fiancé is another source of income I can rely on if I really hate my job and want to quit.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Other than the little dividends I get in stock, no. My fiancé's dad will give us $30,000 for the wedding next year if that counts.

9 a.m. — I log into work (I have a remote job) and find out there are four new bugs. My manager told us to be less perfectionist about our code and now she's surprised that when we lower our standards, it creates issues somehow — but I manage to fix two of them and the other two I assign to someone else.

12 p.m. — I buy some more Band-Aids for a first-aid kit because my cat scratched my fiancé, L. and I. Not sure what happened when we were gone on a weekend trip, but normally she's very sweet and doesn't scratch anyone. $29.00

5 p.m. — I buy a wedding seating chart sign on Etsy after they gave me a 10% off coupon and I got paid $2.07 from Google surveys. $14.00

9 a.m. — I log into work again. I eat the leftover Greek food (pork, cucumber, and tomato rice pilaf) that L. brought back from work while checking my emails.

9:30 a.m. — I buy Ed Sheeran tickets at Gillette Stadium for next year! I end up waiting in line for 30 minutes in the presale but it was totally worth it. L. and I are going to the concert with his mom and dad, who are Ed Sheeran fans that have gone to every concert he's had in the Boston area! Parking will be a challenge so L. and I might end up taking the T to Back Bay and then the commuter rail to avoid the traffic after the concert. $600.00

5 p.m. — L. and I head out to celebrate our 8th anniversary at an Italian place. I order the bolognese and L. orders the spicy rigatoni, which has a really interesting flavor. We get a chocolate lava cake and tiramisu for dessert since it's our anniversary. I'm so grateful he's in my life; he helped me find a new job by doing all the chores while I was preparing for coding interviews and he also supported me through my health issues and drove me to all my endocrinology appointments. I was diagnosed three months ago with Graves' disease, which causes hyperthyroidism. He's also very hot! I always thought that couples eventually lose their attraction to each other, but luckily for us, that's not the case. I always felt that it was okay if I didn't have the best job or parents as long as I have the best partner. Most of the good things in my life have been because of him, directly or indirectly, and we see eye to eye on all the important things. $90.00

9 a.m. — Same as the previous days! I eat some of the leftover Italian food from yesterday. The bolognese was almost as good reheated and I had some spicy broccolini, too. I don't really eat traditional breakfasts and lunches, so I'll usually eat a brunch whenever I have time during work.

5:30 p.m. — I order a pad see ew, drunken noodles, and Panang curry for L., his work friend E., and me on Uber Eats from a local Thai place. I walk to it in like three minutes to pick it all up. $48.06

7 p.m. — I buy a day pass at a climbing gym to go climbing with L. and E. I'm still very sore from a hike from last weekend, so I don't climb too much, but it was fun to catch up with E. since him and L. recently went to Chicago for an electronic dance music concert. $30.00

9 a.m. — I log into work and eat some leftover Thai food. I swear we don't normally get takeout/eat out every day, but it's our anniversary this week. Also, with my illness, it's really hard for me to work up the motivation to cook a meal from scratch after a full day of working.

12 p.m. — Today is my little brother's birthday. I give him an Uber Eats gift card to buy whatever he wants to eat for his birthday. Last year, I bought him Airpod Pros, so this year I'm spending a little less since he really doesn't need anything and I also need to buy him a graduation gift and pay for part of my wedding. He's starting his last year of college and already got a full-time return offer! His manager gave him a senior software engineer position because he was so impressed but also told him to keep interviewing for better offers. I didn't even know that was possible and wish I had a supportive manager like that. $100.00

5 p.m. — I FaceTime with my brother, P. and talk about my new job and my illness. He asks me a lot of questions about my illness, which I know he does out of concern, but I'm honestly tired of talking about it since it's always on my mind nowadays, so I change the conversation to his PhD applications. I'm hoping he will do his PhD at a school in the Boston area, but it sounds like he would rather be in the Bay Area closer to family. We'll see what happens next year.

9 a.m. — I head to Dunkin' to work and get a matcha latte and a BLT. The matcha is a little too sweet for my taste. I have some Amex Gold card credit (which I canceled this year but still have some remaining funds in the Dunkin' app) so I figure I should use it before I forget it's there. Because this is the Boston area, there's a Dunkin' just three minutes away from me. Once, when I was at Logan Airport, there was this guy who almost missed his flight and had to be called three times because he was getting Dunkin' coffee for his whole family. The weirdest thing is that JetBlue serves free Dunkin' coffee anyways, so I don't know why he risked missing his flight for something he could've gotten one hour later, but everyone was cheering him on when he ran back to the terminal with four Dunkin' coffees in his hands. It was the most Bostonian thing I'd ever experienced to date! $10.00

12 p.m. — I'm back home and a window technician comes by to give a quote on fixing some windows that aren't properly aligned. He says he has to talk to his boss and research material costs, so he leaves without giving an estimated cost. I'm sure I'll hear back next week, though.

5 p.m. — I cancel my Canva free trial, which I used to its full extent to plan wedding decor, save the dates, invites, and signs. I don't need the premium features anymore since I've finished designing everything. Now I'm going to wait until June to print out the invites.

9 a.m. — I continue my tutorials on Apache Airflow and Astronomer (yes, the company that was allegedly involved in that Coldplay cheating scandal, which they're now saying wasn't an affair). It seems like my new job is going to be very demanding and they're giving me two big projects (which I'm very happy about because my last job never gave me meaningful work) that require me to use Astronomer. I find it so much easier to learn on the weekends and tech is a never-ending hamster wheel of learning. I always try to study in the mornings and then do fun stuff later on in the day.

1:30 p.m. — I go to apple picking with a couple friend of ours. M. and I met at a board game meet-up and we instantly bonded being board game nerds and both working in tech. Her boyfriend, P., tags along for everything we do, so I figured, why not invite L., too, so I'm not a third wheel. I pick up some apple cider, veggies, and fruits at the farm stall to eat next week. My favorite apple is Macintosh. I get the BEST apple cider donuts (the perfect amount of crispiness on the outside with soft, warm dough on the inside, and they get the sugar/cinnamon ratio just right, too). I go on a hay ride, stare at some pumpkins, and stomp on some leaves. Man, do I love fall in New England. $30.00

6 p.m. — We stop by a Mexican restaurant and get some birria and al pastor tacos. I'm always a little annoyed when a restaurant charges extra for the birria consomé because, in my opinion, it's not a birria taco without consomé. It's the new charging extra for guac on a burrito. I'm not that hungry after the donuts, so I share with L. Delicious. It's a wonderful end to a great day! $8.00

9 a.m. — I wake up and just have some cereal. I put on makeup and get dressed. My future mother-in-law arrives, so we take the T into Back Bay to go wedding dress shopping! She has three sons and no daughters, so I invited her to my dress appointment because I knew that would make her really happy. And I want her to be happy because not only does it make L. happy, I also just really like her as a person because she's really kind and thoughtful. This is also her first wedding dress shopping experience ever, which surprises me because she has so many sisters and friends who have all gotten married!

12 p.m. — To be honest, it doesn't start off well because the attendant called me a week before and complained that I'd booked the 12 p.m. appointment and she wanted to move it, which was no longer possible because I'd made plans around it. I told her that I was sorry but in future she should block off that time and not make it available on the website if you didn't want people to schedule it then.

1 p.m. — It's quite a workout getting in and out of the dresses. I'm not the biggest fan of white dresses and I'll admit I'm very picky when it comes to fashion, so none of the dresses speak to me even though I've tried on 15 dresses in the hour and a half appointment slot, and I'm feeling burnt out towards the end. Before this appointment, there's been many days where I've browsed Teuta Matoshi's website and look at all the beautiful, whimsical dresses. I did find this Teuta Matoshi butterfly midi white dress that I really want to wear for my wedding, so I think I'll just take the plunge and order it online.

1:30 p.m. — My future mother-in-law, some friends and I get the lunch specials at Thai Basil, which is this cozy Thai place in a basement on Newbury Street, and probably one of the most affordable restaurants in the area. I love it and come here all the time because the lunch special is delicious and comes with dumplings and chicken Panang curry with rice, and it feels healthy-ish. Their Thai tea is also amazing! It's also great for bringing my vegetarian and vegan friends because they have a lot of options. I don't think you can find a better deal in Back Bay. There's also a lot of chains in the area, so I like supporting a family-run restaurant. $18.00

5 p.m. — I spend $35 on Moida (a K-beauty website) to buy some skincare replacements and makeup for my upcoming engagement shoot! It will be my first time ever getting professional photos and I'm extremely unphotogenic. As one of my male professors pointed out to me once, telling me, "You are so much hotter than your profile picture." I just laughed it off and told him I got that picture taken after walking in the rain so I didn't look my best. He was in charge of my grade and was known for failing people for petty reasons, so I'm a little nervous about how it will go. But our photographer is very skilled and I trust her to take good photos even though I'm a terrible model. $35.00

"I think I spent significantly more than usual because I ate out a lot, but I regret nothing because I had a lot of fun. I've gone through a lot of stressful events in the past two months, so I was able to blow off some steam. Recording my spending was difficult but also fun. I may have missed a couple of small things or not mentioned everything I ate, but it was a fun exercise recording my money diary. I'll try to eat out less for my health and wallet's sake. I don't regret getting concert tickets, though; life is too short not to enjoy yourself."