How a Sales Rep in Chicago Does Money

Allison (not her real name) is a 28-year-old sales rep in Chicago.

So, Allison, how much are you making?

Last year I hit about $110,000. This year it should be more, depending on how much business I close.

It’s an interesting model: I’m actually paid hourly (with overtime) but I get a commission check each quarter.

Do you have standard hours you’re required to be at the job? (Plus overtime?)

Well, 40 hours a week but I’ve been working closer to 50–60 hours lately. It’s been a little crazy, but the overtime is nice! (For the record, I make $47 an hour.)

One of my colleagues worked 78 hours last week, including travel, which is way out of the norm but who knows anymore.

The 78-hour workweek is the new 40-hour workweek!

I hope you print the dagger emoji here.

Yes, I get paid for all travel, basically from the moment I step out of my front door. You don’t book sleeping hours, obviously, but when I’m on the road I’m pretty much working all the time — driving to meetings, prepping at night, etc.

So I get paid for those hours, which is nice but also kind of sucks?

Yeah, we’ve definitely gotten into a culture of “it isn’t weird if I ask my employee to work every single hour they aren’t sleeping.”

My office/company is really competitive so that doesn’t help either. I know managers are trying to push more of a work/life balance, but I’m fairly new so I’m just working my tail off to make an impact early.

I think other people have it more figured out than I do.

Ha, I think a lot of adults think everyone else has it more figured out than they do. What specifically do you think other people have figured out? Time management? Priorities?

I mean I look back on my childhood and wonder how my parents got hot food on the table every. single. night. I can barely feed myself.

They had 20 extra hours a week, for starters.

Haha true. I’ve seriously considered getting a laundry service. When you are on the road so much the laundry piles up like crazy, and on the weekends I’d rather go see my friends and I don’t want to stick around for the entire cycle.

Same with cooking. I eat out… a lot. Between business dinners, expensed meals on the road, and late nights at the office I think I order out most of my food. I know I can save money by cooking and doing meal prep, but I can swing the costs for now.

I feel like that’s also what a lot of jobs… don’t necessarily expect or encourage, but they know you have that option. Culturally many of us are outsourcing more of the work we don’t have time to do ourselves.

Hence the gig economy.

I’m very lucky though in that I have no debt, so I definitely feel the financial pain of outsourcing way less than my peers.

So let’s talk about your income and expenses, then. You’ll earn over $110,000 this year and you have no debt. Where does this income go?

Oooh I just did my budget this weekend in YNAB. I can pull up pretty specific numbers, hold on…

Rent and utilities is about $1,000/month. This includes my renters insurance and my car insurance.

Gym is $80.

Food is $600; groceries and eating out and a sizable wine collection.

I have a “party fund” for fun stuff that’s 300/month; includes clothes, going out and boozing, and those random trips to Target that always end up being over $70.

The rest goes into savings buckets: down payment, vacation, friends’ wedding travel/presents, emergency.

Things change from month to month, and I don’t always stick to that $300 party fund, but I usually don’t blow it too far out of the water.

So how are you keeping rent and utilities under $1,000? Roommate or shared living situation?

I have roommates, yes, and we got a steal on a place.

I’m looking to buy this summer, which is completely stressful and time consuming and will be a HUGE increase in rent so I might actually put it off.

How long have you been saving up for the down payment?

Since my school loans were paid off, so… four years? I very aggressively paid off the loans.

I have the full 20 percent downpayment, which still shocks me every time I log into my bank account or TD Ameritrade haha.

I’m also lucky that my mom taught me a lot about budgeting and finances. I feel like I am much better off financially than most people my age?

How much of that do you think derives from family background, how much from your own personality, and how much from your income?

Well, I didn’t grow up rich. Solidly middle class. But that work ethic informs my personality.

I LOVE spreadsheets (I even used to play EVE Online… real talk haha) and that drive also set me up for a good career.

Sales is weird. You have to be able to construct the really big blow-out-your-number deals, but also keep up the daily grind of tiny, fast closing deals.

So… 60/40 between “background and personality” and “income.”

What do you think you do really well financially and what do you wish you could do better?

I’m a pretty good planner. I’m very goal oriented (hence all the bucket funds!) but I bleed on all the tiny purchases. An $8 Uber here, a $12 salad for lunch, $20 earrings, $80 for concert tickets.

I think this will probably make me sound like a huge asshole—which, I’m in sales so maybe I am haha—but I make enough money and live in a cheap enough city that it kind of doesn’t REALLY matter if I blow up my budget.

And you’re spending $300 of your roughly $10,000/monthly income on these fun expenses. THREE PERCENT.

Hahaha!

So yeah, three whole percent of your income is WASTED on the stuff that makes life enjoyable.

Okay see, but like, I mean holy shit I just did some math and my pre-tax without OT is $7,833. That is INSANE.

I am like, a net neutral to society. I feel like I should do better things with my money, and it’s so unfair that my friends who do more important work than I do are so broke.

Do you have a “charity” line in your YNAB?

I do. I actually don’t fund it —I just use it to track for taxes at the end of the year. Last year I donated about $1,000 across public radio, art institute memberships (BEST $75 ever), and my (broke) friends’ non-profits.

So you aren’t doing *nothing.* But yeah, I know what it feels like to want to do more.

I also haven’t asked you about retirement yet. Is that a 401(k)? Do you have any other investments?

I have a 401(k), a Roth, some stuff in an index fund, and an employee stock purchase program.

Six percent going to my 401(k), 10 percent to the ESPP, maxed out the Roth. I don’t really know what to do with the index fund money so it’s just hanging out, and I would put more in my 401(k) but the math was better to do the ESPP for now—and I think I might need the cash for the house purchase? So I don’t have a beautiful condo and like, one chair.

Hey, minimalism is in. Make sure that chair brings you joy.

Haha. That book did make me buy less clothes, though. Maybe I should apply it to my Ikea purchases.

Where do you hope to be financially in five years? You seem to be doing pretty well now, but… homeowner? Anything else?

Hmmm. Well, hopefully I will be married? And thinking about kids? So saving for that???

God, that’s terrifying.

It will be okay! You will figure it out as it happens.

Haha thanks!

So last question: what advice do you have for Billfold readers?

Oh god… uhhh… no one knows what they are doing so don’t be afraid to ask? I didn’t learn ALL of this from my mom, but also from my financially savvy friends (and my less savvy friends too haha).

We talk about money a lot, and pretty openly, which is unusual. We each know how much everyone is making and paying for rent, and copious usage of Venmo tracks our spending.

My advice is to talk about money! You learn a lot.

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