Welcome back to “Kicking It,” where I break down how young, Jewish professionals earn, spend, save and give.
Please note that everyone filled out their forms in shekels unless otherwise noted. I converted shekels to dollars (based on the google currency exchange on the day I filled it out) in order to make this more easily understandable for American readers, but these are obviously estimates, and the conversion rate is constantly changing!
The link to the ANONYMOUS form of questions here: https://forms.gle/L7BZBYQa5HHRidzA7. If you are a young, Jewish Professional in your 20’s/30’s, living anywhere!, married, single, partnered etc! feel free to fill it out, so I can continue to share more data!. You can also check the form to see all the questions that were asked.
Please note that not everyone filled out the forms completely. Some people might not have known all the information or they might not have felt comfortable sharing all of the data. If a question is omitted from a person’s submission, it is because they left it blank. If data seems off or inaccurate-it’s possible someone made a mistake somewhere!
PERSON #1
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Givat Shmuel
Occupation: Student/babysitter
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): About 8,000 shekel (including other little jobs I do like translations or extra babysitting) (~$2,300)
Do you have another form of income in addition to your day job (ie additional job, help from family members etc)? If so, how much money do you make/ get from that?: My parents pay for rent and groceries, my grandma gives all the grandkids a little support, I pay for bills and all what’s fun+transportation. In addition I got some extra money from my national service and my Aliyah.
Married: No
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with roommates
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 6,650 shekel (~$1,911)
Individual’s rent portion (per month): 1,550 shekel (~$445)
Savings (per month): Definitely not enough
Phone Bill (per month): 99 shekel (~$28)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 120 shekel (~$34)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 20 Shekel (~$6)
Charity (per month): It depends on the month and people’s need
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): 400 Shekel ($115)
Groceries (per month): 800 Shekel (~$200)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): 250 shekel (~$72)
Gym Membership (per month): 345 Shekel (~$99)
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): Not more than 300 shekel (~$86)
Anything you want to add about your budget/ monthly spending?: It’s very approximate, also I’m on a diet which makes the groceries more expensive!
PERSON #2
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Jerusalem
Occupation: Program Director
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 90,000 shekel (~$26,000)
Married: No
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Roommate
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 4,500 shekel (~$1,293)
Individual’s rent portion (per month): 2,150 shekel (~$618)
Savings (per month):Depends on the month but definitely not as much as I should 😬😬 gonna be better about it this year
Retirement Fund (per month):Literally don’t even know how the Israeli salary/401k/taxes work b/c it’s in Hebrew so I just pray they’re doing it for me. Probably irresponsible but it’s my first job out of college so I’m taking each day as it comes!
Phone Bill (per month): 99 shekel (~$28)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 30 Shekel (Aliyah benefits) (~$9)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 100 Shekel (~$29)
Charity (per month): Depends on the month but really try to give at least 50 shekel (~$14), some months more
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month):Depends but about 500 shek/2 months
Groceries (per month): 700 Shekel (~$200)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): No clue but get 200 shekel (~$57) from my job
Gym Membership (per month): 529 Shekel (~$152)
Subscription Services (per month): Vpn blocker- $12, Spotify- $10
Dates (per month): Usually don’t pay 😬
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): Eek… like 900 shekel (~$259)
PERSON #3
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Tel Aviv
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): Around 90,000 shekel (~$26,000)
Do you have another form of income in addition to your day job (ie additional job, help from family members etc)? If so, how much money do you make/ get from that?:4,000- 5,000shekel a year from additional job (~$1,100-$1,400), 4,000 shekel (~$1,100) a month from parents
Married: Yes
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Spouse
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 6,200 shekel (~$1,782)
Savings (per month): $1,000-$2,000
Retirement Fund (per month): Israel does it for you automatically
Phone Bill (per month): 99 shekel (~$28)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): no clue actually i think between 1-200 shekel
Internet/ Cable (per month): 150 Shekel (~$43)
Charity (per month): 200 shekel (~$57)
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): 200-400 Shekel (~$57-$115)
Groceries (per month): 700 Shekel (~$200)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): 0
Gym Membership (per month): 200 Shekel (~$57)
List Subscription Services (per month): Spotify: $10
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): Not soo much
Anything you want to add about your budget/ monthly spending?: salaries in Israel suck
PERSON #4
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Baka-Jerusalem
Occupation: Analyst
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 160,000 shekel (~$46,000)
Do you have another form of income in addition to your day job (ie additional job, help from family members etc)? If so, how much money do you make/ get from that?: Occasional gifts from parents (flights to visit from Israel, some clothing)
Married: No
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Roommates
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 5,000 shekel (~$1,437)
Individual’s rent portion (per month): 1,750 shekel (~$503)
Savings (per month): 2,000 shekel (~$575)
Retirement Fund (per month): Eek no fund, but Israel puts some away automatically
Phone Bill (per month): 60 shekel (~$17)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 109 Shekel (~$31)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 20 Shekel (~$5.75)
Charity (per month): Varies from month to month, not hitting 10% yet (don’t feel established enough to do that, although it might be time)
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): 500 Shekel (~$144)
Groceries (per month): 1,000 Shekel (~$287)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): 1,200 (~$345)
Gym Membership (per month): 220 Shekel (~$63)
Dates (per month): Depends?
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): 300 Shekel (~$86)
Other Misc. Expenses (per month): 500 Shekel (~$144)
Anything you want to add about your budget/ monthly spending?:Budgeting is hard and so is knowing whether your decisions are responsible and similar to your friends
PERSON #5
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Tel-Aviv
Occupation: Biotech-Startup
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 120,000-144,000 (~$34,000-$40,000) (just got a raise so now it’s 144,000 (~41,000) but budget is mostly based on what I was getting before) this is before taxes
Married: No
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Roommates
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 8,200 shekel (~$2,300)
Individual’s rent portion (per month): 2,650 shekel (~$750)
Savings (per month): 2,000-3,000 shekel (~$575-$850)
Retirement Fund (per month): 7% of income
Phone Bill (per month): 0
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 90 Shekel (~$25)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 33 Shekel (~$9)
Charity (per month): $36
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): 300 Shekel (~$85)
Groceries (per month): 200 Shekel (~$57)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): 243 shekel (~$69) per month but work pays
Gym Membership (per month): 270 Shekel (~$76)
Dates (per month): 0
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): 600 (~$170)
Other Misc. Expenses (per month):500 shekel (~$142)- hikes, cars, going out, tickets, concerts etc.
PERSON #6
Note: this person did not write their currency, but I am assuming it’s in dollars based on speaking with an Israeli
Gender: Male
Neighborhood: Katamon
Occupation: Hi-Tech
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): $67,000
Married: No
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Roommates
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): $1,600
Individual’s rent portion (per month): $500
Savings (per month): No clue
Retirement Fund (per month): The max I can
Phone Bill (per month): $30
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 0
Internet/ Cable (per month): $10
Charity (per month): I’m a garbage human being
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): $200
Groceries (per month): $500
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): $400
Anything you want to add about your budget/ monthly spending?:I should probably start balancing my life
PERSON #7
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Katamon, Jerusalem
Occupation: High Tech
Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 14,000 shekel per month. ($4,000). In Israel salaries are per month {~168,000 shekel/ year=~$47,500}
Spouse’s Occupation: Diplomacy
Spouse’s Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 15,000 shekel ($4250) per month {~180,000/year=~$51,000}
Combined Yearly Salary: ~348,000 shekel (~$98,500)
Do you have another form of income in addition to your day job (ie additional job, help from family members etc)? If so, how much money do you make/ get from that?: No
Married: Yes
Kids: Yes-1
Living Situation: Lives with Spouse
EXPENSES:
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 4700 shekel (~$1,330)
Savings (per month): about 20,000 shekel ($5,600)
Retirement Fund (per month):Our work places automatically put a percentage of our salaries into pension funds and also keren hishtalmut
Phone Bill (per month): 400 shekel (~$113)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 130 Shekel (~$37)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 250 Shekel (~$71)
Charity (per month): 500-1000 Shekel (~$141-$283)
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month): 150 shekel (~$42)
Groceries (per month): 1,100 shekel (~$311)
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): 1,000 (~$283)
Gym Membership (per month): 0
Dates (per month): 200 shekel (~$57)
Seamless/ Eating out (per month): 150 Shekel (~$42)
Other Misc. Expenses (per month): Daycare for our daughter 2,500 (~$708)
Anything you want to add about your budget/ monthly spending?:We budget very carefully.
If you have kid(s), how many, and how much in expenses does that add to your monthly budget?: About 2,700 shekel (~$764)
PERSON #8
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Neighborhood: Jerusalem
Occupation: Self employed (small business owner) plus part time job
Yearly Salary (includes bonus):No idea since my salary is dif every month, which is kinda stressful but also fun (my guess is 120,000 shekel post tax) ($34,000)
Do you have another form of income in addition to your day job (ie additional job, help from family members etc)? If so, how much money do you make/ get from that?: No help from family (but my parents supported me until about a year before I got married, which also coincided with me starting my business and making money)
Spouse’s Occupation: Computer programmer and PhD student
Spouse’s Yearly Salary (includes bonus): 250,000 shekel (both our salaries are post tax since you get paid post- taxes unlike in the US) ($71,000)
Combined Yearly Salary: ~370,000 shekel (~$104,000)
Married: Yes
Kids: No
Living Situation: Lives with Spouse
EXPENSES:
How do you and your partner split you bills?: We kept our dif accounts to help us save. So we use my husband’s account to pay everything and save everything I make.
Total Apartment Rent (per month): 4,500 shekel mortgage (~$1,293)
Savings (per month): My entire salary plus about 5,000-10,000 shekel each month from my husband’s salary
Retirement Fund (per month): It comes out of our paycheck before we get our salary so I’m actually not sure
Phone Bill (per month): 80 shekel (~$23)
Medical/ Dental/ Vision (per month): 90 shekel for both us (#literallynuts) ($25.50)
Internet/ Cable (per month): 100 Shekel (~$29)
Charity (per month): A few hundred shekel
Electric/ Gas/ Utilities (per month):Depends on the season, but a few thousand shekel
Metro Card/ Car/ Transportation (per month): A lot- Insurance, fixes and gas for our car really add up. We work from home so no commuting.
Gym Membership (per month): None
Subscription Services (per month): Vpn $4
Dates (per month): 200 shekel ($57) Once a week (plus midday froyo is my weakness since we both work from home and need some fresh air at some point)