Living On $97K A Year In Los Angeles | Millennial Money

Jason Y. Lee, 33, pays himself $97,000 a year as the founder and CEO of Jubilee Media. He went from earning a 6-figure salary straight out of college to zero income in pursuit of launching a start-up. His media company produces videos, shows and movies that promote empathy and bring people together. Currently, Jason lives with his wife, Melody, and Bernedoodle, Remy, in a 1-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, California.

This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people around the world and details how they earn, spend and save their money.

Check out Jason's Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/jasonylee_/...
Check out Jubilee Media here:    / jubileemedia  

Read more about about Jason's budget breakdown here: https://cnb.cx/3bWiIV4

When Jason Y. Lee was a kid growing up in Kansas, he thought earning $100,000 a year would make him rich. His parents had immigrated from South Korea to the U.S. to attend grad school, and they were still students earning very little for a lot of Lee’s childhood.

So when Lee graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and began earning six figures as a consultant at Bain & Company in New York City right after college, he wasn’t prepared for the shock of feeling immediately flush with cash.

“To make that much as a 21-year-old was a surprise,” Lee, now 33, says. Though he refers to the experience as an immense privilege, especially since his parents paid off his student loans, he also realized earning and spending that much money didn’t fulfill him the way he thought it would.

In the decade since, Lee has gone from earning six figures to leaving it all behind in 2012 to launch a nonprofit with his brother and friend, called the Jubilee Project, with zero take-home pay. When the company evolved and its founding members disbanded, Lee launched a new for-profit company called Jubilee Media in 2017.

As Lee raised capital for the new venture, he slowly drew a salary again — first $30,000, then $60,000. Now, after four years of building his start-up, the CEO pays himself $97,000 a year. As he’s gradually increased his salary, he’s taken into account how much he’s able to pay himself without negatively impacting the company’s finances.

For Lee, the nonprofit-to-start-up years helped him live and work with purpose while being realistic about using money to grow his business, invest in his future and pay it forward. Personally, it’s also put him on more financially stable footing to start a family with his wife, Melody.

Here’s how Lee manages his money as a start-up founder and newlywed in L.A.

Six figures to zero income

In 2010, Lee was settling into his high-earning career when, on his 22nd birthday, an earthquake in Haiti killed and displaced millions of people. Feeling the need to do something, Lee went to a New York subway station and recorded himself busking to raise money for charity.

Lee collected just $85 — he admits he’s not much of a singer — but after he uploaded the video to YouTube and called for additional support, he ended up raising a total of $700 for humanitarian relief.

Lee seized the opportunity to create videos for social good and, along with his older brother, Eddie, and a friend, Eric Lu, spent nights and weekends building Jubilee Project. After two years treating it as a side hustle, the trio all quit their respective jobs and school plans to focus on it full-time.

While the mission felt right, Lee says going from six figures to zero income was a huge stressor. “The truth was, there wasn’t a great business plan when we were starting Jubilee as a nonprofit,” Lee says. “There wasn’t this great investor or benefactor who was going to support us. I was lucky that I had saved a good amount during my time as a consultant.”

Still, Lee says he felt happier working on the nonprofit than he did as a consultant: “I felt like I was learning and growing every day.” Trading big paychecks for work he found meaningful “really changed the way that I thought about money and success.”

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Living On $97K A Year In Los Angeles | Millennial Money