Already have a lot of money...should i really go into banking?

How much money are we talking about here (a ballpark figure is fine)?

If it really is such a significant amount that you would not have to 'work' for salary a single day of your life, have you considered creating a startup? Perhaps also dabble in some nonprofit work on the side?

"I've been interviewing at some banks and honestly it sounds like a pretty shitty life, that people would only agree to for the promise of what might come after. But I'm not really sure it's worth it. Junior monkey's out there, if you didn't need or care about the money, would you still be in banking?" Not arrogant

"At risk of sounding totally entitled and arrogant, I'm just gonna ask it the way it is...

I'm 20 and have have inherited enough money that I probably have a higher net worth than most MD's I would potentially be working for. I'm ambitious, and motivated by career success and achievements, but not so much about a 100K salary out of school that could turn into millions over the long run if I sacrifice the rest of my life. I don't really need anymore money to support myself and my lifestyle." Entitled and arrogant. In case you were wondering.

But what better place for it than WSO.

You're too immature to understand the value of a dollar or what you should do for a living. I suggest taking a gap year and figuring that shit out.

I would NEVER choose to go to into banking with 10 million in the bank. A 6% annual return on 8 million will make you twice as much as an analyst at a BB. There are so many things to do in the world, and people spend years in banking trying to get enough money to have some of those experiences. There's no reason for you to go through all of that trouble.

Go into banking if you're interested in the work...sounds like you aren't, so skip it and save the spot for someone who will value it more than you do

Banking isn't for everyone, plenty of other prestigious jobs that aren't banking. Might sound weird, but have you considered becoming a teacher? Respected job, you'd make a shit salary but you have 10m, and its one of the few jobs that you can say you do not for the money.

What kind of impact do you want to make on society ? In 5 years, 10 years, 25 years? It's all a matter of perspective. Don't think abut the money...just envision yourself in the future and strive to make what you dream happen. Money should not be the incentive to pursue any career. You need to be incentivized by a passion for what your doing or else you'll end up unhappy. I think ArcherVice posted the best piece of advice, take a gap year, travel and figure it out.

If I had a teacher that had $10m in the bank, that dude would have been the baws of the school.

I have nothing to add except that I hate you with a passion

Thanks for the posting guys, I found your insight to be really thoughtful and useful. Much apprecieated

lol spelling errors..

this depends on so many factors: locale, lifestyle needs, future family, etc.

first question: is this money tied up in credit shelter/spendthrift/some other kind of trust? Or, do you have unfettered access to it (as in $10mm deposited into a brokerage/bank account in your name).

if it's the latter, keep reading. if the former, get educated on the terms of your money, you don't "have" $10mm in the way you may think you do.

second question: is it all in liquid investments/cash? or, is it partially in real estate, land, private company equity, or something else that can't be sold and settled in T+3?

if it's the former, keep reading. if the latter, read some of heister's posts. I have clients who have land and other non-liquid investments, but it's not a focus of my practice so I'm not as well versed there.

$10mm is a life changing amount of wealth, don't listen to any of the preftige whores who think that it's peanuts, they're probably broke. there are plenty of MDs out there who don't have $10mm in the bank, because they buy multiple houses, get divorced and see half of it leave, put too much in their company stock only to see it crash (ahem, Citigroup), and so on, I've seen it happen.

anyway, here's my advice:

get a good advisor, preferably someone who has worked with entrepreneurs, trust fund kids, and/or athletes/entertainers, and pick someone maybe outside of your immediate area, you do not want to be this person's first $10mm client or $10mm inheritor. a lot of those people (athletes et al) get wealthy very early in life and have to spend their entire existence getting approached by people who would like some of their money, and it's important to work with someone who's good not only at investments, but at preparing you mentally and emotionally for that reality. if you're lucky and no one knows about your money, keep it a secret, you'll find out who your real friends are.

practice saying "no." people will come at you with all sorts of investment ideas, vacation suggestions, charity cases (hey man I'm having a real rough time financially, can you help me out? I promise I'll pay you back), etc., I'm not saying be a tightwad and don't have fun or give back, but do not be like wiz khalifa "if I ball, then we all ball" or something like that. have anyone who approaches you with an investment idea have to go through your financial advisor (even if it's family), that will stop a lot of them. that's how many lottery winners, athletes, and entertainers go bankrupt, because they invest poorly and give too much of the money away.

until you graduate, try to crush it at academics and at the opposite sex (or same sex if that's your preference). you don't have to worry about internships as much nor jobs as much, so just try to learn as much as possible, you'll be glad you did it later. maybe pick up an extra minor or major, stay an extra year or two, you only get to do college once.

get a job, but get one where your passion lies (so probably not banking). sure, you could live off of interest and dividends forever, but do you really want to do nothing for the next 60-80 years? are you into SCUBA? become an instructor, move to Miami, Belize, etc. and do that. you can still make money and let your inheritance grow. are you into golf? master the game, become a PGA professional, work at a country club. what do you want to do that also can get you paid (even if it's not a lot)? I would try to work in that industry. I don't get the sense you're considering doing "nothing," but if you are, just don't.

once you have a job, figure out how much money you need from your portfolio and stick to that budget. your advisor can help you with that, but I'm betting they would advise against buying a nice apartment in NYC or big house in the suburbs, live only a little bit better than your contemporaries, excessive spending can completely drain that $10mm in a hurry.

finally, and this may be most important. if the money is given to you outright, seek legal counsel so that it can be protected from a divorce from any future spouses you may have. the time to title your assets properly is before marriage even happens, not during divorce proceedings.

in short: watch your spending, get good financial/legal advice, get a job.

feel free to reply with questions.

Working 100 hours a week being an excel monkey when you don't need to work at all shows a lack of imagination.

I know a good handful of kids in your position and, due to their privileged upbringing, very very few understand the importance of principle. I'd be more concerned with how to live a fulfilling life while having everything handed to me.

I don't understand why you would want to do banking anyways as it's such a demanding lifestyle. While it's possible to like banking type of work, I think anyone who says they enjoy working 80 hours a week is full of shit. I'm doing banking to hopefully make a radical change in my circumstances and give my family financial security. It's something I'm willing to throw away several years of my life for because otherwise that wouldn't be possible for me - a means to an end. Would I do it otherwise? Not a chance, I'd probably be a personal trainer or coach baseball or football for kids that had a similar childhood to mine.

To give you some perspective, which few people have in your position, I'm dedicating a good portion of my life to something that was simply bequeathed to you. You have more money than 99.999% of people in this world will ever see in their lifetime. Over 99% more than any person in the US. You could double the income of an average household in India for almost 100 families for 10 years and still have $5,000,000 left. You have a lot of money.

Go do something you enjoy, just don't sit on your ass or be selfish.

Lots of good stuff above. Don't do IB unless you really want to do the PE/HF route. It sounds like you're not very interested in IB for IB's sake and you'll just end up quitting after a few months.

Otherwise, figure out what you want to do. As others have stated you have the unique ability to not have to decide and lock a job down by your senior year so you can travel, extend your studies, etc. Figure out if you want to do something like an NGO or diplomatic type of jobs and determine how to get those jobs. Would you want to continue down a PhD route and be a professor? One of the thing that sucks most about being a prof is the pay until you're tenured but you don't have to worry about that. Do you have a passion for music or art? Get a job in those industries, and once again you have the ability to not have to make money at first so you can accept shit pay or even offer yourself up for free just to learn the business.

If you think you want to own your own business someday by buying something (rather than starting something up) get a job in the industry and learn about it. If you plan on operating a business yourself and not just invest in it I wouldn't recommend buying something right out of college so get the job to make sure you actually like the industry and learn how it works. For example, if you've always wanted to own a restaurant or bar, get a job managing one first and figure out if you like it and learn how to run one. Same with any industry-get a job in the widget industry before you buy a widget company. Getting to know how to operate in that industry is an obvious advantage but you want to make sure that you're not romanticizing owning that type of business when in reality you hate it.

Unlike the other monkeys on this site, I don't think anything about your post smells of immaturity. You're asking the right questions, keep doing that. If after taking some time to think about your options, you're still unsure, I would suggest the following: Consider what skills and attributes you would like to embody, and pursue an occupation that will help you gain those skills and attributes. E.g., if you want to launch a start-up, go get a job in a field related to the kind of start-up you'd like to launch. My most natural question would be, who passed this wealth unto you, and can you/do you want to join them in what they do?

I'll just speak from my own experience. If it were to happen now, I would stay in banking because I'm just a damn deal junkie to be completely honest. I might quit and start my own shop after I make VP, but in general I actually like doing what I do. If I had never been exposed to it I might have chosen a different route. If you think you might be the same it wouldn't hurt you to go try it for a year, but there are a hundred other things you might like that will be more fulfilling for you. You are in a fortunate position where you really only have to ask one question. What makes you happy? Search for that thing, find that thing, do that thing. Pretty simple for you. Congrats.

Yeah there's no way I'd be doing this w/ $10m in the bank.

Very thought provoking post.

If you are truly ambitious and driven, then it seems to me that your problem is lack of goals.

Also, Good job on the picture.

Why not work a job in finance that doesn't require 100 hour work weeks? Preferably one that also teaches you how to manage money.

Open an Instagram account and become the new Dan Bilzerian.

You have the financial freedom to find what you love in life and do it. Pursue your passion.

Our greatest asset in life is time and given your financial circumstances you don't need to trade your time for money which is great.

I think most people's goal in life is to get to a point where they don't need to trade any of their time for money and can get their money working for them.

Become an expert within your passion then turn it into a business by providing services to others.

Insert money into X vehicle which can earn you 5-7% annually, and live off of $500,000-700,000. If you're not interested in living a lavish lifestyle (and even if you are), this should absolutely do the trick to cover costs of living.

Thereafter, determine what it is you enjoy doing in this life, if you haven't already found out during 22 years on Earth. Pursue this for as long as you want &/or until you get bored. The greatest obstacle that prevents most people from pursuing true passions is financial unviability / financial constraints of said lifestyle. That will not be an issue for you.

Look, kid, you're rich. That's great. Don't feel bad or ashamed about it. If banking is not something that attracts you, fuck banking. Go out there and find something that attracts you. You can afford time and not having to rush into anything, so enjoy that.

All these wso-jerk-off kids who don't even have jobs are mocking you. If you're not intrigued by IB don't even bother. I hate to say it, but this website has so many college kids brainwashed into thinking that IB > PE > HBS is the only way to success and fortune. If you can see beyond all that, more power to you.

If I had the money, I'd do my own start-up, perhaps do some angel investing.

Travel the world a bit, it'll provide you with three amazing perks 1.) You'll experience life 2.) Perhaps while traveling, you'll stumble across something you'll love and are truly passionate about. 3.) Girls abroad are better than girls in the U.S. (especially South Americans)

Making a career decision centered around money is the absolute worst approach. Take some time and take money out of the equation. What will make you happy? What will challenge you? Answer those questions first, then look around. Or give some to me and you can take my job.

If I were in your position, I would probably defer my actual career start for a few years to get better and more varied life experiences (right now I'm trying to accelerate as fast as possible so I can obtain the wealth that you do). After I find something interesting, I would take a significant amount of career risk that would pay off strongly if I succeeded, and wouldn't have any downside otherwise due to the nest egg you've built up.

Lots of good advice here. From my perspective I would say re evaluate what you want to do in life. You can stay and school and align your education to pursue whatever you want in life, without having to worry about your career salary. This truely frees you to pursue your passion. May it be a STEM career, teaching, non profit work, government. If you want to be in business you could always go back to school and get an MBA. You're still young enough that changing your degree won't be a problem. Take time and really think about what will satisfy you emotionally, spiritually, intellectually.

Go explore what you're passionate about, try to make an impact whatever you do, and if after a few years you decide that doesn't work out you can go for an MBA and explore your options from there - finance will still be there waiting.

If you have no idea where to start, consulting can offer a good amount of exposure to skills and various industries to explore. Or, if you have the interest, maybe focus in real estate. Working for a developer can offer a balanced lifestyle, and once you have some experience you can pretty easily use your existing capital to create revenue generating assets. If you start in your mid or late twenties, hold out for the sure calls, by the time your 40 that 10m will have served you very well.

Totally understand why you are asking for advice. At 20 years old it is really hard to decide what you want to do with your life. I changed my major about 5 times by the time I turned 20: communications to finance to accounting to statistics and quant modeling then transferred out of the business school to be econ and math major. Then woke up one day and realized I should have been a finance major all along, or at least get an internship in ibd (I am not a quant at all, even though I did a ton of programming for math and stats). Besides school, there were real estate opportunities and stocks.... You just have to picture what you REALLY see yourself doing 10 years from now, and not what OTHER PEOPLE see you doing. Another advice: taking a year off always helps to figure out what you want without distractions (that's what I did). But then again, it does not answer all the questions. Also, talking to people in the industry or outside helps.

Why don't you go into non-profit management, or something along those lines? Maybe start your own. You don't need the money, so it seems like you can jump straight into tackling causes you care about. Maybe do that on the side?

First of all, its easy to think when you're in college, but you have no idea what sort of lifestyle you want to lead when you're in your 30s. $10mm is a lot of money but for a lot of lifestyles, its not nearly enough to stop working. Its just a decent apt in Manhattan and a nice but not on the beach house in the Hamptons. If you don't like banking, you shouldn't do it, as there are plenty of ways to make money. But its not nearly enough to not consider making money going forward. And most mid40s MDs are worth more than 10.

Do whatever you are passionate about.

Some people are lucky to be passionate about something that pays really well, others are less lucky and need jobs they might not be passionate as their passions are not well paid. You are in the lucky position where you can solely focus on what you are passionate irregardless of how well it pays, so dont waste it.

PUT IT ALL ON RED!

as a guy who come from a much more affluent family background than how muvh you inherited,

1. i could literally not work a day in my life nor have to even get returns on family money to live extravagantly but im still in a 80~100hour week consulting job abroad because it INTERESTS me.

2. if you think eatig shit from md vp asso etc. let alone clients is not worth your time or energy (no offence toyally understand), do not do banking, consulting etc. non-profit or start ups are legit and possibly much more fulfilling and self gratifying than any of the aforementioned careers

3. all in all, figure some shit ouy abt what you want to do with your life. do you simply seek prestige and vanityin finance? do you sincerely enjoy finance? do you want to make impact but jave no clue wtf to do? ur career choice is not for others to answer but for you to figure shit out

Do a favor for the kids who deserve the seat of the bank you're interviewing at and forget about banking. You're clearly not genuinely interested and with your attitude you'd make an awful analyst

You should do whatever you want to do. Take some time off, go out and have fun.

I personally wouldn't worry so much about startups and the like, but rather just finding things you enjoy doing or learning about.

I'd say this to almost anyone - regardless of if they had 10 mm or not. There's a few things like acting or writing that I'd steer someone without financial stability away from, but that's about it.

Money really doesnt buy happiness. The freedom to do what you want does

no matter the field you choose to enter, you will encounter challenges and hardships. if you intend to pursue meaningful success, you will have periods of discomfort. as they say, shit flows down hill. if you can't see yourself being able to appreciate the process of learning through experience and taking directions before giving them, become an entrepreneur and deal with the bullshit of being the boss.

With around 10MM in the bank, I would definitely start getting in on the tech scene in Silicon Valley or at least out West. Even just off a 6% interest you would be making enough money to not only live very comfortably but also maybe angel invest in some up and coming start ups.

To be candid I would try to leverage your connections and net worth to land a spot (even if its unpaid) at a VC firm doing associate/analyst work (like at a mini-fund VC) and learn the ropes while living off the interest and then pairing with some ex-founders who have the know how but not the cash to create a mini fund yourself.

If it were me though, I would like the Dan Blizerian life to the max. Workout like 3-4 hours a day, live in a nice penthouse apartment in a cheaper but nice city (think Dallas) and just slay all day and night, while doing some business ventures on the side.

Yes you are going to any bank at any time . Their are no restrictions of any person of they would have lots of money .