Could you be happy with a $150k+inflation job indefinitely

given current events on wall street (and the increased difficulty of getting a job in high finance in the first place)

Could you be happy- satisfied- with the $150k+inflation job for your working career. The average American would of course be extremely overjoyed- but how about those uber-talented people who were realistically eyeing wall-street

 

It's doable, but I'm also concerned with what I would be doing to make that kind of money. 150k+inflation sounds suspiciously like a high-level govt job, or treasury in a middle-market company ----> not something I would like to be doing (I've worked in positions at the bottom of both those career ladders). And high finance will most likely never pay that low of a salary for an entire career.

 
Best Response

As someone who made ~150k last year, let me tell you it is a heck of a lot more money than you think. $150k will give anyone living in a reasonable place (not NYC) a very high standard of living. At $150k, you can eat at nice restaurants, take multiple international trips / vacations each year, live in a very nice house, drive a nice car, etc.

People are quick to get desensitized when they work in financial services. They hear about guys making millions and then all of a sudden it is 7-figures or bust. My bonus is going to be substantially lower this year, but I live very comfortably off my base salary, and the bonus is just gravy. I'm happy to trade a higher salary for part of my life back.

Either way, I think GoodBread makes a very good point. Screw what you're making, if you can't stand waking up every morning and going to work, you WILL be miserable.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

It really depends on how you spend your hard earned money. I'd be happy with any 150k job if it's something i enjoy doing and the work environment is awesome, aka competitive

 

Ya 150 is great if you are single, or maybe have a girlfreind...but not for supporting a family. I didn't work my ass off, go to a target fuckin school, work 15hr days, for 150k...

To put this into perspective, a good buddy of mine from school is a petroleum engineer and he is only 25 making 140k a year working 9-4:30.

 
MoneyKingdom:
Ya 150 is great if you are single, or maybe have a girlfreind...but not for supporting a family. I didn't work my ass off, go to a target fuckin school, work 15hr days, for 150k...

To put this into perspective, a good buddy of mine from school is a petroleum engineer and he is only 25 making 140k a year working 9-4:30.

Engineers start off with the highest salaries, they also hold mid-career highest salaries. But at mid-career 90th percentile Econ/Finance/Math majors take lead http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_…
 

Actually MoneyKingdom, your example distorts perspective because your buddy is an extreme outlier. I think the original poster's intent was to gauge whether or not people thought they could be happy making $150k/year, regardless of the career held. I don't think he was talking about being a banker for $150k a year.

Also, not sure how going to a "target fuckin school" influences the question. Did you go to a target school because of the assumption of an increased paycheck? Did you really want to go to UMASS but selected Harvard instead due to the job opportunities? My guess is your selection of school had little to do with earnings potential.

Sorry to pick on you just the way I read your post makes it sound as though your life decisions have been centered around maximizing income when I suspect that is far from the case.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

If that job was guaranteed for life, say, a lifetime appointment somewhere in the Justice Department, or a lifetime job someplace else, yeah, sure.

"We are lawyers! We sue people! Occasionally, we get aggressive and garnish wages, but WE DO NOT ABDUCT!" -Boston Legal-

"We are lawyers! We sue people! Occasionally, we get aggressive and garnish wages, but WE DO NOT ABDUCT!" -Boston Legal-
 

i'd say, if your single and stay away from "big ticket" luxuries you can live a very comfortable, and what people around you could describe as, affluent lifestyle on $150,000, even in NYC (i describe this as eating out all the time at good restaurants, taking people out for drinks at bars, having like a 3 series BMW every 4 years, wearing nice attractive clothes, and taking a couple nice, but not extravagant, international vacations, splitting a sick $7k two story 2 bedroom apartment on the lower eastside with a 1500 sf balcony with one other roomate... if you honestly don't think that could not make you happy, I doubt you will ever be happy... of course supporting a wife, and two kids through private school is another story...

an article in the NYpost I read a ways back essentially tried to answer this question posed by the OP but for a reasonably affluent life in Manhattan. The article went into detail but summarized said that if you wished to support a wife, 2 kids through private school, own and park one nice midsize luxury car, have a 4 bedroom flat, have a million dollar country house, and I think one golf membership out on long island... that by their calculation you needed to make at least around $526,000 a year to live in NYC. Its why people in finance move elsewhere when they want to start a family.

I'd also like to comment for the people that claim that securing the 150k for the rest of your life isn't enough, b/c later down the road in finance they plan to be making much much more, which is only true... if you still have a job... got to remember more people get hatched going up each rung the ladder... and assuming you possibly couldn't be one of them is sort of naive...

finally in college, I had a sick allowance, but nowhere close to even half of 150k. I was however expected to pick up ALL, aside from tuition, of my expenses. B/C of the way I lived though, without going in debt, people thought I was MUCH MUCH wealthier than I actually was.

 

Oh, that $150k would have to be net of tax. And I'd have to live in Toronto. Otherwise, no chance. And if I made $150k a year, that's about $75k net of tax in New York City, I guarantee you my rent will stay below $1500. No way would I drop $3500 on rent. Never. On a mortgage payment, maybe, but on rent? no way.

"We are lawyers! We sue people! Occasionally, we get aggressive and garnish wages, but WE DO NOT ABDUCT!" -Boston Legal-

"We are lawyers! We sue people! Occasionally, we get aggressive and garnish wages, but WE DO NOT ABDUCT!" -Boston Legal-
 
holymonkey:
Oh, that $150k would have to be net of tax. And I'd have to live in Toronto. Otherwise, no chance. And if I made $150k a year, that's about $75k net of tax in New York City, I guarantee you my rent will stay below $1500. No way would I drop $3500 on rent. Never. On a mortgage payment, maybe, but on rent? no way.

"We are lawyers! We sue people! Occasionally, we get aggressive and garnish wages, but WE DO NOT ABDUCT!" -Boston Legal-

Sounds like you need a better tax accountant to run you through tax minimisation strategies, because if you're actually paying 50% tax, you're being ripped off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Federal_in… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Corporate_…

bhahaha:
excelsior:
man you guys are spoiled as shit, i grew up on 60k and i was happy

+1 150k is middle class?

According to my parents' taxes they make a total of 25K (CAD) a year.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

According to my taxes I made losses 2 years in a row. Declared assessable income on a tax statement means nothing.

But I agree with you. My parents were on a pension growing up, about the same, and a lot of kids still thought we were rich. We were strictly middle class (investment properties on the beach, 4star vacations, private school education, ivy equivalent of college, house worth half a million), average "collectables."

It's not about your assessable income from one source, it's how you invest it, spend it, limit your tax liabilities, gear your investments, leverage your equity, protect it, etc, to create multiple sources of income, or alternatively, waste it.

 

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