Wachovia Pay

I thought wachovia was below street .. read that their top bucket is supposed to be 90 this year, compared to 100 at JPM.

everything is cheaper in charlotte...but then you've got to decide if charlotte is for you.

I am fairly certain Wachovia DOES pay the same bonuses, regardless of location. Around 140k (give or take 10k) your first year out of school is ridiculous - for Charlotte.

For instance, CNNMoney.com has this cost of living calculator [http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html]. Direct from the site:

Salary in Charlotte NC: $140,000
Comparable salary in New York (Manhattan) NY: $336,762.72

If you move from Charlotte NC to New York (Manhattan) NY...

Groceries will cost: 47.553% more
Housing will cost: 407.246% more
Utilities will cost: 87.756% more
Transportation will cost: 40.508% more
Healthcare will cost: 22.729% more

True, True....I could care less how much I make...tell me how much I can save! Even if Wachovia was below street you still save more than your NY counterparts. Other things play in (reputation, deal flow, exit ops etc.) but strictly on a $$ basis you can't get much better, except for maybe a GS/MS/JPM in Houston or Dallas since they are fairly large financial centers with arguably lower cost of living.

damn

The only thing with Charlotte is that...it's in North Carolina. But then again, Charlotte probably also has cheaper hookers along with the cheaper groceries - tough call

Spending your glory years in NYC instead of bumblefuck NC ..... priceless.

calling 100 hour work weeks your glory year... what a horrible life that must be.

Charlotte is a cool town and I will bet that the idiots that say otherwise have never been there. Is it really that important to live in a "cooler" town when you will not have any time whatsoever to enjoy it? doesn't make sense to me especially when you are paying 3 times more to live there.

Who says you aren't going to have any time to enjoy it ? 100 hour weeks or no (and MOST weeks are not going to be 100 hours - medians are probably around 80, but vary based on firm, group and time of year), you still have time to enjoy the city and go out.

You do have time to go out in NYC. There are people in my group that routinely work 65-80 hours per week and they plan these extravagant outings for after work fun.

You do have time to go out in NYC. There are people in my group that routinely work 65-80 hours per week and they plan these extravagant outings for after work fun.

I guess if you live in Charlotte you can probably buy a decent condo there with your first year bonus....when $140k in Charlotte is worth $336k in New York, (what's that, a factor of like 2.5?) don't tell me you can't live solely off your base, because if you can't you're an idiot. By the way by that ratio, $60k base in Charlotte would be worth about $150k in NY.

One nice thing about the major cities in the SE is the housing cost - I've been in Atlanta about 12 years now, it was originally supposed to be a six month deal and I suspect I'll never leave.

The going price for an "amazing apartment" (ie - nice part of town, 1-2 bedrooms, nice amenities) for a single person is about $1000/month. Married folks can get a big house in a swim/tennis neighborhood with good schools for ~400,000.

If you can swing $200,000 a year as a family down here you can live like a rockstar and put money in the bank....

For those of you that wanna be ballers, you can always put your money into a lakehouse or beach place...

That's usually where the 2nd MM goes...

Nothing wrong with working/living in Charlotte. I've spent time there myself and I like the city myself and I have friends at Wachovia who love it. That being said, if you are young and have the chance to go to a good firm in NYC (any BB) PLEASE TAKE IT. Working at Wachovia will limit your career, and if you are shortsighted enough to take the extra income due to cost of living your first two years, you are stupid - the big payoffs in this business come ten years down the road, a road that will be much more difficult to navigate for an ex-Wachovia banker than an ex-BB banker.

I've seen Bankers at the Associate level at Wachovia transition to BB in NY. My take on this is that married folks find Charlotte (hence Wachovia and BofA) more attractive than the single and younger ones. It's all about what stage you are in life and what's important to you right now and 5 years down the road.

know a few people that passed up offers from top BB firms in NYC to go to Wachovia or BofA out of b-school. Much much cheaper cost of living, and you don't live in a 10 foot by 10 foot box and convince yourself that you're living the high life......

This is exactly correct.

Your friends made horrible decisions (refer above, ANY BB NYC offer over Wachovia etc.). Who convinced you that you'd be living in a 10x10 "box" in NYC anyways ? 60K a year is decent money even in the city, made all the better by the fact that you really don't need to save ANY of it (that's what your bonus is for). Think of the advertising/marketing/govt/NGO kids who are working on 30K a year before tax - now that's shitty.

I just got a sweet apartment in Midtown, rent is definitely affordable on a 60k base, and I'll still have about $1800 in cash to spend on useless shit every month. The key is to share (there's 4 of us sharing this 4 bedroom).

god damn what morons.

Does BofA (and Wachovia, for that matter) have IBD operations in Charlotte? I assumed the HQ of BofA was in Charlotte, but even they conducted their IBD from NYC?

Does BofA have any IBD in other cities across the US? That would be really interesting.

Yes they do have ops in other cities. Chicago, San Fran, Charlotte at the least.

BofA has a few groups in Charlotte, but they are headquarted in NYC. Wachovia's IBD is headquartered in Charlotte.

100% correct. Networking, job hunting, etc. is much easier in NYC. I would say that if you plan on being a lifer in finance (banking / buy-side), do BB NYC. If you plan on just doing two years and go to B-school / anything outside the industry, take the quality of life in Charlotte.

Not to hijack the thread completely, but are there any "smaller" cities in other countries with IBD offices. It seems like all the other offices are based in "large" financial centres.