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Working at a good single manager HF with a good boss and high AUM/head is the correct answer imo.
This is my situation, and I agree. Especially once you're a few years in with the same fund, you're not easily replaceable because you're trusted by the PM and he doesn't want to have to replace you, plus he doesn't care what he pays you - I pull in low 7 figs, which is nothing money to a successful fund manager. Meanwhile I work 40 hours a week with some spikes and he's in his 50s cranking out 60 hour weeks.
You have the hours down...but missed the "thinking about work" part.
Is your comp upside capped (since you’re not a partner / PM I’m guessing)? Or do you manage a sleeve / small book and get paid based on how your ideas do? Trying to get a better understanding for ranges.
What’s a single manager HF?
Wealth management
All about the group and bosses you work for
Good LO is the obvious answer
Idk fidelity is 70 a week
I work at a top LO and it is 50hrs/week with no weekend work
From an objective perspective, the hours relative to comp / career progression are insane in long only asset management, maybe the best in all of finance if you're at a good shop. The obvious counterargument to this perspective is it's not really a job where you can have a great career just by coasting. If you don't love investing / aren't good at it, you will probably have issues in the long run, both in terms of career advancement and in terms of feelings of being unfulfilled by work if you are obviously not adding value.
VC might not be bad either
Prob commercial real estate or running a fad etf
Long-term: joining new industry-focused LMM/MM PE with reputable co-founder(s) w/ UMM/MF exp. as a final year SrAS/VP but having gotten lucky and now firm is on third vintage after 4-5 years and you've been since been promoted to Partner
First few years might be modestly hard-working but nowhere near the stress of pre-formation Partners that not only had to fundraise from zero but also responsible for making sure Fund I performance was good enough to have a II-III
Meaningful carry as first set of "senior" employees into fairly rapid promotion and now fairly wide net within mandate on what you want to do / have other people do for you. Perceived loyalty since day 0 will give you more rope than newer joiners/laterals in the event of bad investment calls and/or staffing downturns. Likely pretty generous reign on WFH and carving out time for family as well. Graduating slowly into being more involved in fundraising but still not personally touching LP money and going on every road show
A good example of this would be something like Luminate Capital - focused on software, have heard great things about culture and raised 3 funds successfully in 6 years ($266mm -> $460mm -> $1bn). Led by Hollie Haynes who is an absolute stud with top-tier credibility having worked 15 yrs at Silver Lake. Sidewalk Infra is another great example - somewhat evergreen w/ Google backing around 400mm AUM but every associate who joined YE 2019 got promoted to Partner at the beginning of 2021 (making Partner at 27-29 y/o!!!). Easily clearing 7figs+ incl. DAW with meaningful status and likely got here working less hrs/week than their MF peers
The answer most will go with are these very slow-paced LMM funds that don't have much longevity left and you're actually doing almost no work but you'll see the math works out much better in my example for both the ST and LT:
$1mm/(70hrs*50wks) = ~$285/h - I arrive at 70 assuming 50/50 split btwn an easy week that looks like 9am-7pm M-Th, 10am-5pm F and 4 hrs wknd (51 total) vs a hard week being 9am-2am M-Th, 10am-9pm F and 12 hrs wknd (91)
$350k/(40hrs*48wks) = ~$182/h - casual 9-5 M-Th, 10-4 M-F + 2 hrs on wknd
+ when discounting those future cash flow years for the lazy fund in LCOL location those might be zero by then whereas tons of runway to keep improving in the former
Short-term: Being a SPAC CEO/founder/C-suite mem. during the ESG SPAC boom from 2020-21. Was easy cash coming from fin spons & their SPAC acquisition vehicles, with some generously quick liquidity on top of that. Easy high 6-fig / low 7-fig payout for many
SIP/Alphabet pays 7 figs to their late 20s "partners" (which a lot of tech-y / VC funds call everyone above associate)?!?
Impossible to deduce from outside but pretty small headcount overall, even smaller # of Partners and not insignificant AUM. The "partners", even if just nomenclature - don't see who would get higher carry than them - so 1mm+ DAW not impossible assuming reasonable split of carry within total comp
2x CoC and 20% returns assuming 250-300bps per Partner is ~450k annualized (5 yr horizon) + conservative $200k base + $150-200k cash bonus gets you almost there
Start with $100M, invest it in Sequoia, go on vacation for 10 years.
bump
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