Black Friday — What are you buying? / Best IB Purchases Thread

Figured a fun thread could be best Black Friday purchases for those in this industry. Looking for some ideas to spend on to make myself feel better about the hours I work. I’ll start with my favorites: -New non-stick pans -A $500 stick vacuum -A $150 mini tv for my room -New Sheets/Blanket -A decent Monitor/ Keyboard

109 Comments
 

Analyst 2 in IB-M&A:

Stylish quilted jacket



Black leather Chelsea boots



Black jeans / light wash jeans



Nice cologne



I already have a killer keyboard and mouse, oversized mouse pad (that both mouse and keyboard sit on) and 2 monitors courtesy of work. Will say that maxing out your WFH setup makes a big difference.


What’s your killer keyboard if I may ask?

 

Finally somewhere I can add value.

Logtech MX (MX denotes mechanical, as opposed to membrane) is probably your best bet for mainstream mechanical keyboard, though I think they only offer low-profile keycaps now, as opposed to a taller, graduated, cherry profile.

There are 3 main categories of MX switches: linear, tactile, and clicky. There are also "silent" variants that have gaskets to mute the sound of keystrokes, but this dilutes the feedback from the keys.

DO NOT get clicky switches (often "blue") unless you live alone, or you hate everyone around you and want to motivate them to murder you.

Linear switches actuate without a tactile response, while tactile and clicky switches provide tactile feedback upon actuation.

In general, most people prefer tactile switches for typing activities and linear switches for gaming, but this is personal preference.

Mainstream alternatives to Logitech from more gaming-orientated companies include SteelSeries, Corsair, and Razer, HyperX, etc.

I am a fan of Ducky keyboards, they make a variety of layouts and have some funky designs if you're into that.

If you need to save desk space, you could opt for a 65%, 75%, or TKL layout and then add a macro/num pad separately.

And if you want to light money and time on fire, you can build your own custom mechanical keyboard after waiting two years for your $1,000 of materials to arrive so you can spend an entire weekend assembling it. In case it wasn't clear, do not do this.

 

If you are based in Europe, you might try a website called Otrium, a c.2,000 Suitsupply items outlet popped last month 

 

Never heard of this but looks good. How often do they restock if you know?

And how did you find out they added new stock? Was it via an email subscription? Thanks

 

Any keyboard and mouse recommendations please? A1 with no knowledge of world of mechanical keyboards

 

Do you think the logitech keyboard is a big value add vs. laptop built in keyboard (lenovo thinkpad)? On the fence of buying it but it looks quiet similar (yeah don't judge looks I know) than the standard plain vanilla keyboards my firm hands out. 

The other mechanical keyboards on the market (e.g. daskeyboard) seem to be much more special but I am not sure if they are a big value add for professional services work.

 

Don’t listen to anyone saying to get a Logitech. Get a Keychron Q6 with brown switches – fully customizable / hot swappable and feels great to type on. There’s people that have made this into a full hobby and would generally agree that Keychron is a great entry level typist keyboard. If you really want to spoil yourself, go on kbdfans and see what exists (yes, keyboards can be $600).

 

Do you think the Q6 is too bulky/heavy to be taking back and forth from the office to a WFH setup? Any experience with the K series?

 

Bought myself a small digital watch for my bathroom shelf. Small gadget but quiet a game changer in the morning. Noticed I am less hasty and on top of that waste less time running around the house looking for my phone to check time. 

I'd also look for noise cancelling headphones. I have got myself the Sony WH-1000XM4 and they are amazing for focus work. Also amazing for home to block out traffic noise or neighbors. 

 

What year gt3? Did you get it as a 1st year associate or is your title outdated?

It’s a 2015. Just got Dundon headers to go with the full Crack Pipe. I’m As2 now but I got the car when I was An3. 
Was hoping to get a 3RS this year, but I got mine when interest rates were dirt cheap and it doesn’t make sense to give up 2% for 7% unless car prices decline significantly.

 

I’m gonna upgrade a couple things I use daily. A better trash can and a coat rack most likely.

Edit: I’m still looking for a coat rack. May order an open wardrobe from Ikea. I ended up ordering leather Chelsea boots and a three-pack of fragrances from Alt. Both over 50% off and I had been considering buying them since the summer. I’m overall just curious if the Alt fragrances smell good at all. They were $33 per scent which felt reasonable enough to try.

 

New woods, irons, wedges, and putter.

Most importantly, new coach and new swings.

 

My parents are dead and I'm a bitter and hateful man so I normally just steal all other people's packages from the package room that accumulate during the week of Christmas, while their rightful owners are out of town with their families. I go for all different shapes & sizes of packages and even wrap each of them in different wrapping paper, colorful bows, everything. Then on Christmas day I get wicked drunk on expensive whiskey and do my own secret santa for myself with the shit I stole from my neighbors. 

I'm quite the minimalist and throw it away most times, however what really brings me joy is when I open a package and find something extremely expensive and useful. Not because I want it but because I know that now someone else can't have it. 

 

I bought a standalone numpad for ~10 bucks as my thinkpad does not come with one include. 

It is quiet handy for QAT shortcuts that start beyond the first five numbers, i.e. 08. 

CFA
 

For those who like to burn cash on monitors, Samsung 49" Odyssey G9 DQHD 240Hz is an excellent monitor. You can wait and get the 57" too if you want. The curvature makes you strain your eyes and neck less, the screen quality is just beautiful.

The best part? You don't need a second monitor! The display can integrate a second desktop seamlessly so you get the feel of working with two desktops. What is even better is that on one side of the screen you can have excel open and on the other side, you can connect your console and play a game.

Used it and cannot go back to flat screens anymore.

 

Genuinely believe the only reason I got top bucket was because of this screen. Multi-tasking made easy.

I'd recommend the Mini LED panel though, not a fan of VGA on curved screens.

1st gen 57' (just released) is a quality control disaster at the moment; going to wait for the 2nd gen. Can't justify the risk + 8 more inches for an extra $2k

 

Black Fridays is good for:

Clothing. 

I'm a big fan of the LuluLemon ABS trousers (used to be called commissioner pants or something)  - both for work (when not wearing a suit and in meetings) and the lighter ones for casual wear. 

Can also pickupo decent suit deals if you are looking to shop around

New pair of shoes or in particular a new pair of trainers if you're the active type

Cosmetics

Restock your cologne/perfume

Electronics

Defo would recommend getting yourself a smaller 7/8 inch tablet for the commute - great for making it less mundane

Updating your desktop PC/ Personal Laptop

Sponsors M&A (London)
 

From what ive heard of sleep rings, id advise against it. Folks have told me they’ve become more neurotic about their sleep after getting one of those, not in the good way. They’ll lament more on the missed metrics than relish on the analysis, human psyche I guess. Some of them started to notice they were “feeling” what their metrics were saying instead of actually how they felt.

 

I’ve had a whoop for about six months and I’ve enjoyed it. You can nerd out as much as you want or don’t want about all the metrics.

Haven’t become neurotic about my sleep.

 

i hated the subscription models of those two. Ended up going with a simple FitBit inspire 3. Cheap, tracks heart rate and sleep decently. No subscription needed and the company will be around for a while. I wear it on my dominate wrist and my watch on the other hand. idc about if it looks silly

Go all the way
 

Im gonna run down the list for a personal WFH set-up that will change your life. Many of the things I said has been said by other people, but at the same time, its just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. I use to game a lot in college (FPS, League, some random RPGs COD, whatever you name it I got it), and once I started recruiting I realized working on a Mac is completely retarded and done all work on my gaming PC.

First and foremost, get yourself a wireless mouse. Get one from logitech, those are wonders for like $150. Can provide detailed specs if needed.
Same with keyboard, im not too fancy on my keyboard but I run through most of the mechanicals keyboards on market. Currently I am using corsair with the lighting switches and wrist rest so my gf don't shoot me when I am punching through excel at 2:00AM. Razer has good options as well, take in consideration what are your preferences and try them at your local bestbuy. $500 should be good to go.

Here is the juice, I know non of you fuckers working from home does purely work. I mean I am watching my ball games and all that fun stuff on the side and my fellow analyst seems to do the same while WFH. Get yourself AT LEAST 2 monitors from reputable brands that is AT LEAST 144 hz. I have a 32 in horizontal main screen and 27in side vertical on the left. Stack them side by side, one horizontal one vertical, if you want them at 60 degrees be my guest. Trust  me 144 FPS will change your life forever. Having a big monitor while working on your shit and pulling some comps helps a lot. Prices could go wild, keep it around $500-700.

Chair - secret lab is my personal chair for now. Heard good stuff about herman miller and whatever, just go sit on one, make sure it has good support and you are set. Not rocket science, budget for chair should be around $400-$900

Now that you got everything, you gonna need a solid set-up that can run 50+ browers and 29 excel files side by side. I have last gens top of the line gaming PC that I built myself, but for thing for ppl to realize, at least a ryzen 7/ intel i7. RTX 4070, 16gb of ram (I have 32 I rec 32). 1TB of ssd. let your sales associate know this spec and you are golden. Looking to spend around $3000-4000. 

Anyways, everything above is just from my own experiences, I was fortunately able to use what I had from Uni for work. I know it may not be the case for everyone. Rank and order of importance Monitor> Chair>Mouse/keyboard>PC. Would be happy to answer any specific questions if anyone has. 

 

~2k on skincare products to counter the ageing that this job brings

 

Great bump.

This year I’m going all in on a waffle maker. Thinking one that I pour that ish into the top. People sleep on waffles, they are really pretty great and if you have a good waffle maker it doesn’t take that much space. The ladies love it too.

Sonos speakers are pretty fun as well. Also, great time to load up on a bunch of Nalgene water bottles. 
 

Also, that guy that gave me shit for the stick vacuum can still suck it. That bad boy rips.

 

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