Can you really be rich by working as an investment banker?
I know this is kinda weird to talk in WSO...
The forum had helped me a lot finding my first job in capital market, a very decent job. However, what I figured after a while is that...the cost of living, the tax and the time I am selling to the firm is like a rip-off. I could not even save 30K USD by year end(I have pretty high salary compared to other graduates and we save pretty much the same. Many cost that I have never considered when I am a student).
My dad invested in real estate and did REALLY well. He almost gained 100% ROI every year(leveraged of course), he is building his asset like rocket and I am stlll in the rat race.
I have quit my job and decided to be a professional investor. TBH I did not really have a dream career but just wanted to make enough to enjoy life. Maybe I quit too early, so I did not have a chance to experience what an MD's life is like.
All I feel about my career is a joke, that I tried so hard and gained so less. All because I picked the wrong way to build the financial base, by working, not by investing or creating.
Can you really be rich as an investment banker?
To answer your question. No. Not really. To be rich requires ownership. Bankers are not owners, they're salaried employees. But it is possible that it could be a platform on which to build by gaining the means to ownership.
Also, I read your post in a Chinese accent.
How much did you save in a year? Less than 30k? So something like 20k?
That's not bad for a first year first job. Like mentioned above, you will want to get into the ownership game (companies, real estate etc). If you're making and saving a lot, which it sounds like you are, working as a salaried employee for a little while isn't a bad way to accumulate the capital needed to really get onto the ownership side of things.
Also I'm assuming you are not from America, 100% ROI on RE seems pretty high unless these are over periods of more than a couple years or unless he's investing in "emerging markets."
Gordon Gekko quote "The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it."
I don't know why you decided to go into investment banking if your dad achieves 100% ROI on property investing. Go back to China and work for your dad.
If you want to get rich, you need to do at least one of three things: 1. Get into the upper levels of your profession. 2. Come up with a great idea, follow through on it, and then cash out. 3. Cheat/do something illegal. Don't do this one.
There's a common bond between all three: you have to work really hard. For the first two, it's sweat equity and acquisition of knowledge. For the other one, it's making sure you don't get caught (which will become nearly impossible over time).
Are you going to work hard if you dislike your job? No, almost assuredly you won't. So here's the coup de grace, you will not become rich if you don't like your job so don't do something just for the money or the prestige. Finance is great but if you don't find it generally intellectually stimulating then you will burn out.
no, not anymore. 25-30 years ago it was possible. Think that the average 1st year associate bonus in 1994 was 250k, back then it was a lot of money. Then you invest wisely and you can get really rich.
Also, now a VP average total comp is the same as the average total comp of an associate 10 years ago. Now a banker is just upper middle class, need to work and save for years in order to buy a house.
10-15 years ago bankers would go and buy houses in cash after the bonus.
The authority with which people say some things on this forum astounds me. Def. of rich varies BUT having been raised by parents on 50k a year, yes you can be quite "rich" in banking. Now back to the warped world we're in, there's plenty of MDs in their 30s who have a net worth of 5-10mm with a big house and some other nice toys. Not all of them are happy. There's also MDs in their 40s not doing that well but regardless, 250K-500K base as an MD with some semblance of a bonus puts you above a significant swath of the population.
You're never going to be a billionaire in banking unless you're one of like 10 guys I can think of but frankly, you're not exactly a pauper.
The more important part is how much money do you need / want to be happy?
Look bro, I've had a long, hard life filled with adversity, dropped charges and surreal comebacks. And if there's one thing I know, it's that you don't judge a man by his money or what he stands to offer you. You judge him by his dad's money. Because daddy's money is way more frat than working like a bottom tier peon. Why would anyone want to work? People are so stupid yo I swear.