Federal Consulting versus Public Finance IB

So this is kind of a weird comparison, but I'm facing federal consulting (BAH, Accenture, Deloitte) versus public finance (BB). I've looked through a ton of threads and WSO/Glassdoor salaries. It seems to me that public finance is considerably more money than federal consulting by a long shot. But while public finance is typically less hours than other groups in IB, still a lot more hours than federal consulting (which seems to be 40-50 hours).

Federal consulting seems more interesting, but the pay is a lot lower than I thought it would be and living in DC is expensive... Does anyone have any rough comp points for 3 years out of college, 5, 10, 20? If federal consulting tops off around $200k I'm not sure if I'd want to pursue it when public finance is an option.

Again, weird comparison, but I appreciate the (any) insight on either side of the comparison!

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