How to make the most money?

Seems like it's so hard to move up in PE

Most people do 2 years IB, then go to PE, then MBA, only to end up in corp dev/something else that is a significant paycut. So my question is, if you wanna make the most money, is it better to stay in IB?

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Many Senior MDs / Partners at megafund PE don't make that much more than senior MDs in top IB teams these days. Those positions are quickly becoming just another job. Not everyone is Steve Schwartzman or Jon Gray.

Moreover, most MFs have been much more focused on asset aggregation and less on individual deals/IRR. Returns / carried interests have gone down quite a bit relative to the size of their teams and AUM.

Don't think this trend will reverse because as public companies, the BX/APO/TPGs of the world answer to public shareholders who do not price performance fees at nearly the same level as those stable, vanilla mgmt fees. If you were Steve S or Jon G, a large amount of your net worth is in BX stocks and your incentives will first and foremost be to drive said stock higher (or dividend / buyback more) and not to squeeze that extra penny out of carried interest. It is sad because Larry Fink and co. left BX for this exact issue and if Steve had the same conviction 30 years ago Blackrock might not have been spun-off.

Lonestar is probably the only 50Bn+ place that still cares more about IRR vs. growing AUM. This is only because Jon Greyken usually contributes a large amount of his own money into each LS vehicle and he's not paying MDs to siphon mgmt fees off of his own capital. At most other places, MF PE is first and foremost an asset aggregator and an investor second nowadays.

 

quant/prop trading + some luck

HF/PM + luck.

MFPE + grind + sacrifice hairline to the LBO Gods + luck.

Exit IB into Onlyfans

Exit IB into the NFL

Exit IB into Hollywood

Commit to a 13-hour-long DMT trip alongside some aboriginal shaman whereby you will live an eternity and whole life in cosmic bliss within those 13 hours. Use that life you have lived to trade on cocoa bean futures with your newfound understanding of shipping and logistics.

 

Corinna Kopf showed her earnings from OF and it was like a few million a month. She probably makes 30 million+ a year off onlyfans alone 

Imagine grinding for 15+ years to make MD of a BB/EB, only to find out that some chick that takes nudes online makes what you make in a year in a month lol

 

Its mens fault

we leave daughters fatherless (whether physically leave or not put in effort) where tiktok and an ipad raises them, then we turn around and buy these broken girls onlyfans

 

- Go to shit rural high school
- Become valedictorian, high SAT, high grades, etc (bar is low)

- Go to ivy with financial aid

- Quant at Citadel/Jane Street/Two Sigma
- Start your own prop shop

- Buy oil at negative prices, store it in your the rural HS (after bribing ur old principal to turn into a storage site), sell it at $100/bbl
- Go work at GS TMT (because u need respect)
-Retire

 

The unfortunate reality is that to achieve a rare outcome - like making a ton of money - you need to do something differently than other people. That means there's no clear path to making a fortune. If there were one, everybody would do it.

There's still a general pattern to those that have made lots of money: you need to do something that is (1) rare and (2) valuable. Underwater basket weaving is a rare skill, but it's not valuable; flipping hamburgers is a valuable skill, but anybody can do it. The goal should be be to find the intersection of the two.

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