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Look Saarang, I doubt WSO has many millionaire members. We’re mostly students (some with rich families), and I bet anyone else commenting is gonna give you a real smart answer about what you can do with that money. But what I’m gonna say is if you’re constantly debating whether or not IB is worth it before even getting a gig in the first place, then it’s likely that’s you won’t succeed in the industry.

Northwestern’s great, but you honestly give it a bad name with your humble brag bullshit littered around this forum. I would enjoy the discussions at WSO much more if you weren’t a part of it.

 
"itsanumbersgame" I can answer your second question. $4-5 million net worth is not considered average.

Just go buy a 10Y treasury with that money and live off of half of the payments while you start a company and reinvest the other half.

I can't tell if OP is trolling or just throwing random numbers out there, but I would advise going into some sort of analytics/finance/IB position before starting your own company.

I think 2-4 years working under someone else or in a F500 company would prepare one more adequately to take the reigns in their own business. If you're self funded and inexperienced, small missteps can become costly.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Don't bother with IB (or even college). Put all of your money into high yield bonds and penny stocks. Start reading websites like Bloomberg and pay $2000/mo for an overpriced legacy software. Once you make some money off of your investments, start converting all of your cash into gold and silver. You'll be rich and you can just do nothing for the rest of your life.

 

Blow all of it and see if your able to make it back. If not, you never had the goods anyway. Give up.

 

You need to find your "professional passion". What you can do to:

  1. Create Value for others (and monetize )
  2. Really love doing
  3. Are great at

You can do well with two of these but when you hit all three it becomes transformational. The problem with seeking success and money (which is very common BTW) for the sake of the success and money is you will run out of steam. There is no relevance. What is enough success? What is enough money? Ultimately you will get to a certain level and get comfortable and decide to no longer push for more success and more money.

For the most part, people who are wildly successful are so because they are extremely talented at something that creates value for others (whether it be as an employee or by creating their own something) and they love doing it. They don't want to stop doing it. They want to expand and improve how they do it, build scale to it, etc. They love it and actually get energy from it. They don't run out of steam.

The success and money are simply a byproduct of the endeavor, not objective.

Another observation: if you seek success and fortune for it's own sake, you will never be happy. You will always compare yourself to others who have more (and there will always be many ).

 

Because I like getting out and meeting / helping people, building relationships, etc. I would go crazy being stuck in an office, being told what to do, etc. Different personality then what is likely required in IB.

The minutia is brain damage and the retail investor (including HNW) don't really care about the details. They just want to know they're doing OK, meeting goals, etc.

I would have been a fine IB MD but would not have ever gone through the process. I've led organizations and run my own firm, but a the end of the day, I like helping people, selling, and being able to chart my own course.

 

if you grew up with people with much more, what are you doing on this forum? you would create more "value" investing the money you're born into, funding sillicon valley startups than dicking around in PPT. you're delusional.

 

No one has asked if this money is even accessible to you right now though...

I would work but just for source of income to support lifestyle. Assuming job less demanding than IB, which is essentially everything, I would spend a lot of time outside working hours looking for startups to invest in/advise. Eventually could get an MBA (network + credibility) and perhaps start your own gigs if you feel you have enough experience.

 

Yes, IB or M/B/B consulting is a good way to get into some established VC firms from what I can tell. My comment was not from a career trajectory perspective, but rather an interest of participating for fun/the experience. Some of my friends have started companies, and I really enjoy speaking to them about what's going on and like to bounce ideas around with them. When I have the opportunity to invest in something I believe in and am seriously interested in building...that's worth my time even if my small $ investment goes to $0.

 

At your age, invest 95% of the money in diversified equities (domestic, international, large cap, mid cap, small cap, growth, defensive), most of it in indexed funds, EFTs. Use only a small portion of it to make your life more comfortable ($3K/mth apt in NYC instead of $2K as an example).

Pursue your career aggressively and while you do, your investments will multiply several times by the time you turn 50. If you wish, you can easily retire then.

 

I love new challenges and can't really stop working 80+ hour weeks because I love what I do. It's basically PE plays but really small with my own money plus managing some of the companies I founded. FWIW I'm 25 now with net worth of a couple M. Could retire and work lIke 2 to 6 hours a week but I would go nuts.

The coolest thing is being able to work with incredibly smart people all day and not have to deal with too much bullshit. You learn so much so fast it's awesome.

So yeah...do it.

 

I'm curious as to how someone so young has a 5 mil net worth. I would assume its all family money. IMO you seem very out of touch. How could you think 5 million is average? Judging by some of your other comments/posts you appear to not know much about the industry and assume that your uncle will hook you up with a job at a BB. Northwestern is a good college but its not some type of supertarget. Your comments around this forum are absolutely toxic and idiotic.

 

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