Is 7 years in banking enough to retire, or am I delusional?

Delusional

can you breakdown how you get to 1.8 million saved after 7 years?

Hypothetically what if the market doesn't only go up?

The math isn't crazy but...

You'll just find your expenses change dramatically over that time period. Does it maybe work as a single, no kids, apartment lifestyle with modest spending? Probably. For the vast majority of people who have spent 7 years in high finance and become accustomed to a certain lifestyle over time, it's not nearly enough to retire at ~30 years old.

Could not agree more. Do factor in that at some point you are going to want to transfer most of the portfolio to bonds to reduce your long-term risk and stabilize your income. That being said, yeah, great goal.

Unlikely to save $1.8m in 7 years (6 analyst / associate; 1 VP). Even if you do, $1.8, your inflation adjusted income to keep what you saved will be below the average of the country, which for anyone who spent this much time in banking won’t be enough.

401k you wouldnt be able to touch for 30 years. is it worth it to invest in one if you need working assets? 

separately, I would have this as a blue sky scenario as there's so much that could go wrong where you are unable to retire and hermitting for +10 years if you're offtrack sounds awful. what happens if you're bottom bucket/the market drops and you have crap bonus for 2 years? you're exceedingly dependent on the last few years of the 7 being in a higher earning role, what if you dont get there?

any acceleration is getting lucky with a lot of risk -> ie startup equity (that exits at all/on time), parabolic trade (timed nvdia/crypto/etc).

saving even half that quantum is simply delusional if you're working in a HCOL area

90% chance you’re going to SF. BB presence in LA is quite small. A few things you need to consider.

1) SF is basically tied for 1st most expensive city in the US.

2) Markets don’t only go up.

3) Banking sucks, and staying 7 years will be a huge grind. Likely bald by ASSO 2/3.

4) last and most important. Retiring before 30 isn’t necessarily the dream you think it is. Every person I’ve seen retire early gives up after ~12-18 months. You can only see so many shades of ocean water before it starts to look the same.

Lol at 29, thought I would have $1M saved up by now, and i'm a little bit over $500k-600k (granted I did two years of MBA) so... $1.8M seems like a stretch

Inflation will erode the coupon on your capital base even if you could save that much.

$1.8m is very optimistic, especially in Cali given taxes and cost of living. more realistic number is closer to $1m which is still enough to retire to a chill life in south east Asia.

There is a classic post on this site called something like “life is more expensive than you think.” 

$1.8 million just isn’t enough to retire unless you’re in a third world country. And I say that as someone who has no expensive hobbies, vices, etc. 

Totally plausible but your 20s are a pretty formative time in your life where the experiences and relationships you build in those years can have an outsized impact on your future.  So if your extreme math is getting you to $1.8m for example, but slightly different math gets you to say $1.4m or $1.5m and you're getting a lot more out of life by spending that extra money, and still winding up with nice savings, that is probably the less risky path.  Putting all your eggs in the basket of financial savings is an active bet that other kinds of assets (social capital, personal development etc) aren't going to be as important.

I personally think it’s a bit delusional unless you have a trust fund / get significant help from parents.

My goal was initially $1mm after 6 years but life got in the way (spent 2 years in a different global office, travelled far too much, didn’t buy any stocks for tax reasons but 100% would do again as had so much fun). Only got to 800k but that’s still more than anyone I know. Even if I stayed on the US for the full stint, I don’t think my savings would be materially higher. 

1.8 is pretty crazy, you’d need to time the market right.

The math roughly works if markets cooperate, but the model's weak point isn't the returns, it's the front end. Analyst years pay less than people model once you net out tax and rent in a VHCOL city, and a big chunk of your 7-year total comes from the associate bonus bump in years 3-5 - which you only collect if you actually survive to it, and plenty don't. So optimize the first two years for staying in the seat, and treat everything past that as the upside.

Delusional in my opinion, also begs question of is that the kind of life you want to live.

I'd extend to 10 - 12 years and maybe, but by that point you're a director and approaching MD and then do you want to leave if you can clip a few Ms per year?

You're going through the worst years to get a quantum that can barely keep you alive in a cheap, rural part of the country, which you're entirely dependent upon and if markets move against you for a year or two you're torched.