Moving from extreme poverty to wealth via IB

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Madly Respect and also envy that you have the privilege to have the right to work in America

I was born in Hong Kong but with a strangely poor family (my Father has a gambling addiction, and both parents didn't even finish their primary school education).

I grew up poorly (sometimes I won't even have enough money for proper food, life is hard to live in a world-class city). I was also not doing that great in school (I was in the low-key street gang because that's the only place I was not feeling small).

Fast forward, I was caught by the police in 17 for some stupid thing that changed me. Since then, I have worked a few jobs simultaneously for a few years to save a load of money to study in the Netherlands, was also working part-time to pay my rent & tuition while doing a full-time internship (they only pay 600 Euro per month for FT intern).

This year, I've graduated and luckily got an offer from LevFin… nevertheless, the payment is still not that good (I work for a leading regional bank, and my salary is about 50k before tax), I'm not able to get into investment banking as I don't speak the local language. Life still sucks for me cause I've to repay the money I've borrowed during my study, and the rent level is crazy.

I remember when I first moved to NYC, for a job with a Big 4 firm. I was able to afford rent on my own shitty little Midtown studio. Drove to it with my new IKEA furniture in the back of my rental car.

And it felt fucking amazing. I really, truly, felt like I had made it. I was in the big leagues now.

Never let that feeling go. No matter how bad things get, you'll always be miles ahead of where you were a year or two or ten years ago. Don't ever forget that, and be grateful for what you have.

My parents are immigrants and I'm a first gen student. One of my parents dropped out of high school to come work full time in the US. When I was born, I was sent back to our home country where I grew up with no electricity or plumbing. I came back to the US to start elementary school, but my parents were still living in a pretty poor apartment. We would commonly run out of hot water and had to boil water to shower at times. A few years later, my parents' business started doing well and they finally purchased their first home. They had achieved the American Dream. I did well enough in school to get into a US News top 25 ranked school and have an IB SA lined up for the summer. Truly blessed and grateful for the opportunities the US has provided my family. Also, I'm an Asian male (non diversity) so I believe that with hard work, anyone can make it here.

First off, congrats! I bet your family is proud of what you are achieving.

Secondly, while I wouldn't say I came from extreme poverty, I did grow up in a poor/struggling household (immigrants parents without even a HS degree). Hell, at one point we were even homeless. So I totally understand the feeling you are having and as much as I struggle with the job sometimes, I am always grateful for what it has allowed me to do for my family.

And yes, I do consider my low 6 figure salary to be "wealthy". I mean, even in my first year in the field, I was making more than my entire family ever did combined in a single year (parents + older siblings who also didn't had the opportunity to get a higher education). 

On the loyalty point, I get it, you feel like you owe the bank everything. However, always look out for what is best for you, because the bank will not blink twice if they need to let you go if it benefits them. Not saying you shouldn't work hard, but don't feel like you owe it to the bank to stick around if things are no longer optimal for you in a few years.

Aside from that, enjoy the feeling, be proud of yourself and good luck!

Really awesome story man. I had a very priviledged childhood but can still relate to the feeling of "having made it". IB truly opened up another world for me that I had no idea existed, despite coming from an objectively well off background. A strong indicator is that family and friends have absolutely no idea what my job consist off and what I do, so some progress has definitely been made. I can only imagine what it must be like for you. And remember to stay hungry, this is just the beginning!

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Love this. Glad to see you're enjoying the ride. Many of us finance folks are constantly chasing the next 0 in that paycheck and never take the time to appreciate the presence and our accomplishment. Keep it up!

Great post. Good attitude. Always nice to see someone appreciate things. 

PS - Some of the posts in this thread are a healthy mix of delusion and not-so-subtle bigotry. Amusing, but in an empty kind of way. 

Huge congrats. That’s an incredible life story

Fantastic to read this. Congratulations on your success.

I didn't come from nearly the same kind of background as you but basically had my personal financial life hit a hard 180 when I started working in IB.

Couple points:

- Totally get why you feel loyal to your firm for providing you with your earnings but make sure that you're being treated well etc before you let a potentially toxic/terrible culture take over your life just because they're paying your salary. Make sure you keep your mental health a priority is all I'm saying

- Make sure that you're not overextending just because you can. I definitely did this initially and it takes a decent amount of time to come back from being in a financial rut and or hole. Again, not saying you are/will do this but throwing some caution in the wind here

- Continue to feel grateful. One of the things which separates you from people who come into this industry with tons of money is a hunger which is drawn from having come from poverty. Neither one of these is better than one another, but I'm just pointing out something which may keep you feeling driven and limiting entitlement

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Congrats on making it bro, I can't say I have a similar background in terms of poverty but I didn't have anything I have now before I entered finance. If you're good, finance is the great equaliser, just keep the fires alight and smash out those hours, who the fuck'll care where you came from when you're racking digits?

King 😌👑

 I can somewhat relate, I'm just fked (poor af) with no job and applying to roles daily.

I grew up poor believe it or not in a western European country to immigrant parents. Both my parents had low income jobs (cleaning offices, warehouse jobs) until my mom couldn't work anymore due to a very bad work injury and my dad kind of bailed and never came back knowing that he couldn't support 4 kids. In my culture it doesn't really bode well for a woman to have 4 kids and be divorced, yet my mom absolutely smashed it raising us. She committed all her time making sure we had all the support possible with her. As the eldest brother I quit going to high-school when I turned 18 and had dead-end jobs until I was 24 to help out at home with the bills and making sure my brothers were doing ok at school. At 24 feeling like I could do more I decided to go back into education as my brothers were old enough to earn their own bread. I went to London to my cousin, and for one year I was learning STEM on Khan Academy etc. I applied to do A Levels in 2 years and got A*A*A*, got accepted to University of Cambridge which felt like a dream come true. I did a spring internship at a BB, got a return offer for Summer Internship, did well during Summers, and am now in my second year at work and in my early 30's and I'm loving every.single.second of it.

When I got paid during my summer internship and realised that what I just earned in 2 months was literally comparable to 6 months of full-time salary at my dead end job I felt like I was a millionaire, and when I got my bonus I felt like I won the lottery! I legit used the cash earned during my summer internship and the sign on/relocation bonus to propose to my then girlfriend now wife, and going to honeymoon (she also pitched in her savings lol).

Even now as a junior whenever I see the amount that is deposited in my bank account I feel like I'm dreaming. I know that a lot of people get burned out pretty quickly in their IB journey, but trust me the amount of times I felt like killing myself when working insane shifts in fast food restaurants and retail jobs getting paid peanuts, knowing that if I didn't bring in any money it would destroy us financially, is incomparable. The other thing is that because I spent most of my 20's enjoying time with friends (when not working) and made meaningful life long friendships that had ups and downs, and I guess I did what every 20 year old guy would do, that I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything when working insane hours. It's something I've picked up as being the general sentiment around the juniors here. Anyway, I hope to buy my mom a decent house in the future, something I could only dream of whilst window shopping on real estate websites.

By the way just a tad off-topic. I find it funny how I always was the older brother taking care of the younger brothers, and it's something I feel like I'm doing here at times, being the older brother around trying to calm down the little brothers here lol.

Very Inspirational. I haven't achieved what you have achieved, but I believe I can be like you. I came from an impoverished town in a small Asian country. The U.S refine me. It took me more steps to be a university student, but I am a third year's now. I day and night dream about the day that I will start working on wall street do what I truly love while making good money to give back and take care of all the people who are in my shoes and especially my family.

I am still financially struggling, but I have the belief and a plan. My God bless me!

I came to the US from a 3^rd world country the better part of 2 decades ago on an F-1 visa to attend college on a full-scholarship.

Can't speak for others, but after making coin in IB, I have always kept an obscenely large amount of cash just sitting in my checking account - I have to spread it out between multiple banks because it's over the federally insured limit if I keep all my cash in 1 account.

I didn't have much growing up in my shithole country, and even now that I do have the money, I don't have the same desire to buy expensive stuff that my peers all seem to have.

There's always a part of me that fears that somehow it will "get taken away".

It probably doesn't help that the immigration system in the US is a nightmare, and I've had to have a plan for what to do if I lost my H1B visa and got deported back to my corrupt 3rd world authoritarian state.

Good on you brother. Grew up not being able to afford basic things myself, not even doctor visits, now I make close to six figures 2 years out of school in a place where the average household salary is less than half that. Best part about it is spoiling my mom for all that she went through to raise us.