Plans for Kids? Private Equity or bust ?

If I get to have children of my own I hope that I would try to encourage them to do what they want. If they want to go into finance I would hopefully try to support them. 

I am doing PE precisely so that my kids don't feel they have to do IBD/PE to be financially comfortable. Coming from a moderate background, I am doing PE so that I can start creating wealth in my family so that by the time I have kids they can focus on whatever they enjoy. 

No parent should plan their child's career path. Just give them the tools and advice they need to reach their own goals.

Some kids might see their parents having some degree of wealth and decide they need to maintain to have even more to be satisfied 

This is psychotic. If you are worried about your kids having a good job rather than being happy, you suck.  

Some of us are unsure if we want kids.

I would rather my kids be able to decide what time they will go to bed as an adult and not have their night / weekend ruined because somebody uploaded new files to a data room.  

No, idiot. You go into IB/PE so that your kids are able to become archeologists, social workers, architects and are fulfilled by their lives. You go into this role so that they have the freedom to choose and don't have to worry. 

You want to make sure your children go to the right pre-schools that will prepare them for PE. A quick Google search will show you the best private equity feeder pre schools. 

I hope that my kids do whatever they want in life although I'd love it if they end up in the hard sciences. That was the other path that I would have chosen and it would be great to see them apply themselves in those fields.

I’d probably be upset if they ended up in finance.

First off, when I have a kid, I will encourage them to do whatever they want. But, if a kid decided he wanted to do finance, I would tell him he’s a coward if he does banking than PE. The goal in life is not to hoard prestige or financial engineer for wealthy people to make them wealthier. Actually contribute to society! Plus, you are kidding yourself if you think an associate at a megafund is where any innovation or semblance of work life balance could exist. Take risk, otherwise you will end up overworked, well-off (but not filthy rich), and with little work life balance and as a result no relationships. At a point, you need to fall off the path and make something of yourself otherwise the education and opportunities I and your mother worked hard to provide were meaningless.

So, basically the same thing my Wall Street dad told me

Right now my kid is in a top primary school (day school) that in total costs about $30k/yr and I can thank my finance role for that optionality. We will see what comes of it all and I do not have any expectations other than I just want them to be happy and in a safe, productive environment with excellent faculty and small classes. I studied engineering first and wouldn’t be surprised if one or all of my children do the same based on their behaviors thus far. I’m sure by the time they look at colleges the admissions will be test optional, but for now they are still IQ testing 4 years olds for elite primary school (pre-k) admissions (which I do not agree with fwiw). Experiencing that pressure already makes me definitely not want to put any pressure on pushing them down a certain path.
 

As an aside I will say that the world of “high” finance is very douchey and has a very douchey feeling out process that extends beyond the office even into adulthood. The way many finance people act when they meet you even Happenstance at a country club is comical, they want to see if you are a “real” finance guy and once they realize you are (bc they have to ask point blank everything about you while I ask them nothing in return) they start being more friendly. Totally douche. There are much better people in other industries, so I wouldn’t be heartbroken if my kids go a better route. 

Now that I have children, what fuels my grind day in day out is knowing that I am making / saving money so my kids would have the optionality of pursuing whatever interests them without the need to worry about money. Something I was not able to do myself ...

Lol at all these people saying they would just let their kids do whatever they want. If I had kids I definitely would discourage them from 75%+ of the majors found in today’s colleges as the job options/salary found out of school are pathetic. At 22 it shouldn’t be about what you want to do, it should be about what gives you a good salary to pursue hobbies outside of work/down the road. High finance isn’t the only way to get there for sure, but if we think about typical career fields that set up people well, there’s probably only a handful or two that actually do that. There are obviously rare exceptions to this if my kid happened to have a unique talent where he/she could actually monetize a major like theatre, but that’s a case by case basis and not something you plan for in advance.