What is the next best thing instead of Investment Banking, prestige and pay wise?

A massive potion of the kids working at these BB's have an incredibly similar profile to you, if not worse.

If you want to be in an area that is less demanding, both in terms of entry and workload, that is fine, but don't chalk it up to the field being exclusive to the best of the best.

"Prestigious" covers such a broad range of careers that it's kind of pointless asking.

You've got the whole gamut.. be that front office high finance, corporate banking (within a CIB), private banking, consulting, biglaw, med/dentistry, oil&gas, tech (inc. startup entrepreneurship), top ad agencies, top creative agencies, top media production studios, big4 accounting, higher end of academia, federal government/civil service, functional management at mid market to large cap companies, party politics, teaching at elite schools, brand management at CPG/FMCGs, big ticket sales.. The list goes on.

So, forget prestige (it's not a useful heuristic because it doesn't sift the universe of possible careers down to a manageable number), and focus on what you want out of your career.. How you can place yourself to get to that "want" and then executing with as much zeal and passion as you can. No one successful gives up when times get a bit murky or unclear; they grit their teeth and blitz through.

There's really no reason given your profile that you should be worrying, what you should be worrying more about is putting yourself in front of the right people and opportunities.

Prestige is such a dumb fucking thing to be concerned about. People hiring retards that care about titles laugh all the way to the bank when they realize you'll take less money for a fancy title.