Who cares
Ignore title. Current AN2 at MM bank. Been sweated out for the last year and a half, and although I love the pay and sense of self worth that this job brings (which is the only thing my ego is tethered to), this job is awful.
I look at my VPs and MDs, and they are constantly stressed and appear unhappy. I always think to myself - is an extra $100k worth the house with more sq footage, newer car, or nicer clothes?
[Incoming corny existential crisis thought] - I think to myself - we’re on this floating rock for such a short amount of time - who cares? The stress, the deterioration of my health, etc., cannot be good.
Curious to hear others’ thoughts. Is this worth it? If I make it to old age, will I feel more accomplished or fulfilled by having a career in finance? Will an an extra million or 3 make me happier? [Yes, I know how that last sentence sounds]. What’s more important — money / [monetary] success, or spending time with the people you love, living a lower-stress life? Not to go full hippie, but literally none of this matters. We will all be forgotten anyways.
We may drop dead tomorrow.
Why carry on with such a high demanding career like this?
Back to to the model I guess.
Spent almost 3 years at 2 different banks, and currently in my 2nd year of PE. Have had this thought before many times, and honestly After having done this for almost 6 years, I’m ready to call it quits, and do a normal 9-5. The money is nice, but if I can land a role now leveraging my experiences that may pay slightly less, but I have 30-40 more hours of free time per week, I’ll take it. People truly underestimate how much time that is.
You knew the answer to your question before even asking it my friend
Pls don't gain any further self-awareness. Keep that nose to the grindstone instead.
My portfolio performs better with slaves of capital. Thx
Have been doing this for 7 years. Not worth it in my opinion. This job is retarded mostly because you work with the most money grubbing, risk averse, sackless losers you could imagine. Terrible way to live. Our comp is basically in line with the hours / stress induced, maybe even below. There is no alpha here. The glory days of finance are over. Save yourself while you can
No, it’s not really worth it. While pay is optically high, the actual purchasing power from high finance jobs in HCOL areas has eroded so severely you end up slaving away for not much actual material benefit.
As you progress your hours do get better but the older generations are staying in their seats longer and longer preventing progression to real decision making, ownership, and autonomy. The grind, stress, performative posturing, and politicking all continue. Hours improve but happiness does not.
The only way it is worth it is if you 1) you fundamentally love the game and feel intrinsically compelled to sacrifice everything for it (hobbies, health, family) or 2) can remain highly disciplined, eschew typical finance bro money pits (watches, fine dining, bottle service), and save to buy your freedom in a LCOL area.
The latter is easier said than done as we are all social animals who feel the need to fit in and are prone to focusing on relative prestige. It’s further difficult to eschew retail therapy when you’re getting grinded 100hrs a week and you need to rationalize in your own mind why you do this. The watches and fine dining remain in reach, while the hard assets become increasingly unaffordable, but focus on the former increasingly hurts your ability to buy freedom with the latter.
Accurate comment - calculus for working hard in investment banking has completely shifted since 2022. My MD bought a house when he was a first year associate, this was still realistic to do up until a few years ago. There was an argument to make that if you made F U money it would be worthwhile sticking out the pain - but these days it hardly seems worth the lifestyle premium in HCOL high tax areas. London is a key example. Do IB for a few years then get a chill job
On top of that, living lower-stress life will make you live longer and stay healthier, and wealth grows exponentially with time, so even if your sole goal in life is to get rich, it may be a better strategy to work less stressful job and live longer and let your investments bring you wealth rather than work under more stress for a few extra $100k and die sooner.
For example, let's say somebody worked a stressful job for more money and had $2M saved by 2020 and died. Now let's say another person worked less stressful job for less money and had $1M saved by 2020, but they're still alive, and now their portfolio is worth $2.5M, so they ended up being wealthier despite working for less money, just because they lived longer and let their investments bring them wealth.
bizarre comparison but yes less stress makes life better
imo going to a normal 9-5 is not the move. 2 options - one you grind out a few years of IB, PE, HF, etc, whatever you need that so you can launch the next $BN+ fund or company in your sector. second is you use savings and free time to bootstrap a business and run up hella rackiez twin (i.e. - find a still respectable finance role with better wlb so you have time to work on other things)
Ok intern 👍
not an intern but u guys are absurd for wanting to work for someone else your whole life
I feel like the “career alpha” of banking / pe has disappeared. We are paid commensurate with the hours we work / stress we endure and there isn’t really much tail upside anymore. In years past this was an easy choice because it was basically a guarantee of outsized wealth relative to what you put in, but now I think it’s basically a decision you have to make on whether you want to grind and make more money relative tot he average white collar professional who doesn’t work as much. The pay does scale, yes, but this is priced in via bloat at nearly all levels and severe attrition as you move up ranks
I was in commercial banking for several years and had amazing WLB. Wanted a role with more upside in terms of earnings and learning experience so switched to REPE a year ago. My firm’s compensation is certainly a discount to other similar funds and when adjusted for hours/pay is a discount to banking. I genuinely do enjoy the role and I HATED banking towards the end. But man I do miss the automatic annual pay bumps and WLB. Current firm has heavier hours and you have to pay raises are nonexistent unless you are promoted. I wouldn’t wanna go back but just some times I reminisce.
gg welcome to the club.
why dont you exit into something on the buyside that is much more chill like secondaries or private credit
is there a lot of hiring in private credit right now?
If you’re truly at a sweaty bank you’d be surprised at how much you’d still get paid at the eoy even if you’re doggin it. The fact that you’re still there when your peers drop left and right is something to consider. I’m done giving 100% but 5 people have quit in my already small analyst class, so I know I won’t get extremely disrespected with my number
Keep in mind an iron law of finance that everyone in banking should understand, but a lot of people don’t: Money made early in your life is worth more - usually a lot more - than is the same (even inflation adjusted) money made later in life.
Let’s say you manage to squirrel away $1m by the time you’re 30. If that compounds at a reasonable 6%, it will be $3.2m when you’re 50. If that same million dollars landed in your bank account at age 50, adjusted for 2.5% inflation, it would be half as much - $1.6m.
This is why a lot of people go into finance, knowing or strongly suspecting that it’s not what they’re going to do forever. Also why a lot of people stay in finance longer they otherwise would.
Not telling you what to do or not to do, but there’s sound financial logic to grinding it out in finance when you’re young and childless, switching to something with a better lifestyle later but by no means “late” in your career, and letting the finance money ride. Which over the long term, it will.
Leave so Wang and Tyronne can take your place. People are begging for the offer day-in/day-out
Tyronne fucks my wife with his Wang as I rearrange logos for a pitch.
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