Comments of the Week 8/5 to 8/11

Comments of the Week 8/5 to 8/11

Hello everyone, below are the interesting comments of last week’s topics.

• By IlliniProgrammer: Plans With Your Bonus?
  

  I work 55 hours/week. So while you are coming off another all-nighter at the office, here is how I am spending my Saturday:

  Geographical arbitrage 101. Make your money in Manhattan, save most of it; spend the discretionary you DO allow yourself OUTSIDE the city.

  In Ellenville, I pay a guy who earns 20% of his income from carving meat for farmers- and has set numerous records for long-distance flying- to help call my launches and train me in the art of flying gliders. Do you have any idea how much he would charge if this were in Manhattan?

  When I have my Triumph Daytona serviced, I take it to Brooklyn where a more experienced mechanic than the Triumph Dealership in Greenwich Village charges me $90/hour instead of $170. After an hour of service, I've saved enough to pay Dave the Sky God for three days of semi-private instruction in Ellenville.

  Spend your money on experiences and training in stuff you can't learn when you're old. Hang gliders, motorcycles, and wreck diving for me. And it doesn't really cost that much. I spend $1500/year to maintain my glider, maintain my landing rights and currency with the USHPA and to pay Dave. I spend $2500/year on depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and gasoline for a Triumph Daytona, plus about $600 for three track days a year. I spend $1000/year on wreck diving. All in, that amounts to two nights of bottle service at Ten Oak and doesn't involve as much in terms of hangovers.

  According to Harvey Spector, most people live at three feet; he lives at five. Why not get the human experience and spend some time at 2000' and -'80. Or at 120 mph on the track? It doesn't really cost that much and you can't learn this stuff when you're 40 and retired.

• By Bondarb: Plans With Your Bonus?
  

  I am going to have to back ESM in his opinion that IP is way too smug about being cheap. Life is meant to be lived and while the hang gliding looks like alot of fun, sharing a 5th floor walkup on 11th ave and worrying about how much a beer costs in dividend payments is just not a life that I would ever consider living. Activities on the weekends are fun but daily lifestyle is also important and I am willing to pay up a bit to make my life better on a day to day basis and there's nothing irresponsible about that. I also dont get the focus on dividends...dividend stocks sometimes perform very well and sometimes they dont but they by definition cant always be the right thing to buy.

  All of us need to be responsible, but I can gaurantee that whether you end up being financially secure later in life is not going to hinge on whether you drink two less beers a week or pay slightly lower rent for a few years in your early 20s, especially in this age of 0 interest rates where a 5% return is considered good. To be honest the people I have seen who blew up personally all did so by having kids at a young age and then having a marriage (or two) that fell apart...that scenario virtually gaurantees you will be scrapping financially even if you have some success in your career. I have never heard someone say "damn I wish I hadnt spent an extra 5k on rent when i was 24" or "those two extra drinks per week were a big mistake".

  For the record, I speculate for a living and so I am very conservative in my personal finances...most of my money is in cash or cash-like stuff that is earning close to zero right now. I have a wide mandate at work and so if I feel passionate about an investment I do it with someone else's money and end up making more on it then if I ventured my own.

• By harvardgrad08: Does This Frustrate Anyone?
  

  At the end of the day the work that you do in finance is not very difficult and can be easily taught in a matter of a couple of months. Finance is inherently a sales job. Banks want to find people that can 1) do the relatively simple work, 2) have pedigree so that they can sell that to clients, and 3) are personable and can sell (this is less applicable at the jr. levels).

  If banks really cared about hiring the most intelligent people then hey they would hire the top few guys at most schools (in all reality a top ranked guy at Texas A&M or whatever random non-target is likely brighter than a middle of the road Ivy grad that finished in the top 40% of his class)...but they don't care. They want to be able to show their clients that almost all of their grads went to HYPW, etc.

  Just look at the senior people at most banks...most aren't the ridiculously brilliant Asian guy that rocked the analyst work. They have the target school pedigree (which usually means they met the minimum bar of intelligence to do the work) and are social, personable, sales guys that were former athletes, frat boys etc. in college. These guys met the minimum bar of intelligence at the jr. levels to do the relatively simple work but their EQ is what has allowed them to climb the ranks and do the job of a sr. person which is sales.

  People make banking out to be something super glamorous but in all reality bankers are nothing more than glorified salesmen - they're just helping to sell companies, equity, debt, etc. as opposed to homes, mortgages, etc. Since I work in corpdev this has become more apparent to me than ever. It's sad these bankers just come and pitch us shit like a salesman coming to your door to sell you a magazine subscription.

Best regards,
Jessica
Community Manager Intern