Most prestigious lifestyles in finance

We all know a trust fund baby who spends all their parents money and flexes on Tik Tok is technically the most “prestigious” lifestyle a young person can have. But normal people like me have zero respect for those kids. For the rest of us, we have to make our own living, and certain lifestyle choices yield more respect from peers than others.

So tell me, what’s the most prestigious personality/lifestyle/life path a young, independent professional can have?

The “Lunch Pail Kinda Guy”: First one in. Last one out. Pulls himself up by the bootstraps. Sneaky smart. Gets the job done. You can always rely on him to push the 40th iteration of the CIM out at 3am on a weekend. He’s hoping that, by putting in the work now, at 30 he can make $500k while working 40 hours a week and settle down to a stable home/family situation in a MCOL area.

The Hardo: similar to the first one, but instead of settling down, his/her goal is to ramp up the workaholism indefinitely. His/her greatest achievement will be facilitating an acquisition of some failing $3b plastic manufacturer in the rust belt to a PE firm that utilizes international tax restructuring to flip it for 50% IRR.

The Globetrotter: This specimen uses bonus and vacation time to backpack through Europe, sail on their friend’s yacht in Costa Rica, or go wine tasting in Italy. Works a normal job that doesn’t crush them with 90 hour weeks, but spends as much as they make and is making minimum payments on their $250k student loan debt.

The Balenciaga Model: This individual spends all their money on clothes because New York housing isn’t affordable and there’s no reason to own a car in the city, so there’s nowhere else to flex their discretionary income. Probably didn’t even like clothes until he/she started following rappers on Instagram and noticed all the Chinese exchange students in class. But now has impeccable posture and is acting more, umm, flamboyantly lately.

The Entrepreneur: We can’t live with ‘em, we can’t live without ‘em. This specimen is probably snorting Coke off camera while on a Teams meeting for his first VC pitch, trying to sell his AI-driven ice cream delivery app that leverages Web3 for optimal freezer supply chain management and totally won’t burn through cash flow like a furnace. Yes we all make fun of this person’s insane eccentricity, but at the same time, if he succeeds someday, we’ll all bow down to him for a six figure tech salary like the NPCs we are.

The Enthusiast: Whether it’s healthy living, collecting, or stock trading, these people have no problem filling out the “interests” section on their resume. They always have something to talk about, and they might trap you in 45 minutes of conversation about their upcoming competition or convention that makes you wish you still worked from home. But they are nice enough at parties and seem…happy. Or something. (This is a catch-all for hobbies, so maybe it’s a cop-out, but my MD will get back to me any second and this post has to go out eventually. Also, The Globetrotter does not fall into this category, as hobbies can coexist with work schedules and don’t require faking sick days to go skiing in the Alps.)

That’s all I can think of for now. Comment your rankings and if you think of others that I missed.