Wealth goals?

Do any of you have goals regarding wealth? i.e. a certain monetary target to hit and then after that you will consider winding back from your career and into something else

I know this is may be a bad way of looking at things, that you should choose your career because you love it etc. but I do think having some milestones/loose goals may be helpful.

I’m also partly looking for advice. I’m an ambitious student looking at beginning my career soon and I’m looking for direction/goal and I can’t decide between a) choose a satisfying goal of a few $mn (career banker/consultant/exec) low risk or b) go for broke and aim for $bn (entrepreneurship etc.) - high risk

38 Comments
 

10 million always seems like a solid target. You can get a couple million from a lifetime of achievement and savings, but 10 million is very strong.

If I ever get to 10 million, though, I'm sure 25 will look even stronger.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

Agree here. I think the idea of a walkaway number sounds nice, but it's likely if you get used to putting in the work required to reach a walkaway number, you're likely going to go crazy sipping Mai Tais at a beach for more than a year.

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

I want everyone to fuck right off over theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere Right now, everybody is all over thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeee I want them over theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

Let me tell you something, ambitious student. You ain't never flip a zip, sell a pak, none of that, you ain't ambitious.

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

Thanks for sharing.

This is changing the topic a little but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on investing with leverage (3x S&P 500).

There are many ways to go about it obviously but even as a percentage of a portfolio (and buying into dips or at least being very confident the next 3-5 years will be bullish) do you think it makes sense?

 
Most Helpful

$30-$50M. I think at this level you can live a really nice life WITH a family completely passively if you want to, if you assume 4-5% withdrawals per year.

This is my ultimate goal. I fucking hate working in finance but am going to keep doing it until I reach escape velocity in my investments which I think I can hit in the next 10 years (I am 28) if everything goes kind of okay. I define escape velocity as when it doesn’t really make sense to aggressively save anymore because the principal is growing much faster than the theoretical contributions. I am basically levered long tech beta and keep dollar cost averaging in.

In TQQQ we trust. Hate all you want but this shit works if you have the stomach for it.

 

My initial goal was $5m, then $10m and now I think I want ~$100m so I can try a few different business types out that I've wanted to. I've also discovered I like doing certain things more than I thought I would. For example, I like flying private, especially now that I have a kid. Post-kid, I can see myself spending way way more than I could before lol. 

I will say I am not any happier though with more money. 

Mostly I just have fun making it + meeting the people it comes with + being able to make life "smoother". I'd say around $5m - $10m depending on COL is where you'll get most of the utility out of money. If you have poor parents/family you want to help, maybe you need a little more too. The people I get to meet and learn from is BY FAR the best part. I just spent a week with a bunch of friends at a nice hotel where most of them have NW > $100m. I love learning from them, hearing their stories, and spending time with them. I try to fly out to hang out some of them on a quarterly basis.

Since I am old now (elderly ape!), my advice to people on this forum is NOT to let making money stop you from having kids. 

Aim to have kids by 30 ideally... I wish I had mine sooner. I wanted to wait until 33 or 35 but my wife convinced me to have kids sooner and I should have listened to her more and had them around ~28 tbh. 

I see a lot of people here also working jobs they hate for long periods of time. I think this is OK to do for ~2 - 5 years to build up a great skill set + pain tolerance. But working in a career you hate is not good for the mind...and eventually body.

Work won't be something you love 24/7 but you should not dread mondays, and you should crave it when gone on vacation after a day or two...

If you're smart enough to be on this forum, you are smart enough to figure out how to make money doing something you enjoy, FWIW...

 

Quaerat est rem voluptatum qui ipsa voluptatum illum repellendus. Mollitia impedit molestiae vero aut placeat. Dolorum iste sed tempora libero cupiditate. Sint sapiente tempora id vitae cupiditate tempora corrupti.

 

Et id voluptatibus ut et neque. In id vel ut quam. Fuga suscipit repellendus enim eos sed nisi. Quia repellendus quisquam nostrum. Nisi cupiditate ut suscipit temporibus ut beatae omnis. Aut ad et dignissimos et unde blanditiis ut. Aut ex quidem aut labore voluptatem mollitia delectus.

Sapiente neque ab ex ipsam nulla. Cumque iusto dolor voluptate et quasi. Saepe animi blanditiis vel velit non. Esse consequatur voluptatem molestias excepturi natus.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”