Is being middle class better than this?
I have become increasingly disillusioned with an aspirational lifestyle.
I grew up in a single income household with immigrant parents. We lived in the cheapest part of a nice town in a small old house so that I could attend good public schools. We didn't have enough money for flashy extracurriculars / vacations but I didn't want for much either. My income-earning parent worked at what would be considered a back-office role at a F500. I think it probably bored them but they always left the office at 5, and there was never a time they had to miss a practice / recital of mine because of a work fire drill. They even have nice nest egg in their 50s and could probably retire early with a few lifestyle adjustments. In contrast, my partners seem to work just as late as us and I always see them on weekend calls / email threads doing work.
All this is to say - is the life that I could enjoy and provide for my family in an intense high finance career really much better? Sure, I could eat at fancy restaurants, go to exotic locations (if I'm ever actually allowed to take meaningful PTO), and set my kids up on the prep school -> HYPSM -> elite career track so their journey is easier than mine, but is that actually worth having ~1 hour of free time a day for 20 years vs. 8+ and being present in their lives? I'd be curious to hear from people that were upwardly socially mobile if the climb up was worth it.
My parents are immigrants and went from 0 in the early 90s to CEO for a F500. He just worked his whole life without much family focus and left that to my mom. We had a good life and grew up middle class but had schools/college/masters fully covered, a nice house, and eventually nice cars/vacations/ability to spend on clothes, trips freely. I did 2~ years of IB just to give it a try but my parents advise me not to go down the same path of selling my life to a company for long; I am moving out of IB now to something I'm passionate about.
You definitely were not middle class lol
If they really started out with 0, then it's possible he really was middle class while "growing up". A lot of people don't make crazy money until way later in their careers, my parents included.
I disagree. Let's run some numbers alright?
Looking at F500 ceos, unless it's a tech startup, almost none of the ceos are under 40, even 45 is a young CEO. So we now have an approximate minimum experience required of 20 to 25 years, assuming they were fast tracked as much as possible.
Now the other part of the equation. Ops at least 23, so both in 2002 at the latest. This gives us two overlapping timeline.
So, let's make a feasible timeline with some broad assumptions, using a typical company hierarchy from an oldschool f500
That's 23 years from entry level to CEO. A very fast rise. If op was born in 2002, their dad would have been a low level manager, which is definitely middle class. They'd have only become upper class when op was around 11, when they are a senior VP ops.
So, even in a really optimistic fast track, op still has most of the childhood in the middle class. If we add in an MBA, they're 13.
If we assume a typical path of 30 years to CEO, that's op being 18 approximately.
Lol textbook example of the typical self-proclaimed “middle class” background in finance.
Textbook examples of finance bros understanding the passage of time and normal career progression.
If ops dad started at 0, then became CEO later, that's going to take 25 to 30 years, meaning op was somewhere between 13 and 20 when their dad became CEO.
This means that ops dad would have been middle class at the time of birth, until they were a teenager or older.
F500 CEO father = middle class? Were you raised in the 1950s?
Just a hypothetical. Imagine someone who started by cleaning desks and became a CEO 40 years later.
They'd have still been working class for a while right? Being a CEO at 55 doesn't mean you were upper class at the age of 30.
"Middle class" / "masters fully covered" - pick one lmao. If your parents paid (or offered to pay) for graduate school (+ siblings from the way the post reads), you were not "middle class".
It doesn't happen overnight. It's possible he was still middle management or lower down while the kids were young, and it compounded up to CEO by the time they graduated high school. People on here really don't understand how 0-100 success stories work, do they lol.
No, they were not middle class when they were 22.
They almost certainly were middle class when they were aged 1 to 14, and at some point between ages 14 and 22 their dad became upper class.
If op did a masters and two years in IB, that makes them probably 25 now. This means that they were born in, let's say the year 2000.
If ops dad started from nothing in 1995, this means that by the time of his birth, they would have been like a project manager, or perhaps a low level manager. Very much middle class.
A typical CEO progression takes approx 25 odd years, meaning that op would have been 20 years old by the time they were a CEO, meaning their dad would have been middle class for over half of the childhood
I really cannot agree as a Chinese, nearly all the middle class parents I know will pay their children's master degree in full. But it might only apply to Chinese because we do not have a council tax to pay in China and our parents value education more than anything. The rich kids can spend $10m a day buying richard mille while middle class is just a joke to them.
"middle class"
Overdue for a reality check kid. You get a participation trophy for your two years of banking congrats buddy.
I've thought about this a lot over the years and would also compare my blue collar parents to my very white collar bosses/mentors in search of a "right" answer. I don't know that there is one, I think it's a classic example of trade-offs and, more importantly, how you as an individual view those trade-offs.
@Mr Balloon Hands had a comment a few months ago that I really liked (a sentence no one has ever typed before lol)
I've made moves in my career based on this and am happy with the outcomes.
agree with the quote. it makes sense given people all have different goals and personalities. i personally value my free time & autonomy, so I knew working 60+ hours a week consistently were not for me after hitting 30 years old, so i left PE. depends on what you want, man.
I'd add a layer on top of this - I think target $:WLB is a key north star metric, but once you get to a good standard (which any exiting IB Analyst will), you reach the higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy where you ought to have some semblance of interest in what you're doing
I was working in corporate which had a crazy good ratio but the work was ultimately disinteresting. I''m now trading off the WLB for more $ in growth, and doing something more interesting so it's hopefully more sustainable
Equally, for some people, this matters less. I have a couple friends bored in IR but stick with it because they make the rest of their lives fulfilling with the great $:WLB
I know this isn't the exact focus here but could you share exctly what kind of IR role your friends went into? A Corporate or PE firm? Comp/hours approximately? Thanks
Analyst 3 - I think that’s a really bad take. You need to stand on your fathers shoulders and achieve more
That doesn’t mean you need to be a CEO. But find something you do enjoy (investing, something else) and be a serious contender in your space
It’s easy to look back and say it wasn’t worth it. But that’s mostly hindsight bullshit
I feel like you missed the last sentence of his post man
Seriously. This thread is a load of crap and anyone who truly grew up with nothing would NEVER pose this question.
EVERY struggle is worth it.
I mean you have to always ask yourself if the juice is worth the squeeze. Would you work +20 hours a week to make +$10k more in salary? There's clearly always a tradeoff and it obviously stops making sense at some point.
A lot of people from poorer backgrounds feel that they have this huge hole in their life that they can fill by getting more money.
What they don't understand is that every person feels the same hole in their soul. Money doesn't fill it yet sadly if you were born poor, you can waste a large chunk of your life trying to fill the hole with cash rather than asking the big questions.
In my opinion, the greatest advantage of being rich or middle class over poor is being able to figure out early that money isn't making people close to you incredibly happy. If you're a little bit insightful and see a lot of unhappy rich people around you (many who came from poor backgrounds), you can start crossing money off your list as the main goal of life and the solution for everything.
Sorry, maybe I could have framed it better - I am not just just taking it easy, I am moving to an entrepreneurial venture instead of getting stuck as a cog in the wheel for a large corp / investment fund / etc.
100% worth it
It's not worth it. Your parents have it figured out. And if you're smart, you can figure out a way to work 40 hours a week like your parents but do a little better than back office at a big corporation. Basically it's what I'm doing now....i.e. giving my kids the things that I never had growing up, a parent's time and attention.
My brother, how did you escape equity research and not feel like a complete loser. I'm constantly spiraling just thinking about what my next move should be. I yearn to go backpacking across Europe but simply cannot working under my analyst.
Ever thought about IR?
xx
What is your end game though? Why make yourself suffer because the people who came before you suffered? I'm not talking about living in a van down by the river so I can laze around and my kids go needy. I'm talking about if giving them an "elite" lifestyle creates incremental joy in life vs. being a present parent.
I’m younger than you and not in PE, but I just want to say you need to relax. There are people that are financially free ($10m+) off of fucking social media. I don’t have the personality to ever be one of those guys, but you have to realize that it’s a risk reward game. Your parents didn’t take that much risk. Similarly, you are not taking that much risk. PE is not some niche career path like it was in the days of Henry kravis, who probably got laughed at by PMs at mutual funds. If you want the big bucks you can’t continue to be a slave to the sick LinkedIn mindset. Ray Kroc took over McDonald’s when he was 59. That shit didn’t just fall into his lap, he took risk after risk after risk until he found his golden goose and worked his fucking ass off into his 70s. Maybe for you it can happen sooner if you decide to take your fate into your own hands and not rely on your boss to suddenly wake up and say you deserve to be on the partner track.
The window to become a member of the capital class is rapidly closing. Strivers in this forum, take heed. If you aren't generationally wealthy already, there has never been a worse time to try to become generationally wealthy.
I sense class revolution amidst your wording. Comrade?
Sort of, more just aware of the way things are tending and afraid of what's to come.
I sense that they're becoming aware of the comrades, and want to build a bunker to protect themselves from being strung up
It does feel like it. Bad job market. Lowered consumer demand. Yet record high stock market. The near term increasing shareholder returns thesis is reducing OPEX, laying off staff, automating = increasing corporate profits. This benefits the shareholder class.
Reminds me how META cut staff and rebounded their stock price (2022-now). But for the greater economy.
Agentic AI seems like a cost saving technology. Less on new value creation (there will be exceptions). We are in the “Agentic revolution” and its only going to grow (I’m not talking about AGI, who cares about that right now, I’m talking about job replacing agents).
The power is moving away from labor, and more towards capital. But if we cut interest rates, wouldn’t that just be rewarding Capital with the hopes that there will be more demand for labor?
However labor, aka regular people are feeling uneasy about their jobs, health care, etc.
It seems like what is also being lost is human dignity - the value of human work.
It is crazy how one could make the monthly salary of a service worker in one day of returns from their portfolio in the stock market. It feels like capital is moving further and further out of reach.
Yes, market is decoupling rapidly from economic reality for 99% of people.
Too bad most people are either too dumbed down by social media to realize, have been duped into thinking they're on the same side as those in power (even though they aren't owed anything and won't be taken care of if it comes down to it), or have an interest in the current system imploding.
There has NEVER been a better time to build a business and make lots of money than right now.
The best time was 20 years ago tbh, we have way too much capital floating around that is likely to severely depress valuations in the next few years when sovereign debt crisis occurs.
Add to that, AI can increase efficiency meaning fewer successful entrepreneurs in absolute terms and less money floating around as a result of a successful business... wealth gets more concentrated.
Need to think in macro terms.
your parents saved well but lot of their nest egg came from the stock market. it has been a crazy bull run from 2010 to today. $50k of apple or amazon then is now worth 7 figures. SPX is up 5x. $200k of savings then is $1mm today. same for housing - $100k house then is $1-2mm house today. townhouses in the west village cost $2 million in 1990.
much harder to get those returns go fwd so need income/high pay to get to same place your parents did unfortunately.
best thing for genz/younger workers is if S&P crashed you kept your job, makes it easier to replicate your parents path
Pretty disingenuous to cherry-pick 2010 as your starting point. They also saved through the lost decade in S&P from 2000-2010. Lost a lot of home equity during the 2010s housing shakeout. Obviously trough to peak returns are unsustainable but no one is suggesting that as a driver for managing personal finance. There will always be timing risk on building wealth but that's a different point than the long-run merit of US equities
If I grew up in a more middle class family (grew up upper middle class), I would have pursued my career and life very differently. My parents never pushed me in a certain direction but some of their friends and themselves influenced me in ways I wish it hadn't.
I'm far from materialistic and never had aspirations to be worth tons of money. I thought I did when I was a teenager but not the case at all at 30+ now.
Worked as a caddy growing up. It was the single greatest thing for my life, but was too naive to realize that wasn't the life I wanted.
I am more senior in PE and yes I do think just being middle class is better for overall life satisfaction. If you’re not terribly into social status / big city elite social scene, once you factor in cost of living of a big city (which your job requires), your quality of life as a junior to mid-level high finance professional is often not really any better than more “normal” folk who get to live in lower cost of living areas. The reality is you work really hard and really long to ultimately live in a small apartment, which means you really need to be motivated by social status / elite city social scene for any of this to really make sense.
That said, if you’re already this far down this route when you’ve come to this realization (as I am), you mine as well stick it out a few more years where the comp is much higher with aim to an eventual exit and early retirement in lower COL area. If you exit high finance too early you’ve effectively gone through the worst of it without having seen any of the real upside. Personally I think the sweet spot is achieve mid / senior level in high finance, then exit the hampster wheel with a fully paid off home and decent size portfolio to generate passive income.
if you made it to VP in PE, then the hours are much more enjoyable, no more grunt excel work, and with ~1M cash saved it's definitely the sweet life.
I guess where I'm at is that I've worked for multiple VPs at multiple firms and I just haven't found this to be the case. My VPs spend all day on calls then spend the evenings checking/scrubbing Excel work from Associates, which can be tough if they're not particularly good. I've seen my VPs shorten paternity leave, cancel vacations, etc. because they need to transact to keep their jobs and move up. To be honest I don't think it's ever an easy job unless you're a founding MP on Fund III+.
Agree with the other response, I don’t think this is the case based on what I’ve seen. VP is arguably the toughest job in the PE hierarchy.. and $1M saved up gives you a little breathing room but you can’t coast unless you want to be counseled out in a year.
I would agree that VP is definitely the "sweet spot" or easiest role for IB - but PE not so much. It's the battle of a lifetime to get that next promotion, and that level is where the real fruits of labor start to kick in.
This is a sliding scale. There is a range of different comp and WLB tradeoffs within the broader corporate world. With your background, pretty good pay and pretty good lifestyle should both be possible.
When I see 55+ family members who are middle class but still have significant financial stress, I really don't want that life either.
del
Think everyone has different expectations for their life. Grew up middle class and always felt my parents provided enough, but I wanted a bit more. So, did a couple years of IB to get the upper class experience, but didn’t believe it was worth it long term. I don’t really care about living in a major city, status, or fine dining. Learned I value my time more than anything. Now, my goal is to be solid middle-upper class throughout my life and retire early as possible. Working 50-60 hours in a LCOL city, clearing 200k, which is enough to give my family a great life
Grew up true lower middle class (HHI $40-60k) and thought I'd do anything to be wealthy, but I don't really idolize my seniors' lifestyles. Definitely worth aiming for upper middle class which I consider $200-400k in nice suburbs but the incremental sacrifices to be a "baller" in a major city but never seeing your family doesn't seem worth it for what I consider an optimized life.
So not worth it. My seniors are absolutely MISERABLE. Kids hate them. Wifes hate them. Multiple marriages. Always on call, always on emails, constantly looking stressed. It truly never ends. I dont know about you guys, but I genuinely hate PE and IB. I don't have an interest for ANY of this and I went through it all and hell. Im in strategy now I am so glad I left but my point is the seniors who really get rich in PE and have their carry materialize are people who are OBSESSED with this.
How long in did you move over to strat? For what type of company? How are hours / comp? Thank you
year ago. unicorn but non-tech. Hours are ~45ish and comp around $250k. Really happy.
Go look around at the real world and the real economy. Globalization has hollowed out the blue-collar middle class, and AI, offshoring and dumbass economic policy is all it took to start hollowing out the white-collar one. If you didn’t already own a house, and you aspired to be “middle class” without working a high paying job like this one, you’re truly just fucked.
The issue with being middle class is that your economic situation is entirely out of your own control. The reason we put ourselves through all this bullshit is to insulate ourselves and our family from all the chaos and uncertainty that can appear out of thin air. All it took was one retard president, and look at the people working on farms, at manufacturers, at everyday companies, etc who are about to lose everything.
Tech companies, manufacturers, etc are all on hiring freezes right now, the job reports are abysmal and companies are laying off left and right.
Nah, this forum just has a super high focus on finance (obviously), which isn't a universal truth, especially with regards to money:hours ratio. High finance might actually be the worst balance of money to free time out of any industry in the world. I know sales guys in tech doing 500k+ working 45 hours tops, yet everyone here will tell you you need a certain personality for it. Guess what? They've never worked a sales role and don't get it's all process-oriented, not some Mad Men-esque persuasion tactic lifestyle to close deals. What I'm trying to say is don't just look at finance, and don't just ask the people on here who only know about finance. If you want to make a lot of money and still have a life, it's out there. Just gotta handle the trade-offs known on here as "intellectual stimulation".
So much of finance is people blowing themselves. Plenty of high paying jobs that don't require selling your soul
Don't know why I had to scroll this far to see the objective correct answer here. Stop listening to 35+ year olds on here who are dangling the golden carrot at you telling you it's either high finance or back office. Finance has been over as a legitimate career path for over a year now people on this website are just so behind lol.
What would you recommend for someone who just started their first year of college if they do not want to become a doctor or lawyer and finance is no longer the way? Asking on behalf of my cousin because I’m not sure which way to guide him.
My opinion is, try get into the prestigious job, work it for two or three years, then get the fuck out.
I'm in Western Europe, graduated and bounced around various roles.
There's no way I'd be getting 3x the average wage in the country for a 40 hour week without the few years in consulting. Had I gone for a typical career path, id probably be earning half what I do now.
mind if I ask all in? Im in strategy at a startup getting $240k all in, which I assume is on higher end
What tf even is "strategy at a startup"? Not trying to say your job is bullshit, but isn't strategy the CEO and some C-suite's job? Like what do you do? I'm guessing it's some form of chief-of-staff?
Personally, I'd be a bit confused about something like this, considering all the startups I talk to are too early to be thinking about strategy and the ones with strategy teams are no longer startups...
$240K is great, what type of COL are you in? Hours?
I have middle class aspirations and no shame about it. Call me a undriven loser, but a normal suburban life and being able to spend a ton of time with my wife, dog, and kids is absolutely the dream. I work to live.
To all those chasing that bag, go get it, I hope it makes you as happy as spending time with my wife, dog, and (hopefully) future kids. Many people generate their wealth first them prioritize a family later on, neither path is more correct. Everyone should chase what they think will make them happy, simple as.
Respect bro. Same here. I see your title - did you just exit to corp?i just got into strategic finance. I came from 2+2 and absolutely love my new life. Comps sweet too. Awesome outcome.
What does your new role entail for responsibilities and any insight into comp progression?
Would love to learn more about your journey and what transpired for you to go towards something sustainable!
38 yrs old - hopefully will pivot to asset management / PWM soon. i dont make much, mid to low COL country.
Time is way more important than money, once the basic essentials are covered.
Once you reach a stage from poor to having a lifestyle where time is more important, where time with family is more important, then having Fk you money is useless ( some need to have 5m a year, to each their own). if you can't afford to stop giving a Fk, then you need to know exactly what you want in life and what you are getting out of it. The 2+2+2/ whatever well defined path loses meaning when you are alone in office and feel like shit when you are missing your son/daughters milestones.
I care more about time for family, even greater attention to health than what i need to do with money.
Can't exactly afford a nanny/ househelp but get by for now, maybe once i make the pivot i could get a extra pair of hands.
At the end of the day, all that matters is how much money we make in our lives. If you're middle class, sure you have your evenings free but can you really live a good life making $200-300k? What is the point of having free time if you don't have money to spend?
TLDR of course prestige and pay are worth it.
cant wait for the responses to this one haha
And then posts like these ends up on fintwit and taken as shits/giggles.
You can tell early on how cynical people will get by the time they approach 35.
there are plenty of great things to do without spending much money: drinking wine at night on the beach with gf/wife and staring at stars and waves, cuddling and watching TV (concerts on Youtube, sitcoms, stand-up, documentaries, etc.) with gf/wife (can add weed here too), hooking up with chicks (need like ~$70 for a date), playing video games.
what do you wanna do that requires a lot of money that is much better than the stuff above?
If years of family time are lost, is high finance worth the money?
I'm in PE now and yeah, the hours suck, but the financial security means I can retire early if I want and set up the family without worry. Trade-offs for sure, but worth it for me.
Like expectancy with $20mm net worth is materially different than $1mm net worth. When health insurance (or the public payer) doesn’t limit your diagnostic options you can catch things much earlier. I know this from experience.
More broadly, consider that middle class is also just two disasters away from being low income and top 1% income has 14 year life expectancy advantage above low income, and perhaps a solid 3-5 years more than middle class.
New therapies are $100k+ and take a decade to go generic. At some point you or your family might be sick with a disease that could be terminal, being able to pay it out of pocket without a second thought is worth grinding an extra five hours a day.
Do you seriously think the actual trade off between something like IB/PE and a normal job is a mere “5 hours of extra work” a day? If so, sign me up…
I worked til 3am every other day for the first four years with no holidays. You’re right, that was way more than five hours extra.
Many, many years later now with remote working, I spend summer with the family (working) at a vacation spot, take three weeks at year end, and ski three times a year. That’s not five hours extra. I’m not sure that’s any hours extra. It probably averages out to five.
If you plan on being an associate your whole career, yeah I agree maybe stay middle class instead. Odds are you won’t be an associate your whole career.
Don’t be middle class if you can aspire to and achieve more. If you don’t need the money, earn it anyway and spend it on improving society. You only live once, if you’re lucky enough to have an ability to create real value, it would be such a shame to let it go to waste
what diagnostic options are not covered by health insurance and how much do they cost out of pocket? I seriously doubt you need millions saved for this.
also, your health and thus life expectancy very strongly depends on the level of stress you have in your life. in high finance, you're constantly stressing about your job. there is very little job stability. like, for you, are you sure you'll be still employed by the company you're working for in 5 years? I see people get laid off all the time. living in the constant fear of losing your job can easily trigger health issues, including cancer.
we are middle class buddy
This really hits. The prestige and pay in high finance often come at the cost of time, flexibility, and being present with family. Sometimes the trade-offs aren’t as clear-cut as they seem.
I left the U.S. and now run my own work abroad - still grateful to have been born in the U.S. since the USD is a powerful thing - but here in Latin America and Asia your wealth is your health and the friends you make along the way. I feel the hustle mentality in the U.S. is a bit outdated when you look at the quality of life vs. most of the developed (and even some of the developing) world. This isn't the 1980s anymore where Homer Simpson could pay for 2 kids, 2 pets, 2 cars, a housewife, and a home with a high school degree - so people feel they need to grind a lot harder for a comparable lifestyle (and they're not wrong). For me, it wasn't worth it, though. If you have Disney+, maybe give The Simpsons episode "Poorhouse Rock" a watch, where they directly address the fact that Homer's lifestyle is a thing of the past - The Simpsons has definitely gotten way less relevant and entertaining over the years, but every now and then, they still put out a banger
I wish I could give you two bananas.
The USD is the only thing that matters here. If you can arbitrage, you'd have to be an idiot to not move abroad. Lifestyles in the US as so so subpar compared to the locations you've mentioned, if you're bringing dollars with you.
I am 8-10 yrs out of school at this pt so will weigh in. The only ppl who seem miserable in finance are those with no hobbies. Their whole life revolves around bs status games and they live like mimetic monkeys. Vacations to the current “it” town in Mediterranean Europe, lots of IG stories, have nothing else to talk about all summer except their vacation.
The most stable & tolerable people I’ve met in this industry usually play 1-3 life sports that require a real $ investment and are easily accessible (so nothing LGBTQ+ like run clubs / pickleball / those village athletic coed workout groups).
I’m talking: cycling, racquet sports, martial arts, etc. You will be mostly surrounded other well adjusted men from different walks of life, get some exercise, and have a thing to continuously improve on over time. Golf is another good one but tbh most ppl that golf regularly just seem like alcoholics and past a certain age that takes a toll on your body that reduces your limited free time further.
At the end of the day, well trodden career paths with high pay are going to be hyper competitive. PE is the new big law without the “non-equity partner” (or I guess that’s just the Principal who never makes MD/Partner and has to jump around firm to firm). If you want upside, take a risk. If you don’t want to take a risk, then this is the life. Getting to answer your main question: If you don’t want to take a risk, the middle class life is probably better than finance.
"Golf is another good one but tbh most ppl that golf regularly just seem like alcoholics" - I feel attacked
Btw - successful finance career (MD, 10 million net worth at 40) IS middle class in NY. That is the bare minimum to be able to afford a family and kids with a good lifestyle, so it’s not grind OR middle class, it’s grind TO get to middle class
10m truly free and clear ? Eg 4m paid off apt and 6m yield generating and compounding assets ? Your 6m will generate 100k in dividends with which you can fully service your house (hoa maintenance utilities property tax). Then you just need to eat entertain yourself and pay for your kids’ school. 100k pa school 75k pa food 150k pa entertainment and misc. you could probabaly knock out the food and school with a 3% withdrawal on your 6m. That leaves entertainment and misc. your wife and you need it clear that post tax for a pretty sweet nyc life… I’m not convinced this is middle class
Yes, being "middle class" is better.
It used to be that you had to be rich to buy a car with autopilot or cell-phone access. It used to be that only upper-class people could travel to exotic locales. Now assisted driving is standard, iPhones are ubiquitous, and flying overseas and staying in an Airbnb is so cheap 20-year-olds can afford it.
So what's the point? Having money to buy a house is worth it--but after that...what is there that $3MM can do for you that $300K can't?
Once basic needs are met, Time becomes the most important currency.
Subconsciously, many people say "once I make $1MM annually and I save $10MM I can retire and have all the time in the world". False. By the time you move into a "nicer" house (aka a smaller house in a more prestigious area), send your kids to private school, pay your car leases, and pay for your membership club and/or vacation home, you can't afford to retire and very well might end up in debt.
Or you can move into a "middle class" area with a good school district, send your kids to public school for free, own your paid off cars, save for retirement, and end up with more money than the "rich" guy. Oh, and you had plenty of hours to do what the fuck you wanted after work and on the weekends.
Yes, being "middle class" is better.
It's my view that the people that make it to the top top, money is just a way of keeping score and they need to enjoy most of their job outside of the money - this enjoyment can come from creativity in dealmaking, winning (these people are ultra competitive), and / or feeling in power and control. So it's less about operating from a fear of being "middle class", and more a leaning in, I live and breathe this stuff type of attitude (the money then follows).
One of the most valuable things we used to have that supported your lifestyle before was bigotry: sexism, classism, racism, xenophobia, etc. This was the moat that helped protect people who got elite jobs. It's great we got rid of bigotry, but the reason why it's such a prized virtue is because of how replaceable it makes people. Nothing in life is free. Why on earth do you think billionaire executives care about this virtue but not others? The more open and egalitarian we are, the more you compete with a vastly larger labor market, driving down your wages.
People have the funniest views on this topic. People will literally be out there believing that supply and demand apply to everything except humans. I'm a huge supporter of equality and meritocracy. But I also know that bigotry is far more valuable than education in supporting your earnings power and I am blessed by the bigotry that still exists.
50 years ago you got a lot for what you put in, but you really don't anymore. The biggest reason is that there's really nothing special about intellectual labor and the idea that you truly are better than others when you get a "smart person" job is silly. There's nothing special about you. Any knowledge skill is easy to learn. Once you compete with a broader pool you should expect that your life will get far worse. The more you compete with a large supply, the more the fruits of your labor will go down.
I do think the flip side of that is that any business selling labor in a creative, new way is going to be much more attractive. The reason is because labor is worth far less now than before, so if you now can take advantage of how much we value having an open and egalitarian society. If you are the buyer and not seller of labor, you will be vastly better off than before.
10 years from today people will look at people who go into knowledge work fields like we look at factory workers today. "Well of course your life didn't turn out well, what did you expect?"
Nice one
I think you’re asking the right question. A lot of people in finance chase the lifestyle upgrades without really asking if they’ll be happier. From what you described, your parents had stability, time, and still built a nest egg—that’s not a bad model at all. For many, being present with family ends up mattering way more than the vacations or the brand-name schools.
Est quos magnam ut necessitatibus odit. Sapiente est quasi recusandae eos. Iste sequi provident hic et sapiente consequatur quis ab. Omnis et saepe molestiae consequatur quos expedita hic.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Id quos error ipsa aut nesciunt ut dignissimos. Sed dolor et et magnam. Expedita eos architecto omnis qui.
Ex ut magnam harum. Dignissimos itaque assumenda aspernatur repellat cum. Ut deleniti non fugiat impedit soluta ea et. Nesciunt eaque eligendi velit asperiores ea.
Odit voluptas aspernatur dolores. Dolor praesentium culpa neque voluptas voluptatum.
Est praesentium iusto sequi commodi enim. Aut nam non officiis quaerat dignissimos earum quo. Quia rerum accusamus porro. Eligendi id incidunt id.
Temporibus ratione quis vel ullam. Et numquam nulla dolor sunt. Non voluptas sunt error praesentium sed. Minus deserunt vero voluptatem.
Vitae sed fugit sit ullam maiores. Ex minima qui voluptates voluptate earum. Qui unde rerum et. Cum consequatur pariatur sunt.
Nihil perferendis distinctio et sed illo possimus. Laudantium suscipit sed maxime aut quidem ullam ut. Earum architecto molestiae consequatur perferendis quia sint. Nulla ex modi enim veniam ea veritatis. Deserunt sit velit dignissimos iure et. Nihil voluptas beatae possimus qui et.
Occaecati nostrum quia quaerat explicabo magnam laudantium. Temporibus eveniet est incidunt. Id asperiores cum quia sapiente occaecati quaerat voluptatum. Et sequi omnis qui et enim. Sed autem aperiam cum quidem facilis facilis rerum quisquam.
Est maiores et sapiente qui nemo ut. Occaecati perferendis id eligendi sed maxime sit est ab. Ipsam itaque et est quia consequatur a omnis in.