To Those That Didn't Jump to PE - Your life Now?
Just found this forum and haven't seen much on the bankers who stayed. If you knew nothing about finance and read this forum, you would think PE exits were as vital as oxygen. In my case (incoming an1) I am completely split. I'll lay out the facts and I'd love to hear about the life of bankers who stayed and whether you would recommend me staying or hoping sides:
Goals: I will not have a family or children. I hate kids, I would not be a great parent, and I do not want a wife (thx mom and dad for messing me up!). My only goal is to be rich. I'd like to build a brutalist concrete house in the burbs somewhere (CT or NJ), have the flashy car, and some cool entertaining pieces to the house. I am very self centered and materialistic - so I know I'll blend just fine. I know PE has more upside on the upper tranche of comp, but seems like banking has more mobility to lateral and move around at associate+ level. The truth of the mater is I don't care about banking or PE. Like many of you, I'm in for the comp. In my shoes, how would you determine to stay at BB (where I'm going now) or to PE?
If your sole goal is to get rich, then working at an investment bank until you become a VP or Director is not the path to go. Although that depends on what your definition of truly rich is. My definition is $10MM+ net worth post tax by the time you are 40. That is a top 1% net worth.
Unless you are a great networker and know that you can build relationships easily to make it to the MD level at an investment bank, then you will not get rich staying as a banker. You will max out at ~$500-$750K per year as a VP or Director then get laid off in your early to mid 30s because most don't have what it takes to become an MD. That level of compensation may seem like a lot to someone right out of college, but after working a few years on Wall Street you will quickly realize that that is not that much $$, especially when you are taxed at 50% and live in one of the most expensive city in the world (although if you stay single/unmarried/no kids, that level of $$ is plenty enough TBH).
To truly get rich ($10MM+ by 40) you need to own equity in businesses either through entrepreneurship or through carried/profit interests from working in private equity or at a hedge fund for a long period of time. You need to get to a seat that pays based on performance with unlimited upside (theoretically). I know friends who made the jump to private equity, worked for 5-10 years, and then their big seven figure carry dollars start to flow in every few years. With PE funds with good track records, you could have seven to eight figure carried interest $$ at work across numerous funds after 5-10 years.
The hedge fund route is a bit riskier given less job stability, but here the payouts could be enormous and come sooner at funds that have very good years. Just look at all the analysts at Melvin Capital in the years before it below up. I know analysts there after 2 years of banking experience that had a $2MM bonus at 25 years old. Of course that's the optimistic scenario, the flip side is your fund sucks and your bonus is zero.
Point is you need to have ownership in something to truly get rich. PE/HF provide a stake of ownership in the profits of the firm. The only other route is through entrepreneurship, but most on this site are too risk adverse/cookie cutter to go that route.
Few relevant articles below that could be helpful as well:
Thank you.This is enormously helpful!
Im guessing the 2mm dollar number was for jr analysts? Then how much did the senior analysts there make before melvin went bust?
Yes for junior analysts. Senior analyst pay - depends on the analyst and their contribution in a given year so could vary signficantly. One person I knew made high seven figures when the fund returned >60%.
wow at junior analysts at melvin making $2mm at 25 y/o...
Would you say that the idea of ownership carries over to credit funds as well? Not equity stake, but still ownership of business.
Why would you assume failure in IB but success in PE/HF? Is it really easier to get to that level of ownership in PE/HF than to make MD in IB?
Nope its much harder. But chances of getting "rich" by doing so are higher
Hi! Thanks for the post.
I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but if you don't mind answering, what rank did your friends, who transferred into PE, reach in their respective PE firms - in order for them to receive carried interest?
Carry starts usually at the VP level and grows from there. At smaller funds, carry %s are higher and can start at the Associate level given cash compensation will be lower than the mega-funds.
I'm homeless and must beg meal to meal.....choose PE. Don't repeat my mistakes.
What happened?
I didn't choose PE obviously!
You don’t get rich being a wage cuck
This post is sad on so many levels, I actually feel sorry for you.
If this is how you truly feel, I can tell you definitively banking is not for you and you will not fit in at most places at the mid or senior level.
If you truly do not care about PE...stay in banking. If your goal is to reach the highest rung, it is significantly easier to fake it till you make it in IB than in PE.
Screw IB and PE you should go to therapy lmao
feel bad for ur parents
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