Quitting Trading in your early 30s
Hi everyone, obviously posting anonymously here. Here's a deal: I'm a 32 year old director level trader. I'm living in a LCOL city and making pretty decent money (around 750-1.3mm all in a year pre tax). I have about 3mm in net worth, but don't expect my TC range to move much unless I want to go on the management track. My hours are great (probably 35-40 hours a week, with lots of flexibility). Also, I have a fiance who does corp dev-ish stuff, and pulls in around 200k/y, while also having some room for career growth (think: Treasury or CFO at a small corp). Overall, we live relatively frugal lives - our big expenses are taking 3-4 ski trips a year, but we have a modest house, boring cars, no kids (and no plans for any),...etc.
I could keep doing this job for the next few years without issue and can clip the nice comp coupon, but over the past year and a half or so, I've just been feeling pretty bored of the work, and sort of feel like its groundhog day. I have no aspiration to try to become a desk head - so I'm trying to decide if quitting and doing something completely different is a reasonable idea in the slightest. Since my background is trading, my exit opps are terrible compared to banking, so my guess is I'd most likely want to start my own business, using my existing nest egg + trying to outcompete normies at stuff vs people who stare at the market playing the same game all day. Is this crazy? Have any of you made this transition, and are there any things you should have thought about in hindsight but didn't?
Note - I know I'm in an incredibly fortunate position. I have pretty good savings doing a job that for the most part, I enjoyed, and have a great social support system. That said, I'm starting to get to the point where I think about my future, and really wonder if I want to be doing this in 5, 10, 15 years. And every day I'm starting to think the answer is closer to "no."
Thanks for reading - I always appreciate help like this in the community.
If you are only doing 35-40 hours a week, then there is definitely time to start your own business venture without going “all in” immediately. If it fails you could be a while without any income. Also, have you spoken with your fiancé about this shift? At the end of the day if your heart isn’t in it and you are ready to go, it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind. Best of luck, you are in a great position either way.
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Think the above advice is very sensible. Look into FIRE, some people use it for retiring but others just so they have enough money to do whatever they want in their lives.
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Would love to hear about your crypto story.
I agree with you. It is interesting for me, as well.
Very few people make what you make. I would think long and hard about WHY you want to quit and WHAT YOU WILL DO INSTEAD. The saying that man wants to live forever when he can’t even decide what to do on the weekends is so true.
You’re far more successful than I am, as well as the majority of people on this site. I would strongly recommend using the free time you do have (you said you work around 40 hours a week) to really take the time and figure out what you want in life.
Not to sound too harsh as I’m not tryna come off as a dick, but I come from an immigrant family and leaving this much money on the table would be disrespectful. My dad and other relatives could retire, but they’re in good positions to continue to make lots of money for their family. Giving up a near guaranteed $700k per year because it’s “boring”, not to mention it’s only a 40-hour a week commitment, would generally break my dad’s brain.
You have the time in your current schedule to begin exploring other ideas for potential income streams, but even if you hit it big with one, small chance it’s gonna pay anywhere near what you currently make. Not tryna be pessimistic or kill whatever dreams you have but just want to make sure you understand what you’re potentially walking away from.
Can't give u any advice cus im only a snt intern but have you thought about going to a fund? Maybe that will be sufficiently different than your current job to be interesting and could maintain or even improve your current level of comp. Also how did you end up in a lcol city in a trading job?
+1, which company/job is paying 7 figures in a mcol city? assuming OP works remotely..
Squeeze as much blood from the stone as possible then contemplate an early retirement when your 40
Basically was near your networth 2-3 years after. Then I had a kid and it made life more expensive. Also found out I enjoy the challenge of trading and there is nothing else like it. Figure out if you can move to a firm that would let you take off like 2/12 months or so before you quit all together. Truly figure out your longterm goals and what you want to do and when.
Truly transitioning out is going to take years and not something you can do overnight no matter what young dude here says on here about “FIRE” bullshit. Thought after 2022, that crap would be slowed down with how QQQ has done.
In summary, its good you have hit your “mental #” and never have to lose sleep about blowing up a year trading that your family will starve. Now time to transition to truly enjoying trading to some extent.
"Hey guys I make $1 million a year at a cozy easy hours job, but I'm bored, should I quit?"
Jeez, some people really don't realize how privileged they are and the bubble they live in
I'm in a similar position. I took a good part of this year to think it through and came to this insight.
Challenge. I believe a human needs to have a challenge to live out his days. And if one knows you're getting 1M at good hours, there's no longer a challenge and hence the mind wonders. Btw, justified at that comp and lifestyle because probably it took you a good run of building your reputation at the bank.
Now, for me, there are two ways out of this. 1. find that new challenge outside of finance and 2. find that next level you want to get to and work towards it given your current set up.
1. For me, it's easy - concert pianist. This is the NEW challenge. I spent 10 years in finance and which hard work, achieve my current position, call it level 10. There's only say level 11 / 12 to reach i.e. MD. If I decide on this switch, the counter resets. My pianist level is 0 and just like how I was driven to get to level 10 in a bank, now I'm driven to get to level 1, 2 all the way to level 10 as a concert pianist. ( Left out the details but for the musically inclined, something like take up less responsibilities and practice piano 5 hours a day. Coming from casual performer )
2. Find that level that you genuinely want. The difficulty is that was one advances up the ranks, the inclination to advance to the next level is lower. I was a lot more driven to get from Assoc to Director than I am to go from Director to MD. If you can't find this level, then forget this option. If you want this level, then let the new year roll in and plan it out again. The want will be the driver -What must I do to be MD? What books to read? Which people to network? What changes should I make in my meeting schedule? There lies the challenge.
I think I'm a 1. What about you?
One of the more senior traders at my shop hit his target a long time ago, splurged on all kinds of expensive stuff, yet he got burnt out after years of grinding and lost interest in whatever material goods he used to enjoy.
He was just mentally checked out, even tho he clears well into the 7 figures every year. Money can’t buy you happiness, they say. To some extent I agree. The important aspect of having money is that it can buy you time, more freedom to choose, and chances to make mistakes. So he sold all his toys, took off and went to walk the earth. He went to some crazy places that a rational person from a developed countries would never go to—Somalia, Afghanistan, and etc.. After a year of radio silence, he came back and started trading again. Our boss kept his spot while he was away.
Two things that’s different between you and him:
Similar part is that both of you are burnt out or had no goal in mind.
If I were in you, I would ask myself these questions:
What do I want to do after quitting? If you don’t know what you want to do, then you’re either burned out, or lacking a goal. Hence, figure out what you want to do first.
What’s the cost of doing what I want and what’s the opportunity cost of doing this? Basically how long can your financials support what you want to do. This includes lifestyle expense.
What can I get from what I want to do that I cannot get from my current job? Be more generalized on this one, whether it’s the challenge or some other reason.
I hope you would arrive to some sort of conclusion after answering these questions.
And with regarding to mid-life crisis, you are already in a spot that’s better than 99% of the ppl on this planet and even in US you’re better than over 90% of the total population. But if this not the encouragement you need, then know this, even the ppl amongst the top 0.1% of the human race will be forgotten in 100 years time, some at most exists in the footnote of a book or have a Wikipedia page that no one ever visits. So what you do is only relevant to yourself and your circle around you.
Unless you’re rich enough to just say “fuck it, I don’t need to work another day in my life and I will still be be able to pay for the lifestyle I want.”, you should think over your options before quitting.
Kind of the same here...
9y into the job. High 6 low 7 comp. Good work life balance. But super bored. Sometimes i want to just bail and go travel for a while.
In a similar situation, and this is a conversation that seems to come up a good bit among other S&T folks at the same level. Once you hit director the next thing you are gunning for is MD which is a total crapshoot and has very little to do with your trading P&L or sales credits. Can be frustrating as the beginning of your career you are constantly gunning for that next thing (better title, more $$, larger trading book) and you tend to get it if you are a decent performer. I don't think I can give you a firm answer one way or another but here are some things that often get kicked around in these discussions.
1. What attracted you to trading in the first place? For most people its the scoreboard. You know exactly how well you are doing each day. When that scoreboard no longer translates as much to real dollars or opportunity to advance it can lose meaning. I assume you are on a salary/bonus structure, so would moving to a place where you were on a hard payout and every dollar/trade actually mattered give the scoreboard some meaning again?
2. Do you have something else in mind you want to pursue, if its just start a business because you are bored and want a new challenge I would advise against that but if you have something in mind and you feel like that would be more interesting and potentially as lucrative you are in a position to go for it.
3. Would you miss the environment of the floor? If you go the route of starting you own business it can be pretty lonely and isolating if you are used to being around people all day.
Yeah once you get to director, you realise that what you need to get to MD has nothing to do with your job and you check out.
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