The price of freedom

Hi all,

First, excuse the pretentiously profound post title derived from weeks of mulling over the concept of existence, purpose and money. It was a way to (partially) vent all of it.

I come to you guys in desperate search of advice, probably because I am lost. Here we go.

I've been always interested in finance, first (when I started engineering) as an esoteric but luring concept and then, after the 2008 crisis, as something I felt obligated to crack down and jump head first in. The sub prime fantasy, the fact that people were making money from such a devastation, the absurd unemployment rate in my home country...all together with a natural call for competition, passion for numbers and a need to decipher reality defined what and where I wanted to be.

Years and three emigrations later, I am in the tri-state area working in corporate strategy for a technological large cap multinational. I broke all the records in my company: youngest corporate strategist in the history, I worked my ass from a mechanical drafter to the crystal-ball group where the fate of entire programs and product portfolios is at stake. From this position, I've been able to get a helicopter view of the entire industry (quite difficult to get otherwise), and I also enlarged my network and met people in the investment industry that closely follow my sector, and that would be pleased to welcome a sounded industry resume to their teams. I completed my MBA (not Ivy at all) a few years ago and I currently find myself sinking a s**t ton of hours in the CFA. Something that let me say, I am enjoying in a sadomasochistic way.

Obviously, not all is set. Competition is fierce and I recognise that I must keep improving my background in order to land a good job in the street. And here is where the doubts come up.

What if it happens? It was (and it is) my dream, so the feel of accomplishment will be superb. For a few weeks. Then I will probably elaborate a plan on where and how I want to get from there (always within the investment world) and will start executing on it. Still happy for what I got, and motivated with a new goal. Obviously, that will come with long weeks for sure, enormous effort in a potentially hyper competitive (maybe corrosive) environment and the new politics. And a commute to Manhattan. Do not forget the long commute to Manhattan.

And the question is: *is it worth it? *In my current position I rarely put more than 36h a week, my commute is literally 5 minutes if I decide not to work from home that day, and I like my job in a genuine way. I've 4wks of vacation per year and the benefits are on the high end. If I see the public available information about salaries of a MD in an investment firm in NY (as an example of a long term career goal in case I get into the industry), they are in the average of 400k, and don't get me wrong, I consider that is a boat load of money. I barely make half of it including bonus and will never (ever, not in any way, jamais) make that in my current company. No matter how far I move up. No matter how long I stay.

**But again: is it worth it? **Any good school district in the suburbs has a median household price above 1.3M (with everything below it being a DIY fixer upper) and that leads to a 1h commute/trip to desperately pay a disproportionate mortgage. Looking at NYC apartment prices, it looks like the entire city is priced for billionaires, with a disparity between median household income and home prices 10 times higher than the best suburbs...and a long etc.

So please help me. I can't see myself giving up now on what was my dream, specially after getting that far on the plan. But, now when the goal seem somewhat achievable, I've a problem assessing its intrinsic value compared to the one of my current situation.

Thanks and hope you enjoyed the never ending story here.