What did it feel like to get your first bonus?

Honestly? It felt nice for a few days and then the feeling wore off pretty fast. The bonus is a good sum of money but it's not life changing at all. You're not rich, you can't retire with it. You're now maybe financially a year or 2 ahead of your peers in the same age group but that doesn't particularly move the needle much. As a 3rd year who's collected two bonuses now, it's nice to have a bit more financial security and safety net but you're going to need something other than just money to feel true fulfilment with life.

I was pissed. Joined c/o ‘18 and bonuses were down 20% from the year before. Sucks to know that you’re performing better than mid bucket c/o ‘17 analysts, but they got paid more than you did. This year made up for it though, guess that’s the business of banking. 

It was such a fleeting feeling. 

I was an analyst getting smoked so I smiled at first…then frowned once I factored in taxes and then realized it was back to work to eat more shit.

The anticipation was way more exciting than the reality because I realized “ok I’ll buy something nice, invest the rest and I guess we’ll do this next year?”

It was a bit unsatisfying because it was a nice amount to get paid at 23 but it wasn’t life changing money.

Having stayed in the industry now over 10 years, the compounding effects are clear and I’m very happy about my financial position. Oddly, I’d say the the annual bonus season / speculation has even less impact on my psyche now.

Agree with everyone else, nothing too exciting. Even if you get a huge bonus, as an A1 after-tax it's only $50-60k tops. Maybe someone who grew up in poverty or is first gen might have different feelings, but for your average IB person who grew up middle or upper middle class, this isn't a life changing amount of money for you. It's nice to watch your investment account grow, or spend a bit of it on something fun, but if you're getting crushed it doesn't really make it all feel worth it.

my daddy is rich as fuck so didnt really care tbh xoxo

Bonuses feel great but they're not really life changing.  You're still doing the same job, you might be able to pay off your debts and throw money into retirement / investment accounts and buy something nice.  IMO base pay increases are more impactful because that's what I live off.

My first $20k analyst stub felt better than any (much higher $) I have gotten since

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Aww

Felt like a newly minted 19 year old sugar baby in my lap

First bonus also coincided with debt free. It’s like feeling hope for the first time.

The universal truth is that your feelings of wealth are largely based on relative terms, not absolute.  If you were surrounded by middle-income America and made 300k, you'd feel very pleased with yourself.  In banking, you may receive a large amount of compensation in isolation but you look around and you're at the bottom of the totem pole on your very floor, let alone the world of your clients where you'll interact with everyone from a community college grad selling his LMM company to a sponsor and pocketing $50mm to some rockstar 32 year old PE partner who has millions in vested carry already.  So you're not going to feel particularly like a baller with an analyst or associate (or VP etc) bonus.

Actually with bidens hyper inflation even a 300k bonus doesn't impress me.  Wow...180 post tax.

Every home i wanted to buy is like 200k more expensive vs last year.  This bonus basically gets me back to where I was financially last year.

Thanks biden.

Feels like a relief to just have an extra chunk of cash saved/invested but obviously not life changing. Looking forward to second year bonus 

Fortunate to have graduated without debt, but started FT with nearly zero in the bank account. It felt fucking fantastic, even post-tax. The most money I've ever actually seen coming to me or my family. I had a list of shit to buy -- watch, clothes, vacations, taking parents out, etc. After that fleeting moment, realized that I was still getting fucked in the ass from work and never really had time to do much on my list and just saved. It was really sobering and kind of depressing, especially when I told my parents - they were proud, but also sad that I wasn't prioritizing my happiness or well-being. Had a long conversation about how even though we didn't grow up with a lot of money, we were still happy and supportive of each other, which I wasn't getting despite having a significantly higher income than my family ever grew up on. 

The fact that I'm still doing this shit a few years later just goes to show how lost I am lol

"Wow fuck taxes"

Excited at first. Annoyed when the post-tax hit my account. And just sad that I would have to wait another long year for the next one.

Maybe I am different than you all, but contextualizing the bonus felt great. The amount should be life changing if you behave properly and are rational. I fortunately had no debt, but going from 0 to having 120k+ in my bank account by the end of 1.5 years was a crazy feeling. I remember an analyst during my internship saying, “the best part about banking is you work so much you can’t spend the money you make because you have no time”. I wasn’t the most frugal, but I def saved a lot and I remember talking to my parents afterwords and them explaining that that could be the down payment on a 6 bedroom 5 bath home in an upper middle class neighborhood. Or put another way, it’s 2k rent for 5 years. 
 

Making this amount so early allowed me to travel on a a vacation with friends and spent several grand without worrying. It also allowed me to take more career risk because I knew if all else failed I had a nest egg to live off for ~2.5 years even if I was bringing in 0 income. But honestly if you do the math and expect you can bring in just 3% of 120k that’s 3,600. Post tax, you should be close to being able to live off a month each year of just passive income if you live below your means and maintain some frugality.

Like a bag of sand

Anti-climatic

Sex

remember, the average IB analyst comes from a background that thinks their parents who make 400k is middle class. Be careful asking questions like that to such a skewed demographic, a lot of "eh it was whatever" answers COULD come from that upbringing -- not saying thats always the case.

I actually have a pretty decent answer/experience. Got my first bonus in NYC and it really didn't feel like much since I was practically living off my base. Now with the same comp in a LCOL I feel like a damn king especially relative to others my age around here. In other words, screw NYC idk why that city is so pushed on here. Life got better in both WLB and comp ever since getting out...guess I'm missing on all those "prestigious" exit opps which consist of taking a paycut to go to PE...lmfao this forum is ass backwards

Flipped out cause they paid someone more than me. Yes the overall payout was significant coming from poor family with lots of student debt, etc. But can’t be just happy can we …

Kind of anticlimactic. Wasn’t sure if the year that preceded had been worth it. The years that have followed have been pretty similar. Time for a change in ‘23, methinks.

I was top-bucket as an analyst so got our best comp. However, ranking ignored, I gotta say the first bonus was a sweet feeling without a doubt. Having been dead broke throughout college and having done jobs such as waiting tables for restaurants to help support myself during school, having that much liquidity really meant a lot to me in terms of feeling financially free. It was totally an awesome feeling and I felt great about it. And sure, I did spend a lot of it irresponsibly given I didn't have an opportunity to do so before. But thanks to my staying in the high finance track, that first bonus was the least amount I'd ever make to date in my professional career so net didn't matter.

Now I'm not saying that's how you should view your comp progression given everyone's career track is different and will deviate at any given time, but that's how I viewed mine.

Couldn't stomach reading the whole thread. My 2cents (from someone who has made quite a bit and received large commissions based on transactions). A few things:

1. When you figure how much you will make on a large deal or as a bonus, initially I used to think this was great. How can they pay me 50k for doing X when X is my job?

2. Then, it became I'm not getting paid anywhere near enough for all I had to do to generate X. In my case it was always the back and fourth between client, his CPA, his attorney, my firm, etc. Keeping a deal on track, getting past hurdles, reselling it again and again and again. may take a yr or 6 months to get to closing. And then i get a check for 75k or whatever. Seemed like a bunch up front but was peanuts when it was all said and done.

3. You need more than the money as a motivator. The money will never be enough to motivate you. Once you get to a certain point, if you really aren't jazzed by what you do to earn your keep, you just won't do it. Easier to settle for less if you don't like it. Find something you really enjoy, are stimulated by, etc. I won't stay find something you love because that's way overblown. Little secret - most of us would rather be playing golf or setting sail or hiking in the mountains or fly fishing than doing what we're doing. But if you have to do it, at least find something you like and makes you think.

It would have felt fantastic from a pre-tax perspective, not so much post tax. Made me more conservative and just generally disgusted at people in NYC and Washington lighting my money on fire.

Felt pretty good. I come from a blue collar family, not poor by any means but not well off enough for my parents to pay for college, contribute to any expenses while in college or be any kind of safety net for me. When I got my first bonus it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I finally felt like I had some financial freedom and security. $50/$60k might not be life changing for most of the folks that go into IB but for people who come from modest means and have never had a safety net before it really is a massive difference on one's state of mind.