Re: Say goodbye to the dream
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Yes, as I said they'll get a nice looking bank statement. But once you eclipse 100k or so every time you double that money, it gets less and less significant to a point where it just about doesn't matter except in competing with the next guy (I realize this competition is the primary reason). Is there really an important difference between 500k and 2M?
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yes. it's 4 times as much money. seriously though, the theory of diminishing marginal returns on the dollar doesn't even come into play fully at the scale which you describe for many millions more dollars. 50million and 200million for example. but 500k and 2mil are vastly different.
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Not really, you can just buy some more things you really have no need for (If you have time to use them when not working or sleeping). As for women: while they will surely find a rich guy a bit more attractive than a guy only earning a comfortable level, don't you want to have time in your day to actually be with those girls?
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some people enjoy what they do. and they look to the future. the amt of hrs an analyst in the worst case scenario puts in are far more than those an MD puts in (100/week for the former, 60-85 for the latter). that is the worst case scenario too. mostly, they aren't working THAT much. also, that is a really simplistic and ignorant view of relationships and time etc..
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I think the strongest argument one can make to defend applying for a trader or other extremely time consuming yet highly paying job is this: You can potentially retire very young. However, I believe this argument has a serious flaw. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone. It is generally not a good idea to base your life around the prospect of happiness 10 years from now.
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um, yes it is. ideally, you smooth your consumption function over the your lifetime. planning for down the road is extremely important.
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Way too much can happen in that time. While those young traders suffering in an office building for 2/3 of their waking young life may convince themselves that the future prospects of being "rich" are worth it, one day they will wake up 30 years old and wonder what happened to the last 8 years. They will realize they didn't need that 7-8 figure bankroll to do the things they most enjoy.
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you're right. some will. some will switch to jobs they enjoy more (research, CS, mkting, etc.) others enjoy what tehy're doing now and trade all day long. further, they're working less now than 8 years ago. you are putting your current opinions on people who you dont know in situations you haven't experienced (and apparantly have very little knowledge about)
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I'm a 21 year old junior finance major. I really have no idea what job I could possibly enjoy, I just know I'll be extremely depressed in any situation where I'm forced to work 14 hours a day. I'm currently considering working some standard finance job for the necessary 2-3 years 40 hours a week until I can get into business school and then becoming a professor. They have joke hours can potentially touch 200kish. Thats just a thought though, I have no idea. Any ideas for a finance major that has 0 intentions of working 60-80 hours for a million dollars?
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LOfu*ckingL. do you know what % of finance PhDs get jobs that pay 200k? first, in order to get a PhD from a top school you have to be extremely intelligent and so well versed in the mathematical finance area that you can lecture PhD professors on things like asset pricing in continuous time given certain beliefs and not make any mistakes (there are multiple exams like this you must pass). i went to washington university's MBA program and spoke in great depth with PhD students in finance b/c i took a PhD bayesian stat course my first semester there and made friends w/ them. they worked insane hours and loved it. one guy, jason, did get his dream job but he is seriously one of the smartest human beings ive ever met. he got published in the journal of finance, and econometrica, both insanely tough journals to get into. he is going to work in a school in NC. they gave him a chair, 250k/year, sick vacation time etc. but he is tops of the tops.
if you think you can go work for 2 years out of undergrad, get an MBA or finance masters and go on to get your PhD and then a 200k/year job as a professor that easily, you are seriously mistaken.
also, there are no "standard finance jobs" a guy like you can get for 2-3 years that is 40 hrs a week. i had a "standard economics job" like that. i was an economist for the dept. of labor. i worked 40 hrs a week. got paid D*CK and went back to get my MBA in finance.
anyways, i've rambled on enough here. i think you very seriously need to get a clue. at least a bit of research. talk to PhD fin kids at your school. talk to your professors. and for the love of god, dont tell ANY of them that there really isn't a difference between 500k and 2million.
Barron
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