<p>I read that they retire at 35 but I was thinking if they are not a spender and can live on little, then they can retire after like 3 years?</p>
<p>and when people say they are gonna retire at 35, how much money are they thinking of having saved up until then? How many rental units and/or other passive income assets would they own?</p>
<p>Oh wow. 3 years? That’s a hoot. [Investment</a> Banking Salary: How Much You Make | Mergers & Inquisitions](<a href=“http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-salary/]Investment”>http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-salary/)</p>
<p>LOL…that’s hilarious.</p>
<p>^^Website clearly done by a high schooler. What a waste of time…lol.</p>
<p>^^ i agree that the website was prob. done by some college kid, etc. That said, having been a former banker in NYC and most of my friends having been bankers, I can tell you that the content is actually pretty accurate. </p>
<p>When I joined (2008) this is approx what my numbers looked like. I worked at a top 3 BB.</p>
<p>Base: $60K
Taxes (~34%): $20.4K
Base after Tax: $39.6K</p>
<p>Expenses:
Rent: $17.1K ($1,425/month)
Food: $6.5K (paid for ~5 meals a week myself at avg. $25 per meal)
Utilities (inc. personal cell phone/gas/water/elec./cable/internet): $2.16K (~$180/month)
Transportation: $5.2K (~$100/week)
Going Out: $5.2K (spent prob. ~$100/week…some weeks more some less)
Misc. Costs: $2K (not a big shopper, most of these were a couple of weekend trips, etc.)
No Debts of any kind (student, credit cards, etc.)</p>
<p>Net After Expenses: $1.4K </p>
<p>Bonus: $80K
Bonus After Tax: $48K</p>
<p>Total Savings (as a 1st yr.): ~$50k [and i was prob one of the few that saved a decent amount]</p>
<p>As reference now i work in M&A for a tech company and my total savings end up being $70K annually (including stock, bonus, savings from base)…that said i work 1/2 the time i did in banking and my quality of life is much better (live in a more chill city, can rent a nicer place, etc.)</p>
<p>^Those are some very useful numbers for reference.
Now whartongrad, suppose you weren’t a Wharton student. How different do you think those numbers would be?</p>
<p>numbers for a non-Wharton person would be similar…banks are usually standard with their base #s for all incoming analyst regardless of school. My bonus was on the higher end b/c i performed well you could say that Wharton gave me a performance edge when compared to analysts that didnt study undergrad business. That said there were analyst from non UG biz schools that were also top analysts. </p>
<p>Look at the end of the day a IB analyst job pays well and allows you to save more than people going into other jobs where they make $60-70k base and have minimal bonuses (usually in corp world theyre around 10%) and stock. For example, I have friends who went into GE’s rotation program after grad and she made like $55K base/10% bonus/some stock…she saved close to nothing her 1st year. My friends who went into consulting made like $65K base and got a small bonus. So banking obviously gives you a boost in earnings, at an entry level, but not to the extent that most people imagine. At the higher levels (associate +) when you are making a good amount…earnings become a lot more skewed compared to corp or consulting jobs. Like a VP who is in late 20s and making 300-600K when in the corp world they’d be making at most 200K all in.</p>
<p>… the problem is, you have to do all that in New York, with its humongous housing costs, taxes, utility costs, food costs, etc.</p>
<p>Then if you have kids you have to educate them, which for many in that strata means private schools that cost nearly as much as private colleges.</p>
<p>And of course, given the stress, you have to unwind. bring on the expensive vacations, the second home in the Hamptons, (Everyone’s doing it!) …</p>
<p>It’s all great, as long as you are performing great, in a group that’s performing great, in a bull market.</p>
<p>Should that no longer be the case, in the bear market you can find yourself out on your backside, with no prospective employment, since the whole industry is in the crapper at the same time, two expensive houses that are both underwater that you cannot sell without taking a huge bath, since the NY real estate market has gone to heck due to the Wall Street collapse. While you are still paying for private school for your kids, since you can’t move and the public schools are not for them. Hopefully you saved up because you will be practically bleeding money at that point.</p>
<p>^what you’ve proved is… make money but don’t be a spoiled ****** :)</p>
<p>Easier said than done, when everyone around you is doing same.</p>
<p>Eh, while that’s true… more than half of high school students have done drugs. Was it hard for me not to? Not really…</p>
<p>It would certainly be a prudent strategy to “live below your means” during the good times, to protect your downside risk.</p>
<p>A lot of people don’t realize there is a downside to protect, because they are hired during a bull market and while it is going on everything is great. Then, when it is not and the layoffs start, the atmosphere changes, then they get it. But by that time they have the two houses and the private schools.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You have no idea what you’re talking about. The site is written by Brian DeChesare, an ex-UBS LA Analyst. It is arguably the most respected website for straight-shooting investment banking information by junior/prospective bankers these days.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Whartongrad, could I PM you to ask you about this? This is the first time I’ve heard of tech companies having M&A departments.</p>
<p>blue_box - most large technology (and many large non-tech firms) have corporate development/M&A groups that act as in-house bankers for the firm. At my company, for example, we don’t hire external bankers when we go and acquire companies - my team handles all of this internally. </p>
<p>giants92 - I didn’t know that Brian had put the site together…I had never actually seen the site. That said it does look like a pretty cheezy site (just from a UX perspective) which made me think a college student prob built it. However, like I said in my post above, the information is actually very accurate.</p>
<p>Oh right. I didn’t know M&A came under Corp Dev. Does your company hire undergrads into corp dev? What sort of majors do they look for? And what are your hours like?</p>
<p>^ we don’t typically hire undergrads although we did have an intern last summer that was an undergrad. We typically just hire people with 2 yrs+ of banking. Majors don’t really matter if you did 2 years of banking. Hours are much better than banking…I usually work 50-60 hours a week (up to 80 if im on a live deal).</p>
<p>That banking prereq. is terrible. =/
What about people with consulting backgrounds?</p>
<p>what is the average compensation for members of your m and a groups? is it proportional to experience?
thanks</p>