[player24]

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Has anyone here ever been an investment banker? I am looking into this, and although I'm not sure if I will be able to crack in, what other similar careers should I look at as backups, or is this IB just such a bad life that I shouldn't even bother altogether, I enjoy having a good time, and playing my party poker. Thoughts? The bank accounts that come with I-Banking are enticing to any college student.

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I have two friends (one is my next door neighbor) who have recently retired from careers as investment bankers (approximately age 40). They have accumulated enormous wealth...the kind of money they could never spend in their lifetimes...the kind of money that will make their great grandchildren wealthy. Tens of millions of dollars.

Huge rewards, enormous sacrifiices. The medical school / residency analogy is not a bad one, but top bankers work even harder and longer. And the rewards are back end loaded, you might make six figures early in your career, but it will be several years until you break the buck, let alone make several million.

If you are very smart and well educateed, have a mind for investing and are good at sales, you might have the qualifications. Just keep in mind, bankers are not investors, their job is to win business from companies who are involved in issuing equity or debt securities and to arrange for asset sales, mergers and acquisitions. Most of the time, you will be in sales mode. If you are a top investment bank (Goldman, JPMorgan, Citigroup, UBS, etc...) you will have a large advantage over your competition. Also, the businiess is very cyclical because IPOs and M&A have strong cycles (both are good currently, M&A is on fire).

If you want to make money and want to work hard (but keep your hours to about 60 per week), you might want to go the money management route. Get your college degree, go to work for a couple of years, apply for a top business school, get your MBA, return to work, get your CFA, by this time you should be ready to begin work as an analyst...work your way up the ladder to portfolio manager. Junior analysts on the buy-side earn $200K+... Portfolio managers usually get paid for performance, so income can soar into the seven figures, if you are good. This is the route I took. I did not retire at age 40, but I'll be on the beach before I'm 50, and I didn't sacrifice my entire personal life to get here...