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Six figure salary
subtract
* expensive food since you have no time to cook
* expensive cost of living in NYC where you need $150K just to survive
* doctor bills for all the heart attack level stress imposed from the long work
* paying for car crashes since one is driving sleepy from lack of sleep
take the remainder and divide it by the 100 hour weeks and they're making minimum wage.
On the expensive food item - working that long, the company pays for food brought into the office.
On the car crashes -- working that long, the company also pays for limo service to transport you home late at night. You most likely took the subway to work in the morning.
I can't help but recall a story from a couple decades back when Drexel Burnham was the hot place to work. They were doing all sorts of deals, left right and center. And paying people gobs of money.
And then, like every bubble, it ended.
So, this guy who was crunching numbers...never got close to doing a deal...and making a good six figures, was summarily fired.
He shops himself around. No takers. He drops the price and lowers his expectation. Still, no takers.
At the bottom he was in the "would you like fries with that" line. He took the job, and started to rebuild his life, and his finances.
Famous quote: "I honestly believed I was worth the money they were paying me". In the end, he found out he wasn't worth squat, was being used as a highly paid temp, and dumped when it no longer suited the bank to have staff people pulling big checks for basic work.
$300,000 sounds like a fair bit of change, until you figure out that is all there is, it doesn't go on forever, you have to live after the checks run out, and your next job is a LONG ways off with nothing close to the ridiculous money private equity was paying you (until they figured out it wasn't worth it). You get hired by a line manager doing deals, and you get fired and escorted off the premises by a staff admin type who doesn't even know your name without looking at the termination notice.
I was a "Consultant" and then "Sr. Consultant" in Private Equity after grad school. I went to State School but was pulled in by a friend who went to an elite university. I did just as well as the others. It's not a 300k salary no matter what you do. Much of that is likely bonuses and such. Busting your hump will only get you so far (i.e. not very), it's about sales - selling more services (that you perform so more work...yay!) and developing services that the org does not perform and learning how to perform them competently so you can sell more of them and work more, another yay! That gets you to the top $. Anyone can put in hrs and be a face at a desk, to make the $ you need to actually do something better with those hrs than the next guy/gal. I did it for almost 4 years. I "enjoyed" the first 1.5-2 years. It was not as fun after that.
This was a boutique firm and many were "consultants" so they would not have to pay for health care and other benefits. But the income potential was good if you performed (and I did). They made a lot more money off me than I did off them though. I left them with a service they could use and bill big bucks for long after I left. People are smart and charismatic though, not mere spreadsheet analysts.
Usually investment banks provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to employees, to compensate for the long hours.
You do not need $150k to survive in NYC. Not remotely.
Doctor bills are covered by insurance.
People rarely drive to work in NYC. IB tend to send employees home in an Uber if they work late. Otherwise, it's the subway.
Guys or girls just jealous everyone knows you can live in NYC with just 60K a year despite AMI being $73K. You socialize and find roommates which is what majority of 22-27 year olds do (lately well into mid 30s due to young adults marrying later in life). In Harlem 2-3 years ago, no one in that age group realistically paid more than $600 towards rent aka sublease galore and multiple roommates in a 1-4 bedroom apt. Approximately a third stay at home 1-2 years after fist job due to difficulty of finding cheap rent/ pay off student loans.
With that said, rent today becomes 800-1,200 a month if you socialize and that IS manageable. $300K/yr is rich anywhere in the US and denying that reeks of jealously. Bronx is still "affordable" for now and same applies to parts of Queens if you do not mind living next to Chinese/ Koreans.
Look this is the deal/recommendations coming from an actual NYer:
1. Yes most people that work in NYC cannot afford it
2. NYC isn't just Manhattan
3. If you make 20-50K/yr you stay at home you broke broke broke
4. If you make 60-80K/yr you can't live a lone, BUT you can survive here with a roommate
4.1 Survive as in rent wont eat up 70% of your disposable income and you can pay bills, save, invest comfortably the holy trinity of the "American Dream"
5. 80K-120K you can live in NYC and yes even Manhattan ALONE, but ill advised since you will be living paycheck to paycheck
Like with lawyering and medicine, you start out as the young greenie working insane hours but as you pay your dues you work less and less and make more and more as younger underlings take up the heavy lifting.
Once you have 20 years in you begin to coast (financially speaking).
Usually investment banks provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to employees, to compensate for the long hours.
You do not need $150k to survive in NYC. Not remotely.
Doctor bills are covered by insurance.
People rarely drive to work in NYC. IB tend to send employees home in an Uber if they work late. Otherwise, it's the subway.
Doctor bills may be covered by insurance but developing a heart condition and having to gulp down medications while worrying that a heart attack may cut you down is not a good way to live. And there are other health issues that can develop from stress. Definitely not a good way to live for that high salary, knowing that you can be replaced if you can't keep up.
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