Seems like it's so hard to move up in PE.
Most people do 2 years IB, then go to PE, then MBA, only to end up in corp dev/something else that is a significant paycut. So my question is, if you wanna make the most money, is it better to stay in IB?
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Nothing is absolute in life, there's no fixed path. You want to make the most money? Go build the next Facebook or Tesla. A retarded answer for a retarded question.
Most total money - early employee at a startup. Most money on little risk - stay in IB. PE may offer more long term but is a little riskier with the uncertainty around carry.
IB best job security and guaranteed comp/promotion, all without MBA
E-ship/high PE/HF is the only way to make fuck you level money, and you need to accept that 99% of people don't have what it takes, and that it's okay to "just" make 500K
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Shipping / logistics
Entrepreneurship
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I’m not a genius on the topic but the only way it seems to get hyper rich is to take a lot of risk. Start a company, invest in riskier stocks, etc. Not saying this is the best or worst way but kinda just comes down to the situation
what about MD in PE
How many reach the top in PE and after how many decades you retard?
MD in PE is actually extremely risky, in that you are risking never doing anything meaningful with your life
Many Senior MDs / Partners at megafund PE don't make that much more than senior MDs in top IB teams these days. Those positions are quickly becoming just another job. Not everyone is Steve Schwartzman or Jon Gray.
Moreover, most MFs have been much more focused on asset aggregation and less on individual deals/IRR. Returns / carried interests have gone down quite a bit relative to the size of their teams and AUM.
Don't think this trend will reverse because as public companies, the BX/APO/TPGs of the world answer to public shareholders who do not price performance fees at nearly the same level as those stable, vanilla mgmt fees. If you were Steve S or Jon G, a large amount of your net worth is in BX stocks and your incentives will first and foremost be to drive said stock higher (or dividend / buyback more) and not to squeeze that extra penny out of carried interest. It is sad because Larry Fink and co. left BX for this exact issue and if Steve had the same conviction 30 years ago Blackrock might not have been spun-off.
Lonestar is probably the only 50Bn+ place that still cares more about IRR vs. growing AUM. This is only because Jon Greyken usually contributes a large amount of his own money into each LS vehicle and he's not paying MDs to siphon mgmt fees off of his own capital. At most other places, MF PE is first and foremost an asset aggregator and an investor second nowadays.
Eh, megafund senior MD disagree. If you have a 10bn fund, and you double, that's 2bn of carry. And if you're getting 1-3%, that's a 20-60m check
Just curious where does the rest of the carry go? To the firm? Other MDs?
If you have $2 billion of carry how is that 100% pie divided if the senior MD of the fund is getting 3%? How many mouths are in on that pie?
If the platform has that much power... makes sense why the rockstars would leave if they can raise a fund even a forth of the size but get 10x the carry. Maybe MM places that aren't AUM aggregators and divide the pie to less people is a better gig? Sorry still learning this world.
A $20-$60M check that you receive over what time period though? $20M that takes 10 years to hit your bank account is less than clearing an average of $5M-$10M a year as a top performing MD at a top performing bank, for a decade straight.
Shift your mentality to how do I "keep" the most amount of money rather than "make" the most amount of money.
Gay
anon BM
IB at EB makes great money relative to buy side opps.
Equity.
Start your own business or buy some % of a young venture / existing one, help it grow (further) and either sell your stake right away in another financing round or via an acquisition. It’s high risk / high reward.
Best of luck.
More risk = More money. "The Path" = Low risk. Low Risk = Low Money. Most Money = Most Risk. Most Risk = Most Money. Thanks.
Impossible to answer because it depends on your own definition of what is a lot of money and your individual risk tolerance. For most people this is IB/PE.
Also you gotta remember its a numbers game at the end of the day. Generally the best way to make a lot of money is to get into an industry/firm early. Everyone seems to be gunning for PE these days and it seems like the odds aren't that great to reach partner in a top fund simply because there's way too much competition and the competition is between insanely smart hardworking people so naturally luck will be involved. Joining an early stage startup and hoping it to be successful might seem more risky on paper but there's a lot less competition for seats at the table so the risk probably evens out.
quant/prop trading + some luck
HF/PM + luck.
MFPE + grind + sacrifice hairline to the LBO Gods + luck.
Exit IB into Onlyfans
Exit IB into the NFL
Exit IB into Hollywood
Commit to a 13-hour-long DMT trip alongside some aboriginal shaman whereby you will live an eternity and whole life in cosmic bliss within those 13 hours. Use that life you have lived to trade on cocoa bean futures with your newfound understanding of shipping and logistics.
Barring “extreme risk” propositions — like founding the next Amazon — the answer is probably quantitative finance. Work at a place like Jane Street/HRT/Optiver, climb the ranks, and then maybe become a PM somewhere like Citadel.
For those with more “normal” talents…who knows. It will inevitably change. MD in IB or Partner at MFPE is probably somewhat lucrative and not “extreme risk”, but low-odds. There are many roads to Rome.
I don't think you really understand what Jane Street/Optiver do if you think you can become a PM at citadel after...
You make the most money by finding what you're exceptional at and doing it.
Onlyfans
Corinna Kopf showed her earnings from OF and it was like a few million a month. She probably makes 30 million+ a year off onlyfans alone
Imagine grinding for 15+ years to make MD of a BB/EB, only to find out that some chick that takes nudes online makes what you make in a year in a month lol
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we leave daughters fatherless (whether physically leave or not put in effort) where tiktok and an ipad raises them, then we turn around and buy these broken girls onlyfans
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Airbnb rental arbitrage, 1,000+ units
proprietary + passion = profit
- Go to shit rural high school
- Become valedictorian, high SAT, high grades, etc (bar is low)
- Go to ivy with financial aid
- Quant at Citadel/Jane Street/Two Sigma
- Start your own prop shop
- Buy oil at negative prices, store it in your the rural HS (after bribing ur old principal to turn into a storage site), sell it at $100/bbl
- Go work at GS TMT (because u need respect)
-Retire
When you work in IB enough, you'll see that 'actual' path to f**k you money is striking it big at a corporate through equity. So yes, taking equity risk. The returns are much more polar than IB though. Top seniors at MFs make a lot of money but it's so f**king hard to get there and I'm unconvinced that returns going forward will be like the last 20 years.
Where IB wins is risk-adjusted returns. Most people who stay in IB until retirement will do very well for themselves and retire with a net worth of $10mm+ and it's frankly much easier to attain than top senior in PE so on a risk-adjusted basis, makes more. The line blurs even further if you're a top MD at an EB paying you 30% of deal fees but those jobs require more smarts / sales ability than MD at BB.
10mm is fucking trash I quit
😂😂
I think a better point that you kind of made is the top prize is to transfer out of banking at the VP / ED level to be a C-level exec at a public company and make a career of it where you get huge stock grants, golden parachutes, etc.
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