Why do so many investment bankers continue to labor away at a job that has already made them highly wealthy, but that is best characterized as moments of interest surrounded by weeks of towering boredom?
Because they’ve got to get the jet:
“Why are you still doing this? Endless hours, demanding clients, insane competition, and an insane and demanding boss. You’ve made your nut. Why not tell ‘em all to get stuffed, go get to know your kids?”
The deal maker smiled, and looked far younger than his fiftysomething years as he replied: “Got to get the jet.”
The trouble is that while investment banking (and trading, etc.) pays well, it doesn’t pay that well. That is why so many i-bankers now fancy themselves as private equity sorts, hedge fund managers, and pretty much anything else where they can get away from being fee-for-service slaves and generate some real wealth.
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A Revolution of Rising Expectations
It’s now official: Paul Kedrosky has left the normal world behind completely. There is a value of “that well” for which the statement “investment banking (and trading, etc.) pays well, it doesn’t pay that well” is true. But such a value is not assigned…