all things to one side:
genius gets his first class degree gets into IBD or trading at a top tier IB.
1st year starting 45k 100% bonus = around 55k (after tax)
2nd year around 20% more = 60k in his pocket.
3rd yr by now his running his own book and manages to make some profit, base + bonus = 200k
4th year - his one of the lucky few (10%) that makes it here successfully promoted etc and profitable again. 250k all in.
genius hits 30 as MD and hit the jack pot at 500k. (250 after tax)
so Mr genius after 8 years of 60 hours a day IB life hits 30 with around 800k cash. minus his banking life style costs over the years (rent, bills) his got 500k left.
what does 500k get in London? a small Flat outside of W1, W11, W14, et al.
this what some of the cleverest minds in the country follow. and thats why the billionaire is the ice cream seller.
so to direction B.
Genius does a MSc/Phd in astrophysics hits a Hedge fund stat arb group straight out of college. first year 60k base 100% bonus.
lets assume the HF stays in business year two lol. total cap around 150k.
after 3 years hot shit gets to trade his own book running a reasnable 100m AUM. he happens to be in the 10% lucky crowd to make a shitty 10% in his first year. 10% of 100m = 10m. he takes 15% of this = 1.5m. after tax 750k. not bad.
given his success his managing 500m next year. lucky hits 12%. takes home around 5m after tax.
he repeats the same success over the next 3 yrs. his worth around 15m net his life style costs.
he hits 35 without blowing up. his among the 2% out there. yet his bank balance still shy of moving into a nice mansion in west london.
so anyways, to cut the shit short, standard of living is relative and comparative. this industry invites some of the brightest and gifted kids which further pollutes it. only few can make the big killings at any one time.
if it's a question of money, you are FAR FAR FAR more likely to be successful elsewhere - starting your own business etc. given the poll of robots attracted to banking you're left competing with goats in other areas. so chances of success is far higher.
and only certain areas make you a billionaire by age of 30 if not 24 u know who and where.
the only people in finance who can even dream or imagine being worth over 500m are prop trading houses, private equity deal makers etc. the successful group is <0.00000001% of the total of people who jump into this area thinking they can do the same.
for some strange reason, everyone thinks a Physics BSc from oxbridge is the door to 100k bonuses etc and so on. well guess wot, proportionally, the highest rejected students are oxbridge PHDs. cus non-oxbridge don't even apply. and out of every 20 that do, 1 is offered a place..
He is adament that he only wants to study econometrics. Help us understand what's all this about, TY!