Bro why don't you learn what you are talking about before you start postring retorts to someone that actually knows his material.. Try actually interracting with the industry instead of reading some BS rah rah book.
It's not retiring at 50 but at 40 or even 35. Very very very few people in the world could handle making it and staying at the top of the IB ladder because you have to give up your life & your soul to the IB. The salaries & bonuses get huge, 300-400k a year is just top associate/VP salary. Problem is that most qualified candidates just burn out and fall apart, hence such high compensations (and even with the current salaries many won't do it). It takes a certain type of person to make it as an I-banker, borderline insane. You sacrifice everything, sleep, health, appearance, mental state of being. You LIVE Investment banking, that is it. It's sad watching these top level VPs and MDs trying to make friendly conversation with each other in the elevator, they have NOTHING to talk about except their work. By the time they can retire, they don't because they really have nothing to do with their time.
I-bank is not "a pretty good place to work". You become a slave to the bank, period. Taking time off during any holidays such as good friday or christmas to go see your family is looked down upon. You are forced to live I-banking, 80-130 hours a week, no sleeps for days when required, abuse, insults & hours upon hours of mundane factory like work. Like my friend, a top level associate at Deutsche bank, says "You need a high tolerance for pain". To make a point, he is the highest paid associate at the bank, should have a VP title but he is ready to burn out big time. It's too early for him to "retire", way too early, so occasional alcoholic drink in the morning are a must. Oh yeah, coke also, that's like a normal thing in the I-banks.
First year analysts are rushed in like a new shipment off a slave ship. Easily 90% of them will not make it to the associate level, that is the bottom line whether they are all idiots or all geniuses. The I-banks are very smart, they paint a facade of the Investment Banker that is fed to college kids all over (yeah I received it too). They get all these kids in, work them like slaves and ship them out to grad school. It's a great way to get cheap labor because at a fair hourly wage with overtime for the type of work that these kids do, the I-banks would go bankrupt.
However, the I-bank experience is the best work experience you can get for Grad school. Period. So the experience is valuable, of couse another 4 years of school is not smth to be excited about unless MBA was ur goal from the start. That is a good approach to getting a trading desk because fresh out of 4 year school getting a job as an IB analyst is much easier than getting a job as an associate trader with an IB desk. With a quality MBA, more doors open to you at the trading desk but realize that MBAs are growing by huge increments while trading desk positions at IBs are actually decreasing.