Over on the Ask Us Anything section we’re starting to see the same questions come up. This post is going to address why the advice won’t change and how we can save time together.
1) How Do I improve my Diet? We have covered diet advice in a post. If you haven’t taken a look then go ahead and read the post. If you’re slogging 80 hours a week you need to be efficient and as we stated before, if you don’t want to read the post, here’s the basic outline:
Breakfast: Fruit + Protein. Worst case a protein shake in the AM and a banana/fruit bowl on your way to work
Lunch: If you have a high paying job, lunch is used to improve your political positioning so you always eat with people so suck up the $10-12 meals
Dinner: You can get $25+ from your company, do not waste it on unhealthy food. Most people will eat terribly which starts the downward spiral. There are hundreds of options online using seamless. If you don’t have to work late… then make your meal at home after your day is done.
By doing this you guarantee 2/3 of your main meals are healthy. Lunch may be hit or miss, but if you’re smart all 3 will be perfectly fine and you won’t break the bank.
2) What Bank do I Join? Again this question misses the point by a country mile. The question is, which bank will allow me to get promoted the fastest. If you have no idea which bank then go by the rule of thumb
Elite Boutique (Moelis, Qatalyst, Centerview, Evercore, Lazard, etc.)
Bulge Bracket (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citi, etc.)
Middle Market (Jefferies, Piper Jaffray, etc.)
No-Name Banks (simply make sure it is the same job function)
No, we will not get into a back and forth about “what exactly is E-Boutique versus not” it is up to you to make that decision but if you’ve done your due diligence the answer will be extremely obvious. If they pay above top bonuses at a bulge bracket… it’s an E-boutique. If it pays the same as a BB… it’s probably smarter to choose the BB.
After your very first job none of this matters at all anymore. From that point forward you choose the firm that is going to promote you the fastest. Think smart. It is about responsibility not prestige.
“F*** prestige get money”
Put that quote on your cubicle. People who obsess over prestige have never had a long career on Wall Street. Maximum of maybe 5 years. To put the nail in the coffin check out one of two blogs we recommend (we only recommend Danger and Play and Financial Samurai). Click on FS’s blog… notice something? He started at a top shop but his real money came in after getting promoted and generating a ton of revenue. **hint hint**
3) When Should I Work Out? Well do you even work out? If you’re under 30 years old and you don’t work out 6 days a week you’ve already lost in the first place. If you have been working out 6 days a week, you probably already have a healthy routine! See how that works? So the question is not when you should work out it is if you even work out in the first place. We got this question many times and the answer when pushed is exactly the same.
If you work on the East Coast you go to the gym first thing in the morning. If you work on the West Coast you go to the gym after work.
You can feel free to change this if you’re a morning person or a night owl but it really misses the point. The point is this:
“There is no science, there is simply consistency.”
Consistency is how you keep yourself honest. If you can make it to the gym every single day and lift correctly, you’re going to see gains.
4) What Do You Think About the Stock Market Levels? Always the same answer, do not care at all. You should not care if the S&P is at 1,700 or 2,000… simply dollar cost average into cheap ETFs such as VOO, SPY etc.
If you’re trying to beat the stock market and you only have a half million dollars or so in the bank, you’re wasting your time. $500K in the bank to invest is pretty much a waste of effort. It means if you beat the bench mark by call it 5% that is only $25K. You may as well go and chase real revenue in a business. $25K for 10+hours a week is only $48/hour… That is significantly worse than what you’re making on the job anyway.
If the economy collapses? It doesn’t matter again. Generally recessions last about a year so you simply sit around and take the extra cash that was on the sidelines and buy any time there is a large correction. Your cash was on the sidelines because you want to continue buying through the dips so you get lower entry prices. Maybe you lost your job for a few months. No big deal. You had cash on the side to keep buying and get your next position.
If the market goes up 20%? Great already exposed getting richer!
What if inflation goes “crazy”? Again already own assets… getting richer! Only poor people think inflation is a bad thing.
5) I Make $50K and I am X Years Old What Do I Do? Some tough love and inspiration at the same time. First why in the world did you do this to yourself? If you look around there is money everywhere. A weekend in a high cost city driving an Uber will net you $30+ an hour. That is an extremely low estimate and yet that gets you an extra $60K per year. Why is it an *extra* 60K per year? Well, if you’re not working at least 80 hours per week and you’re broke, you have no one to blame but yourself. Anyone who believes they should be rich working 40 hours a week is going to be in for a rude awakening.
If you attempt to come back with the “but i’m smart” argument, you’re going to get laughter on this side of the web. Why? If you were actually *smart but lazy* you wouldn’t be broke in the first place right? It is much smarter to control what you can control. Go ahead and start slogging those long hours because at some point everyone pays their dues.
Finally, to put the nail in the coffin on this one… If you believe that anything over 40 hours is “too much work” then how exactly are you going to catch up to someone better than you putting in more time? If Person A is working 60 hours a week making $100K per year and you’re working 40 hours a week making $50K… You’re already making significantly less than Person A on an “hourly basis” and there is no way you’re going to catch up by working less and learning less.
Get to the grind!
6) Does Money Attract Women? Yes. Anyone who says otherwise has never made a good amount of money. Here is a general guideline since the question is asked so frequently:
$50K or less: it will be a negative to your sex life because you are not making enough
$50K – $100K: in a regular city this will be perfectly fine, in a major city it is still a detriment to your sex life
$100K-$175K: in a regular city you’re doing well, in a major city it now has no negative or positive impacts to your sex life
$175-$250K: Positive impact to your sex life in practically every city
$250-500K: Significant positive, less because of your life but because of the value of your time. At this point you’re extremely busy, you’re traveling, you’re not available, these are traits that will make you incredibly attractive. It won’t be possible to fake these trips/traits.
$500K+: It is practically impossible to blow through this type of money with common sense and everything in the previous tier are truer.
$1M+: If you can make this income at any point in your life you’re set. Your life changes because all of your actions value your time and comfort. You fly business/first class and do not care. You live a life that is impossible to fake.
Given the range and scope of this blog, it is certainly possible to get to $250-500K (before mid 30′s of course). This is achievable for anyone who wants it. When you start pushing up on high 6 figures and 7 figure numbers, you’re going to have to do something special.
Finally, there is no need to bother asking people like us. You can check out James Altucher’s blog, a multi-millionaire, who comes to the same conclusion… money gets girls.
(Caveat: before all the guys who live on shoestring budgets come in, yes you still need some social skills. That is about it though. If you don’t have some sort of social disease you’re going to be perfectly fine if you ever obtain large amounts of money)
7) Can You Hire Me? No
8) Are You Writing a Book? Maybe, not enough page views as of today. Creating a book that will take a long amount of time. It is certainly not worth it for a 5 figure payoff.
9) Industry Overview on XXX Sector? Probably, these are for Wall Street folk and the blog is currently a ~50/50 split it seems. This means it’s likely but no promises.
10) Resume Reviews? Nope! Hate them.
11) Can You Redesign the Blog? 100% agree needs to be re-done, no time-table yet though.
2) I am XX years old What do i Do to break in? We also get this one far too many times here’s the general guideline. Unless you have something spectacular you are holding back, this is the backdrop.
Analyst: If you are 25 years old or younger, keep gunning for an entry level slot as an analyst. This means you pass CFA level 1 if you have absolutely no finance experience to prove you understand the basics and then you get straight to networking. If you’re at a non-target then read our post on how to network/recruit. Now if you are from a no name school, no work experience and low GPA. You have next to no shot and are better off going to get an MBA later in life. This is the truth. As a non-target or older candidate with no experience, you need to have something to bring to the table otherwise you will lose time and time again to 22 year old candidates with banking internships, top GPAs and a great school.
Associate: If you are 26-33 years old this is your second chance to break in. If you have nothing related to finance, probably best to get an MBA.
Vice President and Above: Likely 33+ years old and you’re making a switch from a revenue generating career. In this case you should already know if you’re well qualified. Generally speaking, if you’re in a sales role or run a product line at a firm and are paid $300K+… You’re likely a good fit (this is general as most people who are in this slot know if they have the skills to move to the sell-side or not)
There you have it, it will answer 99% of questions. If you’re young you simply network and spin your resume assuming you have some skills that are transferable. If you’re in your late 20s you’re likely better off with a top MBA.
I’m huge into nootropics and considering wall street out of college. Will they really give me that much of an advantage using a lot of them?
Also should I keep it hush-hush? or is it something that can be a positive in the workplace?
Nootropics won’t impact your performance that much at work. Feel free to try and see if it matters a lot for you. That said…
Why would you ever tell anyone what you’re taking? Even if it was hard drugs no point in telling anyone.
Produce good product, be the happy person in the office, play the politics game.
Don’t be a fool and tell everyone about your personal life/drug taking, pointless. No one in yor analyst class is your friend. No one.
I went to a target but messed up final round interviews at EBs and have ended up at a no name MM bank. Obviously I wasn’t pleased, but as you say, “recover or quit”, and so I’m grinding away trying to make the best out of it. I know I want to crack into MM PE but am now faced with the problem of differentiating myself amongst all the analysts with better brand names.
I know it comes down to deal experience but here’s the difficulty, though, IMHO, I’m pretty good at the politics game, the associates tend to keep the technical work for themselves and the analysts, 1-3, tend to get stuck with pure grunt work. I’ve spoken to a fair few year 3 analysts and have been appalled by their lack of technical knowledge. I do not want to be in this position come the start of year 3.
The only teams that give good exposure are RE, Energy and FIG but I fear they may be too specialist and therefore narrow my exit options. So, questions:
1) Should I just suck it up and join the specialist groups?
2) How do I improve my chances of cracking into PE?
Thanks in advanced
1) apply to PE to see if you get in
2) if not, switch to a EB or BB as a lateral analyst
3) stay for a third year, if you’re really good you get the associate promote.
Pretty simple tried and true strategy. Number 3 is underrated.
No need to switch groups within the firm. You start the politics game all over again (new MD’s) so if you’re going to restart the politics game just start at a BB/EB
At a MM bank where deal flow is “OK”. Had a few guys leave for other banks.
How should I approach buyside recruiting for PE or HF? Buyside recruiters (headhunters and PE guys maybe HF?) want you to talk about your deals and what your role is and know them in and out..
How can we do this if deal flow is not good (only been here for 3 months though) but the pipeline for the senior bankers is up in the air..?
Lateral to another bank? Stick it out since I’ve only been here for a few months and see if things pick up by my end of 2 years hopefully close a few deals to help with recruiting?
Do top HF’s even care about your deal experience? (it’s a different skillset)
Same answer as above: 1) try first, 2) lateral, 3) 3rd yr
Many people get job offers with no deals, you recruit very early and many don’t have experience. (Yes it is always harder with a blank transaction sheet).
You simply say you’re working on some “live deals” then go trough the basics of an LBO transaction. Then go from there. Many people put *fake* live deals and simply say “$XM undisclosed consumer company” for example.
Your hedge fund recruiting question was already covered in a post.
Related to the questions above:
What makes more sense coming from a no-name micro-cap boutique with no prior buy-side placement? Try to break into a top HF anyway or skip this step and lateral to a BB/EB?
Until I read your comments above I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of going from where I am now (no-name boutique) to a top HF so I’ve been focusing all of my efforts on making a lateral jump. But now I’m wondering, should I try anyway?
You always try, but of course you are correct. 99.99999% of the time you’re better off with the lateral, no name boutique won’t cut it at a good HF.
If we’re interested in a specific sector, in my case healthcare, but literally have zero sector/subject-specific knowledge about healthcare (never had industry experience or taken human biology classes or anything like that)… what would be the best way to build knowledge in the sector? For example how much do IB healthcare analysts or healthcare-focused PE fund analysts/associates/partners really know, what sort of knowledge should I focus on if I want to get into the that specific sector but know nothing?
Not sure if I should be reading healthcare company annual reports and/or biology textbooks..!
Healthcare is actually a space where you usually want some medical experience (degree in something related such and chemical engineering would be a positive).
If you don’t have that, then simply go the regular Wall Street route and go into a ndifferent sector if health care won’t hire you.
I’ll have a think about this, though just for reference, what sector do you think has the lowest barrier to entry in terms of building sector-specific knowledge? Maybe industrials/manufacturing?
You missed this one out (question above). Looking forward to just a short answer. Thanks!
No major difference to be honest. Healthcare is the only one where some specific knowledge can help, the remainder – a cookie cutter finance resume works.
What are your thoughts on all these women nowadays becoming cougars? You constantly hear about some hot teacher in her 20s or 30s sleeping with teenagers and these teachers are hot and some are married with kids. And I always hear that men age like wine and women age like milk but there are a lot of hot older women and they are not going for older men with money and muscles. They want these younger guys who can screw them all night and ejaculate 3 to 4 times a day. They want stamina. They want guys who have hard erections on demand and recover right away after they orgasm. As men age they lose these abilities so some women avoid it. My friend who’s 20 years old was married to a 35 year old guy who was in shape and financially well off. She cheated on him with an 18 year old. I asked her why did you do that to that guy. She said the young guy can bang me all night. Her husband can only go one to two rounds. What are your thoughts?
No thoughts at all.
If your girl cheats on you, just dump her and move on. If she cheats down or up its not really your problem, let the guy keep his *prize*
People can do whatever they like. Sounds like your 35 year old married guy simply made the decision to wife up a slut, move on.
I did Electrical Engineering type degree at a top uni (inc Masters), worked in Data Science for 2 years since graduation for tech startup. Startup now failing. Read all your posts, now see where the ceiling is working in engineering roles. I’m also a little too extroverted for this type of work, and wish to work many more hours. Wish to break into finance.
Whats the best next step?:
1. Try getting off-cycle internships in IB, work my ass off to get immediate analyst role, work ass off and go for hedge fund after 2 years.
2. I’ve heard of people who break straight into lesser HFs straight out of college, or who did software for a while, see the ceiling, and then spend a couple years focusing on investment, then they network in. They sound lucky though. How lucky are they?
3. Transition into brand-name company and optimise myself for business school entry. Probably would hire some sort of MBA consultant to help my strategy to get into London Business School. I’ll apply for 2015 entry now, but its a long shot, and would be likely entering in 2 years at the earliest; by the time I finish I will be starting as a 29-year banking associate.
4. Suck it up and go for Machine Learning PhD and get job doing research in quant fund. Was not brilliant in my masters, will be hard to get a top phd, will have to really sell myself and a research project idea.
Whatever is chosen this will be a long process; what is best to do in the mean time? Should I try all the above while quitting tech job and studying for CFA and moving into asset management, then push hard for HF role? I don’t have much of a finance network here in London. I would imagine guys from Eton/Harrow etc are going to be at the front of the queue for network-entry HF jobs. Might have a better chance in New York and playing the Cambridge expat card.
Should I transition into a brand-name company in same job role to help get MBA at cost of finance experience? I would quit any job I had to work in a boutique IB with an MBA offer regardless.
Thanks for the ‘Choosing a Career’ post, it has changed my perspective on how the world works completely.
Sounds like MBA and entrance into a top bank is your best option (assume you are under 30).
1) network and try to break in if you can now
2) if not MBA is likely the best path
We covered this in our FAQ post.
Investment Question: I have 40k sitting in a bank account. I want to keep 15k in the account just in case. How should I start DCA the remaining 25? 2k a month? 5k a month? My income is about 7k a month. Please advise. Thanks in advance.
5K a month is a good goal, if you’re not selling in the next 10-20 years then it won’t make a major difference to be honest. The game is about continuously investing.
Rule of thumb, the fees (usually $5-7) should not be more than 20bps otherwise you should wait before buying a set of shares. Minimum usually works out to ~$3K
Hey WSPB,
If you were to receive an offer from a bank and the offer has a 2 week expire period and you got a super day for a more prestigious bank after those 2 weeks, should you accept the offer you have or take your chances and go for the super day? Or could you push back the signing date?
Thanks!
Take the job. Interview for the second bank. If you get the better bank, rescind the previous offer.
No one else will tell you that, but it’s the truth. Your first job out of college can change your life In a big way.
So to be clear, If I have a job offer from one bank I can rescind it in order to take the better one? Would there be any ramifications besides working at a better bank?
Correct.
You simply wouldn’t ever be able to work at the smaller bank (naturally they wouldn’t interview you/hire you in the future).
If they give you an exploding offer, that is what you are forced to do. Try to push out the decision date of course (say you already accepted a final round), if they don’t budge accept and interview anyway.
Wall Street is a tough place, better to start at the highest ranked bank you can get into first. (Assuming all else equal – politics exit ops etc – you know the drill)
What is your opinion on banks cutting down their IBD in terms of jobs? I am interested in a BB that I have heard is downsizing their IBD.Two things concern me. 1.) I could not receive a full-time offer solely based off the fact that they are downsizing (not due to my performance). and 2.) I might be one of the people they lay off seeing as though I would be a new analyst. Is there an contract where you are guaranteed working as an analyst for 2 years? What are your thoughts on this?
Already covered. Do not join a bank that is declining.
As said in the faq “f*** prestige, get money”.
As an extreme example, would you join Lehman brothers if you knew the bank would collapse? Nope.
Read a few articles, glad he is making money.
Don’t read the blog or buy any of the products though.
What do you guys think about having two phones – for business and personal?
It’s not mandatory…I use one for everything now but I see some people in my field have two.
Covered in the past, always have two phones. It is worth the extra $.
There are apps which allow you to switch one phone between business and personal
Which app? I have an iPhone…
what are your thoughts on intermittent fasting and eating 1 to 2 meals a day to get ripped?
Never tried, so no opinion.
Boys, I’m 22 years old – currently working in the IT field, doing a job I’m beginning to hate (although working in a great environment that many would envy).
I’ve got low 5 figures saved in the bank, no debt, I live a minimalist lifestyle (affiliate marketing & information product sales make me more in passive income than my day job pays).
I’ve wanted to become a personal trainer for the past 3 years, after shredding away all fat and adding on 60lbs of lean muscle mass myself. That said in my city it’s a saturated field (full of terrible trainers) but I figure there’s always room at the top and it’ll be good to get away from being chained to a computer to build on my in-person sales skills etc. (plus I’ll probably have more time to work on my online income stream then due to less work hours).
Appreciate your opinions.
I’m not them but can tell you that PT is extremely competitive as many want to do it and it has exceptionally low barriers to entry. How would you even differentiate yourself and ‘get-to-the-top’? The only route to the top in PT is to be rich from another career, buy a guy and hire a bunch of PTs who think they can work hard to the top.
You should be cutting fat and putting and muscle and working on sales skills no matter what your job is. Muscle helps with sales jobs too, so that is good motivation. People behave differently and listen/believe you more. Easier to lead.
IMO If your IT skills are good look into Hadoop/Big Data Consulting/Sales. Then with 5 years enterprise sales experience you can get to $500k+ all-in comp for fintech firms in NY and be in good position for leadership roles later in your career (easy to be a CEO if you had P&L responsibility). Enterprise software sales is pretty lucrative if you can get it.
We do not run a fitness business so we cannot help/comment.
If you force our hand, we would say get clients first for some small revenue before quitting.
Appreciate the prompt response, typo in my question – meant to say low 6 figures.
If things don’t work out I have time on my side.
Same response, no point in taking on additional risk for no reason. If you have clients it makes it significantly less risky.
Is this banker a 9.6 or 9.7?
(mod note, link removed we don’t allow obscure YouTube or website links).
What’s up guys,
I’ve been a long time reader and love all your posts. Keep up the phenomenal work. I have a phone interview coming up and would love some advice on how to excel. What would you guys do?
Already covered in ibd Q&A? There are no tricks just master the top 50 questions or so and you’re done.
Nothing special about any first round interview or even super day.
Same process: why you, why the bank, why the group and then technicals.
Why you, the bank and the group is 100% your responsibility to nail down.
recommendations for venues in NYC for cute hipster/artsy type girls as opposed to clubby/attention loving types?
Already covered, manhattan lower east side generally.
Nowadays Brooklyn is more up and coming.
Meat packing/soho is the top tier, but it’s brutal if you’re not successful financially yet (or connected)
WSPB, how many hours in your opinion should highschool senior spend on education (learning about college, studying hard, exam prep, etc.) vs leisure time (funny activities)?
I feel like I don’t go hard enough to be in the top league.
There are no set times so that question doesn’t work.
At your age 1) make sure you get into a top university, 2) learn skills immediately that pertain to the career you choose, 3) read 4 books a month at minimum – not useless fluff but real material, 4) socialize when your brain gets “tired” ie when you know you’re not retaining what you’re reading because there is no point in trying to cram info.
Not much else to give until you get into a top school and know where you want to go/do.
College in general doesn’t teach you much about how to make money, so we also recommend working multiple internships/jobs.
I’m in a classic “bird in hand vs. two in bush” situation.
I’m 23 and right now, I have the option to continue my family’s restaurant business, which generates about 200K per year in pre-tax profit, or go to china to work with my friend to start a company which will produce an innovative faux leather. The technology is patented by my friend and he is trying to raise about 10 million dollars.
I’m leaning towards staying put and manage the restaurant but I just want to know your opinions on these kinds of situations.
Take the business, hire an extremely solid manager. Then go and do the China venture.
You keep (some) of the cash flow from the business, and also don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Hey guys, I am working on a template for finding a mentor that is successful in the field I want to enter (commercial real estate). What do you think of this email?
Mr. __________,
My name is ______________ and I currently work as a leasing agent at a multifamily housing company
here in _______. I am looking to further my career in real estate as a commercial real estate agent.
I know that you have achieved much success in this field, and so I thought I would reach out to you for advice. I am specifically wondering what first steps I should take to get started in this career. I understand that a real estate license will be required, and that I need a broker to sponsor my license. How did you first get started in commercial real estate? Were there specific skills that you feel helped you to become successful? I know that you have a busy schedule, and any advice you could give me would be more than appreciated.
Sincerely,
__________________
Since WSPB helped me out in the previous question, I’ll answer this on his behalf.
Blaine, if you want someone to help you, you have to help them first.
Instead of asking the person for advice, offer him the most valuable asset: your time. See what he needs to be done to advance his career and help him. A new website? A new real estate you found? Or even an errand run to fetch some papers at the local city council. Many possibilites.
Make yourself invaluable to him and he’ll give you what you want.
Agree with this poster.
We added your question to the FAQ since it has been asked here on this page too many times.
Some harsh truths in the FAQ but better to learn the truth now versus at 30.
your girlfriend decides to break up with you via text what should you do?try to give her one more memorable fuck?
Respond with “K”.
Drop contact and move on.
What’s your opinion on when to start a company?
When you see an opportunity go for it, or establish career to a certain point where you can come back or find a new job if it fails (IE build 2-4 years at an engineering firm with sales experience, or 2-4 years at a financial firm first)?
As early as possible.
You simply do not quit (career) until you have enough to live from your business income.
Makes perfect sense. Thank You.
Side company running ~1/mo in. Currently in college for petro e with connections with bankers for (energy) finance. Looks up from here :).
You guys are awesome.
how important is sex for you guys? is it a priority? how do you rank it among other things in your life?
If you think about it all the time, you don’t have enough. If you don’t think about it, you have enough.
Use that as your metric.
You mention chlorella in the approved products section on your site. How do you recommend using this for hangovers?
Before you go to bed, crack open the bottle and mix thoroughly until it fully dissolves and chug it.
16 oz of water and 2 tablespoons in a mixer (gym shaker) will work.
If you black out and cannot remember, you have a drinking problem.
Hi,
When someone says they want to join a premier “investment banking platform”, what does that really mean?
Why is Trading Tier 3 in your Navigating Wall street map? And why is it not connected to hedge funds? Surely it is ~equal prestige to IB?
Sure you can add the link.
Simply put IB into tier 2 becuase you can go to both transactional or market centric work wih a high quality IB job. (PE or hedge fund).
Trading is a great profession, anything tier 3+ Is a great gig.
In short, IB offers slightly more options, which is what you want when you are 22.
When a woman you are with does something that makes you end the relationship, instead of cutting contact entirely, why not let her know you’re done and move on with your life but keep the door open for sex and friendship (esp if the sex is great and you are otherwise compatible as people)?
Several reasons
1) if she screws you over she is not a friend you want
2) if you keep her around she can quite easily become jealous and a thorn in your side
And most importantly
3) you should have more options and self respect to keep someone around who has annoyed you to the point of break up.
Simply cut contact and move on, if you run into her for some reason be normal and nice. Just don’t waste your time responding to texts of phone calls.
It should be a waste of your time.
Regarding the buyside… how does one decide whether to go into PE, HF or become a long-only PM?
This is up to you and we cannot help.
PE = transactional work
HF = market work (higher risk/reward)
MF = market work (lower risk/lower rewards)
That’s the general framework, most decide if they like transactional work or market work before making the decision between PE/HF/long only
Thanks. What about compensation and lifestyle?
If you are truly at the top it is erroneous.
Life style is equivalent and pay is 7 figures
I always heard from new yorkers that NYC was the hardest place to pick up women,due to attitude and unfriendliness, especially during the day. That as soon as you leave NY women become easier and are approachable. Do you agree? According to your travel experiences what place is the hardest to pick up and bang women and why?
Already covered.
NYC is the easiest city in the USA, unless you are extremely ugly or broke.
If you’ve been on a hot game streak for weeks+months, or you just feel like you’ve progress a lot… and then you have a few weeks that you have a ton of work/grinding to do and can’t really go out/date that much. How do you keep from taking a step back/skill deteriorating?
Sounds like a good problem to have.
Game is like riding a bike, even if you don’t talk to a new girl for 2-3 months, you can get back to where you were in about 3-4 weeks.
If you have better things to do than game, consider that a positive, becuase that is how your life should operate in the first place.
Going out of your way (day to day life) solely to meet girls, is crazy (long-term). Sounds like you already learned it so you should no longer block out time to “game”.
Cost of living is increasing annually. What are some extreme ways of saving intensely 60 or more of your check to become financially independent which is my goal? what are some smart strategies or tips?
We have a post on minimalism.
Beyond that, focus on earning money, until you clear $250K+ saving 60% has too much of a misery factor to enjoy life + save money. So focus on your career, which we cover on the blog ad nauseum
What do you guys recommend for getting rid of flat skin moles on the skin?
No experience with this, see a dermatologist and have it removed if needed.
This blog is focused on Wall Street/finance/game not skin care since we have no background in it.
Hey Guys,
What’s the best way to prepare for Super Day interviews for a SA position at a BB? What is you general advice/ experience with them? I have one coming up and have never had one before. Any ideas/advice/feedback would be greatly appreciated.
This has been answered numerous times in the Q&A, perhaps we need a dedicated post, but really it is simple.
1) Why you
2) Why the bank
3) Why the group
4) study technicals
5) know the answers to all the questions we list on the IB Q&A
If you do all 5 you get the job, if you fail at one you won’t get an offer.
Great post on the 2 rules to get rich. How do you maintain focus for 12 hours? Even if I grind long hours daily, it gets really hard to stay on task and becomes very easy to spend most of those hours not being productive/efficient with time.
In college I would work 40+ hours and go to school full-time, mostly because my jobs involved physical movement/labor. Now I work behind a computer screen , and working out, taking short breaks and eating a clean diet helps, but still I’m 30% effective with my time on average.
TL;DR: Aside from regular sleep, exercise and clean diet, how do you stay focused on a sit-down job for 12+ hours a day?
There are no tricks
1) do one task at a time
2) work in 1 hour increments, if you feel fine keep going, if you get brain fog stand up and take a walk for 5-10 minutes
3) do not waste time reading about mainstream news (nothing will be gained).
Wash rinse and repeat
How do you become a emotionless man?
No idea. Sounds like an unhealthy concept.
If you don’t care about anything you have no ambition.
Great post…however if you work that much in your career or job uncle sam will rape you. The more you work the more taxes you have to pay plus you have to pay back when tax return times comes around. How can you get over this dilemma?
Doesn’t sound like you’ve been following the blog diligently.
1) start a business as well
2) run the business at net profit = 0 no taxable income
3) deduct all items you purchase as business expenses
Done deal.
This is why everyone who gets relatively wealthy has a business.
“Formula for patience vs ambition. If your net worth is increasing 25% y/y (ex-stock gains). Stay patient. If less, go chase money fast”
what do you mean by “chase money fast”?
It means if your networth is not going up by st least 25% a year you are stagnating in a significant way.
Example:
$100K starting net worth + 10K stock gains + 20K increased worth
Since we don’t include any investment gains… You are only up 20%. This means you have a career/business hat is underperforming. So you cannot be satisfied with such a small move.
How do you guys deal with waking up early even after a long day? Any tricks from Wallstreet?
No tricks, build a life you’re not trying to escape from or are annoyed by. Never had a problem waking up when you realize you’re doing all the right things.
Get invited to work “dinners & drinks”, at a position you don’t see yourself at for very long, but front office folk at the event.
At what point is it okay to say you don’t want to go.. if you really don’t want to go but feel the “obligation”?
Easy, don’t go. If you’re leaving you are wasting your own time. Just say you have family in town.
Would taking an internship position in the investments department (mortgages&real estate or fixed income) at an insurance company help get into investment banking?
As always it depends, what are your other options.
If your other option = nothing… Then yes
If you’re a graduating senior going up against guys with investment banking internships already, hen it won’t help too much.
All comes down to what your other job offers are.
What points would you hit on if you were looking at a boutique focused on the following and the question was asked “why media, marketing services, information, related technologies?” ?
In addition, what points would you hit on for specifically why sell-side m&a if thats what they focus on?
Read our posts on TMT it was already covered
Your second question is also already covered, use the same boiler plate answer.
All you do is add a sentence about being interested in xxx companies (the ones they focus on) because of (reason) (reason).
We can’t answer a question like that without knowing the bank/sector. But it’s all the same
1) want to work with xxx companies (self research reason)
2) you know they have done xxx, xxx and xx transactions (shows you did research)
3) you are particularly interested in that space because (enter your researched reason).
This same template will be used in every interview for every bank going forward.
what do you guys think about investing into a coop apartment in NYC? good idea or bad idea?
Already covered. Unless you’re staying 10+ years and are certain about that it rarely makes sense.
Especially with a coop, that means you have practically no cash and it would be tied up in a coop.
You have always said to keep low cash at the bank however do you think it’s a great idea to have a high amount in cash at the bank that pays you very high interest? For example: you have an undisclosed amount that pays you 40000 a year in interest.
Please use the search function. We do not want to clutter the Q&A wih repeat questions.
We have a post titled cash.
In short, no more than a year of living expenses should be in cash, a waste of $.
How would you approach a SWOT analysis?
Particularly, how honest and/or relevant would you be in answering the weaknesses?
Do not know anything about SWOT analysis that is for consultants.
Weaknesses just means “a skill you’re not expected to know yet”. So for an investment banking analyst it would be “shy”cot something similar to imply you’re not ready to sell (because you won’t your first 3 years anyway).
is there an age bracket where game doesn’t work on females anymore? For example, a guy who is 70 years old putting game on a 20 plus year old female. Is that even possible? have you witness that?
A 50 year age gap implies she’s either a sugar baby or he is wealthy in general.
Not something to worry about, just get rich.
Hey Guys,
Would it possible for you to do a post on how to create a GOOD LinkedIn profile, and what’s the best way to contact people on the site?
Thanks!
Will consider it, we already covered his on a separate site, will cut and paste it here later.
In short though, linked-in is not how you want to get a new position. But we will put the basics on here later.
Any particular reason for using the Nature Made fish oil vs Krill Oil (esp from Antarctic)?
Nope just cost value efficient
Saw an extensive review on the Nature Labs (top review on the Amazon link) and it seems that Nutrigold triple strength is more cost effective now, factoring in potency.
Cool run with that then
do you still do resume writing services? I’m trying to get internship, but not much experience so my resume is kind of empty. Companies already requested, but I don’t have it ready
Absolutely not, never have never will.
Never trade your time for money. Don’t you guys trade your time for money? Don’t most people with careers trade their time for money? Can you give us some examples of careers or work where we don’t have to trade our time for money? Thanks…
Already covered.
Hey Guys,
Please clarify this for me. Do you mostly use LTM multiples for Precedent Transactions (M&A Comps)? Or do you use projected multiples? I do not fully understand this. I know you can use both for Public Comps, but I think you only use LTM multiples for M&A Comps and do not fully understand why. In addition, could you please explain why you apply a private company discount (illiquidity) when valuing a private company? I understand that the public comps are public, but why is it necessary to add a discount for illiquidity? Finally, why are forward multiples generally lower than LTM? For example, if you are valuing a company, the LTM EBITDA might be 10X but the 2015E EBITDA will be 8.5X. This is a trend I have noticed in working through some valuation examples, so any feedback would be awesome.
Thanks guys!
1) usually ltm because a lot of transactions are private so public future sales expectations are widely unavailable. Public you can use both). Public companies have projections (consensus estimates) private company most don’t disclose any sales numbers beyond “last 12 months” or “last year”. Simply don’t have the info.
2) is not true, some private companies get higher multiples than public peers. If they are at a discount usually implies it is due to size (ie: higher risk associated with them). Depends on the sector so we will leave it at that.
3) is obvious. Are you going to buy a company that has declining sales/ebitda numbers in the future? Unlikely. If you did $100M in EBITDA in year 1, 9/10 times you expect to make more money in year 2. So EV/(metric) should be lower in year 2 versus year 1 since EV is static.