i have a debate with a friend. he thinks that a mutual friend named lawyer is more successful than the rest of us for the time being because hes passed the bar exam and offered a 95k position in DC when all of us live in ny. he has undergrad and grad debt. neither school is a target school. joe, on the other hand, stayed local and went to a city university and graduated a year and half later than his peers with a non-business degree. he took time off to continue to make money and learn about investing etc. joe understands a great amount about the markets etc considering the absence of a finance degree. for the time being joe has substantially a lot more assets than lawyer. also, joe has no debt. joe currently makes the same amount as the lawyer’s offer and prob more depending on that year’s market return. joe has no school debt and few expenses etc. joe lives with his parents rent free. joe intends to get do a career change eventually after getting his mba. joe has always been extremely smart about investing money. zoom to age forty for both guys - lawyer will have about 1M or so with all debts paid off and work tirelessly at a law firm. joe will prob do his own thing since hes not thrilled at working for other and will have about 2-6M. would YOU rather be joe or lawyer considering work-life balance aspect (and being master of your own world) and how much money you have in life (and the freedom that comes with it)? also, consider the possibility that joe’s current success does not continue at his rate to age 40 compared to lawyer who was busy going to school to increase his earning potential. both are 25. the reason why i ask is that i highly respect lawyer but joe looks like the entreprenurial type who’ll leverage his talents a lot better than lawyer. lawyer is smarter but joe is wiser. for the time being obviously lawyer is academically more successful while joe has a lot more assets. thanks guys!
They guy that has the most toys wins.
WTF are you rambling about?
i think the somalian pirate has the best of both worlds. he’s got great work-life balance and no loans.
joe
I have some 40+ lawyers in my fam and they all pretty much wish they had done something else with themselves.
Nike Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > They guy that has the most toys wins. obviously! but you don’t know who will so that’s my the point of my question…
juventurd Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have some 40+ lawyers in my fam and they all > pretty much wish they had done something else with > themselves. thats my take on it as well - attys regret their career path despite their guaranteed upper middle class lifestyle. i know so many ppl who work in some capacity in the legal field and they don’t seem happy at all.
I’d take lawyer. Sorry everyone, but I would. By that time you will be partner in a firm or in a cush corporate job, and your work will change significantly from early on. Entrepreneurial investor boy sounds liike fun and can be lucrative, but I want some aspect of a lifestyle (ie-not living with mom in your story).
louisvillegrad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > WTF are you rambling about? what im rambling about is trying to see what ppl would do. im not shouting a bear market everyday on AF (when everyone knows this already) like yourself.
I think the type of person that would be attracted to a legal career would also constantly doubt/regret/reevaluate all decisions and choices they previously made in life. Whereas someone attracted to finance may be more forward-looking. Both careers are good and both have some serious drawbacks. I’m sure they’re a fair amount of analysts right now who wish they were sitting in some firm called “Finklestein, Salamon, McFinnerty & Schwartz.”
needhelp Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > i think the somalian pirate has the best of both > worlds. he’s got great work-life balance and no > loans. I almost spit out my drink when I read that. Goddamn that was funny
The fact that Joe is 25 and still living with his parents makes him the loser by default.
I think they both have benefits in real life. The way you frame the question initially makes finance Joe the obvious choice because he has more money and less work. The problem is that your scenario does not reflect the risk that Joe has no money and is just starting out living with his parents after losing all of his money by age forty. Just because you are good at investing does not mean you will make money trading your own account. If you are good at being a lawyer you will most likely make money.
I went to school with an Indian guy who graduated a year ahead of me in the chemical engineering program. He ended up not going to work for the man (there was an abundance of oil and gas jobs in Calgary) but instead started his own cheap beer brewery (with help from his dad). 3 years later, the company clears 50 million in profit a year and the guy is still living at home. Go figure.
eureka Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think they both have benefits in real life. The > way you frame the question initially makes finance > Joe the obvious choice because he has more money > and less work. i tried to correct this by pointing out the ultimate flaw that joe’s momentum might not last til age 40. > The problem is that your scenario > does not reflect the risk that Joe has no money > and is just starting out living with his parents > after losing all of his money by age forty. that’s def true. i figured someone like him who was smart enough to amass a mid-seven figure range wouldnt lose it all by then. that’s why i didn’t include a fat tail like that. >Just > because you are good at investing does not mean > you will make money trading your own account. If > you are good at being a lawyer you will most > likely make money. very true and by extension the idea that a smart lawyer or employee, for what it’s worth, doesn’t equate to a smart investor. you really don’t know what will happen to either but ive made assumptions based on what appears likely to happen in the end as result of their two personalities. theres no guarantee as to end results. that’s why i think it’s such an interesting debate. guys, i never said that joe is the stud for living with his parents. obviously there are drawbacks to doing that. live with parents v. high nyc rent prices
AliMan, you know Minhas? Worst beer I’ve ever tasted, but you definitely have to admire the guy’s business - he found some low-grade brewer in Wisconsin, managed to bring prices down to $1/beer - sure it smells/tastes like horse piss, but like you said, $50M/year is hard to argue with. If only he’d stay out of the commercials - dude is definitely not photogenic…
Haha, I was waiting for a Calgarian to catch who I was talking about. It’s funny you mention how the beer is brewed in Wisconsin, he was catching a lot of crap for advertising it as Canadian beer. My friend’s girlfriend appeared as a dancer in one of his commercials once, the one with him pretending to be a DJ, hilarious!
.