There is a column to specify “low/medium/high” cost of living in your area. I think this is a reasonable compromise for the location choice, as it preserves some degree of anonymity.
Of course, this is not fool proof. Some AF regulars might still be able to identify each other from the available fields. However, I can live with that degree of ambiguity, as the survey results are quite interesting.
Had a look at it. I bet half your sample is IT guys from bangalore.
Surely IT guys in Bangalore aren’t on $50k plus per annum are they? Wikipedia is telling me average annual earnings in India is less than $1,500 so to earn 30-40 times the average must mean they live like kings!
Also, to put this in context the median household income in the US in 2011 was just over $50k. Given that most respondents to this survey are in their 20s (average experience about 4-5 years) this places the average AF reader in the top couple of percentile in their age category. Now that might be true, but my guess is a lot of people on here are unemployed, studying or earning fairly regular salaries and, despite it being anonymous, are not willing to add low numbers to the survey.
This is exaggerated; if you’re making 250K anywhere, you are doing pretty good. I completely agree that 250k in Dallas would go leaps ahead of 250k in NYC. But if you’re single and making 250k in NYC, you could pretty much live in any neighborhood with a very nice apartment. Depending on your age, friends and swag you’d also easily be getting chased by HCBs.
Now 250k supporting a family in NYC (Manhattan that is), that is a different story.
^ Agree, $250k for a single person in NYC is still pretty comfortable. You can swing damn nice living quarters for $5k per month and still have plenty of cash to live on.
Ridiculously exaggerated. You can have a nice 1BR in a luxury bldg for 3300. Even with 40 percnt tax you can easily afford it. If what you said was true then 95percent of the guys out there should just self castrate now
^ This. I think all of you who are not making $500k at GS, went 3/3 on the CFA, and have a Top3 MBA should just cut your nutsack off with a rusty hacksaw.
Based on the spreadsheet, there will be lot’s of blood and balls shed.
Well, ,at least after that i’ll be able to concentrate.
I agree that the numbers in the survey are generally not bad, especially considering the low average number of years of work experience. However, almost all the entries are a bit off from the IB compensation scale that I have generally assumed in the past. So, I am wondering if this sample is skewed away from the market, or if public opinion consensus about finance compensation just poorly reflects reality.
I think most people making multiple million comp figures probably aren’t hanging out here on AF (myself excluded, of course 
).
However, at least a few people here are pulling down comp that looks attractive, assuming, of course, that no one would lie about this sort of stuff if given the opportunity.
Suddenly i feel much better
Can some one make salary column bigger? My salary doesnt fit in
^ You’re supposed to exclude the numbers to the right of the decimal.
I was going to include “plus a burrito” as well, but that did not fit in the column.
add another column with the average rating of the HCBs you’ve banged in the past year reported on an objective 1-10 scale. the dude who is running descriptive stats on the sheet, please report the correlation of that variable against the log of the reported comp
I thought it was obvious I was exaggerating. I wanted to prove a point that the same salary doesn’t get you the same things in different parts of the country. Next time I will give a disclaimer.
It’s 0.0
+5 points for knowing to take the log of comp
I think your perception of what typical earnings are like in the finance industry and generally across the economy are skewed way too high. I’ll repeat that the median household income in the US is just over €50k. So if you are a single person in their mid 20s earning $60k you are in a very privileged position. Some people here seem to think that street cleaners and McDonalds workers start on $50k per annum with junior back office staff starting on $75k and anyone even remotely front office must be making $100k +. The simple fact is that is not reality for most people.
^what the average person makes doesn’t apply to this group of BSDs. An “average” salary on our scale might make you rich compared to the general population, but among the AF power elite you’re just average and you should therefore kill yourself.
In case others missed Carson’s point, it’s worth emphasizing that the $50k median income is for a **household** (generally two earners these days), not for an individual.
Add to this the fact that the vast majority of employees in the United States don’t receive any bonus, even in years when they or the company is doing well.