Investment Banking Analyst New York
Evan (not his real name), is a 22-year-old investment banking analyst living and working in New York City.
Tell me about yourself.
Well, I was born and raised in China and moved to America for high school since an American education was highly regarded. I went to college in New York, decided to major in advertising and marketing, but was quickly drawn to the pull of finance. I became interested in investment banking as a sophomore and did a few smaller internships. After full-time recruiting, I went to an “elite” boutique investment bank, where I now have been working for 7 months.
How do you define elite boutique?
I would say … mergers and acquisitions focused, international reach, strong client base. My firm is a top 5 boutique in terms of size, which is around 2, 000 employees worldwide.
When you were choosing a career, what was your financial consideration?
Financials were around 70% of my considerations, and the remaining 30% were about exit opportunities, which range from traditional routes of private equity to start ups. My financial consideration revolved around being able to pay back student loans and saving enough to buy a house.
That’s interesting. What are the differences between advertising/marketing and finance?
Marketing pays $40-$50K a year pretax, where as finance pays $120K-$130K pretax. These are both first year out of college numbers by the way, though I’m not completely sure about the marketing side. Maybe you can get up to $60K, but $60K seems high to me.
Let’s talk specifics. What are your income and major expense categories?
On a monthly basis, I make around $4, 000 post tax, which is pretty standard across Wall Street for 1st year analysts. Year-end bonuses range from $50, 000 to $70, 000, which is taxed at 45%.
Expense-wise, my rent is around $1, 700, which takes just under 50% of my monthly pay. I have expenses of around $800 from eating out. Typically dining spending would only be on the weekends because during the week days when we work past 9 p.m., we get the option of ordering food and expensing it on the firm. During the weekend, I like to treat myself and my girlfriend out to a nice place, especially since I don’t get a lot of free time during the week. I spend another $200 on entertainment and other misc expenses, i.e., movie tickets, laundry, underwear, socks.
