Best/Good position in Accounting/Finance?

Originally Posted by leftover_salmon

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Financial advisors regularly making 400k before 30? You make me laugh. longskate88, ignore SkinnyGoomba's advice. If you don't mind just giving rich people advice, then go for it -- it's still a decent career -- but don't think you're going to be making that much that quickly. And frankly, it just seems "small-time" compared to what a career in investment banking/consulting/accounting/law can lead to.

Not to discourage you, but your accounting degree from SDSU is not enough to get you into a top-tier consulting firm (or even second-tier). From there, it's a question of whether you want to work for a third-tier, and likely regional, firm. I would go the Big 4 accounting route in your shoes, but have no idea what accounting recruiting is like and whether they would recruit from SDSU. As you no doubt know, SDSU is a good state school but is no UCLA/Virginia/Berkeley, and is also behind Texas and Indiana when it comes to business.

Its loser like you that are always shooting down peoples asprirations and dreams. Your a ******* sheep.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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Its loser like you that are always shooting down peoples asprirations and dreams. Your a ******* sheep.
I certainly appreciate your optimism, but you are being a little bit absurd about the prospects for financial advisors. Financial advisors are purely service providers, and do the legwork themselves. The only reason partners in other service industries earn these sorts of salaries is that they get leverage from the underlings they employ. Financial advisors do not have this same leverage. Assuming you earn an annual fee of 1% and have no expenses, you would need to manage $40MM in assets to generate that kind of revenue. While not impossible, this is certainly pushing toward the high end of what is possible. How many clients can you manage? 10? 20? 30?

And for good measure:

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/...ars_Experience

do you really think that 70k is a reasonable number? If thats the case i'm truely amazed at what that particular financial advisor is making, but i'm not lying, i stand to gain nothing by lying to you, and wouldnt want to decieve anyone, i'm just further impressed by her capabilities.

I think you need to also realise that it may well be possible for financial advisors to take on small businesses as clients and take in much larger amounts of money then dealing with individuals.

You guys are right about one thing, not everyone can be successful, but that certainly doesnt make it impossible.

If find it amazing that those who aspire to be sheep laugh at those who aspire to be great.

I dont look down on those who like to just go to a job, then go home, what i'm working on isnt for everyone obviously, i just find it amusing that so many are so quick to shoot someone down.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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do you really think that 70k is a reasonable number? If thats the case i'm truely amazed at what that particular financial advisor is making, but i'm not lying, i stand to gain nothing by lying to you, and wouldnt want to decieve anyone, i'm just further impressed by her capabilities.

I think you need to also realise that it may well be possible for financial advisors to take on small businesses as clients and take in much larger amounts of money then dealing with individuals.

You guys are right about one thing, not everyone can be successful, but that certainly doesnt make it impossible.

If find it amazing that those who aspire to be sheep laugh at those who aspire to be great.

I dont look down on those who like to just go to a job, then go home, what i'm working on isnt for everyone obviously, i just find it amusing that so many are so quick to shoot someone down.


I think it comes down to everyone giving the guy reasonable expectations.

So what happens after this guy tries really really hard to get into a "Big 4" and winds up not getting the job, or making average money.

I'm sure all you guys will be the same people telling him that 60k is actually good money, and that if he works his ass off for the next 15 years slaving away for 60 hours a week, he may eventually become someone with a real salary......great.

I mean, god forbid anyone step off the beaten path, and i'm not telling him what to do, just saying that there are actually other options besides that path.

My older brother is a financial advisor under the age of 30 and does pretty good business with a decent book of business. There's no way he will come close to $400k by the age of 30 unless he brings a ridiculous amount of business in the next few years. From what he's told me, not even the top guys pull in that much.

A more realistic expectation would be low 6 figures by 30 and that's only if you're good at what you do.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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do you really think that 70k is a reasonable number? If thats the case i'm truely amazed at what that particular financial advisor is making, but i'm not lying, i stand to gain nothing by lying to you, and wouldnt want to decieve anyone, i'm just further impressed by her capabilities.

I think you need to also realise that it may well be possible for financial advisors to take on small businesses as clients and take in much larger amounts of money then dealing with individuals.

You guys are right about one thing, not everyone can be successful, but that certainly doesnt make it impossible.

If find it amazing that those who aspire to be sheep laugh at those who aspire to be great.

I dont look down on those who like to just go to a job, then go home, what i'm working on isnt for everyone obviously, i just find it amusing that so many are so quick to shoot someone down.

If you look around the link a bit, it's 70k salary plus 85k commission for those in the business over 20 years, or a total of $155k. This is the average, so the actual range might be pretty wide.

You need to understand that I am not laughing at you; I respect your enthusiasm and am simply trying to set straight your expectations. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, but I hope that you realize working <40 hours per week at age 30 as a financial adviser and earning $400k is just not realistic.

I say this not only because the numbers don't lie (managing $40MM would be quite a feat even with small business clients!), but also because the type of people who reveal their salaries to others are the same type of people who are likely to inflate these salaries. There might be 1 in 10,000 financial advisers who earn $400k, and you might be one eventually, but there is certainly a lot of grit and grind between you and that goal.

The notion that you will somehow be more successful than everyone else just because you are blazing your own path is rubbish. Again, best of luck with everything, but try to keep some perspective on the whole thing.

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

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So what happens after this guy tries really really hard to get into a "Big 4" and winds up not getting the job, or making average money.

I'm sure all you guys will be the same people telling him that 60k is actually good money, and that if he works his ass off for the next 15 years slaving away for 60 hours a week, he may eventually become someone with a real salary......great.

I mean, god forbid anyone step off the beaten path, and i'm not telling him what to do, just saying that there are actually other options besides that path.

Relax dude. Everyone should shoot for the stars and not settle, I agree but the OP is the same guy who said he doesn't want to work over 45hrs a week. I don't know anyone making $400k a year by 30 who isn't working 70hours a week plus.

Your example is more the exception than the rule and there are plenty of short lived careers in financial planning. You are also talking to a thread full of accountants who are conservative by nature

And nobody told him to settle for $60k per year. IF he stays at a big 4 and makes partner, in any half decent city he should expect to pull in excess of $300k a year and do it in his early to mid 30's. Hell there are small firms in this city where partners pull in more than that.

you guys really need to cut the bullshit with these 70 hour+ weeks, enough already i realise you people work more then 40 hours a week, or at least claim to, but give me a ******* break already, 10 hour days 7 days a week + an hour for lunch is 11 hours a day, plus the commute, get realistic.

this is an example of one person, not a lie i made up to look like a hero on the ******* message board, unlike you guys who seem to feel like heros by telling the internet your working 100 hours.

I'm really impressed alright, really ******* impressed that you moved in at work.

First off, I can tell you, having *just* gone through the Big 4 hiring process, that salaries tend to be in the $50-$65k range depending upon what type of market you are in. There may be some lower offers in very low cost of living areas, but I've not heard about them.

The salaries are actually very much in line with the mid-tier and local firms, at least in this area. The small firms tend to offer better benefits and generally less hours, however.

One of the benefits for working at a Big 4 vs. a smaller firm is that, in audit, you have the opportunity of working on a much higher percentage of publicly-traded clients. The skills you gain auditing SEC clients tend to be more marketable and open you up to a wider range of jobs once you exit the firm.

Finally, even though it's firm propoganda, the best and smartest students tend to go Big 4 as well. Not always, but usually. As such you will generally be more challenged, try harder to keep up with your peers, and overall have a better learning experience.

50-65k is a joke.

If someone offered me that tomorrow i'd tell them to go ***************, becasue for the work required its bullshit compensation, especially for the claimed 60-100 hour weeks you people keep telling me are "required" so that if they feel like it by the time your 37 you'll make partner after putting in 15 years of hard work.

65k isnt living, i made more then that working with my ******* hands in a shop building cars when i was 20, and thats what they want to pay an accountant who spent some years a good school and "kept up with his peers" Hell man i know union guys that barely put in 4 good hours a day that make more then that.

you go down that route, you'll always be "keeping up with your peers" you work your ass off, you do it for you, not for some ******* organization who doesnt give a **** about you.

This is comedy.

I guess over half the households in the US are not 'living.'

Originally Posted by Serg

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You are in the minority, most of the time Big 4 looks better.

My firm may be in the minority, but is in the upper quartile of profitablity in the UK. I trust our judgement - its been a winning formula so far.

Originally Posted by Serg

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Thats a extreme generalization, but the best situation in terms of money making is to stay untill manager (6 years) and then leave. That will maximize the amount of money you can make.

You do have a good point. The majority of people leave after two years. At least 4 years will make you stand out alot more, but staying until manager (6-7 years) is much much better.

How would somebody with an ingrained sence of bureacracy and no input into their firms strategic direction benefit a small firm over somebody in a small / medium firm with exposure to developing in-house systems? Big firm employees tend to prefer ticking the boxes of those systems.