Why Bankers Don’t Make Bank: Where Your Paycheck Actually Goes and What to Do About It

If you want to be in finance, you probably like money quite a bit.

And once you break in and become a banker you’ll be making tons of cash – even if bonuses aren’t as good as they were in the old days.

But then you’ll waste it all on $200,000 sports cars, drugs, and alimony – right?

While that scenario applies to many seniors bankers and explains why some finance veterans don’t save much, the problems actually start much earlier – with your first paycheck.

2010 Investment Banking Analyst Bonuses: Disappointed?

Bonus announcements were delayed this year as banks waited to see… what every other bank was going to pay.

Forget about the economy, deal activity, or new financial regulations: you can’t be the one bank to pay out $5K less than everyone else.

Despite the late announcements, there was some good news: bonuses were up over 2009 numbers – just barely.

The Disclaimer

Did Europe Just Ban Investment Banking? And More on New Financial Reform

I very, very rarely write news-style articles on this site, but when a bank fails, multiple banks fail, or something else big happens this rule gets broken.

And the recent financial reform that has passed / is in the process of being passed falls into that last category of something big happening.

So let’s see what just happened, whether or not the finance industry will survive, and how your bonus will be affected.