How much money do investment bankers make?
Investment Banking Analyst Salary + Bonus: This varies from year to year, but base salaries tend to be between $100K and $125K USD at large banks, with bonuses that are roughly 0.5x to 1.0x that base salary. Total compensation is often in the $150K – $250K range (as of 2022).
Investment banking is the business of raising capital for companies and providing advising services on financing and merger activities. Thus, for example, a company will approach an investment bank when it needs to raise capital or when it needs advice in negotiating and structuring an acquisition of another company.
On average, a first-year investment banker makes a 5-digit salary, in the range of $70,000 – $90,000, while a 7-digit salary is considered above average and is difficult to achieve for most people in their careers.
Investment bankers have a compensation model that includes a base salary and all or some additional forms of compensation, including bonuses, commissions and profit-sharing. It's common for an investment banker's bonus to surpass their base pay, and in profitable times, they may earn over half a million dollars a year.
Investment bankers are typically the highest-paid workers in the finance industry—high salaries are most prevalent even among younger employees. The starting salary for the typical investment banker exceeds that of most other finance positions, but working in this field has its challenges.
Investment banks impose a high fee based on the amount of the offering (usually 2-8% of the total deal). They earn millions of dollars in commissions as a result. They are also paid for setting an appropriate price and assembling a solid network of enthusiastic investors about the company's long-term prospects.
Key Takeaways. Investment bankers meet with clients, prepare offers, run financial projections, and work on pitchbooks, that help generate new clients. The work is lucrative but the days are long and stressful.
How Many Hours do Investment Bankers Work? Investment bankers work notoriously long hours, with the typical work week filling in 60-80 hours per week, and the occasional high-intensity work week that can push a banker to 100+ hours.
The short version here is: Yes, investment banking hours, especially in your first year or two, are always bad (think: 70-80 hours in the office per week). But junior bankers also tend to exaggerate their hours, often by not subtracting downtime or breaks during the day.
Each figure represents a digit in a number, specifically looking at the digits before the decimal point. Let's break this down: 1-Figure: Amounts from $1 to $9. It's rare to discuss wages or salaries in single figures, but we often use this when talking about pricing for small items or value deals.
Is 7 figures considered rich?
A seven-figure job refers to the number of digits listed in your salary. This includes people who earn anywhere from $1 million to just under $10 million per year. Many people may consider this salary range to be well above average.
Earning $1,000,000 a year would surely be enough to live comfortably in the vast majority of places. But in one state, it means you've just crossed over into the top 1% of earners.
What Are the Big 4 Investment Banks? The big four are JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. Some other global giants are treading right on their heels, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and UBS.
JPMorgan Chase is the richest bank in the U.S., based on Federal Reserve data for consolidated assets.
The demand for coveted positions in investment banks consistently exceeds the available supply, making it a highly selective field. Statistics indicate that acceptance rates for top investment banks, such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, typically range between a mere 3% to 5%.
Investment banking roles are among the most sought after of any careers in the wider field of finance. The large investment banks have an ongoing cachet that most companies can only aspire to - endowing on their employees an alluring mixture of intellectual prowess and prestige.
At a Glance: Salary & Jobs for Bankers
According to data from 2022, there were about 456,626 positions for bankers in the United States. In terms of salary, the national median salary for bankers was reported to be $67,475.
Age Range: It's nearly impossible to reach this level before your early 30's, so we'll say 35-50 for the range. Few MDs continue working until the official retirement age (65-70); it's a stressful, high-pressure job, and past a certain net worth, it's just not worth it.
Can you become a millionaire as an investment banker? It is possible to become a millionaire as an investment banker, but it is not easy.
Investment banking hours are notoriously long — a job in investment banking can involve working over 100 hours per week. However, investment bankers do not always work that many hours, and not every minute of every day is spent agonizing over Excel spreadsheets.
How much sleep do bankers get?
But people in IB (at least people I kind of know) work until about 2am every day and come into office between 9/9:30. So realistically they get about 5-6 hours of sleep (or even less in busier periods) and are expected to be functioning 100% every day.
Typically, entry-level investment bankers, for instance, can expect to receive around 10-15 days of vacation per year. This can increase to 20 or more days as they gain seniority and move up the ranks.
It is possible for investment banking analysts to work from home, although it may not be common or regular.
Even when you are working with financial models, none of the math is complex. There's addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division… and occasionally built-in Excel functions like IRR, Mean, and Median. You never use calculus or differential equations or even geometry / trigonometry.
In terms of money and salaries, seven figures refers to amounts ranging from $1,000,000 to $9,999,999. So, a seven-figure salary implies that someone earns between one and almost 10 million dollars annually.
