When a $350k income isn't enough, again

Remember Andrew Schiff? In 2012, he was the head of communications and marketing at Connecticut brokerage firm Euro Pacific Capital. Back then, Schiff was earning $350k a year, and he wasn't exactly thriving. He complained to the Wall Street Journal that he was struggling to afford both the rent in Brooklyn and the $32k a year in tuition fees for his daughter's school. He lacked space; he lacked gadgetry. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet," Schiff said. "I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.”

Now, Simon Kuper at the Financial Times has raised the spectre of Schiff again. The Schiffs of this world go to show why it's not worth striving to become a financial services professional or senior lawyer, says Kuper. Firstly, you work harder than most people.

Secondly, you have zero job security. Thirdly, your company will be digitally tracking your performance at all times. And fourthly, you end up ‘living in cramped accommodation surrounded by angst-ridden workaholics and undeserving heirs.' Kuper himself is a writer and journalist who lives in Paris - maybe that's a better option. The good news is that Schiff did eventually become the owner of his own apartment containing a dishwasher, although it took him ten years to save for a deposit. 

Separately, and in further proof that working in fintech is not a skip along an incandescent path to a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, one fintech founder reportedly had his idea rejected 50 times before he received funding. “Our biggest marketing challenge is not defining a brand” Nick Hungerford, ex-Barclays Wealth banker and founder of 'Nutmeg', a DIY wealth management site, told BusinessBecause, "It's literally defining a category."

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Goldman Hires (Business Insider) 

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Hedgie Quits (WSJ) 

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Quote of the Day

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