Working in a bank

Here, read this. I'd recommend everyone else to read this too as I'm seriously considering implementing this in my life in my early twenties.

This is what i'd consider 'breaking new ground'

What You'll Wish You'd Known - What You'll Wish You'd Known

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Here, read this. I'd recommend everyone else to read this too as I'm seriously considering implementing this in my life in my early twenties.

This is what i'd consider 'breaking new ground'

What You'll Wish You'd Known - What You'll Wish You'd Known

Great writing by Paul Graham. But he didn't address the problem of how to make enough money to be comfortable doing all those interesting things. Yeah, I know what people are going to say, "do what you love and money will follow", which I think is cr*p advice (like what Graham said of most standard advice).

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Great writing by Paul Graham. But he didn't address the problem of how to make enough money to be comfortable doing all those interesting things. Yeah, I know what people are going to say, "do what you love and money will follow", which I think is cr*p advice (like what Graham said of most standard advice).

Did you read the article? Its more about attitude/finding a place in society rather than choices. You don't need $ to be 'doing all those interesting things'.

[warning]

Originally Posted by k3vin

Would 2 years at say DBS/Citi be more useful than 2 years at say Temasek/SIA?

Citi yes. DBS no.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Did you read the article? Its more about attitude/finding a place in society rather than choices. You don't need $ to be 'doing all those interesting things'.

Yes I read through the article. It's idealistic.

Unless one is a hermit, one can't run away from the issue making enough money in Singapore. Your family and people around you all place a lot of importance on money and material possessions. He will be miserable if he ignores the society's views.

Btw, Graham was already rich when he wrote that.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes I read through the article. It's idealistic.

Unless one is a hermit, one can't run away from the issue making enough money in Singapore. Your family and people around you all place a lot of importance on money and material possessions. He will be miserable if he ignores the society's views.

Btw, Graham was already rich when he wrote that.

If you didnt already notice, its addressed to HS students, who presumably didnt have to worry about their basic necessities at that age. I'm not saying that the article's beyond criticism, just that its a fresh perspective on dealing with seemingly ordinary issues that serves nothing more than to cloud one's mind.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The lesson to be learned from these postings is that if you have sterling academic results in school, you should leverage on it as early as possible to get into medicine, dentistry or law. That will almost guarantee you a comfortable annual mid 6-figures income (at least) till retirement. Instead of trying to impress nobody, but yourself probably, going to top overseas universities taking courses like business and finance and then hoping to land an IB or MBB position, whereby the probability of success is much lower. The number of Singaporean partners in top investment banking and consulting firms can be counted with the fingers in the hands, whereas the number of million-dollar Singaporean law firm partners or doctors who overbill their patients can be counted with the legs of a millipede.

This is a common misconception about law. The number of million dollar law firm partners isn't actually that remarkable - if so you'd have seen a higher average salary for lawyers in surveys due to the huge right skew. Most lawyers will find themselves hitting a cap of 300-400k annually, if they manage to make partner in some non-small firm. With the influx of new law grads from SMU and overseas, nobody knows if demand will keep up with the supply of lawyers, which may bring down the pay of average lawyers. The top ones however will certainly continue to get multi million dollar paychecks

and the reason many lawyers have big paychecks today (and are also badly overworked) is because a decade or two ago, the government had a very low quota of NUS law places. At one time NUS admitted just over a 100-150 students a year. Now NUS takes in at least 250 a year, and SMU takes in close to 100. You can bet that there'll be an oversupply looming 10 years down the road.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

and the reason many lawyers have big paychecks today (and are also badly overworked) is because a decade or two ago, the government had a very low quota of NUS law places. At one time NUS admitted just over a 100-150 students a year. Now NUS takes in at least 250 a year, and SMU takes in close to 100. You can bet that there'll be an oversupply looming 10 years down the road.

10 years is a damn long time.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

10 years is a damn long time.

It's also the time when the first oversupply batch of SMU + NUS will begin fighting it out for partnerships. Not such a long time if you're one of them.