For the Love of Money: A Memoir Hardcover – July 19, 2016 by Sam Polk (Author) Why this Wall Street trader got mad about a $3.6 million bonus—and quit For most people, getting a $3.6 million bonus would be a day to celebrate and high five a bunch of people. For Sam Polk, it made him mad. Why? Because it wasn't enough... http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/19/why-...t-a-36-million-bonus-and-quit-commentary.html
Story originally made headlines early 2014 he must have quit 2013.... http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurash...ke-free-of-his-golden-handcuffs/#140207ad3eef
Usually big bonuses are partly delayed in payout... 2-3 years.. hence "golden handcuffs". It's easier the walk away from a sum like that when you've already had a few very good years... so I wouldn't feel sad for him. The writer says as well... "I walked away rom big payouts too and now get paid a lot less as a writer"... Probably has 8 figures in the bank anyway.
To outsiders a $3.6 million bonus would seem like the Lottery... But if you're working as a trader for those big banks and trading institutions...that's a relatively small paltry % pay for what you're making for them. All employees get shafted; you're essentially just making someone else rich. I too, would also...kind of demand more....I made That -- I would expect a slightly bigger % of it.
It is always after these people make a hefty sum that they "get religion" and say they need more meaning in their lives. The reason they can do that is because they have money and can do whatever they want. And the reason they have money is because of Wall St.
You too can be "priveleged" if you want to do the work to get into the right undergrad program with the right degree and graduate with a high gpa, work 80+ hour weeks for several years as a spreadsheet jockey/copy boy living in a studio in NYC, do the work to get into the right MBA program and spend 18 months there, then work more 80+ hour weeks starting as the head spreadsheet jockey/coffee boy. Crappy life and decidedly not worth it for me, even having punched most of the tickets for other reasons. Choose your rate, choose your fate they used to say in the military. Sure teachers deserve to make much more than they do and you could argue traders deserve to make less, but we all went into the careers we chose with eyes wide open. So "priveleged" probably isn't the right word, for more than one reason.