Senior FAs: are you satisfied with life?
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[quote=NASD Newbie]
[quote=hopkinswannabe]NASD NEWBIE AKA the kiss A%$ Nerd Cop seeking revenge on all of his tourmentors![/quote]
Is a tourmentor a guy who trains travel agents?
[/quote]
Is that what you do? So so sad!
[quote=NASD Newbie]
[quote=hopkinswannabe]
I concur with your post. Why are so many people on this board so negaitive. Most people with negaitive personalities never make it in sales - selling anything. I myself came on here to engage in professional dialog with intelligent people, so far I have had marginal success.
[/quote]
Why not repost some of your intelligent dialog and see if it gets responded to?
[/quote]Normally I'm not one to fall in line with Newbie, but in this case I'm thinking he might be on target.
Perhaps if you could manage to put a question mark at the end of a sentence that asks a question, the responses you get wouldn't be to NEGATIVE?
Perhaps if you could manage to spell a simple common word like "negative" properly, folks might view you as being more professional?
If you want to engage in professional dialogue with intelligent people, then at least some of your posts(including spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and subject matter) should come across to your audience as intelligent and professional.
This forum, in many ways, is the ultimate blind democracy. People "vote" by responding to your posts, or NOT responding.
Draw your own conclusions.
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Take the path of least resistance. Start with a great firm. And that can be a bank or a financial services firm. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE, at least $4m you can COUNT on in your first year, start at a bank. Or, find a mature rep. to train under. Cold calling is a miserable life.
Good luck.
Reg: 1983
Age: 54
Regional to wire back to regional
AUM: Enough to pay the bills and keep the recruiters for SB, MS, and ML calling asking if I'm happy. They're so concerned about my well being.
To answer the question was it all worth it? Is it all worth it?
For me, yes. I came into this business after losing a lot of money in another business. Making and losing a small fortune isn't fun. Coming in to this biz the bad news was, I was broke. The good news was, I was young but not too young. I was and still am, I hope, a fast learner and a hard worker. I was smart enough to make that money in the first place, just not smart enough to hang onto it. So this business gave me the opportunity to push the rock up the mountain again. And I did that with a vengeance. I got to the office every morning by 7:15 and didn't leave until 10pm. I did that for five years. Then I shortened the schedule to 12 hours a day for the next four years. Then I nearly lost one of my kids and I realized I was dedicating my life to the wrong team. I changed the type of business I was doing and started working a normal schedule of about eight hours a day. I coached little league, attended recitals. We bought a motorhome and traveled to theme parks for the infamous roller coaster tour. We bought a small boat and learned first how to sail it, then how to race it ,and then how to win with it. We bought a bigger boat and sailed it to the Bahamas and Bermuda. My first 9 years enabled me to have the time and money to be a positive factor in my children's lives. Today my production(not my counting my wife, who is my partner) is still not up to where it was when I stopped working full time(12 hours a day). Still, it has grown from it's low point and is enough to keep the tjc Country Coach filled with diesel, the college bills paid, and repo man at bay. And this time, I'm smart eough to hold onto the money. Well, at least most of it.
From a fulfillment POV let's answer this way. 13 years in I was strolling the garden of a very posh estate with my wife on my arm. The occasion was the graduation of one of my client's daughters from a private school and the estate belonged to the client. Later that day the client took the mic from the band and called everyone around. He then started on a very impassioned speech where he proceeded to thank someone for making that day possible. That person was me. When he announced my name I almost spit out my Budweiser. Even though I don't think I really made the day possible, to this day I remember that day as a keystone event in my career as to roll we play in client's lives. Even to the rich, and very rich we have the opportunity to play a roll and make a difference.
Being good at what you do. That's satisfaction.
Great post TJC. Here's my query:
If one wants to BE that guy OWNING the posh estate, is this (still?) the career to get one there?
[quote=brothaK]yeah, what did the guy who owned the estate do? what was his career?[/quote]
Opie, this is for you also.
The guy who owns the estate is a small business owner. He inherited the biz, a manufacturing business from his father. He grew the business from there. Great guy, smart and a good businessman. Dad taught him well. And I might add, he's not a college graduate, even though like me, he values education.
Opie, if you work this business it can make you wealthy. It's way too hard to do this and only make a living. However, my first two businesses, the one that made me money and the one that cost me money both had better wealth building possibilities. I believe that of any business whether it be a service business or a manufacturing business. Yet, for someone who wants to build wealth without a monetary investment this business is hard to match. And remember, in the end it's not only about how much you make, but how much you keep, and what you do with the money you keep.
Probably not. A select few reach those levels, but they are few relative to the numbers in the industry.
Four out of five truly wealthy (and by “truly wealthy” I mean net worth of more than a couple million and up) people I meet made their money in real estate, be it developing, building, rentals, etc.
The other one out of five seem to be split between two groups. One is former business owners who have sold their business after many years, even decades, and the rest is the “millionaire next door” types, who have worked for someone else for their entire lives and simply saved it up.
The latter group is much more prevalent in the “comfortable” level, as in not ultra rich, but going to have nice retirement.
I guess my point is, I think there are much better ways to “get rich” in this world than being an FA.
I don’t believe this business is a get rich quick scheme, at one time it might have been close, but not anymore.
i'm not talking about getting rich quick.
but getting really rich
however, do you think it is possible to get really rich without doing it quickly (5-10years)?
tjc...nice post.
I will graduate into my third year in November & so far this business is absolutely everything I thought it would be...at times it is an absolue "high". Like today when a new client brought in his annuity statement from ING & wanted to know if I could help him roll it over. At other times the uncertainty is overwelming for example trying to figure out where next months production is coming from.
There is allot of good information on this forum, i've been reading from this site from day 1 and many of the posters have provided me with valuable insite. Your post echoed of honesty & was insightful. Thanks for sharing.
BrothaK
The answer is NO. In 5-10 years as an FA you might build a 50-70 million dollar book and be making say 150K if your good to great.
Honestly in 5-10 years you could build a strong service oriented business and sell it for 500K - 1 million and walk away. You won’t be able to do that as an FA. I swear.
[quote=bankrep1]The answer is NO. In 5-10 years as an FA you might build a 50-70 million dollar book and be making say 150K if your good to great. [/quote]
Doesn't $70 MM AUM roughly equal around $260,000 at a wirehouse?
What?
If you had 70 million in fee based maybe. That is not going to happen. You’re going to have commissioned based accounts and accounts you don’t make much on 401K’s, pensions etc.
The career is like investing in a front loaded mutual fund. Rough
at the start, but it gets better as time goes on…but not without its
up and down years.
I had a bit of a re-birth several years back and re-directed my energy
out instead of in…by that I mean I became less selfish in every part
of my life, especially this business.
The result was a boom in business at a time when the market was at its
worse and poeple were leaving as fast as they could. The lesson
learned was focussing on business practice and ethics proved very
profitable.
This job is tough and rewarding when done right, and easy and guilt
ridden when done wrong. I have not worked a single day in the
last 7 years, even though I go in to the office 5 days a week.
I am 36, registered in 1993, and have worked for a bank then Merrill Lynch.