<p>Some of the old Philadelphia Quaker families became famous for “Doing Well While Doing Good.” It is indeed possible to maintain your moral values, contribute to society, and still accumulate wealth. Find your moral center and work outward from there.</p>
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<p>You can insist all you want but if your kid works on Wall Street and makes 500K she is probably going to make her own decisions about what she does with that 500K.</p>
<p>Don’t hold your breath about the giving back to society part once they hit their later 20’s. I am sure S had grandiose dreams about what he was going to do with his first check after working for 2 months on a paid summer internship. Those dreams took a dramatic turn when said check turned out to be 26% less than he expected after assorted taxes were withheld. Isn’t there an economic “law” someplace that says that “expenses always have a tendency to meet income”?</p>
<p>momof3boys probably has passed on some of her moral values to her boys, so she won’t necessary have to insist.:)</p>
<p>DD has an engineering degree which could net her a high paying job considering the shortage of women in engineering. She has a completed Peace Corps application and hopes to receive an appointment (anyone wishing to keep their fingers crossed on her behalf is welcome to do so). In the meantime she is going to volunteer her time as an EMT, hopefully. </p>
<p>I agree with Oldfort, there are many ways to contribute to society and many folks who “make money” also are contributors to society…perhaps charitable causes, big brother/big sisters, mentoring programs, etc.</p>
<p>I am keeping my fingers crossed for thumper1’s daughter. If nothing else, I would want to hear about some of her daughter’s adventure.</p>
<p>I guess there’s a few things I just don’t understand about the attitude expressed by the OP. </p>
<p>Why is there this assumption that if you make a lot of money you’re clearly just a rich deadbeat who’s not contributing to society. Similarly why do we think someone choosing to take a lower paid career path is, in turn, ‘contributing to society.’ There are lots of rich folks that contribute tons to society and get paid well to do it… equally there are some others in low paid ‘noble’ professions that, quite honestly, don’t contribute much. </p>
<p>It’s impossible to to put people in these overly simplistic buckets so why bother?</p>
<p>I would like for my kids to earn a ton of money AND contribute to society. I will remind them on a regular basis that mom & dad are members of society. ;)</p>
<p>A. Its hard to answer this in the abstract. High paying jobs aren’t generic. As some have said, even Wall Street jobs aren’t generic</p>
<p>B. There are clearly disagreements, from ideological to technical, on the actual worth of some jobs to society. In particular whether you think various Wall Street jobs are of zero value, or of value matching their salaries, or somewhere in between, necessarily involves an analysis (implicit or explicit) of the functioning of financial markets. Most folks dont do such analysis, but react based on ideology (either way). </p>
<p>C. Its also hard to determine in the abstract how much someone will contribute to charity, etc.</p>
<p>Despite all those caveats, clearly many young people DO find themselves faced with choices like that along the way. Rather than debate it in the abstract, it seems more useful to discuss options, and principles for dealing with the conflict.</p>
<p>Gee, if my kids were making 500K on Wall Street, my advice to them would be:</p>
<p>Have an emergency fund equal to at least 6 months (preferably a year) of living expenses</p>
<p>Buy a home</p>
<p>Pay off the mortgage on the home</p>
<p>Start saving big time for retirement</p>
<p>If you have kids, fully fund their college educations </p>
<p>If my kids worked on Wall Street, between the ourtrageously high New York State and New York City taxes and the crazy housing prices in the New York City area, it would take a lot of years at $500K to satisfy all the above.</p>
<p>A. Its hard to answer this in the abstract. High paying jobs aren’t generic. As some have said, even Wall Street jobs aren’t generic"</p>
<p>Well, not only that, people on CC seem oblivious to the fact that one can make equally as big money and live elsewhere. Esp with technology being what it is. You can live in Iowa or Colorado or wherever and make that kind of money and it goes much farther.</p>
<p>“live elsewhere”</p>
<p>I tend to use “wall street” to mean all global IBanking and related activities in the US. Ive known people who worked for major Alex Brown in Baltimore for example, and I considered them “wall street” too for these purposes. or take the huge i Banking and financial trading complex in Chicago. I wasnt really focusing on a manhattan location, and I doubt OP was.</p>
<p>I wasn’t thinking about “working for the Baltimore or Des Moines branch of an i-bank.” I was thinking about other industries overall. Why i-banking is considered the only means to good money (by which I’m defining as $500K+) is truly beyond me.</p>
<p>I think people are only using it as an example, not necessary the only money making occupation, and it is also viewed as evil.</p>
<p>I certainly don’t think i-banking is evil; it’s just one profession of many, and it serves a purpose. I am amused, however, by the CC’ers who think of making lots of money and immediately jump to a) Wall Street and b) i-banking. There are so many other paths to lots of money, if that is the end game. (And I’m leaving aside doctors and lawyers.) They just don’t have a lot of knowledge of the real world and where money is really made.</p>
<p>And I was not referring to a BRANCH - Alex Brown is headquartered in Baltimore, and there have been very large financial firms headquartered in Chicago.</p>
<p>I discussed i banking cause, er, that was the choice presented in the OP.</p>
<p>It is hard to find another profession which would pay 100k+ to a 22 year old.</p>
<p>Sure, but 22 yo’s choosing those professions aren’t always aware of a) the tremendous cost to themselves in terms of personal life and b) that there ARE other ways to make a lot of money (if that is the end goal) other than in finance. Personally, the wealthiest people I know are business owners who actually had a real idea, not people who helped find money for other people to pursue ideas.</p>
<p>They both contribute to society and make money. The wall street banker helps the free market find an efficient path to calculate the risk to capital that provides the investors the peace of mind requisite to investing in biology ventures. The biologist gets the job, equipment and some share inthe profits of the patent. Society gets the cure.</p>
<p>What I am seeing is that a lot of kids who go into finance have parents in the business. They fully understand pros and cons of the profession. It takes a certain personality. It is no different than when you have a family with a lot of doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers…I am sure it´s because it´s talked about a lot in the family.</p>