ITT You Post The Best Path(s) To Become Rich

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Nascent

Nascent

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If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

Provide Specific Details.
For example in business it might be this?
1. Go to top10 undergrad.
2. Major in finance
3. Intern for investment banking
4. Start investing very early
5. Avoid debt & loans (e.g. mortgage,car)

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
HPSP scholarship?

What other paths are there?
 
Okay, I'll give it a nibble.

1. Get a 4.0 in undergrad. Double major in Chemical Engineering and Classical Music
2. Get a 40+ on the MCAT.
3. Do some amazing ECs.
4. Get a full-ride scholarship into Mayo/JH/Harvard/etc.
5. Go into residency in the most lucrative specialty (I think it's spinal surgery? Maybe plastics in Beverly Hills is better?)
6. Perform the most difficult/high risk cases in some national specialty hospital (or boob jobs in Beverly Hills) and charge tons on money
7. Invest everything you can

8. Retire young
 
For medicine, the best path to money would certainly not be HPSP or NHS. I suppose it would be to do well enough in undergrad to get accepted to an MD medical school. From there, do well enough to match into an integrated plastics or ortho residency. From there, work hard in private practice giving tittie lifts to rich people.

If I was truly interested in money, I'd keep buying fixer-upper foreclosures, remodeling them and selling them. It's a job that only requires an eighth-grade education and a construction background, so there's no years spent bored in high school, then digging yourself into debt with college and medical school, then making Walmart wages in residency. I've already done one house. If it sells soon, I can buy another one, remodel it and sell it before I start medical school. If that happens, my yearly income before taxes will be more than some attendings make. It's hard work, it means moving a lot and everything I own is covered with sawdust, but the early earning potential is hard to beat.
 
Spinach Dip said:
Okay, I'll give it a nibble.

1. Get a 4.0 in undergrad. Double major in Chemical Engineering and Classical Music
2. Get a 40+ on the MCAT.
3. Do some amazing ECs.
4. Get a full-ride scholarship into Mayo/JH/Harvard/etc.
5. Go into residency in the most lucrative specialty (I think it's spinal surgery?)
6. Perform the most difficult/high risk cases in some national specialty hospital and charge tons on money
7. Invest everything you can

8. Retire young
Click to expand...

4 years undergrad, 4 years med, 7-8 years of residency, followed by possibly 2 years of fellowship,
One does not simply "retire young"
 
1. Go to corner store.
2. Ask, "Can I buy a Powerball ticket?"
3. Choose numbers.
4."Pay $2"
5. Watch TV.
6. Find out you've won Powerball.
7. Profit.
8. Donate money to build new hospital wing.
9. Get accepted to affiliated medical school.
10. Complete med school and residency.
11. Congrats, you're the richest practicing physician in America!

Am I doing this right?
 
gettheleadout said:
1. College degree in chemistry
2. Graduate degree in chemistry
3. High school chemistry teacher
4. Perfect methamphetamine synthesis
5. $15 million a year

/Heisenberg
Click to expand...

👍👍👍

Just noticed your "status" or whatever that is. Is that lotto #'s?
 
gettheleadout said:
1. College degree in chemistry
2. Graduate degree in chemistry
3. High school chemistry teacher
4. Perfect methamphetamine synthesis
5. $15 million a year

/Heisenberg
Click to expand...

There was a chemistry professor my mother knows and he is making 300k. The reason is because he obtained an MBA after years in academia. He works for a phrama company and the rest is history. The main thing is to enter a niche where you become indispensable.
 
Nascent said:
If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

Provide Specific Details.
For example in business it might be this?
1. Go to top10 undergrad.
2. Major in finance
3. Intern for investment banking
4. Start investing very early
5. Avoid debt & loans (e.g. mortgage,car)

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
HPSP scholarship?

What other paths are there?
Click to expand...

Very relevant to Allo actually! Medicine will NOT be the path to riches in the future. I would suggest the Wharton School -> mutual fund manager path or investment banking or wall st path and make several hundred millions in a few years and my family personally knows a few people who have gone this path. Or the ivy league -> law school path. Or explore venture capitalism and the business path. Or use your white skin advantage, move to a place like India and marry the daughter of one of their multi-billionaires. I am not interested in money, so I won't follow this thread. But good luck!
 
Nascent said:
If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

Provide Specific Details.
For example in business it might be this?
1. Go to top10 undergrad.
2. Major in finance
3. Intern for investment banking
4. Start investing very early
5. Avoid debt & loans (e.g. mortgage,car)

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
HPSP scholarship?

What other paths are there?
Click to expand...

The only thing I agree with you on. As I was mentioning before on my previous post, it is better to enter a niche where you become an indispensable resource. For example, the best degree (IMO) would be mathematics combined with another degree. For example, this degree has the greatest versatility. You can enter into finance as a financial engineer and be earning around 100k on average.

You can check the Bureau of labor statistics on the mathematician salaries. They on average can make around a 100k. It is true that this is not a high end salary but it is more of a guarantee that one will have a high end salary.

The options that make people rich are usually starting your own business or working for a big company like a pharmaceutical company. This is not a guarantee that one will get rich though because not many people are able to start a business or enter a big company so easily. The main thing do something that pays high but you are in a niche where "only you can do the thing that they profit on."
 
Nascent said:
If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

Provide Specific Details.
For example in business it might be this?
1. Go to top10 undergrad.
2. Major in finance
3. Intern for investment banking
4. Start investing very early
5. Avoid debt & loans (e.g. mortgage,car)

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
HPSP scholarship?

What other paths are there?
Click to expand...

yup.... a woman I work with has a kid at penn who is majoring in economics or finance or something and she interned at Goldman Sachs last summer..... made 10k.

edit: noticed someone else mentioned Wharton too--funny.
 
Last edited:
1) Get into Harvard
2) Drop out of Harvard

Seems to be doing the trick...
 
Nascent said:
If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
Click to expand...
Be a CRNA in a small/medium-sized community. The salary numbers won't be as impressive as an orthopedic surgeon, but your hours worked, liability, and lifestyle will be pretty awesome, along with the shorter path to get there.

Spinach Dip said:
5. Go into residency in the most lucrative specialty (I think it's spinal surgery? Maybe plastics in Beverly Hills is better?)
6. Perform the most difficult/high risk cases in some national specialty hospital (or boob jobs in Beverly Hills) and charge tons on money
Click to expand...
Yes to spine surgery, no to "most difficult/high risk cases." Those probably won't pay well, and the complications will suck. I heard directly from a dept chairman at a large Detroit hospital that the urologist who was a pioneer of the da Vinci-assisted prostastectomy is so renowned for his skills, that he charges cash for the procedure, and has no problems lining up patients around the block to get it done. So, come up with a new procedure, and charge bookoo bucks.
 
As long as we're doing with reasonably likely chances to becoming wealthy, the process is more or less the same - secure a job where you have significant expendable money (engineering, medicine, Ibanking, etc.) then live frugally and invest the **** out of it for years.
 
There is no better path. If you get into medical school, you can make $175k/year as an FM physician. These ideas of "doing investment banking" are nebulous. Plenty of HPY graduates get turned down for investment banking. Plenty of investment bankers are never promoted after their 2nd or 3rd year, and are instead let go.
 
circulus vitios said:
There is no better path. If you get into medical school, you can make $175k/year as an FM physician. These ideas of "doing investment banking" are nebulous. Plenty of HPY graduates get turned down for investment banking. Plenty of investment bankers are never promoted after their 2nd or 3rd year, and are instead let go.
Click to expand...

Yes but SDN users see investment banking as this mystical cash cow that could surely be theirs if they have what it takes to be a doctor, after all.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
 
Hmmm....one should sit for actuarial exams?


Sent from my iPad using SDN Mobile app.
 
Investing early is pointless because you could be bettering yourselves with that cash unless you have enough money that interest would offset any educational or professional development that you may attain with that money. Saving up for the future at the cost of intellectual/professional development is not worth the investment considering our small lifespans. Also, if you want to make quick cash straight out of college, do what my cousin did. He got his pet eng degree from UT Austin, took an Arabic course, and now earns 200k+ income with no taxes in Saudi Arabia--no taxes in that country. He even gets a butler and housing for free.
 
La Presse said:
Hmmm....one should sit for actuarial exams?


Sent from my iPad using SDN Mobile app.
Click to expand...

The entry-level job market is the most competitive it has ever been. The fierce competition for entry-level actuarial jobs shows no signs of abating. Contrasts posts from 2001 on this forum to today. 10 years ago, students with just 1 exam were receiving multiple offers. 5 years ago, the minimum was 2 exams. Today, grads with three exams and internships are struggling to find work. I loathe to think what the market will look like 5 years from now.

Increased awareness of the actuarial profession, increased exam sittings, changing demographics, and a saturated job market are all contributing to this trend. This leads me to believe that the biggest barrier to entry isn’t really the preliminary exams, as is the common perception. There’s a wealth of candidates with multiple exams who are struggling to find a job. Heck, there are candidates near-ASA with no experience. The biggest barrier to entry is finding the the entry-level actuarial position.

Lately, there’s been a lot of speculation about whether the expanding pool of candidates and increased exam sittings will lead to a downward pressure on salaries for actuaries. IMO credentialed actuaries do not need to worry about whether the surfeit of candidates will lead to reduced salaries. The entry-level job market will work to keep candidates out, limiting the supply of talent in the actuarial pool. A 4-exam candidate who can't find work will eventually give up and move on to something else. He could write more exams, but he won’t if he can’t find a job. An ASA won’t be hired without experience. But credentialed actuaries (ASAs & FSAs) will mainitain their high salaries.

I suspect that while the pool of entry-level candidates has expanded greatly in the last 5 years, the pool of credentialed actuaries hasn’t grown nearly as much. I’d imagine though that there has been and will continue to be an exponential rise in 2-3 exam candidates who haven’t found a job – and who never will.

Given the competition and surplus of quality candidates, only the best, brightest, and most well-rounded candidates are getting hired in today’s entry-level market. The indigent, the lazy, and the point-dexters who may have been hired years in past (due to the dearth of candidates with multiple exams) are now being weeded out by the brutal entry-level market. IMO the talent pool entering the profession is better than ever before, and the actuarial profession will benefit in the long term.

Get your foot in the door and you’re set. But good luck getting that foot in the door.
Click to expand...

http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actuarial_discussion_forum/showthread.php?t=211978
 
powerfetish said:
Investing early is pointless because you could be bettering yourselves with that cash unless you have enough money that interest would offset any educational or professional development that you may attain with that money. Saving up for the future at the cost of intellectual/professional development is not worth the investment considering our small lifespans. Also, if you want to make quick cash straight out of college, do what my cousin did. He got his pet eng degree from UT Austin, took an Arabic course, and now earns 200k+ income with no taxes in Saudi Arabia--no taxes in that country. He even gets a butler and housing for free.
Click to expand...

Apparently you've never heard of compounding interest.

The catch for your cousin is he has to work in Saudi Arabia or other hellholes -- Kuwait, UAE, rural Brazil, rural Texas and Louisiana, offshore Alaska, etc. -- and if he wants income exclusion he must be physically present in a foreign country for 330 consecutive or non-consecutive days over 12 consecutive months...and only $95k of income is tax-exempt.

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Foreign-Earned-Income-Exclusion
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Inte...ned-Income-Exclusion---Physical-Presence-Test
 
I don't understand why he still has to pay taxes to US gov if he's living and working offshore? He can just claim to be unemployed and on a vacation.
 
Go to harvard business school then manage a hedge fund

10k/day ceo status
 
gettheleadout said:
Yes but SDN users see investment banking as this mystical cash cow that could surely be theirs if they have what it takes to be a doctor, after all.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
Click to expand...

👍
 
Obviously there is no easy formula, if there is then everyone would be doing it. Living frugally and investing is stupid IMO, u don't live forever and can't bing your money with u to the grave plus your life might expire at any moment.
 
Skip HS and finish college in 3 years. Start MSTP (MD/PhD) program at age 16, finish at 23, score 260+ on Step 1 and get into a top derm residency. Say "screw academics" after finishing residency at age 27. Make $600k/yr (75th %ile) x 32 yrs starting w/ no debt (and always paying for things in cash and breaking even on stocks) and retire at 55 with a net worth around $10-15M.
 
That makes no sense. If you are not using any US social services and not living or working here, why should you still have to pay taxes to US?
 
Nascent said:
If one only cared about money, and that was their sole purpose in life and nothing more, then what would be the best path?

Provide Specific Details.
For example in business it might be this?
1. Go to top10 undergrad.
2. Major in finance
3. Intern for investment banking
4. Start investing very early
5. Avoid debt & loans (e.g. mortgage,car)

What would you say the best path in medicine would be?
HPSP scholarship?

What other paths are there?
Click to expand...

Your business path is probably the quickest one but after step 3 I would add:

4. Graduate, work for 2 years as investment banking analyst on Wall Street slaving away 80-100 hrs/week.
5. Get promoted to buy side, start working for a hedge fund.
6. Become hedge fund manager, make millions, retire by age 40.

An alternate, more science focused path would be:

1. Major in engineering discipline as an undergrad (preferably CS, EE, or ChemE).
2. Graduate top of class, enter PhD program at MIT, Caltech, Stanford, or Berkeley.
3. While a graduate student, discover and patent new revolutionary technology.
4. Either leave grad school immediately and sell, or stay and risk your advisor taking some credit. Either way, get patent and make millions selling new useful technology to the masses.

And, if you insist upon getting "rich" in medicine, which is pretty rare:

1. Go to a respectable college and do well as a pre-med, get into med school.
2. Ace boards and match into plastics or ortho.
3. Do residency at respectable institution (doesn't even have to be something like HSS, although this can't hurt).
4. As an attending, do research on the side and start patenting new surgical procedures and/or devices.
5. Become best in the world at the surgical procedure you invented, start charging patients $30k/surgery.
6. Make millions, while still helping people. Win win!
 
cuculici1 said:
1. Major in engineering discipline as an undergrad (preferably CS, EE, or ChemE).
2. Graduate top of class, enter PhD program at MIT, Caltech, Stanford, or Berkeley.
3. While a graduate student, discover and patent new revolutionary technology.
4. Either leave grad school immediately and sell, or stay and risk your advisor taking some credit. Either way, get patent and make millions selling new useful technology to the masses.
Click to expand...

You can't patent anything you discover while you're a graduate student. It's considered school property (or something like that.)
 
Best way to make money is to go to an Ivy League school and work at a banking or consulting firm afterwards. Medicine isn't really a great way to make money.
 
HughMyron said:
Best way to make money is to go to an Ivy League school and work at a banking or consulting firm afterwards. Medicine isn't really a great way to make money.
Click to expand...

No one in IB cares about you if you went to a non-target school. Your "top 20 school" is meaningless unless it's HPY/MIT/etc. and your resume will be trashed unless you know someone on the inside. The interviews make medical school interviews look like a joke because you're expected to hit the ground running. You need to be intimately familiar with financial topics and financial modeling. If you want to make decent money or if you want decent exit opportunities, you're geographically limited to areas like NYC, London, or Hong Kong. These places are expensive to live in. The work isn't enjoyable: 80-100 hour weeks slaving away in Excel. Analyst pay in NYC is something like $125k/year after bonuses. After 2-3 years you're either promoted to associate or fired. Associate pay is something like $250k/year after bonuses. Many people quit and move to a different industry (PE, HF, VC, etc.) simply because IB work sucks and the hours are horrible. The pay can be much better but the the competition for these industry moves is intense.

Compare it to medicine: match into FM and work 60 hours a week for 3 years as a resident. Make $170k/year as an attending anywhere in the country, working 50 hours a week. No "up or out" mentality, no geographical constraints, no god awful, soul sucking work. It's a much better deal, even with the student loans.
 
images


You are ALL wrong,

1) Get dat street cred.

2) Get in on dat rap game.

3) Get da women.

4) Make chedda.

/backstroke
 
powerfetish said:
That makes no sense. If you are not using any US social services and not living or working here, why should you still have to pay taxes to US?
Click to expand...

because they probably hate foreigners and never let them become citizens. I believe you have to pay taxes if you are a US citizen even if you are not living in the US.
 
1.Born with last name Romney/Rockefeller/Gates
2. ???
3. Profit
 
Well, medicine is the best "surefire" way of making a salary in the >200k range, but if we're taking >1mil...

Entrepreneurship. Start a business, create something people want to buy and sell it. Honestly, that's the only real path to the serious money. That or ibanking and consulting, but who wants to do that?
 
circulus vitios said:
No one in IB cares about you if you went to a non-target school. Your "top 20 school" is meaningless unless it's HPY/MIT/etc. and your resume will be trashed unless you know someone on the inside. The interviews make medical school interviews look like a joke because you're expected to hit the ground running. You need to be intimately familiar with financial topics and financial modeling. If you want to make decent money or if you want decent exit opportunities, you're geographically limited to areas like NYC, London, or Hong Kong. These places are expensive to live in. The work isn't enjoyable: 80-100 hour weeks slaving away in Excel. Analyst pay in NYC is something like $125k/year after bonuses. After 2-3 years you're either promoted to associate or fired. Associate pay is something like $250k/year after bonuses. Many people quit and move to a different industry (PE, HF, VC, etc.) simply because IB work sucks and the hours are horrible. The pay can be much better but the the competition for these industry moves is intense.

Compare it to medicine: match into FM and work 60 hours a week for 3 years as a resident. Make $170k/year as an attending anywhere in the country, working 50 hours a week. No "up or out" mentality, no geographical constraints, no god awful, soul sucking work. It's a much better deal, even with the student loans.
Click to expand...

This is a pretty accurate assessment. My cousin is a second year analyst in ibanking right now and he can't wait to get out this summer. He plans to pursue a JD/MBA afterwards and return to one of the other industries your mentioned (PE, HF, VC, etc.). The dual professional degree from a good name school should make him competitive enough for those positions. My sense of it is that the 2 year ibanking analyst stint is kind of necessary to move forward in the industry, it's sort of like residency in that you have to "pay your dues" before you can move on to better opportunities. The difference is residents don't get paid six figures.

Also, regarding your comment about grad students not being able to patent, I think that's mostly correct. However, I'm not sure how this would change if you chose to drop out immediately after the discovery or wait to get a PhD and patent afterward (likely would have to include your advisor in this case and split earnings on whatever profit you would make).
 
Sidereum said:
Well, medicine is the best "surefire" way of making a salary in the >200k range, but if we're taking >1mil...

Entrepreneurship. Start a business, create something people want to buy and sell it. Honestly, that's the only real path to the serious money. That or ibanking and consulting, but who wants to do that?
Click to expand...

True, although keep in mind entrepreneurship is certainly possible in medicine. You just have to come up with a treatment or procedure that has never been done before, which is obviously much easier said than done.
 
Chasing wild dreams of excessive wealth is a young person's thing.

Me? I would be happy with a nice house, a couple of well equipped cars, and being able to buy stuff without performing calculus with my checkbook.

Can medicine do THAT for me?
 
1. Have a nice ass.
2. Get fake tits (or have nice natural ones).
3. Work for Dick Rodman & Associates.
 
1. Marry rich.
2. Get lucky with a business idea.
3. MBA/finance.

The end.
 
1) Get yourself trapped in a remote Asian prison so that you can fight prisoners to prove and push yourself

2) Get recruited to the League of Shadows

3) Run away from the League of Shadows

4) Get a Batman Costume

5) Don Batman costume and rob banks. Use your fighting skills to stay away from the long arm of the law.
 
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