How much money do you earn? And how do you spend it?

[Sly21C]

Congrats on the promotion JeffreyStal

Can also confirm my earnings and career are similar. My base salary is a fair bit lower than yours but due to me working in investment banking my bonuses can be over 50% my annual CtC bringing me up to about that per month, once a little more.

I was also Engineering -> Consulting via small firm to investment banks -> working for investment bank -> Promotions in investment bank.

I think the top of the finance industry in SA seems to have very high salaries compared to the average. When these salary surveys do the rounds I find salaries in my sector up to double what I see on those depending on seniority.

I'm currently in Civil Engineering (Structural). I participate in share trading once in a while, and have a huge interest in finance. I wonder what a person like me with a Diploma in Civil Engineering can do to earn as much as R90k instead of my current and poor R30k. I'm 32 years old, male, single, no kids.

 

[theratman]

I'm currently in Civil Engineering (Structural). I participate in share trading once in a while, and have a huge interest in finance. I wonder what a person like me with a Diploma in Civil Engineering can do to earn as much as R90k instead of my current and poor R30k. I'm 32 years old, male, single, no kids.

That's not too bad, get a degree?

 

[TehStranger]

I'm currently in Civil Engineering (Structural). I participate in share trading once in a while, and have a huge interest in finance. I wonder what a person like me with a Diploma in Civil Engineering can do to earn as much as R90k instead of my current and poor R30k. I'm 32 years old, male, single, no kids.

Degree and industry change might help you. I'm in Fintech and R30,000 at 32 is heavily behind the curve (unless you're the tea lady).

 

[Cius]

That's not too bad, get a degree?

Through the technical wing of Unisa I know my brother in law converted his diploma into a degree and get more senior work. He jumped from around what you are at to 60K+ in about 2-3 years that way. In this country getting the paper behind you does help. It is possible to get ahead without a degree and I work with some guys like that but its a lot harder to get your foot in the door that way. For a lot of jobs in the high paying side people won't even look at candidates who dont have a decent degree, preferably with some kind of heavy maths (BSc Math, BSc IT, Engineering, Finance, Stats, etc).

 

[hj007]

Impressive. What do you do for a living? Also no kids/school fees?

yes, unfortunately no kids. Might adopt or help out some others, perhaps domestic's kid for Uni, not sure.
Am working in finance currently, but might go back to IT eventually.

 

[Sly21C]

That's not too bad, get a degree?

I'm currently busy with my Btech degree, but I won't stop there. I'll see what to do next.

Degree and industry change might help you. I'm in Fintech and R30,000 at 32 is heavily behind the curve (unless you're the tea lady).

I'm behind the curve in my industry already. Thanks for the comment.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Looks like I need to move to finance soon. I'm 33 and run a small dev shop. I do all the higher level dev work for the clients, including application architecture. Have some large clients in manufacturing and finance sectors, but my gross salary isn't near what some of you lot earn. No bonuses or dividends either. Not yet, anyway. Hope that changes soon.

 

[Thor]

I earn 100%

I save ( shares and other) 70%

I live 30%

Give or take 10% some months

 

[CamiKaze]

Degree and industry change might help you. I'm in Fintech and R30,000 at 32 is heavily behind the curve (unless you're the tea lady).

It really depends on what you do in FinTech, as you pointed out in your sentence as well.
Are you more in IT or on the Business side of things?

 

[HavocXphere]

Looks like I need to move to finance soon.

Join the dark side

I'm currently in Civil Engineering (Structural).

wtf thought your in the finance game

 

[krycor]

It really depends on what you do in FinTech, as you pointed out in your sentence as well.
Are you more in IT or on the Business side of things?

Pretty much.. but to be in the business side u need to know the IT side in one way or another and the ones that don't, don't last long enough to get there.

Question for those abroad though.. is the finance sector abroad the same?

 

[HavocXphere]

Question for those abroad though.. is the finance sector abroad the same?

Depends on where you go.

I find that there is a lot more specialised stuff though - there is stuff here with large amounts of people specialising in it that I didn't even know existed. In general it's quite challenging & less repetitive. Eg in SA I had exposure to 3 types of corporate entities...now all of a sudden it's a dozen different company types falling under different jurisdictions across the globe & they're all interlinked.

Also a lot more business travel.

 

[cguy]

Pretty much.. but to be in the business side u need to know the IT side in one way or another and the ones that don't, don't last long enough to get there.

Question for those abroad though.. is the finance sector abroad the same?

It can be even more extreme here. People can make 10x more in finance... assuming they very clearly add that kind of value of course.

 

[Cius]

I earn 100%

I save ( shares and other) 70%

I live 30%

Give or take 10% some months

Sounds like the mr money mustache approach! Planning on retiring before age 35?

 

[f2wohf]

Pretty much.. but to be in the business side u need to know the IT side in one way or another and the ones that don't, don't last long enough to get there.

Question for those abroad though.. is the finance sector abroad the same?

You can in London or NY being very good, but the salaries won't get much higher than here and the competition is way more difficult. In Paris, forget about it. Not sure about the other places.

 

[Pavan]

Last job in SA - 2014. Age at that time - 29. Salary 91k pm. Industry - Telco. Business Unit: Commercial

Now in the UK, so can't make a fair comparison to SA stats.

 

[TehStranger]

It really depends on what you do in FinTech, as you pointed out in your sentence as well.
Are you more in IT or on the Business side of things?

Business side, and I'm not at a startup/small player which also has an impact to be fair.

 

[Thor]

Sounds like the mr money mustache approach! Planning on retiring before age 35?

I don't conform to anyone who has money or rich in their surname haha, but I do plan on living comfortably in my thirties, I won't retire I don't think I'll ever not want to work.

I love what I do so damn much. I don't think I've ever worked I wake up excited.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Last job in SA - 2014. Age at that time - 29. Salary 91k pm. Industry - Telco. Business Unit: Commercial

Now in the UK, so can't make a fair comparison to SA stats.

Fml even more...

 

[CamiKaze]

Business side, and I'm not at a startup/small player which also has an impact to be fair.

Well, I can tell you that I'm not at a small FinTech either and the Business side almost always earns/pays more than the IT side. I guess it's because in a FinTech, IT is seen as a service that supports business.
I am however slowly making my way into business.