Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and work

Should I quit looking in the legal field and become a stock broker?

xspot — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:41:33 -0800

Out of work law school grad thinking about looking into another career...looking for suggestions....how about a stock broker trainee...? Some background info. Living in NYC area. Recent law grad from 2nd tier school, crappy grades. Majored in finance as an undergrad. Failed the bar first time, worked for a year (non-legal field), out of work for another year before I retook and passed three state bar exams. Since then I've been out of work for another year+. I havent been completely out of work during those 'out of work' times but nothing that I'd put on a resume.
The legal job market seems esp. tough. Amazingly, I've interviewed with a couple of firms for entry level attorney jobs since passing the bar but I know for a fact that two of the firms hired people with 5-6 years experience. Ugh. Have also applied for a bunch of attorney fed/state jobs with no luck. I've known that my prospects for finding a an attorney job in this climate was slim, but I wanted to at least get licensed and was hoping for some luck but I'm now more than ready face 'reality'.... so I'm looking/thinking about a new career path.

Two main questions:
1.Suggestions on a new career path? I know this a ridiculous question to ask to strangers but I'd love to hear some new voices/opinions.
2. There've been alot of stoker broker trainee jobs listing recently...What exactly does a stock broker trainee do and is it worthwhile? Would my law degree/finance degree help at all at getting and keeping this job?

Looking for nonlegal work as a JD was tough, I imagine it'll be the same with a law license. Should I mention that I'm licensed to practice law or that I even went to law school? I definitely dont mind starting from the ground up in a new field but I'm hesitant to switch fields and 'waste' my law degree/license. How hard would it be for me with become an attorney again after working in another field for 4-5 years without any legal experience? Despite how it sounds I dont feel like I HAVE to be a lawyer, I just would like to give it a shot but I'm tired of waiting and not making steady income! I'm not necessarily looking for suggestions in finding legal work, but suggestions or advice would really be welcomed. Thanks.

Should I go work for one company (1-2 month) while waiting for another company's offer?

Anonymous — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:42:24 -0800

Should I accept the offer from company "A", knowing full well that I would go work for company "B" in 1-2 month? I'm sure 99% that B's offer will come, but should I do this as a way of hedging my bets? Hello, fellow hiveminds. I need to ask you guys (gals) something work related, and so I must be anonymous. [Also, English isn't my first language, so please excuse my grammar/spelling.)

I'm 27 years old, got Bachelor in Engineering and Master in Finance. I used to work as a software developer for almost 4 years, then went for a master in the US. Now I have returned and live in Asia. (my hometown)

I got my master recently and have a bit of an "identity crisis". I'm not sure which career path I want to pursue -- in IT or Finance. (I know, it's a bit silly but that's another post all together)

So what I did was sending resumes to both IT and Finance companies. While waiting for the companies to respond (a few weeks), I finally figured it out that I want to go the Finance route. Shortly after that I got an interview, and then an offer from Company A. Nice pays, nice benefits. I also talked with company B and also got an "acceptance" in principle.

I must elaborate about A & B a bit. Company A is a big US software company, specialising in Financial and Legal/consulting business. I don't have anything against A, it's just not the career path I want to pursue.

Company B is also a big international financial firm. I used to work as a programmer for a guy there (my boss) and after discussing with him and his superiors, they're very interested in me and told me that I'll be in his new business plan. Actually, I talked with him on and off about this opportunity since 5 months ago.

This position is the greatest you can ask for, for an entry level position.The problem is, they can't offer me anything concrete until (they are guessing) 1-2 months because of the new business plan. (approval, paperwork and all that)

The reason I'm confident about B's future offer is -- the Top executive at the company really likes me and even called me personally about this opportunity. So it's 95% confidence level for me.

Ok... really long background, sorry. my question is:

Should I accepted an offer from company A? It's a good deal for me, but I'd feel bad about company A. Would there be repercussions if I did? And Are there other [better] solutions?

I welcome all suggestions, and thank you so much for reading through all that.

Passive income stream which covers your mortgage

lilyflower — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 04:23:43 -0800

What would you do if you had a passive income stream which covered your mortgage? I would like people to consider the following situation and give us their opinions on what they would do. We would like to hear how MeFi's out there would respond to having a similar financial position to the one I am going to describe below. This is one that my husband and I are currently entering and although we have our own ideas on how we would like to proceed, we were wondering how different people would approach the same circumstance.

My husband has developed a passive income stream which has consistently brought in enough money to cover our mortgage (approximately $2200 per month). We both work and prior to this passive income stream we still had enough money to cover all of our monthly expenses and save. We have an idea of how we would like our life to pan out, but we are really interested to know how other people might behave given our situation.

Would people turbo charge their pensions, pay off their mortgage faster, rent out their house while they move to different countries and work while they travel, have a child and one spouse no longer works, go part time and earn enough to cover the remaining bills?

I would like to clarify that this question does not concern the long term viability of the passive income stream. I will be happy to clarify my question further but please remember this is more about what you would do with your life given this income stream.

Ways to insulate oneself from the economic downturn?

mintchip — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:38:21 -0800

Ways to make extra cash during the economic downturn? The thing about this economic downturn is that it's harder to do the usual things people used to do when they were worried about finances. In the past, maybe you'd get a part-time job in addition to your regular job...but many of these are in short supply. Maybe you'd sell things on Ebay...but who's buying nowadays?

I'm wondering if you guys would be willing to share all of your money-making ideas for the economic downturn--creative way to make extra cash on a part-time basis. Things that people may not have thought of.

Employer's expectations for new employees.

red_rika — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:32:12 -0800

Employer's expectations for new employees. Hi people, I am 21 currently in my second last semester in my university. I am doing an Economics and Finance Degree. Lately, I have been wondering if my passion is really in this field. But I know its a bit too late for me to change my degree as my family had forked out a huge sum of money for me to study abroad.

I am just wondering how is life after university? What are the expectations of the finance company? I intend to work in a bank probably the Citibank Group in its finance department.

Changing from apples to oranges? No problem!

chan.caro — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:14:43 -0800

How do people break into finance (hedge funds, i-banking) when their concentrations in college had absolutely nothing to do with finance? I have been meeting (and reading about) people who have jobs in the financial industry, yet their backgrounds and majors (poli sci, history, etc.) have never entailed related experience that you would normally think is sought after in finance.

I graduated with a degree in journalism and have always found an interest in the banking/finance industry - I'm currently a legal assistant for a law firm whose clients are major banks - but if there is a way to finagle my way into finance, I'd like to know how!

Tax planning advice for the self employed.

Nothing — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:57:55 -0800

Tax planning advice for the self employed. The web is full of articles, the bookstores are full of guides. But there is so much "get rich quick" and "pay zero taxes" crap out there that I am not sure where to go for good, solid tax planning advice. Is it better to operate as an LLC? An s-corp? What expenses are deductible? What is a good system of recordkeeping? What records should be kept? If I have two related business pursuits, should I keep track of them separately or together? And so on. I know I need to see an accountant, but I'd like to be as educated as possible. Right now I am paying a rather high percentage of a rather small income in taxes. I'm not anti-tax, but I am very pro-eating.

So, what books do you recommend? What websites have accurate, useful articles? What has helped you better understand managing finances as a self employed person?

Easiest & Best Credentials to obtain for Finance Career

Jhaus — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:14:48 -0800

Given the following choices, which would you say is the one that takes the least effort & time to complete, but still has a significant benefit to someone looking for a job? I suppose that any of these would satisfy my curiosity, but I'm looking to satisfy the above requirements I've listed too. 1) CPA 2) CFA 3) MBA 4) JD 5) MA (assume a 36 credit program) 6) Certificate in "X" - examples Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Certificate in Financial Analysis Certificate in Accounting I feel that the most practical and effective way to learn is through experience. Although, having credibility is an essential ingredient when embarking on a career in finance. The socially accepted measurement of this is done via degree/certification level.

I agree that there is much to be gained & learned in acquiring such credentials, but if I'm going to follow this path, I'd like to leave the maximum amount of time for work and readings of my choice...hence, the above question.

Thanks for any feedback!

Robin Hood - men 'n' rights

timpollard — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:27:54 -0800

UKJobsFilter: So, the medieval banqueting centre I've been playing Robin hood at for the past 16 years just rang me up to say they're selling the building to developers, and at the end of April that's it, all done. I've been self-employed for most of that time and have been invoicing on a 'per gig' basis for years now, but I'm wondering if, as they've easily (by a factor of lots) been my main employer for those sixteen years whether a 'that's your lot, chum' is all I'm getting, or is there a 'self-employed severance' for long term invoicers?

We don't want the IRS mad at us.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:48:07 -0800

We have a couple of blogs and use a combination of Google Ads, AdBrite and Amazon Associates placements on them. We're trying to figure out how best to approach the income from these ads on our tax filings... We never thought we'd be making as much as we are making (which still isn't much...not enough to live on), so we hadn't really thought through the tax implications in advance. We were blogging for fun and then...well, income.

Since our Google Ads income exceeded 4 figures this year, we think that we probably have to cover our bases on our upcoming tax return. (More than $7500, less than $10k). Our other income sources posted more modest returns (Amazon, $500+; AdBrite: $500+). To facilitate our blogging, we purchased domain names, paid for hosting services, attended a conference, bought a digital camera, etc. Are these officially expenses?

Also, we'll probably get paperwork from Google for filing with our tax return, but can't imagine that Amazon or AdBrite are going to send us something for those amounts...are we wrong?

I'm a temp and my spouse works full-time so we really don't have experience with this little "side business" situation. Any suggestions for where to research this? Any other folks out there dealing with a similar situation? We are not incorporated or anything "official" like that. Just two regular folks with a laptop who are passionate about the subject we write about.

We talked about hiring a CPA but we've been told that may cost us close to $200-300. Since we're already going to owe the IRS this year, we'd rather try to do this ourselves with Quicken/Turbo Tax. We just don't know how to categorize this unexpected income. Thoughts?

How much do you spend in a semester's time?

limeonaire — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:43:06 -0800

Two-part question about money and spending per semester: first part for college students, second part for those in the post-collegiate working world. College students: How much do you spend in an average semester on expenses other than housing, tuition, and books? (I.e. money spent that doesn't go to your university in some form. If you don't live in on-campus housing, pretend you do by leaving out your housing/cooking/utilities expenses.) The expenses I'm interested in getting a feeling for are a combination of incidentals (eating out, shopping, entertainment) and unavoidable regular expenses (toiletries, cell phone bill).

Post-collegiates: How much do you currently spend in the same categories in the same period of time, i.e. approximately 3.5 months? (Bonus: About how much did you spend per semester when you were an undergraduate?)

I raise this question because as a current college senior, I had my first paying job this semester, albeit one that pays approximately $3.20 an hour, and as I was looking over my bank account activity for the semester...I found that I'd managed to spend a very significant chunk of my meager earnings.

So my recent review of the semester got me wondering how much others in a similar situation are spending, and how much those who are out of college (making "real" money) spend in the same amount of time.

Note: I'm not casting a value judgment on how much people spend (or don't spend), and you shouldn't either when answering this question. Whether you spend $200/semester or $2,000/semester, I simply ask that you refrain from castigating those who spend significantly more or less. Spending levels can be a very touchy subject for some, I've noticed. I'm not interested in hang-ups or value judgments—I just want the facts, whether that means an itemized accounting of your spending or a semester total.