Blogging about obscene money with a tinge of envy

Do you know how much CIMB investment bankers earn?

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Some work till around 9 p.m. in the Treasury department. Doing something like trading. It's not an easy job, but not rocket science either.

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So, my sister and I were lamenting over our wages over the dinner table. Ok, more like she was going on about her meagre increment. I was just listening being the good sister that I am. =D.

Then I remembered a conversation I had with a colleague of mine and blurted out the question,

" Do you know how much CIMB investment bankers earned in bonuses last year? Well... officially, it's twelve months...."

My sister stares and me and goes, "Yup, officially it's 12 months... unofficially it's 24 months. AND they have a base pay of 7000 a month..." (do the math).

We both stared down at our plates and start shaking our heads at the sad reality. Imagine a 28-30 yr old taking home 250,000 a year. We tell each other it's an obscene amount of money. And given the recession that grazed the tip of our heads last year, that kind of money was definitely not justified anywhere in the world.

Nevertheless, it's always good to put things into perspective.

A McKinsey fresh grad earns 10000 a month. But given the late hours, tons of traveling and tons of strategising ... 10000 is a justified amount.

I admit, I am not a CIMB employee so I may not know what really goes on internally. Additionally, i've always had a grudge against this bank (for some reason or other). Much of my judgmental behaviour stems from hearsay. So please, correct me if I am due to be corrected, but seriously, 24 months bonus is waaaaaaaaaayyyyy out of line.