Hold up, sit down, be humble

Hey everyone, time for more of a finance culture post, rather than a markets post. It's time to get into all the buzz around these cringeworthy banking TikToks.

After writing this post, I realize it may go against traditional “high finance norms” but still think it’s worth to add my “I didn’t grow up with a trust fund” perspective to how we finance folk conduct ourselves publicly, particularly on TikTok. My points in this newsletter are the following:

• 1) Posting excess on TikTok will get you roasted by the FinMeme community.

• 2) What’s the need to even post these flex videos in the first place?

• 3) Should we be flexing less in real life in the first place? Especially going into a economic downturn?

I made the observation recently, that a lot of the TikTok “Day in the Life” Posters seem to be Interns-early 2nd year Analysts who unfortunately are expressing questionable judgement on the internet. While most of us laugh, some of these videos are poorly received by higher ups who may want to punish the TikTok maker as a result (think of that TikTok where a whole analyst team pretended to be strolling in late to the office, or that Tik Tok where a banking analyst was sitting around from 9pm-11pm hanging out before “dumping her work on her associate at 2am”). I’m here to try to help stop the TikToks though. I noted in my advice for interns column in all caps as point number one to never post a TikTok about banking (Full List Here). A big reason a lot of these TikToks rub people the wrong way is because it’s straight up cringeworthy – but in some instances there’s more to it than that.

Look, to be honest, most of the poorly conceived TikToks aren’t bad, they’re just a little weird, but they’re pretty harmless. Hell, all of these TikToks are harmless – but they still realllly rile people up on the internet and can be a bad look. These type of posts really strike a nerve with some people because it may come across as out of touch with the fact that a lot of people in the US and Europe aren’t having a good time at all. Sometimes in Manhattan, or a big city, it’s easy to forget how many people are struggling because of the moderation in wage growth, record high inflation, and complications driven from the covid-19 pandemic. Some of these TikTok kids clearly come from money and are splashing it around like it was all earned from a first-year salary or from “entrepreneurship". Naturally, a lot of TikTok videos showing analysts bragging about comp, over indulgencing on fancy night outs, taking Uber Blacks everywhere on a <$100k base, or barely working during their "day in the life", are roasted immediately.

There’s also a general instinct to be harder on younger generations the older you get, which may be partially fair, but also maybe a bit too harsh. Maybe older bankers look back on how much they were tortured early on and can’t believe that young analysts nowadays seem to have more relaxed days and can spend time dancing around on TikTok.

Regardless, I have this account to satirize how cringeworthy, cocky, or out of touch we can be as Finance people, and tbh to even make fun of myself as someone way too into finance. I don’t think we’re going too far by making fun of an out of touch TikToks for a day. I mean, the creators of the TikToks chose with their own free will to post xyz video. The reality is though, when these TikToks happen the creators become a main character for like a day, then everyone online forgets about it and moves on. Not the end of the world.

With that said, I realize I haven’t followed through the past two times on my “if you ask for me to take it down I will” promise I made here and realize that’s a mistake. After being asked recently, I ran a poll asking if I should take down a TikTok and 75% of people said “Nah, leave it up”, so I followed through on that, but l guess that doesn’t make it right. As a meme admin focused on maintaining anonymity, I shouldn’t be putting junior analysts publicly on blast if they don’t want it. I’m supposed to be helping you guys with jokes + news + resources + advice (such as telling y’all to never post these TikToks to begin with), so I’m sorry. So forgive me for my two past transgressions, if you post an embarrassing TikTok, realize it was a mistake and want it taken down, I will follow through. Obviously, this won’t erase it from the internet. I need to stress once you put something out on the internet, it’s out there. There’s plenty of other meme accounts and twitter accounts that love these videos and I can’t promise they’ll be as reflective as I am now being about taking it down.

With all that said, maybe it’s possible to not publicly document everything you do on the Internet? Tbh I only check my Meme Account, I’m barely on my personal stuff anymore.

Lil Wayne said it best – “Real Gs move in silence like Lasagna” – maybe a life without flashing unnecessary extravagance on the internet or even in life is a good thing? (if you want, all good either way, u can your life whatever way you want)

As I brought up, a lot of these TikToks are criticized because it’s usually a bunch of first-second year analysts flexing. Everyone in a finance bullpen sees this time and time again, most ppl younger than you come in pretty naïve or cocky – and tbh, whether we like to admit it or not, this is how most of us came into the industry. But generally, people are pretty accepting of this as we all kinda started on the street thinking we knew a bit more than we actually did. As long you’re willing to admit and fix shortcomings/small mistakes you made for the first time, then it shouldn’t be an issue. But with the advent of technology, and apps such as BeReal or TikTok, it’s very easy to broadcast whatever you’re trying to prove on social media. I think it’s fair to say a lot of TikToks that get roasted on Instagram broadcast a lot of juniors flaunting wealth and flexing hard. I alluded to this earlier, but I think a lot of people on the internet get angry at this because there’s a high level of income inequality, serious inflationary worries, and covid-19 related hardships throughout this country. This isn’t about pocket-watching, seeing a recent college grad on TikTok barely work then rake in massive comp can be infuriating for some that feel let down by the system. Unfortunately, I think it’s easy for a lot of us coming into Wall Street to have a big ego and maybe to be a little out of touch with common day hardships.

Of Course, this is not meant to criticize how someone spends their money or enjoys their time – it’s meant to highlight that posting it publicly to a broad audience beyond a private social media platform can come off as out of touch or can spiral on the internet in a way you don’t want it to.

Here’s an example of what I mean – a lot of us are too young to remember the Occupy Wall Street movement well, but here’s a good example of the Street being out of touch with the pain of a lot of people:

While Occupy Wall Street was protesting, a bunch of Bankers sipping champagne at 55 Wall Street were looking on with smug looks & snapping photos. At the time, this fueled the fire among the Occupy Wall Street movement and gave off super “let them eat cake” vibes.

Here’s the link to the full story. To relate this to today, this is somewhat of an equivalent to how a lot of people may feel watching an out of touch Banking Tik Tok. 

Let's move past TikTok for the rest of this post though, and ask - is flexing on the internet driven by feeling the need to flex in real life? If so, is the root cause of flaunting on TikTok/social media coming from flaunting to prove something/keep up with the Joneses?

Personally, I feel like I matured significantly after my first 12-18 months on the street and think “man, I was way too cocky when I first started.” I’m about to make some lame as hell admissions – when I first started and saw the advent of the first batch of finance meme accounts dropping “starter packs” with “the midtown uniform” and “deal sleds” I was wondering when I could get my first bonus so I could live the “patagucci life” and spend it all on Brother Jimmy’s, an entry level Rolex, Gucci loafers at way too young of a age, and a table at Catch!

This was dumb as hell, tbh. You realize this quickly once you realize how hard it is to save given how expensive rent and drinking at bars is in NYC. Sure, I eventually got some Gucci loafers and an entry level watch, but I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t bought another watch or another pair of expensive loafers since. Tbh, I barely wear watches – I don’t like the way it feels on my wrist while modelling and typing up memos all day – and the Gucci loafers rarely come out, although I love the jingle jingle on the bits. It didn’t take long for me to realize, “wtf am I spending my money on shit I barely wear? Did I do this just to fit in with latest style/who do I actually care about impressing?”

To sidetrack briefly, I just stopped by goodwill the other day to donate a bunch of clothes I never wear anymore. I wanted to throw this in there because this is something I kept forgetting to do each weekend and finally got around to doing. It’s best to keep a smaller closet in NYC anyways (given how small closets are to begin with) – so hey, if this anecdote serves a reminder for even one person to give away some clothes they don’t wear anymore, I’d chalk that up as a W in my book.

But back to the prior point re: status items that symbolize wealth/success/etc. - who actually gives a shit about buying a boatload of overpriced clothing or shoes? Why regularly spend to impress at all, or why buy something that’s designer when something -80% the price is fine? I mean, look at how these guys dress:

Don’t get me wrong – You Only Live Once (YOLO) – you should be doing and spending whatever you want, and plenty of people enjoy a lot of nice things without needing to flex it on the internet or flex to strangers you just met. It’s just important to remember we’re entering a softening economic environment that may disproportionately impact younger white collar workers.

So what's a good way to think about spending habits as the Fed puts us on a path for a hard landing?

I guess this next part is for anyone who wants to take a step back and think through what’s an expense they actually value vs. an expense they realize isn’t actually accretive long term or in the memory bank. This is also me (like I did in a previous post about my advice on some costs to cut if your budget is tight) highlighting some potential spending habits to address as we near an uncertain economic environment and walking through how I personally choose to allocate my hard earned dollars.

This isn’t for everyone, but my previous post on budgeting mainly advised trying to cut spend on items such as UberEats, restaurants, rent, coffee (can make at home, alcohol (can pregame more), and streaming. You can probably tell that I am a pretty moderate spender and maybe somewhat too frugal, which isn’t a traditional trait of what’s normally portrayed among finance bros. Part of this comes from not growing up with a trust fund, while part of it comes from past experiences where those clothes I barely wore weren’t worth it, that bottle service table was cool but way too overpriced, or where I shouldn’t have bought a material object and should’ve went to a ball game or booked a flight down south instead.

My point being, is I’d rather allocate $ to what matters to me and less to what doesn’t matter to me. For me, it’s Travel, Experience (ball games + a concert), Dates (you can’t count cents on a date) and Saving (to buy a place/to let compound for the many things I’ll need to pay for over the next few decades). For example, right now most of my excess cash flow is being earmarked to buy the dip in stocks when the time is right.

So what expenses are less of a focus to me? Overpriced clothes, overpriced drinks, what apartment I rent (I value owning significantly more than renting, why rent for $4k?), or a mid-af dinner. By a mid-af dinner, I mean one of those places with a $26 burger or a $30 pasta that is hella mid and that you could’ve made at home at a good enough quality. Some high quality food is arguably *worth it* though and everyone who’s had some mouthwatering sushi know it’s worth the price.

Look, what I’m actually trying to say is for me personally I don’t care about the Joneses and flexing on my personal social media platforms. I’m going to spend $$$ on where I get the most value and be cognizant about where to save $. I'm also going to try to not mention I work in Finance within two minutes of meeting someone...but that's a work in progress. This is my perspective as someone who didn’t grow up destined for banking, and especially now that the economy is starting to turn, maybe it is time to forgo some heavy flexing.

All I’m saying, is maybe real Gs do move in silence like Lasagna.

That’s all for now, talk soon.

Best, HYH.