Major in Finance and Banking - You Will Get a Bonus

 According to
William D. Cohan"Two billion, nine-hundred million dollars is the amount of money the mighty Goldman Sachs accrued in the third quarter of 2008 for “compensation and benefits” to potentially be paid out in the form of bonuses to the firm’s 30,000 or so employees sometime in December. The third-quarter accrual represents a whopping 50% decline from the $5.9 billion accrual for the third-quarter of 2007. For the nine months so far this year, Goldman has accrued $11.4 billion for bonuses, down one-third from $16.9 billion accrued for nine months in 2007. Last year, Goldman paid out a record $20.2 billion in “compensation and benefits” and it is more than a little obvious that this year the payout will be down significantly, with something in the 40% range looking likely."


If your kid goes to college, and does not know what to major in?  Tell them banking , commerce and finance, financial advising, investments or just a degree in business.  Then start an MBA and get a job on Wall Street in an investment bank.

A law degree cannot hurt. These firms need lawyers to keep the execs out of jail. So a law degree is very important too.
The bigger the firm - the better.  That way you will be too big to fail.

The firm you work  for can screw up, almost go broke, get a bail out, and you will likely get a bonus.


You can screw up. And you will get a bonus. 

This is the only industry in the world where you will get rewarded for failure, the  only other place where this can happen is in the Congress.