So You Make Good Money, Have Alternate Investments - Still, That's Not "Real Money"

 In that global overlay in society of those who own the wealth there is a phrase: real money.

That differentiates the value of their assets and compensation from those who probably will never penetrate that magic circle.

So, who are those locked outside?

They include equity partners in Big Law. Here are their numbers, provided by ATL, for 2021:

. Wachtell $8.4M
2. Kirkland $7.388M
3. Davis Polk $7.01M
4. Sullivan & Cromwell $6.366M
5. Paul Weiss $6.162M
6. Simpson Thacher $5.980M
7. Cravath $5.803M
8. Quinn Emanuel $5.746M
9. Latham $5.705M

Not shabby. And there were probably some high-fives going around. Also note that the PEP for Paul Weiss met the projection its chairperson Brad Karp had made in a Bloomberg Law interview. Just as Karp said, it did cross that line beyond  $6 million. 

Also, the EPs through their own investment savvy, especially those with Wall Street clients, can augment the building of wealth through alternates such as private equity. Now those PE firms such as Apollo and Blackstone allow in mere millionaires. That used to be a billionaires' club.

However, few if any in Big Law will make it to the real money of a Sergey Brin or an Elon Musk.

So, streetsmart youth eager to access real money might decide not to do the jump through all the hoops required to become an EP. It's a hard way to make even a good living. The joke is that you get to be an EP by winning a pie-eating contest. Then you are an EP. What you discover is that there is more pie to eat. 

There are other paths to real money. They include:

Marrying it. But that might not be worth it. The person with that kind of money might be a dead ringer for what novelist Tom Wolfe harshly describes as "A Man in Full." I know. I had a shot at looping into all that. Fortunately for both of us I didn't know how to use a gun.

Being a member of what resentment-laden Buddy Cianci called "The Lucky Sperm Club." You have parents with real money who will leave it to you. If you don't, then do visual affirmations for landing those kinds of parents in your next life. It is said that we choose our parents.

Start something. Tech isn't very promising currently. But there are other things. What about a global spiritual awakening? 

Do wrong the right way. Lawyers know all about that. 

Another wrinkle in the real money story is to transcend it.

The current cool is be a Super Frugal.

The Wall Street Journal recognizes our couragous existence, amid the capitalistic pressures to spend recklessly. My article on how I transitioned from the extreme hunger for more to minimalism - and how you can too - is getting a lot of attention.

Because my lifestyle brakes hard on spending I could yank the plug on a retainer relationship with a major law firm. I wasn't doing real work. And since the "they" didn't create the NDA for me or a contract specifying what the hell it was all about, I was coming undone.  

Real money gives freedom. But so does minimalism. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com. Conjure up magical results in your communications.

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