Morning Coffee: Ex-Goldman analyst who retired aged 34 beset by financial anxiety. The other, unusual, option for JPMorgan CEO

If you work in finance, and you're saving or investing a large proportion of your income, you may be a proponent of the FIRE movement. Unlike the (supposed) altruistic saving-to-donate of Sam Bankman-Fried, FIRE (financial independence retire early) is about saving as much as possible while you're working in order that you don't have to work until you're old. However, that also presumes that you won't spend very much once you don't have an income. 

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Sam Dogen, a former equities salesman who spent two years as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, followed by 11 years at Credit Suisse before retiring aged 34, has made that mistake. Dogen, who now has two children, decided that he had to have a "real forever home" even though his two children were happy in the old one, and now has to get a job. He's based in the Bay Area and is looking for something in consulting that pays at least $142k gross. He hasn't had a proper job for 12 years. Nor has his wife, who once worked in operations.

Dogen's dilemma is the sort of thing that might dissuade anyone else with 11 Credit Suisse and two Goldman Sachs bonuses behind them from declaring that they're now ready to reap purely passive income, but things are actually not that bad. Dogon has actually spent his early retirement developing a website about his early retirement and selling books on the same subject. There, he reveals that although he still has $230k a year of "purely passive income" coming in, he wants to spend $288k a year on his family. Therein lies the problem. 

Dogen's case seems like an attempt to get traffic to his website. Last summer he claimed that inflation had destroyed his lifestyle and that he was planning to live with his parents and become a teacher. If anyone wants to give him a $141k job, he is clearly also very good at self-publicity.

Separately, Daniel Pinto isn't the only one in the running to replace Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan. There's also Marianne Lake, who was promoted as sole CEO of the consumer and community bank in last week's reshuffle. 

We have our own profile of Lake here, but The Sunday Times has spotted her and that a British woman is now in the running to become CEO of America's finest bank.  

Been British and female aren't Lake's only claims to unconventionality, though. As we observed two years ago, she also became a mother aged 42 with no partner and has since had three children through surrogates. "I never worried about raising a kid on my own. I'm 42, not 20 with my eyes closed. The circumstances aren't traditional, but I didn't hesitate to do it," she told Marie Claire 10 years ago. Lake reportedly tells her story to empower other women to do the same. 

Meanwhile....

It's a terrible time to be a managing director in Asia. People usually earn $1m now they have a mere $700-$800k. (Bloomberg) 

Bank of America's banking bonuses were down up to 3% but star performers got more. (Reuters)  

A group of employees at Abrdn are exploring whether to mount a legal challenge after redundancy payouts were halved and parental leave reduced. (Financial Times). 

JPMorgan trades on a valuation multiple of 1.6 times its estimated book value compared with 1 times for Goldman. It helps that JPMorgan has $2.4trn of deposits and pays 0.01% annually on its checking accounts and 0.02% annually on its savings accounts, while charging borrowers market interest rates. (Financial Times) 

Hedge fund Verition has a new London office. (Bloomberg) 

If you work in fintech, you might want to make it a B2B fintech now. (Forbes) 

Dubai hedge funds rose 125% last year. (MarketsMedia) 

Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management wants $100m from its compliance advisors for bad advice. (Bloomberg) 

Cathy Wood make 68% returns last year. “Honestly, I think what happened to us in 2021 and 2022 — a worse downturn than the Nasdaq during the tech and telecom bust — that doesn’t make any sense, because innovation is here and ready for prime time.” (Financial Times)  

Older workers drink, younger workers get depressed. (Financial Times) 

My wife and I are working flat out to pay £20k a year in school fees for our son with ADHD. (Independent) 

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