How come people who work in finance aren't all millionaires?

You would think people who are working as investment bankers and securities analyst, even currency traders would all be millionaires, since they know how to make money for other people, but why aren't they?

1) You need money to make money; a lot of the investment professionals don't make enough money to cover their lavish lifestyles (ie. high income earners may not be good at saving their money, and might end up with larger debts than the average person).
2) Some professionals are restricted from participating in certain offerings due to "conflict of interest" concerns or other regulatory reasons. Trading rules prevent specific actions that would put the professional in an advantageous position over the client.
3) Investenting can be like gambling; certain speculators make, and lose, millions of dollars several times over during their working careers.

guess theyre just not good at what they do...

they are not millionaires, but they are rich very rich

or they just don't have the personality of what it takes to be a millionaire.

It depends how good they are at their job. Some are..the really talented, clever ones who are hardworkers. Others don't care that much about their jobs, or maybe are not very high up in the company they work for, so do not have as successful a career.

I guess the same reason that doctors get sick. Just because you have more knowledge than most, it doesn't mean you can control what happens any better than anyone else.

Being a millionaire is not about just making money; it's also about spending consistently less than you earn and living well below your means...

As to currency traders, about 15% of them blow up every year...

A lot of the good ones are millionaires. Many are better salesmen than they are investors. Some are in jail. It takes all kinds.

Actually, all of them that I know are. That's why I'm seriously considering getting my CFP and analyzing my way into millionaire status. An American Idol contract is out of the question for me, so I think this is my best fallback position!

are they working for the millionaires and they are so crafty they won't let anybody who they employe become a millionaire - clever!!

Some of us are. We get that way by exploiting the wage slaves who lack the initiative to take risks.

Because the boss pay minimum wages.

And whatever happens to Human Resource happens.

because you have to invest money to make money, and they haven't got enough to invest.

In my experience the vast majority of finance majors are not millionaires. The hardworking, lucky ones may be and the ones you hear about on tv may be. But if you used that logic then you would probably believe that all baseball players (major league or not) are millionaires or that all high school footbal players are millionaires.

Besides it takes money to make money and all of the finance related jobs you mentioned are really taking money and gambling it on things likes currency trades or stocks etc. If you really think you can pick a good investment then do like Andrew Carnegie [billionaire robber baron] did, take out a personal loan, invest the loan amount in whatever investment you think is going to win, pay off the loan with the investment proceeds and keep the rest.

All of the securities analysts I know actually have accounting degrees. I would seriously recommend getting an accounting degree focused on managerial accounting rather a finance degree. I am an accountant and everything I learned in my finance classes was actually already taught in my accounting classes. Despite the popular myth all accountants do not "do taxes" actually very few do. If like memorizing inane laws and regulation then you could be very successful in it. Managerial accounting focuses on analyzing business and prduct lines to figure what makes money and what doesn't. All of the ratio analysis included there is applocable to picking investments etc.

The book Rich Dad Poor Dad might answer your question. I just bought it this morning and have read the first chapter. It raised the same question.

Because all occupations have varying incomes. For example not all actors are millionaires.

Because they are either honest or stupid

Why aren't all the people who work in the Health Services healthy then ?

How many fat, unfit nurses, doctors dentists etc do you see ?

Most are ... to be honest, most people in front line positions like trading, M&A and structured debt make a tonne of cash ... that's why over 1000 guys in the City got 7 figure bonuses last year, that leaves 000s and 000s more who make between 101k and 999k a year

But, that said, there's an extraordinary amount of idiots who work in the City, in great jobs, earning good money

either because they are not paid enough or they spend too much and dont save properly.

People in Finance tend to be risk averse and analyse opportunities to death. Therefore, they are usually too late to grab an opportunity when it arises.

Its a very good question. I think to make millions you need to have a really good product. They may know the legalities of money but that's it!

Money is a strange matter! I have found that if lots of people do the same thing then it is difficult to get rich from that. It's just like any profession.

If only money was easier to make............