Self-employment method
Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation
13,463 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 13,463 people who filed under this code in 2022, 22.46% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 13,463 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 1,845 | 13.8% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 1,179 | 8.8% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 1,859 | 13.9% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 1,602 | 12.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 1,759 | 13.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 2,414 | 18.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 1,400 | 10.5% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 846 | 6.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 445 | 3.3% |
Who this suits
$55,387 in median gross receipts — $4,615 a month — is a strong figure for this dataset. Revenue at that level survives a normal cost base, which is not true of most codes on this site.
13,463 people filed under this code — enough that the work exists everywhere and not enough that it supports a visible trade. Most people doing Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation are doing it alongside something else.
5,142 filers, 38.2% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
Independent investment work suits people who can build a book under a compliance regime that assumes bad faith and audits accordingly.
There is no training requirement to file under this code — which is precisely why so many people appear in the bottom bands. Entry being free is not the same as the work being viable.
Who should not do this
The top quarter of Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation earns 16.8x the bottom quarter — under $12,528 against over $209,844, a spread of $197,316. Distributions this stretched are usually two different jobs sharing one label, and any average across them means little.
The bottom quarter of Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation earns under $12,528 — $37,492 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this underestimating the compliance overhead; it is a permanent cost, not a setup cost.
3,023 of the 13,463 people filing in 2022 grossed under $10,000 across twelve months — 22.5% of the field. A quarter or more of everyone in Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation took in less revenue than a part-time job would have paid in wages.
That share is a floor, not an estimate: $10,000 is revenue, not earnings. Everyone counted inside it kept less than $10,000, and an unknown number of the filers above it also finished the year with nothing after costs.
What the spread tells you
From $12,528 to $209,844 is 16.8x — the shape of a field where a minority captures most of the money. The midpoint of $55,387 is arithmetic, not a forecast, and treating it as one is the standard mistake here.
Put in money rather than ratios: $12,528 at the 25th percentile, $55,387 at the midpoint, $209,844 at the 75th. $197,316 separates the quarter of Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
Getting to $209,844, the 75th percentile, is worth $154,457 a year more than the $55,387 midpoint and $197,316 more than the $12,528 a quarter of Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation settle for.
The top quarter of Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation begins $154,457 above the $55,387 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $42,859 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Spread across a 2,080-hour year those receipts come to $26.62 an hour at the midpoint, $6.02 at the 25th percentile and $100.88 at the 75th. That is turnover per hour, not pay per hour, and it is not comparable with the $24.04 an hour a typical American job pays.
Straight from the Census bands for Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation: 1,845 filers under $5,000, 1,179 between $5,000 and $9,999, 1,859 between $10,000 and $24,999, 5,105 above $100,000 and 2,691 above $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $55,387 midpoint for Investment Banking and Securities Intermediation is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $55,387 salary.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $55,387 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else