Debt

Pay Off Your Student Loans Now – It Doesn’t Get Any Easier Later

Last Updated on January 10, 2017January 10, 2017 28 Comments
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I recently realized that I’m turning 30 in a few weeks. As I was reflecting on entering my 30s and the things I’ve achieved, one thing occurred to me – I must be in the minority of recent lawyers that will be entering their 30s with absolutely no student loan debt remaining.

This is sort of interesting when you think about it. Student loans have become so normalized in our society that we just expect everyone to have them now. This is especially true for most high income professions that require many years of post-college schooling. When you include all the time spent accruing debt in grad school, it’s not uncommon for someone to keep their debt around for a decade or more. A lawyer graduating at age 25 could easily still have their student loan debt kicking around until they’re 35 or older. I know of dentists that will be paying their student loans well into their 50s!

A common refrain is that you’ll pay more on your student loans sometime in the future…

Why Your Average Lawyer Can’t Pay Their Student Loans

Last Updated on October 31, 2018September 30, 2016 31 Comments
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I usually get praise for the fact that I was able to pay off $87,000 in student loans in 2.5 years. It’s definitely one of my proudest money moves and, importantly, it opened up a lot of doors for me. Not being forced to stay in any particular job because I “needed” the income greatly improved my quality of life.

But sometimes when I share my story, rather than praise, I’m met with scoffs.

Of course you were able to pay off your student loans quickly! You’re a big shot lawyer making six figures a year!

But these scoffs got me thinking. The assumption appeared to be that anyone in my position could do what I did.

So, if I was able to pay off my student loans off as fast as I did, why weren’t others in my position doing the same?

If You Are Young And Have A High Income: Treat It As A Windfall

Last Updated on September 17, 2016July 18, 2016 16 Comments
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By almost any measure, I had hit the jackpot. I graduated from law school in 2013, with honors, and landed a job at one of the largest law firms in the midwest. In an era when law students were – and still are – frequently finding themselves unemployed or underemployed, I was one of the “lucky” ones. My starting salary in my first ever real job was $110,000 per year. Here I was, a 26 year old kid making a salary that my middle class parents had never earned in their entire lives. The most I had ever earned in a year before was about $20,000.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for 25-34 year olds in the United States is $38,324 a year. I was making nearly 3 times that amount. By 2016, my salary rose to $125,000 per year. I was a baller!

But, like almost all new lawyers (or almost anyone entering a high paying professional field), I also had sizable student loan debt: about $87,000 worth.

What Financial Health Means To Me

Last Updated on June 28, 2017June 27, 2017 11 Comments
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I like to think that I’m pretty financially healthy. At 30 years old, I’m in a fairly unique position. I’m currently debt free after paying off nearly six figures worth of student loans in just a few years. I’ve got a sizable emergency fund that should cover me in the event of a disaster. And my net worth continues to grow each year as I continue to push myself to save as much of my income as I possibly can.

We have a plan of attack for my wife’s student loans as well. If all goes as planned, we’ll have her debt paid off within a year or two. A dentist/lawyer couple in their early 30s paying off all of their student loans in just a few years isn’t just a unique proposition. It’s pretty much unheard of.

I’m Back In Debt Again

Last Updated on May 17, 2017May 17, 2017 29 Comments
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As you can probably tell from reading this blog, I’m pretty proud of how fast I paid off all of my student loans. It took me just 2.5 years to pay off all $87,000 worth of it. As a brief recap, I started my first job in the fall of 2013, started paying down my debt for real at the beginning of 2014, and paid off the last of my student loans in 2016. By the time I reached a $0 student loan balance, I hadn’t even been in the workforce for three years! In hindsight, that’s actually pretty astounding. There probably aren’t a ton of lawyers out there that are debt free three years out of law school.

With my recent marriage, however, it looks like I’m officially going right back into debt again in the form of my wife’s student loans. She graduated from dental school in 2014. Since then, she’s done a one-year hospital residency and is now currently in the middle of a three-year specialty residency. Needless to say, four years of dental school, four more years of post-dental school training, and no significant income since 2010 means that she’s sitting on a pretty high student loan balance. It’s a little bit over six figures at this point.

When Leaving Big Law, The Financial Struggle Shouldn’t Be Real

Last Updated on January 22, 2018February 27, 2017 29 Comments
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One of the maddening things about working in big law was seeing so many of my colleagues squandering the golden opportunity that they had in front of them. There aren’t a ton of situations in which a 25-year old can make six-figures a year right out of school with basically no prior work experience. For the vast majority of new big law associates, that first-year salary might be more money than they’ve made in all of their other previous working years combined.

That’s why it always bothered me when I saw my colleagues renting expensive, luxury apartments and talking about the hip, new, foodie restaurant they hit up over the weekend. It wasn’t the money they spent that bugged me the most. What really bugged me was how normal a lot of them treated their big law salary. To me, earning six figures a year at 26-years old was a huge deal! I’d never even made more than $20,000 in a year. The way I saw it, this money was a blessing. And it wasn’t meant to be squandered.