Investing

By now, you’re all probably aware that Donald Trump is officially going to be the next president of the United States. This isn’t a politics blog, so I’m not sharing my thoughts on the matter (plus, I’m no politics expert). Nor is this a blog about the economy, so I’m not going to talk about that either. Heck, I have no idea where the economy will go. Things go up, things go down. Jobs are created, jobs are lost. I don’t really know why it happens.

What I do know is that the doomsday prophecies are out there. Trump is going to cause a recession! Stocks will crash! The rich won’t pay any more taxes! I have no idea if these are true or not. All I can do is stay calm and stick to my game plan.

Earlier this year, I left my high paying, big law firm job and took an attorney job with the state. I did so for a variety of reasons. The hours weren’t great, the work was stressful, and the atmosphere was overall pretty unpleasant. It just wasn’t a great fit for me. I pretty much knew this would be the case going in, but I still needed the job in order to make a big dent in my student loans. As a young lawyer, there really isn’t any other way to make a ton of money except by working at a big law firm.

I ended up paying back my student loans in 2.5 years. With my debt gone, I no longer needed the big paycheck. Since I was free of the student loan burden, money was no longer the primary motivating factor for a job. I could instead look at jobs that I thought would be a better fit for me.