There is an old adage that if you live like a lawyer while you're in law school, then you'll live like a law student when you are an attorney. I find this to be true. At what other time in life would someone with no income and no assets feel it necessary to rack up $100k+ in debt. Unless you have a trust fund, you borrow excessively to attend law school imagining that it will instantly disappear after you pass the bar exam and become a licensed attorney. I even have a friend who borrowed an additional $10k to go to Europe while she was still a student...while I'm sure she had tons of fun, right now I am thankful that I'm not her. I made my fair share of mistakes though.
We are all sold on promises of fortune in law school. Not all of us get it, and even some of those who do would rather not have the responsibilities that go with it. Four years after law school, I still have an enormous amount of debt. I am realizing that it doesn't do any good to sit around and complain about the debt and blame our schools or our poor parents for it. I am coming to terms with the fact that I was never guaranteed anything by my school except for an education, and I feel that I received a very good one. I am fortunate that I make pretty good money (though nowhere near what most of us expected), but I still have an enormous amount of debt. Since graduation, I have done a number of things to make a dent in this.
I do know some people who were able to get financial assistance from their parents after law school. I was not fortunate enough to be one of these people. I was the first person in my family who dared to go to graduate school, and as such, I am on my own figuring out how to pay for it.
The first thing I did was consolidate my federal loans. While this may seem like a no brainer, I did miss the 6 month window following graduation when I could have reduced my interest rate an addition .25%. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but when I look at how much that will cost me long term, I cringe. Handling my federal student loans since graduation has definitely been the easy part. I was fortunate to be able to consolidate with Direct Loans. When I was unemployed I was able to defer my student loan payments, and when I was underemployed I was able to get a forbearance, so I could focus my attention on higher interest rate debts. The one thing I do know is that you cannot escape these loans. Just ask a friend of mine who did not consolidate her loans, then defaulted on one of her loan payments, and now she has to pay $1350 per month for just that one loan payment or have her wages garnished! The federal government will get theirs...
To make extra money to pay debt, I went back to doing all the fun things I did to make extra money in college. These are things that do not require a substantial time requirement and are financially lucrative. No I haven't gone so far as to sell my eggs and plasma like some college kids, but I do a lot of little side projects.
I participate in market research studies when I can. Since I live in a major US city these are more readily available to me, so I take full advantage. These companies need opinions from people of all ages and backgrounds and usually pay $75-$150 per hour for you to give your opinions on products and services. Easy money. I am also registered with a company as an independent contractor to review deposition transcripts and prepare summaries on the Internet. I am paid per page and can accept or reject projects as I chose. As with most things in life if you do a good job, you will be offered more work. I have even participated in mystery shopping around town, earning extra cash taking pictures of sinks and trying on clothes...It pays, so why not? I know a lot of lawyers who think I am crazy to participate in these menial projects, but when do you become too good to make money?...that's crazy!
Then there are the more drastic cuts to my life. To decide what I needed to eliminate from my life, I prepared a detailed budget. I wrote down the interest rates of my private loans and credit card debt and set a payoff goal of 3-4 years for these debts (I plan to keep my lower interest rate federal loans for life!). Then I used debt payoff calculators readily available on the Internet to see exactly what I needed to pay to get each debt paid off in that amount of time. That became my minimum payment for that debt in my new budget and a fixed expense. Since getting out of debt is my number one goal in life, everything else on my budget had to be reworked so I could live within my means. I had to give up the attitude that someday I will be make more money and then I will be able to pay off this debt. Yes someday that may happen, but it's not happening today, so I need to take charge of things. I eliminated my house phone and went exclusively no frills mobile. I reduced my food budget substantially, so I can't eat out a lot and have to clip coupons...but it's been good for my waistline (I'm finally ditching that extra weight I packed on in school, but that's for another day). So far it has been working, and I am on track to meet my goal.
I sold a few things too. I decided that I could make it with public transportation and my own two feet, so for the first time in 14 years I do not own a vehicle. It was hard to let the car go, but with soaring gas prices parking expenses, maintenance, and car and insurance payments, I think I made the right decision...it's better for the environment anyway.
I realized that I didn't need all those old CDs I had converted into MP3s, so I sold them. I didn't need a nice DVD collection when I had already seen the movies, so I sold it. It's amazing what you can live without when you decide to get out of debt. In law school I used a laptop, but I sold it when it no longer seemed like a necessity. I'm getting back to basics. It doesn't matter that I am an attorney. I am thinking like a person who has no money because as long as I have more in the debt than the asset column that's who I am. It's time to stop putting on an act and living beyond my means on hope because all lawyers are supposed to make insane amounts of money. Once I am debt free, even a small paycheck will seem huge because it will all be mine. Then I can be whatever kind of lawyer I want.
We are all sold on promises of fortune in law school. Not all of us get it, and even some of those who do would rather not have the responsibilities that go with it. Four years after law school, I still have an enormous amount of debt. I am realizing that it doesn't do any good to sit around and complain about the debt and blame our schools or our poor parents for it. I am coming to terms with the fact that I was never guaranteed anything by my school except for an education, and I feel that I received a very good one. I am fortunate that I make pretty good money (though nowhere near what most of us expected), but I still have an enormous amount of debt. Since graduation, I have done a number of things to make a dent in this.
I do know some people who were able to get financial assistance from their parents after law school. I was not fortunate enough to be one of these people. I was the first person in my family who dared to go to graduate school, and as such, I am on my own figuring out how to pay for it.
The first thing I did was consolidate my federal loans. While this may seem like a no brainer, I did miss the 6 month window following graduation when I could have reduced my interest rate an addition .25%. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but when I look at how much that will cost me long term, I cringe. Handling my federal student loans since graduation has definitely been the easy part. I was fortunate to be able to consolidate with Direct Loans. When I was unemployed I was able to defer my student loan payments, and when I was underemployed I was able to get a forbearance, so I could focus my attention on higher interest rate debts. The one thing I do know is that you cannot escape these loans. Just ask a friend of mine who did not consolidate her loans, then defaulted on one of her loan payments, and now she has to pay $1350 per month for just that one loan payment or have her wages garnished! The federal government will get theirs...
To make extra money to pay debt, I went back to doing all the fun things I did to make extra money in college. These are things that do not require a substantial time requirement and are financially lucrative. No I haven't gone so far as to sell my eggs and plasma like some college kids, but I do a lot of little side projects.
I participate in market research studies when I can. Since I live in a major US city these are more readily available to me, so I take full advantage. These companies need opinions from people of all ages and backgrounds and usually pay $75-$150 per hour for you to give your opinions on products and services. Easy money. I am also registered with a company as an independent contractor to review deposition transcripts and prepare summaries on the Internet. I am paid per page and can accept or reject projects as I chose. As with most things in life if you do a good job, you will be offered more work. I have even participated in mystery shopping around town, earning extra cash taking pictures of sinks and trying on clothes...It pays, so why not? I know a lot of lawyers who think I am crazy to participate in these menial projects, but when do you become too good to make money?...that's crazy!
Then there are the more drastic cuts to my life. To decide what I needed to eliminate from my life, I prepared a detailed budget. I wrote down the interest rates of my private loans and credit card debt and set a payoff goal of 3-4 years for these debts (I plan to keep my lower interest rate federal loans for life!). Then I used debt payoff calculators readily available on the Internet to see exactly what I needed to pay to get each debt paid off in that amount of time. That became my minimum payment for that debt in my new budget and a fixed expense. Since getting out of debt is my number one goal in life, everything else on my budget had to be reworked so I could live within my means. I had to give up the attitude that someday I will be make more money and then I will be able to pay off this debt. Yes someday that may happen, but it's not happening today, so I need to take charge of things. I eliminated my house phone and went exclusively no frills mobile. I reduced my food budget substantially, so I can't eat out a lot and have to clip coupons...but it's been good for my waistline (I'm finally ditching that extra weight I packed on in school, but that's for another day). So far it has been working, and I am on track to meet my goal.
I sold a few things too. I decided that I could make it with public transportation and my own two feet, so for the first time in 14 years I do not own a vehicle. It was hard to let the car go, but with soaring gas prices parking expenses, maintenance, and car and insurance payments, I think I made the right decision...it's better for the environment anyway.
I realized that I didn't need all those old CDs I had converted into MP3s, so I sold them. I didn't need a nice DVD collection when I had already seen the movies, so I sold it. It's amazing what you can live without when you decide to get out of debt. In law school I used a laptop, but I sold it when it no longer seemed like a necessity. I'm getting back to basics. It doesn't matter that I am an attorney. I am thinking like a person who has no money because as long as I have more in the debt than the asset column that's who I am. It's time to stop putting on an act and living beyond my means on hope because all lawyers are supposed to make insane amounts of money. Once I am debt free, even a small paycheck will seem huge because it will all be mine. Then I can be whatever kind of lawyer I want.
