Kavanaugh's finances

[Anonymous]

Uh, if you don't count my home value or my retirement account value I also appear impoverished. Dude is rich with a nice home and a big retirement fund. He has a guaranteed lifelong income.

[Anonymous]

DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He could say "screw it all" today and make $3MM+ per year at a dozen different law firms.

Yes, I wish he would do that. Brett, take our advice and bolster your retirement savings and pay down your mortgage with a cushy law firm job. SCOTUS is not the right place for you. I’ll throw in some all-star tix to sweeten the deal

I’ll chip in on the tickets!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

Yes. This is the Money forum, where we talk about good and bad financial planning. He is not showing good financial planning.

[Anonymous]

What he's given up:

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2018/07/12/clearys-lewis-liman-sdny-nominee-reports-37-7m-net-worth-2-8m-partner-income/?kw=Cleary%27s%20Lewis%20Liman%2C%20SDNY%20Nominee%2C%20Reports%20%2437.7M%20Net%20Worth%2C%20%242.8M%20Partner%20Income&et=editorial&bu=National%20Law%20Journal&cn=20180712&src=EMC-Email&pt=Breaking%20News

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uh, if you don't count my home value or my retirement account value I also appear impoverished. Dude is rich with a nice home and a big retirement fund. He has a guaranteed lifelong income.

He bought a $1.2M house on a $300K HHI with a significant mortgage.

The disclosures DO include his retirement account value.

Which he borrowed from to purchase tickets to baseball games. <--- (Does that really need to be explained vis-a-vis its stupidity?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

He also worked a. kirkland and Ellis after his clerkship. He had at least a few years of Big Law money, and would have received a sizable signing bonus for being a Supreme Court clerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

Yes, that is why a person with that income shouldn't buy a $1.2M house, particularly since the value of the house relates in large part to the local public schools, which the person in question doesn't use. WTAF

I am the same age as Kavanaugh, with a similar HHI. DH and I live in Silver Spring, in our paid-off house worth about $800K. Our combined retirement accounts have a current value of $2.5M and we have another $300K in college savings, plus $200K in mutual funds and $80K liquid for emergencies.

Isn't planning ahead and minimizing exposure to risk what lawyers are supposed to be good at?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even as an appeals court judge, he never would retire so didn’t really need retirement savings except to support his wife after he is gone. But I would never be that far in debt on credit cards. We pay off every month. Unless he was buying a big block of tickets for friends and waiting for them to pay him back, it’s stupid to buy tickets you don’t have cash for.

I sort of assumed he had family money—what did his dad do?

None of us can count on that. Senility, dementia, chronic disease - it is downright stupid to forgo retirement savings based on "never retiring."

I am boggled that anyone with his education would be so stupid. It tells us that he has terrible, terrible judgment.

None of those things will remove you from the bench. There are plenty of senile and very infirm senior status judges who still get paid. They get good clerks who push out the work and, if they are appellate judges, sit on panels where their colleagues cover for them. If I was guaranteed to be paid six figures until the day I dropped dead, regardless of how much work I did, I might also blow my retirement on fun stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

Yes, that is why a person with that income shouldn't buy a $1.2M house, particularly since the value of the house relates in large part to the local public schools, which the person in question doesn't use. WTAF

I am the same age as Kavanaugh, with a similar HHI. DH and I live in Silver Spring, in our paid-off house worth about $800K. Our combined retirement accounts have a current value of $2.5M and we have another $300K in college savings, plus $200K in mutual funds and $80K liquid for emergencies.

Isn't planning ahead and minimizing exposure to risk what lawyers are supposed to be good at?

His parents are well-off. Maybe he's counting on an inheritance. But yes, he is living beyond his means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He could say "screw it all" today and make $3MM+ per year at a dozen different law firms.

Curious to know what he would need to do to pull in that type of income. It's clear that he would need to bring in business but how much to earn $3M? What would his hours be like? How long could he stay in that game before he gets tired of the rat race?

He was at Kirkland and Ellis in the mid nineties for a few years between his clerkship and the Starr investigation.

Half of DC SAHPs worked for a few years as junior associates. It’s not prestigious or anything that would indicate ability to pull in millions as a partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

Yes, that is why a person with that income shouldn't buy a $1.2M house, particularly since the value of the house relates in large part to the local public schools, which the person in question doesn't use. WTAF

I am the same age as Kavanaugh, with a similar HHI. DH and I live in Silver Spring, in our paid-off house worth about $800K. Our combined retirement accounts have a current value of $2.5M and we have another $300K in college savings, plus $200K in mutual funds and $80K liquid for emergencies.

Isn't planning ahead and minimizing exposure to risk what lawyers are supposed to be good at?

I'm the same age as you and him and quit my job because I have more than double your assets and all of my kids out of college already. Does that make me better than you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC Circuit Court judges make $220,600, so I guess I'm not surprised of the lack of savings with a $1.2 Million house.

We just started making a combined $210,000 and have a $450,000 mortgage; even that with similar school expenses to Kavanaugh ($20k/yr for preschool) makes it hard (but not impossible!) to save. This just seems like bad financial planning on his part-- when he was 35 I'm sure he wasn't banking on being a Supreme Court Justice!

Yes, that is why a person with that income shouldn't buy a $1.2M house, particularly since the value of the house relates in large part to the local public schools, which the person in question doesn't use. WTAF

I am the same age as Kavanaugh, with a similar HHI. DH and I live in Silver Spring, in our paid-off house worth about $800K. Our combined retirement accounts have a current value of $2.5M and we have another $300K in college savings, plus $200K in mutual funds and $80K liquid for emergencies.

Isn't planning ahead and minimizing exposure to risk what lawyers are supposed to be good at?

His parents are well-off. Maybe he's counting on an inheritance. But yes, he is living beyond his means.

Where are you getting this from? His father was the head of a trade association. He would have made a nice living but he hardly would have been wealthy.

[Anonymous]

So what?....not all are motivated by $$ like the losers on this forum.

[Anonymous]

You are all clueless. He has a guaranteed $200k+ income for the rest of his life and his only liability right now is a mortgage. Most of you could only be so lucky.