Reply to Scraping by on $500k

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our HHI is $300K and we are stretched to the max.

Old sedans, one paid off.
2 kids in daycare
Small house with mortgage that is as low as possible while getting down to an hour commute, still outside beltway (did over 2 years with a 2 hr commute that wasn't sustainable with our jobs)
No vacations in 5 years
[b]$300K in student loans [/b]with monthly payments that increase every year
Not maxing out retirement
Insufficient contributions to 529
Cut lawn service
Practically no savings

No fancy cars, house, private school, or nannies (unlike my colleagues). It is really, really stressful in this area.[/quote]

I guess you chose very expensive law schools.

I went to the Hyundai of law schools, a respectable but well-ranked state school, to avoid that kind of debt.

Good grief.

Dear God.  Why on earth did you do that?[/quote]

Law school for both of us.  I had a full ride for undergrad, his parents paid his undergrad.  My parents paid for law school, his did not.  Everyone we knew who didn't live at home (we couldn't, no family in the area) took out $200K, as did DH.  Came out during the recession so no jobs and also had to take self-funded bar study loans.  Lived with his parents for a stretch while doing temp work to avoid taking more loans.  But, I went for a LL.M. to be more marketable ($100K for me).  So, now we make a good amount but pay $3500/month in student loans.

They go up each year because we are on IBR.[/quote][/quote]

2 lawyers should be making a heck of a lot more than $300k. Especially 2 lawyers with $300k in debt. [b]First year pay at most law firms is $180k[/b]. You have too much debt to work a "lifestyle" job.[/quote]

No, pay at most big law firms is $180K, not most law firms.  Many new lawyers would jump at the chance to work in biglaw out of lawschool and pay off the student loan debt, but big law is highly competitive. I'm not sure what the exact figures are, but I imagine it's less than 10% of fresh grads who get these jobs.  Many non-biglaw lawyers I know are making $70k-90k, 4 or 5 years out of law school.[/quote]

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