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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] There’s a reason the phrase “Golden Handcuffs” exists.  Big Law salaries are deceptive - it’s more than enough to do some things  (pay off loans, fund retirement, buy a $750,000+ house, have kids (daycare or support a SAH spouse), but not all of these things at the same time.

Although I don’t discuss it with my peers that much, my guess is most 5-6th year associates who had law school loans  with small kids and a DCUM-worthy house/lifestyle don’t have much of a net worth beyond the equity in their houses.

As a 5-6th year I had half a million in networth - not including any home equity or mortgage.  After my 1st year I maxed out my 401k, and put the rest in mutual funds.

Some of this was luck - I had ~$75K in loans for law school, since I had a scholarship for partial tuition and lived off savings from before law school and big law summer salary and I had some savings from my parents (very generous, but not crazy trust fund amounts).

Some of it was waiting to take on the major expenses (wedding, house, child) until after loans were paid off (I think as a 3rd or 4th year) and not being terribly extravagant (visiting family before loans were paid off and low key vacations after loans were paid off, house DCUM would mock, having one child)).  Having a spouse who has a low 6-figure income also helps considerably since I’m not supporting anyone but my child, but the net worth is based on my savings, not joint).

So you can exit as a 5-6th year with a decent amount of savings, but not if you’ve bought an expensive house (really the only kind in this area) and have had children.

[/quote]

Apparently my penchant for the parenthetical is disastrous when using a iPhone screen, so many open parentheses (yikes!).  [/quote]

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