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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Early retired Biglaw partner here.  It’s difficult to avoid the golden handcuffs but it absolutely can be done.  Don’t buy a expensive house.  Send your kids to public schools and good state colleges.  Avoid extravagant vacations and luxury automobiles.  In short, just live reasonably.

I distinctly recall the reaction of one of my partners when I told him I was checking out:  “I’m so jealous.  I could never afford that.”  The guy was probably making double what I was at the time - if I had to guess, I’d say between $1.5 and $2 million - and after taxes, mandatory retirement and capital contributions, health insurance, etc. he probably took home half of that.  He had a $4 million house, a beach house, three and kids enrolled in top DC privates since kindergarten.  My understanding from social media is that the kids ended up in colleges of the Tulane/NYU/Emory variety.  If that’s the life you’re going to choose, it’s going to cost you.  It’s that simple.  [/quote]

Curious how old you were when you retired and what your finances looked like when you made the decision? I am in BL and am looking for an early retirement (still have a ways to go as 39), but interested in hearing stories![/quote]

I was 53.  I had spent 27 years (!) in Biglaw before retiring, basically 1/3 of the time an an associate, 1/3 of the time as counsel, and 1/3 of the time as (equity) partner.  I married and had kids young, and made the decision to walk away after my youngest of four kids graduated from college.  At the time of my retirement (just shy of a decade ago), I had a net worth of $4.7 million, about half of which was my retirement account (invested entirely in stock index funds) and the other half a combination of my brokerage account (also all index funds), real estate equity, and the cash value of my capital account with my law firm.  With all of the kids out of college, our low interest monthly mortgage payments on our DC rowhome fully covered by our basement rental, and the firm allowing us continued access to its group health care plan (with us paying the full premium, obviously), I was confident that we could make it work.

Fast forward nearly a decade, our net worth is now $7 million (down from a high of $8 million a year or so ago), so we're doing just fine.  The one big change that I've made since retiring is hiring someone (a little too late, in retrospect) to manage my retirement accounts, so I'm now much more diversified than when I first retired.

I haven't regretted my decision ever.  Not once.  Not even for a nanosecond.  In fact, I've never actually met anyone who has left biglaw and regretted it.

Thank you for your post.  Is the participation in group health plan in retirement  even offered anymore?  Please forgive me my cynicism.

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