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[quote=Anonymous][quote]My DH and I owe $300k+ combined. Both lawyers, plus a worthless but expensive masters degree thrown in for good measure (his). And, I am a SAHM. And, we have three kids and will probably have another. [b]And, I hated being a lawyer and will never use my degree again[/b]. And, we are currently paying only interest because that's all we can afford (this will change after DH makes partner next year). And, my DH didn't graduate until 2006, BUT he was already 30 instead of 25. So we are way behind the curve on saving for retirement. I have to laugh when I see all those posts about people saving 20% of their income and putting $1000/mo in 529s for their kids. That is just so far outside the realm of possibility for us that it's like a whole other universe.

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I found that I hated being a lawyer too.  I mean HATED it.  But, I owed $80K for law school, so I stuck it out at a law firm for 4 years, lived like a pauper during that time, and put everything I could toward paying back the $80K that I owed as fast as I could so I could get out of there.  I left 2 months after I made my last loan payment.  Then I found a very different kind of lawyer job (govt, in a regulatory position with no litigation) that paid less but was possible because I no longer had loan payments.  I still don't really like being a lawyer, but I have a good job that pays well and provides a lot of security for our family while enabling me to spend lots of time with my kids (I'm part time on about a half-time schedule).

It seems sort of irresponsible to take on that much debt and then decide you don't like the profession so you're just going to opt out.  Most of us don't get up in the mornings thinking "yippee!  time for work!" but we do it because we have obligations.  If you're not saving anything for retirement, do you expect your children to take care of you when you're older?  And what happens in an emergency when you have no emergency fund?  In addition, you're probably not able to save for your kids' education, so are they going to wind up in the same boat you're in?  [/quote]

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