Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think he's more the norm than people would like to admit in DC. $300K income but house-poor with a $1.2 MM home in Chevy Chase and private school tuition. His parents were typical white-collar in CC as well. He likely had student loans that were paid off, so he didn't start saving for retirement until later (thus the $500K TSP). He has wealthy friends and a slight desire to keep up with the Joneses (see said house and the expensive baseball tickets). I think he's pretty typical.

The private school tuition is Catholic School for 2 kids, so only around $10,000 for each kid so $20,000. His mortgage is less than 900,000 on a house he bought 12 years ago.

What school do his kids attend for only $10k? My DD was in Catholic and it was $14k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With his track record, he could very quickly start earning $$$ in the private sector if he chose to do so. I'm not sure how worried I'd be about my finances if I had that kind of outside option.

+1

If he really needed money, he could go to the private sector and instantly double, or triple(?), his income overnight. If he socked away the difference, he would be all caught up in a few years based on DCUM standards.

Plus, he could ask his wife to get a better paying job and she could easily double or triple her income. Some people want to enjoy life as they go through it. Looks like he's made some choices that allow his family to do that - good for him.

Are you sure about this?? He has CREDIT CARD debt or did. Seems stressful.

Or he just uses credit cards for living expenses or a large debt people paid him back for. There's no evidence that he has sustained large credit card debt. He had a large credit card balance at some point. I have $15k on credit cards right now and zero credit card debt that will carry over the month

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With his track record, he could very quickly start earning $$$ in the private sector if he chose to do so. I'm not sure how worried I'd be about my finances if I had that kind of outside option.

+1

If he really needed money, he could go to the private sector and instantly double, or triple(?), his income overnight. If he socked away the difference, he would be all caught up in a few years based on DCUM standards.

Plus, he could ask his wife to get a better paying job and she could easily double or triple her income. Some people want to enjoy life as they go through it. Looks like he's made some choices that allow his family to do that - good for him.

Are you sure about this?? He has CREDIT CARD debt or did. Seems stressful.

Some people are not stressed about credit card debt if they can pay it off. He basically has a stay at home wife. His kids go to catholic school. He probably gets home at a reasonable time and has dinner with his family every night. I don't see his family being a harried two family income life, with demanding jobs that require a nanny, that is characterized so much here on DCUM. That's enjoying life - for him. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote: 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 think it's misleading. The data probably came from a credit report since that's an easy way to get the data and file it. We pay off our cc's every month, but any day of the month you pull our creidt report and we'd have $10-20k in CC 'debt' because the monthly bill hasn't been paid yet (it hasn't been issued, or isn't due yet). He probably bought tickets for his buddies so it's all in one block = they get seats together, then they paid him back. I've done this too for sporting events so we can all sit together.

Anyone who has taken a mortage in teh last few years will have seen this. Your credit report is in the papework at settlement, and it'll show your CC debts at the day the report was run.

Anonymous wrote:He sounds like a very "keeping up with the Joneses" type. Bought a house they could barely afford, throws around money on baseball tickets to impress people (I doubt those were upper deck seats he was buying).

And this strategy worked well for him. He’s got all the right friends in all the right places. (Yeah, my momma she told me don’t worry about my debt....Boys like those box seats to schmooze at night...)

This shows extremely poor judgment. Who on earth BORROWS from their retirement?

We have never had an HHI mute than $130k and have assets worth many times his. It boggles my mind that anyone can reach his position at 53 and have such a poor financial footing.

He'll be fine. Supreme Court justices are allowed to accept money for speaking engagements and have book income. I predict he'll write a parenting girls book or something like that and rake in a few hundred K for an advance.

Anonymous wrote:I think he's more the norm than people would like to admit in DC. $300K income but house-poor with a $1.2 MM home in Chevy Chase and private school tuition. His parents were typical white-collar in CC as well. He likely had student loans that were paid off, so he didn't start saving for retirement until later (thus the $500K TSP). He has wealthy friends and a slight desire to keep up with the Joneses (see said house and the expensive baseball tickets). I think he's pretty typical.

+1

Many Federal judges never retire. The judge I clerked for is still full time on the bench at 91. He also had the option to go senior status as a COA judge, which would have given him a part time schedule and still a good income. He could work forever, which is likely his and Trump's plan.

He sounds like a very "keeping up with the Joneses" type. Bought a house they could barely afford, throws around money on baseball tickets to impress people (I doubt those were upper deck seats he was buying).

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

His low net worth and credit card debt was very surprising to me. My husband and I have the same family income, and have made different choices for ourselves, but I agree he's probably going to be just fine.

I sure hope he has a huge life insurance policy because if he gets hit by a bus, his family is screwed.

An important piece is what has to be reported and what does not. Given what we know, it raises questions about his judgement. Who, at 53, would be so poorly set up for retirement, and over leveraged? What's wrong with a house in Kensington, and some minor league tickets mixed in with fewer nationals games? Obviously, he's intelligent and hardworking. But at some agencies he would face scrutiny in his security clearance and hiring process for this pattern of financial irresponsibility.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With his track record, he could very quickly start earning $$$ in the private sector if he chose to do so. I'm not sure how worried I'd be about my finances if I had that kind of outside option.

+1

If he really needed money, he could go to the private sector and instantly double, or triple(?), his income overnight. If he socked away the difference, he would be all caught up in a few years based on DCUM standards.

Plus, he could ask his wife to get a better paying job and she could easily double or triple her income. Some people want to enjoy life as they go through it. Looks like he's made some choices that allow his family to do that - good for him.

Are you sure about this?? He has CREDIT CARD debt or did. Seems stressful.

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?