Careers
Chicago Lawyer Makes $75,000, But Worries About Bankruptcy
Posted Mar 10, 2009 12:44 PM CST
By Martha Neil
Aukse Rimas earns about $75,000 a year as a Chicago trial attorney.
But "I constantly feel like I am teetering on the edge of falling into the hole of financial ruin," says Rimas, 29, in a letter to the Chicago Tribune requesting a financial makeover. "If I lose my job, it's game over for me, and I know I will have to declare bankruptcy."
Rimas admits she made financial mistakes, including an expensive graduation trip to Costa Rica. And it appears that some discretionary shopping sprees helped boost her credit card debt toward $35,000 (some of the total was from bar study expenses, however). She also has about $190,000 in education loans to repay.
An unexpected $6,000 vet bill, when her cat suddenly became ill, was what put her over the edge financially, the newspaper recounts. Rimas just couldn't put her beloved pet down, and she began having trouble paying her credit card bills. That cost her some hefty interest rate increases.
A recent raise, careful budgeting and spending cuts have helped Rimas come up with another $700 a month to apply toward her debts, and the newspaper suggests that she contact her creditors and try to negotiate more favorable payment terms.
To get her started, the Tribune talked with representatives at the banks that hold her highest-interest credit cards.
In response, Capital One agreed to cut her interest rate from 24.9 percent to 16.9 percent on a $3,130 balance and waive some penalties.
And Chase Card Services, which handles a Washington Mutual account on which Rimas owes $2,945 and pays interest of 26.74 percent, has also made concessions. It will cut about $230 from her balance by waiving three months of interest and an additional finance charge.
Hat tip: Above the Law.
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Comments
Unemployed
Mar 10, 2009 4:08 PM CST
That’s nothing - I have $200k in student loans and have been unemployed since graduated from my allegedly great Boston-area law school in 2007 (which still claims the median starting salary is a touch under $100k). I had two interviews last year; neither were for legal positions. Can’t get a legal position, can’t get a non-legal position, I get turned down for retail jobs. Chin up, Aukse - we rolled the dice on education and lost, and will never be financially secure. No need in worrying about it if there is no possibiilty of changing it, after all. I should have gone to flipping HVAC repair school. Whatever.
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B. McLeod
Mar 10, 2009 5:44 PM CST
If I had a lawyer on my staff who spent 8% of her gross income to save her pet cat, I would probably give that lawyer a raise.
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Not a tier one Grad
Mar 10, 2009 9:53 PM CST
Perhaps the cat can pick up some part time work. . .
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tom
Mar 11, 2009 6:13 AM CST
Use the credit card offers you get in the mail. Take them and write yourself a check for cash. Use the cash to pay off your student loan. Wait 6 months and then file for bankruptcy.
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texan
Mar 11, 2009 8:46 AM CST
They are hiring on Craigslist today for $12 an hour for out of work attorneys. Might as well move to India.
“Please only respond if you can work within our price range of $12.50 - $15.00 per hour. Young enrgetic downtown Miami law firm seeking to hire a full-time associate.”
job-fvbhb-1069417910@ craigslist.org
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Gillian
Mar 11, 2009 8:53 AM CST
She needs to live with her mistakes and deal with it. She didn’t make “mistakes”, she was greedy and materialistic. Trip to Costa Rica? spending sprees? And Bar study exams is a couple thousand dollars - nowhere near her $35000 debt. She’s full of cr*p. She’s a spender. period.
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Old lawyer
Mar 11, 2009 8:58 AM CST
What was she thinking, taking an expensive graduation trip when she had $190,000 in student loans? Do kids today not use their head? I think she deserves this stress. it will teach her good money management.
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JN
Mar 11, 2009 9:15 AM CST
What, did she take BarBri 15 times? For shame, Dick Conviser! You’ve put this woman in the poor house!
I’ll place a nice wager on the fact that her closet is loaded with designer clothes and shoes and that she buys a 4 dollar starbucks once a day.
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amr
Mar 11, 2009 9:20 AM CST
I think some of you missed the point…. and judge her too harshly. i think she was brave to put herself out there for scrutiny . . . and perhaps did it partly to get others in similar situations to take notice and not make the same mistakes.
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OhPlease
Mar 11, 2009 9:20 AM CST
I cant believe this girl contacted the Trib about her problems. I know so many unemployed lawyers trying to make ends meet. Hey Aukse, its called living within your means. This might sound cruel, but If you can’t afford your cat, get rid of it.
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Five Years In
Mar 11, 2009 9:31 AM CST
This situation would be mine if I didn’t have a family and a husband who was already employed. As it was, I still took out $196,000 in loans because I didn’t want to harm my family financially while going to law school. I graduated in the top ten percent of my class and was never able to get a decent paying job - finally accepting one in the mid-fifties doing insurance defense for a Chicago firm with over 120 attorneys. And, at the end of last year I was driven out because the insurance defense cases were drying up and, because I am an older woman with two LD kids I could not put in the kinds of hours they wanted so they stopped giving me cases. In this climate I can’t even get an interview despite doing appellate quality work because I don’t have a book of business (Instead I helped grow the business of my partner-supervisor by running his cases without supervision while he spent weeks travelling and marketing, by writing his speeches and articles - he cut himself a good deal for a promotion within our firm and left me hanging). I wasn’t allowed to contact any of the clients before I left and, when I finally did accept a new job from a firm that had offered me a comparable position, that position was withdrawn before I was able to even complete training the first week. Now my original firm is fighting paying me unemployment because I “left voluntarily” in an effort to mitigate my losses and I didn’t work for the new firm long enough to qualify for anything. And I am not the only one out there with this happening. I love the law but wish I had never gone to law school. I was supposed to be the college fund for my family. My son graduates in May, first in his class despite his LD, and we cannot afford to send him to college now. This experience has killed any feeling I ever had for the firm I was with for nearly four years and loved like a family. Last year I wanted to kill myself but decided it wasn’t the solution so I live to fight and tell my story too. Thanks for reading.
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Really?
Mar 11, 2009 9:52 AM CST
Frankly, it sounds like she just makes poor decisions. An expensive graduation trip, credit card charges for designer clothes (Bar prep course do not cost THAT much), and 6K for a cat? Common’ - she just makes numerous poor financial decisions. All she should really have are her loans, and that much in loans at a low interest rate is not too bad making 75K. Frankly, she sounds like just another kid who doesn’t know how to manage money well and expects to make over 100K right out of law school .... Maybe she can apply for a bailout like everyone else who makes poor financial decisions ....
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RU4 Real?
Mar 11, 2009 10:13 AM CST
Get rid of the cat.
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Michael
Mar 11, 2009 10:30 AM CST
A lawyer who can’t figure out how to renegotiate the terms of her own debt?
Some of the articles that come through make me wonder about the quality of advocacy some lawyers are (or, more accurately, aren’t) offering their clients.
So many repeat articles about people not being able to think even slightly outside the box on how to handle their own situations; it makes me wonder how they could ever adequately handle somebody else’s (or maybe they can’t, which is why nobody will hire them).
People: we’ve had years of overt fraud by the housing industry that’s relatively well documented and easy to trace which is now collapsing on the heads of consumers and investors. There’s plenty to be made by even a mediocre litigator working on contingency, and you might actually end up helping either the banking sector or consumers depending upon which side you choose to work for.
Despite the whining by those who brokered the garbage notes cluttering up the economy both the debtors and those who purchased the notes have a plethora of great claims against those who wrote them (yeah—I know about the hurdles; they’re not that high if you think about the issues carefully and clearly but won’t go through them here). Go out and hunt for your food: there’s plenty to find.
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Prince
Mar 11, 2009 10:35 AM CST
190k in student loan debt and 35k on a credit card; she should be concerned and she’s making 75k a year. Cut back on the frills and pay off the credit card debt in a 3 years. Then start tackling the student loan debt and make extra payments to pay it off in 15 years. Not everyone wants to be drowing in student loan debt for 30+years. You folks who are borrowing 100-250K to complete undergraduate and loan school and then complain because the world doesn’t give you the job you rightly deserve (making 120K a year) need to grow up and take a course on debt management.
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Five Years In
Mar 11, 2009 10:51 AM CST
Michael, you are assuming the financing to be able to accept and underwrite the costs of contingency work. Not all of us want to endanger our precarious financial health by accepting litigation that may or may not pay off for years. Active hunting for food still needs to include concern for the general condition of beneficiaries of the purpose of the hunt. Some of us deal with age, family leave, and sex discrimination on top of the poor economy. Don’t kid yourself. In my case, I am geographically bound by the needs of my LD kids and can’t take just anything - have you read the state of treatment of children with special needs? Its brutality it also directly linked to the state of the economy. If I could be gone from my family from 6am to 10 pm for a job in Chicago I would be employed right now with my original employer. Certainly if I was willing to commute two hours one way I would have been hired long ago as well. But the modern sweatshop conditions of today’s law firms asked a price that I couldn’t ask my innocent children to pay. The only good news is if I die, my loan dies with me because I didn’t role it over into consumer debt. I have hung out a shingle - but it won’t pay for my son’s education any time soon.
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B. McLeod
Mar 11, 2009 11:00 AM CST
Five Years In, the real presumption in firms is that all “associates” are fungible. You experienced this. The partner whose career you helped establish will continue to burn out one “associate” and plug in another for so long as he practices law. Hanging out the shingle was the right thing to do. By having your own client base, you become the person with the career and not just the fungible, supporting drone.
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Five Years In
Mar 11, 2009 11:26 AM CST
B. McLeod, Thank you for your affirmation. It was that same understanding behind the decision I came to, albeit after learning painfully from personal experience.
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DG
Mar 11, 2009 11:54 AM CST
Time to put the cat to work. Send a headshot of the cat to bill@animaltalent.com.
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another lawyer
Mar 11, 2009 12:10 PM CST
Aukse - stop griping. You made the decision to go to some fancy schmancy school. Did you work during law school? I had to work in high school, college and law school. I went to a lowly law school and it wasn’t easy finding a job but 2 years after graduation, I have no student loans. I am saving and granted, I didn’t experience the drinking, partying every weekend, manicured nails and nice clothes, but you did. Now grow up and live with your decisions.
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john
Mar 11, 2009 12:34 PM CST
What a nightmare…. I was once told by some random dude at a casino , “It jus money, we jus playin wit it while we on earth”. This is true, and we shouldn’t consider killing ourselves over money. But you have to be able to distinguish a good bet from a bad bet when you see one. For example, does a cat bring $6k worth of happiness and joy into your life or would it be better to fire a 50 cent bullet into its head and go get a new free one from the shelter. Likewise, when every report shows that most newly minted attorneys are earning about $50k a year, is it financially wise to spend $190k in getting said privilege to practice. If you can tell me the cat is worth any amount or you want to practice law regardless of the costs, then fine it’s just money and you’re free to spend it as you want. Otherwise, this is all ad hoc buyer’s remorse.
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another lawyer
Mar 11, 2009 1:06 PM CST
John: pretty funny with the cat comment. but you are right about the 50k a year. Most lawyers don’t make as much money as people think they do.
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T
Mar 11, 2009 3:28 PM CST
Not much sympathy - i’m a lawyer making about the same and I have kids, a mtg and student loans BUT my house was built for only 200k, I drive a 10 yr old car all with an over 800 credit score Why? BECAUSE I LIVE WITH MY MEANS! Try that for once in your life!
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M
Mar 11, 2009 11:48 PM CST
Please stop this thread. But for the mother with LD kids - try government work—the Offices of Inspectors General, and the OGCs need lawyers with litigation experience. You don’t have to work more than 60 hours a week nor more than four or five days per week in the office. And lawyers are hired elsewhere where the requirement is an advanced degree, not necessarily a law degree. You still put in the hours, but they can be at home. Congratulations in getting one off to college—lots of kids don’t have parents as good as you—and they go through life without learning they have learning differences. Hats off!
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spot
Mar 12, 2009 12:03 AM CST
Apparently she thinks money trees are real. $35k in credit card debt?!? That is more than just “some discretionary shopping sprees.” Sorry, but she gets no sympathy points here. Just because they give you the little piece of plastic does not mean you are obligated to use it, get more of them, or run them up to their very limit. I cannot think of what you would need to buy for $35k. I have been renovating my house for the last two years and owe less than a quarter of that, and I think even that much is too much! If you cannot afford to pay cash, then you cannot afford to buy it. Period. End of story and shopping trip. Honestly, how does anyone let their balance get anywhere near $35k?!?! And when you know you have such an enormous student loan debt, it is simply unconscionable!
At $75k, she is likely to be over the median income and would have to go into Chapter 13, rather than Chapter 7, should she file for bankruptcy, so she will just have to keep paying. Good! Stupidity should not be rewarded.
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Feeling better about my own situation now!
Mar 12, 2009 1:27 PM CST
I am especially intrigued by one aspect of the story: a debt-ridden lawyer who spent 8% of her gross income on her pet cat. (Thanks to B. McLeod for putting it so succinctly.) But I disagree with McLeod’s assessment—rather than “give that lawyer a raise” my thoughts go to “this appears symptomatic of a larger problem; I am now inclined to question her judgment on all matters.”
I am a total bleeding-heart softie on most matters, and although petless at the moment, I do consider myself an animal lover. But $6000 for cat’s vet bill? I want to hear more about the cat. (Perhaps it has some special attributes making it 100 times more valuable than any other cat? I’d like to hear what the cat-owner thinks, but I doubt I’d ever be persuaded. I gave my own beloved pet cat away to a good home when I was moving, six years ago, to attend law-school, and I just couldn’t justify the added expense for a pet deposit and higher rent on an apt that allowed pets.)
Kudos to this attorney for putting her problems out there in the media where she is subject to scrutiny, and hopefully that will prompt her to get some help. I do think she needs some help. Poor judgment, poor impulse control, too, is what it sounds like to me. At the very least, I think she needs a crash course in budgeting and priority-setting.
Good luck, Aukse—I think you will need it. I hope you can hang onto your job.
(And if nothing else, this story made me feel a lot better about my own financial situation. I have made progress, having paid off about 12% of the $90K debt I accrued to go to law school. In five more years, all I’ll owe are the federal loans I locked in at less than 3%.)
Maybe I’ll get another pet, then. When I can afford to take on the responsibility!
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your Freudian slip is showing
Mar 12, 2009 1:43 PM CST
I enjoyed Prince (#15’s) perhaps inadvertent Freudian slip—he wrote about these folks borrowing $100K-$250Kfor undergraduate and “loan” school. For some, I’m sure borrowing for law school does turn out to be “loan school.” If they’re not lawyer material in the first place, they’ll look back years after graduation and the whole experience is likely to be nothing more than a very painful lesson on taking out on loans.
Federal loans are one thing—but private loans, including “bar loans” like Aukse likely maxed out on, are quite another. I took a $12K Access Group bar loan to live off of while I studied for the bar and waited for bar exam results—and I probably could have gotten a lot more than the $12K I took, but I only borrowed what I thought I would need. When it came time to start repayment, the only repayment plan Access offered was something insane like “20 years at 18%.” So I cut a better deal with my bank, and paid Access Group back with the new loan from my bank. Granted, I guess I am a bit more financially responsible than Aukse—I had good enough credit to get a better rate loan.
I do feel sorry for all those kids out there who are learning hard lessons from “loan school.” Sure am glad I’m not one of them.
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Perry Gold
Mar 12, 2009 2:53 PM CST
Auskie who is 29 years old and relatively inexperienced is very luck to find a job as attorney at $75,000.00. She’s smart enough to get through law school and smart enough to pass the bar, she should be able to manage her finances better. There are plenty of attorneys who for no fault of their own are unable to find a job that pays an average salary let alone the high salary she is given. The media should use an attorney who for no fault of their own is in financial trouble and not someone who is lucky and then chooses to go in to debt. While I wish her well, I do not empathize with her one bit.
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Perry Gold
Mar 12, 2009 5:14 PM CST
I wish to clarify that my comments above are directed at Aukse as an example—-she volunteered to be an example and I was using her as such. My point is that the Tribune’s suggestion that she is likely to eanr more is without basis. Her problems are not income related as the Trib suggests. They are due only to poor debt management. The Tribune’s slant that her problems stem from income is nuts.
Aukse is working, apparently has benefits, and, although she only 29 years old and relatively inexperienced, is paid $75,000.00. Although she is given a high income, the Tribune article suggests that with respect to income Aukse’s is a hard luck case—(the article in fact states that Aukse will earn more as she advances). The unfortunate truth is; however, that Aukse already is highly paid given her experience and is not likely to be paid much more.
The average salary for attorneys is less than $80,000.00 (except at large status obsessed firms who employ only about 10% of attorneys). To land a job at a large firm one generally has to have gone to an ivy league school, be at the very top of his or her class, or know many well to do people from whom the firm can profit.
I am concerned that naive people, including aspiring young attorneys, will view Auske as a hard luck case because it is suggested in your article that her income is low. The public, including some attorneys, already view the practice of law as being more lucrative than it actually is. Thus you have comments on the Tribune blog that Auske should go chase an ambulance—thus people, who are exposed to the best case with respect to attorney income do not understand the legal market place in general—thus the ABA, which has a high amount of members at exclusive law firms, endorses a bill to give government attorneys who earn $80,000.00 on average a $60,000 government hand out “because they are struggling” (your paper recently published an article stating the same).
Aspiring attorneys must know that relatively few waltz into a job paying $75,000.00
The Tribune ought to get its facts straight before publishing its articles. Its hard enough for attorneys to break the stereotype of rolling in the dough—they do not need the Tribune reinforcing this.
It would be more appropriate for the Tribune to feature a young attorney who earns the more typical salary of $40,000 at Aukse’s age, who took on average law school debt requiring $10,000.00 in payments a year, who does not receive medical benefits because they are typically unavailable at small firms and then is laid off. This typical young attorney was struggling to make ends meet even though he or she acted reasonably, and now is dealing with the lay off. The public would be best served if the Tribune used such typical young attorney as an example—not Aukse who earns substantially more than she should have expected and chose to take on more debt than she should have expected to handle.
I hope Aukse solves her problem. But she, and the public, especially young aspiring attorneys, should only recognize just how lucky Aukse is with respect to her income.
In fact, aspiring attorneys should reconsider entering the profession if they want to make any kind of living.
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gea
Mar 13, 2009 5:30 AM CST
What attorneys make 40k? Paralegals make that much…and more, so how could anyone get away with paying an attorney so little…
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tim
Mar 13, 2009 6:03 AM CST
Anyone who takes an attorney job for under $50k is just pissing away their life. Go open your own shop or get another profession.
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Einstein
Mar 13, 2009 6:29 AM CST
Move out of the USA. The quality of life here if you are not wealthy is subpar. Bankruptcy laws will not let you walk away from the student loan (thanks George!) and it will haunt you for the rest of your life. But guess what, they can’t enforce a judgment in Panama.
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HT
Mar 13, 2009 7:24 AM CST
Einstein, the quality of life in the US now sucks if you are wealthy. Now you have obama trying to stick his hands in your pocket and steal from you to give handouts to loser americans. I hear Cuba is a good place to go these days because it is now less socialist than the US.
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Dear John
Mar 13, 2009 7:30 AM CST
To John @ #21 - You stated “when every report shows that most newly minted attorneys are earning about $50k a year…” Can you tell me what reports you are referring to? The reports I have seen are generally in the $60+ range. (However, my boss seems to have located the same reports you did and I would be very interested to see them.) Thanks.
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Ronnie
Mar 13, 2009 7:44 AM CST
I have no quibbles about the cat (I spent a grand for a turtle….A TURTLE!!), so I feel her on that one. I have no quibbles about the law school loans; mine were slightly higher. I make more than she does (100k) in similar COLA, so I know it’s rough. But $35,000 in credit cards?!?!?!?!?!?!?! We all make mistakes, but my lord! I was under half that, and I’ve taken every ounce of every raise I’ve been given to pay them down (soon to be off). I lived above my means, I know she acknowledges the same, but she is really going to have to rein it in for a LONG time to get that under control. My best wishes for her.
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jose
Mar 13, 2009 7:48 AM CST
Illinois Income Tax May Jump 50 Percent
lol - glad I don’t live in a liberal democratic state. Sucks to be you lawyers in Chicago. Then again, I am sure the good honorable politicians in Illinois can spend your money more wisely and put it to better use than you can.
http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/income.tax.hike.2.958201.html
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Stone
Mar 13, 2009 8:13 AM CST
#1 basically nailed it.
As for offering attys pay around $40k, why would anyone offer any more? There are tens of thousands who would take that right now. Supply and demand. Never been a better time to be in a hiring position.
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erik
Mar 13, 2009 8:24 AM CST
No cat is worth $6,000 when you are tottering on bankruptcy - or at any other time.
Incurring $190,00 debt to go to law school is just plain foolish. For the average lawyer, the lifetime increased earnings (if any) over a non-law profession, minus the additional taxes on those earnings, simply do not provide a net financial return on that level of investment.
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Dan Lauber
Mar 13, 2009 8:24 AM CST
The most outrageous thing about this story is the interest rates the two credit card companies charge. At these rates, these credit cards amount to juice loans. There’s simply no excuse except pure greed for Chase and Capitol One to charge such high rates. No excuse at all! That’s what should have sparked readers’ outrage even more than the foolish decisions of the attorney.
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Kevin
Mar 13, 2009 8:31 AM CST
HT, please do us all a favor and move to Cuba. When your bloated corpse washes up on the shores of South Beach, with like 5 Cubans using you as a boat, we can all hold a little vigil.
I’m surprised that more people don’t consider the JAG as a great employment option. But then again, most people would rather be civilians even if it means they have to eat Fancy Feast out of a can with their 6,000 dollar cat.
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DCML
Mar 13, 2009 8:33 AM CST
Paralegals make 40-80k - why would an attorney expect to make less? Heck, some partner’s secretaries make six figures in NY. My non-lawyer, non-Ivy league, 29 year old friends are making 50k+, why would an attorney expect to make less than that? And my non-MBA financial advisor/Ibanking friends were making a lot more than biglaw firm associates while only in their mid-twenties. I don’t see making 75k being so absurd for a 29 year old with a graduate degree.
I do, however, agree that the Tribune’s suggestion that she is likely to earn more is without basis. Law is one of those professions where talented people’s income decreases with time. Many of my friends work at biglaw for now, but won’t make partner, and will then have to take 50-70% paycuts at government or in-house jobs, where their salary will be capped at a fraction of what they were making in their late 20’s/early 30’s. So it can’t be assumed that when you take out all the debt that you need to in order to go to a good law school that your income will increase - in fact, most attorneys I know have the opposite problem, and paying off their six-figure debt becomes harder as they get older.
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dba
Mar 13, 2009 8:46 AM CST
To #40
I agree that more people should consider JAG because we need a good crop of smart, talented lawyers to serve our country.
I seriously considered JAG and was offered a commission, however, due to my massive student loan debt, there was no way I would have been able to make my loan payments. The salary was not high enough and much of the re-up bonus structure has been changed significantly in the last several years. JAGs do not get the same re-enlistment benefits or other perks as GIs. So you can be smart and driven to serve, but the almighty dollar reigns supreme. For me, it wasn’t about having a big house or fancy car—it was all about affording my loans. Now, I make a decent salary at a small firm, and it will still take me a couple decades to pay off my loans (CONSOLIDATE, people!!), but I will always be saddened that I had to decline that commission.
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P
Mar 13, 2009 8:54 AM CST
Bar study expenses is not only the $3000 you pay barbri. It is the expenses you have during that two months you sit at home and study. So it is rent, utilities, credit card payments, food, etc.
I am in a similar situatin and it is not good!!
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End the Fed
Mar 13, 2009 8:58 AM CST
the Federal Reserve System leads to:
*** Constant economic crises—the housing crisis and the resulting chaos is just one example of an economic bubble created by centrally-planned interest rates and money manipulation;
*** The destruction of the middle class—as fuel, food, housing, medical care and education costs soar, everyone who is NOT on the government dole is forced to make do with less as the value of their money slowly decreases;
*** Currency destruction—history shows us that riots, violence and full-scale police states can result when people finally realize fiat money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and REFUSE to accept it.
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Dick
Mar 13, 2009 9:05 AM CST
I feel sorry for Aukse because her name is Aukse.
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JB
Mar 13, 2009 9:14 AM CST
To 5 Years In - I certainly understand and sympathize. One question:you commented “I wasn’t allowed to contact any of the clients before I left” the prior law firm. I don’t know Illinois law specifically, but in Texas the legal work belongs to the client, not the law firm. Interference with an attorney’s ability to communicate with a client (even it is just to advise them that you were leaving the firm and would no longer be able to work the case) would be a disciplinary rules violation. Certainly, the firm could deny you use of their phones during your scheduled work hours to make the contacts, but what about about after hours. And after you have left the firm, calls from home to advise the erstwhile client that you were available for work would seem to certainly be appropriate, but perhaps you were already doing that. Anyway, good luck and congratulations on your son’s achievements.
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nn
Mar 13, 2009 9:26 AM CST
This story confuses me. I graduated from a top-tier law school with student loan debt of about $175K and took a job with a small firm in a small-ish city with a starting salary of $45,000. I bought a house within a year of graduating law school. Nearly five years in I still don’t make $75,000 a year, and I’ve never had a problem making my student loan payments or my mortgage payment, I don’t have any credit card debt, and I had enough money saved to buy myself a nice (slightly used) car last year. I don’t get how this person making $75K a year can be on the verge of bankruptcy absent some seriously bad personal choices (absent maybe some really unusual family circumstances, like having to pay for care for an elderly parent or something - though I’m sure would have been mentioned in the article if they applied to her situation).
I don’t have contempt for this person or anything - everyone makes mistakes, but why is this news? The headline may as well read, “American lives beyond her means - on verge of bankruptcy,” which isn’t anything unusual. Hell, there are people who earn a lot more than $75K a year that have declared bankruptcy, and that’s been true for decades.
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237
Mar 13, 2009 9:36 AM CST
This is not outrageous. First, what’s a few thousand dollars more of debt for a trip to Costa Rica when you’re already $190,000 in debt and you know you’ll be working for the rest of your life to pay it back. As to the credit card debt—bar expenses, living expenses for a summer of bar study, new professional clothes for a new job, and possibly a new apartment in a new city add up, especially when, as a student, you have no savings and nowhere to turn but credit. And I would do anything for my cat—that’s a bold statement, but I’m sticking to it. Give her a break. Plenty of people making twice that are in the same situation. Did anyone really anticipate a total absence of job security when we made the decision to go to grad school and incur all this debt three years ago? Maybe she should’ve gone to a cheaper law school, but I don’t think she made very bad financial decisions.
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123456789
Mar 13, 2009 9:44 AM CST
All good posts. I’m still chuckling at the Dick Conviser comment! Touche!
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Five Years In
Mar 13, 2009 9:55 AM CST
To JB, you are absolutely correct - IL has similar rules, although, due to the stress of my situation it didn’t occur to me to double check from an outside source until I was gone from the firm. I am currently implementing plans to rectify the situation, however. To both M and JB - Thanks for the congrats regarding my son - he has had a difficult road but proved himself with every challenge and I am very proud of him!
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