$15k -- realistic to live in DC with that? Forum

[bk1]

What do other law students do that are in DC making $60k /year? ... It's weird because $60k isn't a half bad salary for just freshly leaving school, but it leaves me with so little money after law school loans. It's such bullshit that my school's LRAP isn't going to cover any of my loans (which are all a result of money I paid to them) next year.

$60k/year in DC is fine enough for a fresh grad. The problem is that you took out $200,000 in loans and are trying to pay it back in 10 years. This is pretty much the reason why you take a large scholarship over more debt because at most places you have a very small chance of making over $60k.

You knew how your school's LRAP worked before you started school, it's not like they hid this info from you. It's not their fault that you chose a school with an LRAP that doesn't cover your current job (whatever job that may be).

[Anonymous User]

Wow, $250 /month is incredibly cheap. How much did that come out to with utilities and everything else? How many roommates was that with? How far away is annadale from DC exactly? … Also, dumb question, but how do you go about finding roommates in a new location, such as annadale? (I really don’t know anyone out there and it’s not exactly like law school where you just find other law students from the school’s resources, but I clearly am going to need roommates out there).

The clerkship in downtown DC. I’d rather not say which court.

Thanks for your help

So full disclosure, I was staying with my cousin and their roomates. But that's the point. To get a really low price, you have to know somebody. I was offered a room at $500/month out of Georgetown by a friend but I didn't take it because I was going to be leaving in a month anyways. As far as finding roomates amongst strangers, Craigslist works well, but you have to be in the city. You just find somebody, call them up and then go visit the place and meet your possible roomies. DO NOT. NEVER EVER EVER take a room without seeing it or meeting with the other members of the house. I'd also say to be careful before you say you're OK living in a super sketchy place. I knew a couple of people who got robbed - that's why I asked. 10 blocks from Union Station is a pleasant walking distance. 2 blocks from some of the parts in NE DC is terrifying.

You actually meet people from craigslist and then potentially live with them? Seems a bit unsafe. My last experience with craigslist was incredibly shady/bad and I was merely selling an iphone. Couldn’t imagine living with anybody as sketchy as the people who called me from craigslist. Pretty much when I was selling this phone this big ghetto looking Mexican dude meet me at 4AM at an empty gas station. He parked in the shaddiest corner where there were no lights or anything. When pulled out my phone I showed him it and I had my hand on the button of my switch blade with it just barely concealed in my pocket pretty much seconds away from shanking the guy if he was about to start pulling some shaddy ass shit. Maybe this was just a bad experience? … Sefinitely could not live with anyone as shady as that.

And wow that’s ghetto re: the robberies.

If you are clerking in DC, i assume you are going to BigLaw after?

If that's the case, look long term on your debt. You don't need to start paying your loans until January. Your clerkship will be 1/3-1/2 over by then, no?

If you have a big law job, then look into stretching out your loans to get you through your clerkship. As long as it it won't jack up your interest rates, there is really no downside to putting yourself on a longer repayment plan if you have self-discipline. Pay less for the 6-9 mos before your BigLaw job starts, and then switch back to the original 10 year repayment amount plus a couple hundred extra to cover the few mos that you couldn't swing that.

If you don't have BigLaw lined up, then, yeah, something's going to have to give. You are either going to need to accept that your loans won't be gone in 10 years, or are going to have to make some serious sacrifices elsewhere, including giving up your hobby.

Don’t have biglaw lined up (unfortunately). With how the economy is right now, it’s definitely not something I think is guaranteed after the clerkship. Also don’t really want biglaw (I only ever wanted it as a method to repay student loans and then wanted to get out of it).

You want to keep multiple cars in DC? You are insane.

I thought about it. Realistically, I would probably just bring my daily driver down and leave my camaro sitting at my parent’s house (I would need a garage to store it in if I were to bring it down, and I can’t afford that).

1) You are nuts if you are going to try to stay on a 10 year payment plan and live on what's left if you have a firm job lined up after your clerkship. Just go on a longer plan and pay as much as you can afford once you get your firm job and you can still get it paid off in less than 10 years.

2) You can deduct $2500 of your student loan interest and probably take some tuition deductions for tax year 2011 as well. In addition, your gross income isn't going to be too high since you will only be earning for 4 months or so of 2011. So you should get your tax witholding made as low as you possibly can, which may bump your take home pay by a couple thousand total.

3) Even given point #2, you are probably going to have to either give up your car hobby, go on a long-term payment plan, or live in one of your beloved cars.

I agree with point #1, but I do not have a firm job lined up after the clerkship.

Thanks for point #2. I didn’t know I would still be able to deduct interest with a $62k salary (I thought the cap for interest deductions was around $50K?).

15k in a big city is definitely doable, but it can suck a lot. however, 15k with the attitude of 1)a party life-style and 2) a rigid, inflexible attitude is impossible. flexibility is key to living on the cheap...so when it comes time to pay rent and you don't have the money because it's been spent on drinks and transportation (yes, public transportation costs money and multiplied everyday adds up) then doing things like defering loans and selling cars are a must. it can't just be you announcing to DC that you're going to keep everything you want the way you want it and expect a life like that. also, any reason why IBR isn't an option??

IBR is not an option because I’m not sure if I want to do PI for 10 years and I don’t want to get locked into having my total debt increase each years since my payments wouldn’t even be covering my interest. Furthermore, LRAP at my school is a better plan than IBR, so even if I go PI, I would be better off just utilizing LRAP (but it doesn’t cover the clerkship year). (But if I start IBR PI and switch tracks after the first year, I don’t think the school is going to cover that additional increase in total debt since my payments wouldn’t cover the interest the first year and that debt would be put into the principal).

And I’m definitely not okay with the idea of repaying my student loans in my 50s with the 25 year plan. I just want to be debt free as soon as possible. It’s a burden that I would rather not have. Who even knows, I may not even like being a lawyer. The idea of repaying my loans for what seems like the rest of my life right now just doesn’t sound like a good plan to me right now.

I didn't read the whole thread but you cannot live as a lawyer in DC with 15K. Move that shit to 30 year repayment and put any extra money you have toward the loan.

See my last quote.

$60k/year in DC is fine enough for a fresh grad. The problem is that you took out $200,000 in loans and are trying to pay it back in 10 years. This is pretty much the reason why you take a large scholarship over more debt because at most places you have a very small chance of making over $60k.

The problem is that I am in the class of 2011, and the numbers presented from class of 2007 (which were all that were available when I started law school), highly suggested that the most likely outcome was making $160k /year (I think something like 50% of the entire class made it into firms over 500 attorneys), and that the worst case scenario was going to a 50+ attorney law firm (and even those firms in major cities pay between $80-120K /year). There was seriously less than 3% of the class of 2007 that went into firms under 50 attorneys, and presumably at that point it was self selection. Just how bad the legal economy got was seriously unpredictable. I recall reading a WSJ article that said this is the worse slump for recent grad legal hiring in the past 50 years. I mean predicting what was going to happen is like not buying a Honda today because you are afraid that your Honda engine is going to blow up tomorrow (one of the most reliable motors), and that Honda is going to go out of business a few days later. It’s just unforeseeable.

You knew how your school's LRAP worked before you started school, it's not like they hid this info from you. It's not their fault that you chose a school with an LRAP that doesn't cover your current job (whatever job that may be).

I thought most school’s LRAP didn’t cover clerkships? I did know this, but I had also thought I would have had a job lined up after graduation where it wouldn’t be an issue (see my last response to you). I didn’t even know what clerking was when I came to law school. Definitely didn’t know that I wanted to do one (to be honest, if things were better I would have just gotten a job at a firm in Chicago or LA and did that a couple year to wipe out my loans and then I would have gone to clerk to use it to help me transition my career into something less lame).
___________________________________________


General question for people who said ditch both cars- how do you guys go about grocery shopping? That seems to be the one thing I can see myself needing a car for (seems like it would be burdensome to try and get a lot of groceries from the grocery store to your apartment, unless you have somebody who’s going to go shopping with you who has a car, which I’m not sure yet that I will.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

[bk1]

That's reasonable enough. I think anybody today would have paid sticker in your situation.

I understand you want to be debt free within 10 years (I have the same goal and is how I am choosing which school to attend) so I think your best bet is to figure out how much it is going to take you to live and then put everything else towards your loan repayments. You might make it in 10 years depending on what your next job is and how your salary changes but I think that a more realistic goal, at this point in time, is more like 15 years. If your salary goes up, you can start paying more back. So if you want a car, understand that that means more time paying back your loans. Simply put, I think you're going about this backwards. Due to the size of your loan and the money you are making, first figure out what you can live on and then figure out how many years you can shave down your repayments to. As others have noted, $15k isn't going to cut it.

That being said, it is a bit risky because you aren't saving anything and you will basically be at the whim of any sort of unexpected situation that comes up.

[Wholigan]

You actually meet people from craigslist and then potentially live with them? Seems a bit unsafe. My last experience with craigslist was incredibly shady/bad and I was merely selling an iphone. Couldn’t imagine living with anybody as sketchy as the people who called me from craigslist. Pretty much when I was selling this phone this big ghetto looking Mexican dude meet me at 4AM at an empty gas station. He parked in the shaddiest corner where there were no lights or anything. When pulled out my phone I showed him it and I had my hand on the button of my switch blade with it just barely concealed in my pocket pretty much seconds away from shanking the guy if he was about to start pulling some shaddy ass shit. Maybe this was just a bad experience? … Sefinitely could not live with anyone as shady as that.

And wow that’s ghetto re: the robberies.

Okay, so you were the one with your hand on a switchblade about to shank this guy and he is the shady one because he's big and Mexican? Why would you agree to meet someone at 4AM to sell an iphone if you are worried about it seeming "shady?"

I have had good experiences with craigslist, selling baseball tickets, buying an elliptical machine, etc. My SO found a job at one point on craigslist. Never found a place to live or anything, but obviously you have to be very careful and meet any roommates first. I don't see how it's empirically less safe than finding any other arrangement living with someone you don't know at this point.

[HWS08]

I live in DC now. Unless you never go out to bars or restaurants, buy new clothes, or buy groceries besides rice and canned beans it's probably not possible. Or maybe it is if you live in a very unsavory neighborhood. Lots of the cheap apartments/houses in DC and the near suburbs have roaches, mice and similar things, you'll probably have to spend at least $1100 a month to live somewhere that doesn't. I seriously can't think of a single person I know who does not live in a "luxury" apartment building and has not ever had a mouse or some sort of bug in their apt.

I think you can easily live or $16-17K without a car but with a car....good luck with that.

You probably will have to meet roommates on Craigslist, unless you already know people who live here or are moving here. That's what most people do, it's not that bad.

If you aren't willing to live car-free and get Craigslist roommates you may have to live in your car after all.

Edit: You asked about grocery shopping. The solution is to live within walking or easy Metro distance of a grocery store, getting some big, reusable shopping bags, and carrying your groceries. I do it every week and can usually fit a week of food in one of those bags. If you're really not into that you can sign up for Zipcar and rent a car for an hour or two.

[Anonymous User]

You actually meet people from craigslist and then potentially live with them? Seems a bit unsafe. My last experience with craigslist was incredibly shady/bad and I was merely selling an iphone. Couldn’t imagine living with anybody as sketchy as the people who called me from craigslist. Pretty much when I was selling this phone this big ghetto looking Mexican dude meet me at 4AM at an empty gas station. He parked in the shaddiest corner where there were no lights or anything. When pulled out my phone I showed him it and I had my hand on the button of my switch blade with it just barely concealed in my pocket pretty much seconds away from shanking the guy if he was about to start pulling some shaddy ass shit. Maybe this was just a bad experience? … Sefinitely could not live with anyone as shady as that.

And wow that’s ghetto re: the robberies.

Okay, so you were the one with your hand on a switchblade about to shank this guy and he is the shady one because he's big and Mexican? Why would you agree to meet someone at 4AM to sell an iphone if you are worried about it seeming "shady?"

I have had good experiences with craigslist, selling baseball tickets, buying an elliptical machine, etc. My SO found a job at one point on craigslist. Never found a place to live or anything, but obviously you have to be very careful and meet any roommates first. I don't see how it's empirically less safe than finding any other arrangement living with someone you don't know at this point.

Well not just the fact that he was a big Mexican, but he also talked incredibly ghetto, had a tattoo on his face, and the general situation was just shady. I agreed to meet him then because I was just trying to flip the phone and I figured I could hold my own if shit went down. I mean it wasn’t the end of the world when it comes to selling a cell phone, but when you’re living with someone, there’s a lot more than $200 worth of your possessions up at stake there. But you do have a good point re: how it’s probably no less safe than another other arrangement living with someone you don't know at this point.

I live in DC now. Unless you never go out to bars or restaurants, buy new clothes, or buy groceries besides rice and canned beans it's probably not possible. Or maybe it is if you live in a very unsavory neighborhood. Lots of the cheap apartments/houses in DC and the near suburbs have roaches, mice and similar things, you'll probably have to spend at least $1100 a month to live somewhere that doesn't. I seriously can't think of a single person I know who does not live in a "luxury" apartment building and has not ever had a mouse or some sort of bug in their apt.

I think you can easily live or $16-17K without a car but with a car....good luck with that.

You probably will have to meet roommates on Craigslist, unless you already know people who live here or are moving here. That's what most people do, it's not that bad.

If you aren't willing to live car-free and get Craigslist roommates you may have to live in your car after all.

At least $1100 /month is incredibly pricey for just a place that doesn’t have mice and bugs. Didn’t realize DC was THAT expensive. I want to say it looks like I might need to be getting a 2nd job then, but you said $16-17k is doable without a car? How does that work out? Rent alone at $1100 /month is $13,200 (unless you are suggesting I am going to have to live in a rodent or bug infested apartment – that’s rough, I actually would probably prefer to work a 2nd job part-time than to do that).

Edit: You asked about grocery shopping. The solution is to live within walking or easy Metro distance of a grocery store, getting some big, reusable shopping bags, and carrying your groceries. I do it every week and can usually fit a week of food in one of those bags. If you're really not into that you can sign up for Zipcar and rent a car for an hour or two.

Ahh, that’s how that works. Thanks for the info.

[Anonymous User]

Also curious- what type of time frame do you guys think I need to start looking for a place in order to find something decent and in my price range? Should I start looking at signing a lease around May when I graduate, or can it wait until August (after I take the bar exam)? ... FWIW, DC is pretty much across the country from where I'm going to be in May, so it's pricey to get out since I have to fly there and back.

[Borhas]

if you are a clerk now then is it possible to move to 30 year repayment for a couple years then go to 10 year repayment when you have a higher salary?

[Patriot1208]

You actually meet people from craigslist and then potentially live with them? Seems a bit unsafe. My last experience with craigslist was incredibly shady/bad and I was merely selling an iphone. Couldn’t imagine living with anybody as sketchy as the people who called me from craigslist. Pretty much when I was selling this phone this big ghetto looking Mexican dude meet me at 4AM at an empty gas station. He parked in the shaddiest corner where there were no lights or anything. When pulled out my phone I showed him it and I had my hand on the button of my switch blade with it just barely concealed in my pocket pretty much seconds away from shanking the guy if he was about to start pulling some shaddy ass shit. Maybe this was just a bad experience? … Sefinitely could not live with anyone as shady as that.

And wow that’s ghetto re: the robberies.

Okay, so you were the one with your hand on a switchblade about to shank this guy and he is the shady one because he's big and Mexican? Why would you agree to meet someone at 4AM to sell an iphone if you are worried about it seeming "shady?"

I have had good experiences with craigslist, selling baseball tickets, buying an elliptical machine, etc. My SO found a job at one point on craigslist. Never found a place to live or anything, but obviously you have to be very careful and meet any roommates first. I don't see how it's empirically less safe than finding any other arrangement living with someone you don't know at this point.

Not to mention he agreed to meet at 4am.... lol who the fuck meets someone on craigslist, to buy something, at 4 am. The only dealings i've ever done on craigslist were in DC and went well, in fact I got a date with a pretty attractive chick who I sold my ipod to. But I didn't ask her to meet me at 4am in an alley.

[HWS08]

Also curious- what type of time frame do you guys think I need to start looking for a place in order to find something decent and in my price range? Should I start looking at signing a lease around May when I graduate, or can it wait until August (after I take the bar exam)? ... FWIW, DC is pretty much across the country from where I'm going to be in May, so it's pricey to get out since I have to fly there and back.

You can probably wait awhile. This will sound really sketchy to you, but I actually lived in a hostel for like $100 per week while I was apartment hunting. It's just easier once you're already in the city. You could also find a room for rent or sublet for a month or two through Craigslist while you search, but it will be more expensive than a hostel.

I do know friends who rented rooms sight-unseen from Craigslist, but it's generally not a good strategy.

[Anonymous User]

if you are a clerk now then is it possible to move to 30 year repayment for a couple years then go to 10 year repayment when you have a higher salary?

That presumes I’ll have a higher salary in a few years, and ITE, it may not be a reasonable presumption. Also, I think I may end up utilizing LRAP at my school after the clerkship and I’m not sure if the school is going to cover the increase in my total debt-load if I don’t pay off the first year’s worth of loans (they explicitly say that they will not cover clerkships, and if I go to a 30 year plan now and switch to a 10 year plan a year later, I would pretty much be trying to get them to cover that year of my clerkship).

You actually meet people from craigslist and then potentially live with them? Seems a bit unsafe. My last experience with craigslist was incredibly shady/bad and I was merely selling an iphone. Couldn’t imagine living with anybody as sketchy as the people who called me from craigslist. Pretty much when I was selling this phone this big ghetto looking Mexican dude meet me at 4AM at an empty gas station. He parked in the shaddiest corner where there were no lights or anything. When pulled out my phone I showed him it and I had my hand on the button of my switch blade with it just barely concealed in my pocket pretty much seconds away from shanking the guy if he was about to start pulling some shaddy ass shit. Maybe this was just a bad experience? … Sefinitely could not live with anyone as shady as that.

And wow that’s ghetto re: the robberies.

Okay, so you were the one with your hand on a switchblade about to shank this guy and he is the shady one because he's big and Mexican? Why would you agree to meet someone at 4AM to sell an iphone if you are worried about it seeming "shady?"

I have had good experiences with craigslist, selling baseball tickets, buying an elliptical machine, etc. My SO found a job at one point on craigslist. Never found a place to live or anything, but obviously you have to be very careful and meet any roommates first. I don't see how it's empirically less safe than finding any other arrangement living with someone you don't know at this point.

Not to mention he agreed to meet at 4am.... lol who the fuck meets someone on craigslist, to buy something, at 4 am. The only dealings i've ever done on craigslist were in DC and went well, in fact I got a date with a pretty attractive chick who I sold my ipod to. But I didn't ask her to meet me at 4am in an alley.

Maybe you should have ::evil look:: lol. j/k

Also curious- what type of time frame do you guys think I need to start looking for a place in order to find something decent and in my price range? Should I start looking at signing a lease around May when I graduate, or can it wait until August (after I take the bar exam)? ... FWIW, DC is pretty much across the country from where I'm going to be in May, so it's pricey to get out since I have to fly there and back.

You can probably wait awhile. This will sound really sketchy to you, but I actually lived in a hostel for like $100 per week while I was apartment hunting. It's just easier once you're already in the city. You could also find a room for rent or sublet for a month or two through Craigslist while you search, but it will be more expensive than a hostel.

I do know friends who rented rooms sight-unseen from Craigslist, but it's generally not a good strategy.

Thanks for all the help man. Much appreciated.

[Alex-Trof]

I don't understand. If you go with IBR, can't you pay more than the minimum payments once you make enough money to be done in less than 25 years?

[wiseowl]

The parking is what will kill you more than anything. "Rent" for your car is more expensive in DC than rent for you in a lot of other markets. Doing this for 2 cars is doubly ridiculous.

You're going to have to cut somewhere, and you've set out some guidelines on what's a "need" and what's a "want". The cars are "wants" in DC. They've gotta go.

[Anonymous User]

I don't understand. If you go with IBR, can't you pay more than the minimum payments once you make enough money to be done in less than 25 years?

See my previous posts re: LRAP at my school. Also, even if I don't do LRAP, I just want to be debt-free as soon as possible, even if it means living like shit for a few years out of school. I mean I'm not going to work to the point where I'm sacrificing my personal life and stuff like that, but I'm okay with the idea of maybe having to work another job part-time at night to come up with another $5-10k to live off for the year if I need to.

The parking is what will kill you more than anything. "Rent" for your car is more expensive in DC than rent for you in a lot of other markets. Doing this for 2 cars is doubly ridiculous.

You're going to have to cut somewhere, and you've set out some guidelines on what's a "need" and what's a "want". The cars are "wants" in DC. They've gotta go.

Didn't realize simply parking your car in front of your apartment was that expensive (how much is it anyways?). Is DC the type of city where I'll be able to get around to wherever I need to get pretty easily without a car? I know Chicago and NYC are like that, but I didn't think DC was... (I guess I'm just used to thinking of a car as a necessity having lived in smaller/midsize towns all my life where you literally can't get anywhere without a car, unless you are buming rides everywhere, which gets annoying pretty quickly).

[09042014]

If you don't have a job lined up, I wouldn't be putting money into student loan repayment. Get on IBR, pay the minimum and save some cash.

[Alex-Trof]

I don't understand. If you go with IBR, can't you pay more than the minimum payments once you make enough money to be done in less than 25 years?

See my previous posts re: LRAP at my school. Also, even if I don't do LRAP, I just want to be debt-free as soon as possible, even if it means living like shit for a few years out of school. I mean I'm not going to work to the point where I'm sacrificing my personal life and stuff like that, but I'm okay with the idea of maybe having to work another job part-time at night to come up with another $5-10k to live off for the year if I need to.

I worked 2 jobs before. It is exhausting and I wouldn't have done it for longer than few months. Having a demanding full-time job and a part-time job could reflect very poorly on your performance in the former.

[Anonymous User]

If you don't have a job lined up, I wouldn't be putting money into student loan repayment. Get on IBR, pay the minimum and save some cash.

Why? I’d rather just pay my loans (I mean the assumption is that I’ll find some legal job after the clerkship; I guess if I wasn’t going to find that, then I could understand your point). Plus LRAP might be a possibility after the clerkship, and LRAP would allow me to repay my loans in 10 years.

I don't understand. If you go with IBR, can't you pay more than the minimum payments once you make enough money to be done in less than 25 years?

See my previous posts re: LRAP at my school. Also, even if I don't do LRAP, I just want to be debt-free as soon as possible, even if it means living like shit for a few years out of school. I mean I'm not going to work to the point where I'm sacrificing my personal life and stuff like that, but I'm okay with the idea of maybe having to work another job part-time at night to come up with another $5-10k to live off for the year if I need to.

I worked 2 jobs before. It is exhausting and I wouldn't have done it for longer than few months. Having a demanding full-time job and a part-time job could reflect very poorly on your performance in the former.

Yeah, I guess I’m waiting to see what happens. I don’t even know anyone out in DC (I’ve literally only been there for my one interview), and law clerks can be weird sometimes (I recall at some clerkship interviews the clerks were incredibly awkward people and said they didn’t even interact really), so if I end up just chilling out there by myself for a year not knowing anybody, I figure I might as well just do something to keep myself busy in those extra hours. I figure even if I worked just 2 nights a week (like 5-11PM) and made $100 /night, across 52 weeks that’s an extra $10,400. Plus I might be able to meet some normal people at the 2nd job (most of the law clerks I met were just so damn weird/awkward, probably because it’s all the top of the class people at the top schools, which typically aren’t people like me, even though I somehow managed to hack out awesome grades at my school).

[09042014]

Why? Because if you have more than a few months of gap between clerking a job you'll be really fucked.

[Anonymous User]

Why? Because if you have more than a few months of gap between clerking a job you'll be really fucked.

Loan forebearance? ... As for actual living, I guess worst case scenario, I move back in with my parents at 28, lol (wow, that would be fucked up).

I don't know, the other thing that's messed up about all of this is that I'm planning on applying for another year at a more prestigious court (next weekend actually, I was suppose to do this like last week), so if I get another clerkship (which the clerkship advisor here says I will be able to find what I want, and that I should be competitve for the level court I want in major and secondary markets), that puts me at 1/5 of my total loan repayment time that's in clerking. I just gotta repay these damn loans, I can't just put them off forever without any idea of what I'll be doing after clerking or whether I'm even going to enjoy being a lawyer (I dunno, all I know is that I definetely did not enjoy working at the law firm I was at last summer and would not want to do that for the rest of my working life).

[09042014]

Why? Because if you have more than a few months of gap between clerking a job you'll be really fucked.

Loan forebearance? ... As for actual living, I guess worst case scenario, I move back in with my parents at 28, lol (wow, that would be fucked up).

I don't know, the other thing that's messed up about all of this is that I'm planning on applying for another year at a more prestigious court (next weekend actually, I was suppose to do this like last week), so if I get another clerkship (which the clerkship advisor here says I will be able to find what I want, and that I should be competitve for the level court I want in major and secondary markets), that puts me at 1/5 of my total loan repayment time that's in clerking. I just gotta repay these damn loans, I can't just put them off forever without any idea of what I'll be doing after clerking or whether I'm even going to enjoy being a lawyer (I dunno, all I know is that I definetely did not enjoy working at the law firm I was at last summer and would not want to do that for the rest of my working life).

You won't be able to even pay to move. I agree that paying the loans is the right choice, but you need some savings.

[D-ROCCA]

No one has called flame yet?

[dcgirl1013]

I don't understand. If you go with IBR, can't you pay more than the minimum payments once you make enough money to be done in less than 25 years?

See my previous posts re: LRAP at my school. Also, even if I don't do LRAP, I just want to be debt-free as soon as possible, even if it means living like shit for a few years out of school. I mean I'm not going to work to the point where I'm sacrificing my personal life and stuff like that, but I'm okay with the idea of maybe having to work another job part-time at night to come up with another $5-10k to live off for the year if I need to.

The parking is what will kill you more than anything. "Rent" for your car is more expensive in DC than rent for you in a lot of other markets. Doing this for 2 cars is doubly ridiculous.

You're going to have to cut somewhere, and you've set out some guidelines on what's a "need" and what's a "want". The cars are "wants" in DC. They've gotta go.

Didn't realize simply parking your car in front of your apartment was that expensive (how much is it anyways?). Is DC the type of city where I'll be able to get around to wherever I need to get pretty easily without a car? I know Chicago and NYC are like that, but I didn't think DC was... (I guess I'm just used to thinking of a car as a necessity having lived in smaller/midsize towns all my life where you literally can't get anywhere without a car, unless you are buming rides everywhere, which gets annoying pretty quickly).

The apartment building where I live is $200 a month to park... I think that is pretty average. Most apt places that include parking are much more expensive rent wise. Also I have lived in DC for 4 years without a car and the public transportation is pretty great as long as you just use the metro/walk and don't deal with buses.. I live 4 blocks from a metro stop and it is soo easy! and as to the groceries question you asked earlier, most people just tend to shop for groceries more often here... I go once a week and I have no problem carrying home my groceries (I eat every meal in the apartment as well)

[Anonymous User]

Why? Because if you have more than a few months of gap between clerking a job you'll be really fucked.

Loan forebearance? ... As for actual living, I guess worst case scenario, I move back in with my parents at 28, lol (wow, that would be fucked up).

I don't know, the other thing that's messed up about all of this is that I'm planning on applying for another year at a more prestigious court (next weekend actually, I was suppose to do this like last week), so if I get another clerkship (which the clerkship advisor here says I will be able to find what I want, and that I should be competitve for the level court I want in major and secondary markets), that puts me at 1/5 of my total loan repayment time that's in clerking. I just gotta repay these damn loans, I can't just put them off forever without any idea of what I'll be doing after clerking or whether I'm even going to enjoy being a lawyer (I dunno, all I know is that I definetely did not enjoy working at the law firm I was at last summer and would not want to do that for the rest of my working life).

You won't be able to even pay to move. I agree that paying the loans is the right choice, but you need some savings.

I always try to keep a $4-5k float in a bank account for a worst case scenario event. I have one now, and it will probably be there starting this new job (and I really don’t like to dip into it unless I have to).

No one has called flame yet?

Why do you think this is a flame? … I don’t really even see what’s so crazy here about this.

[ArthurDigbySellers]

Semi-related note-are there any discount or super cheap grocer type places in DC or in nearby (i.e. metro accessible) VA/MD? I'm thinking Costco, BJ's, Aldi, etc. Even Wegmans-is there a Wegmans? Their store brand is superior to many name brands...oh god Wegmans...

But seriously, I know there's a Safeway about 5 blocks from where I might live in DC, but I'm sure one can go cheaper than Safeway right?

[ArthurDigbySellers]

Nearest Wegmans is an hour by bus...damn damn damn