Paying Back Loans Forum

[Anonymous User]

But if you pay down aggressively and find that you want out of biglaw, you'll have no savings, and don't you think it'll be harder to last longer in biglaw without the financial incentive? (Obviously you're making the same amount of money, but if you're paying off all your loans you can't really "use" it to help minimize the suckage of biglaw)

[Tiago Splitter]

But if you pay down aggressively and find that you want out of biglaw, you'll have no savings, and don't you think it'll be harder to last longer in biglaw without the financial incentive? (Obviously you're making the same amount of money, but if you're paying off all your loans you can't really "use" it to help minimize the suckage of biglaw)

You should definitely build up some liquid savings along the way too.

[skers]

Something's always got to give man. That said, I pay like ~$3,200 a month, have decent savings, and really could be a lot more frugal, so it's not really all that bad at all.

[gk101]

I was on the pay the debt off as soon as possible train but I've come around on the Tiago/Johann plan of just doing PAYE. Save aggressively and if you find yourself liking biglaw and have relative job security there, use the savings to pay off the loans at that time if you are really debt-averse

doing PAYE doesn't mean you have to wait the 20 years or whatever to pay it off. It gives you more options early in your career when there is less stability while still giving you the option for paying off the loans early. You're going to pay more in interest for a couple of years but the trade-offs are worth it for the security

[jimmythecatdied6]

Refinance -> pay down as quickly as possible with biglaw salary -> do w/e you want

I've already gone from ~250K in the hole (law school + undergrad) to about 210K. This is with clerkship bonus and 5K / month towards loans. I've only been at it for a few months though. I should also note - I'm not all that risk averse and would rather avoid the interest.