Big Law associate savings and investment options Forum

[Anonymous User]

Suggestions for green / sustainable ones that don't have huge expense ratios? Best I could find is like ICLN with .42% but that's such a huge difference from the low cost ones of general market that it's painful.

Finally getting my shit together to do this aggressively now that bonuses are in.

Edit: Found vanguard has some that are much better than what I found otherwise, but don't come up in google searches for some reason. Link below for anyone else interested. Figured it's the least I could do to offset what my job does to the planet.

https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... rategy=ESG

"least" is exactly right. As an alternative, if your stocks go up, donate some -- it's extremely tax efficient.

Btw, being careful about managing taxes will help you at least as much as the optimizations this thread is getting into, e.g. saving 30bps on fees.

Yeah, all this portfolio optimization stuff is useful but not nearly as important as the stuff in the "Getting Rich" thread lower on the front page. At a minimum, anyone who's opening a taxable account with Vanguard should be making sure they've already maxed out their back door Roth IRA contributions.

[Anonymous User]

Suggestions for green / sustainable ones that don't have huge expense ratios? Best I could find is like ICLN with .42% but that's such a huge difference from the low cost ones of general market that it's painful.

Finally getting my shit together to do this aggressively now that bonuses are in.

Edit: Found vanguard has some that are much better than what I found otherwise, but don't come up in google searches for some reason. Link below for anyone else interested. Figured it's the least I could do to offset what my job does to the planet.

https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... rategy=ESG

"least" is exactly right. As an alternative, if your stocks go up, donate some -- it's extremely tax efficient.

Btw, being careful about managing taxes will help you at least as much as the optimizations this thread is getting into, e.g. saving 30bps on fees.

Eh, there's only so much to do on the tax front (and before you donate appreciated shares partly with an expectation of a tax deduction, make sure you're actually itemizing... which, for the most part these days, would require pretty large donations, given SALT caps).

Yeah I thought on the tax front, if I'm planning to just hold a long time, you just let it sit and grow in ETFs rather than try to loss harvest. If not, I would do one of those robo-advisors to deal with it, but earlier ppl said that wasn't worth the charges.

Donating shares is a good idea. Given the itemization thing, it would probably make sense to do them in pretty large tranches instead of a bit a year, but that of course risks the obvious never getting around to it...

[Anonymous User]

Suggestions for green / sustainable ones that don't have huge expense ratios? Best I could find is like ICLN with .42% but that's such a huge difference from the low cost ones of general market that it's painful.

Finally getting my shit together to do this aggressively now that bonuses are in.

Edit: Found vanguard has some that are much better than what I found otherwise, but don't come up in google searches for some reason. Link below for anyone else interested. Figured it's the least I could do to offset what my job does to the planet.

https://investor.vanguard.com/investmen ... rategy=ESG

"least" is exactly right. As an alternative, if your stocks go up, donate some -- it's extremely tax efficient.

Btw, being careful about managing taxes will help you at least as much as the optimizations this thread is getting into, e.g. saving 30bps on fees.

Eh, there's only so much to do on the tax front (and before you donate appreciated shares partly with an expectation of a tax deduction, make sure you're actually itemizing... which, for the most part these days, would require pretty large donations, given SALT caps).

Yeah I thought on the tax front, if I'm planning to just hold a long time, you just let it sit and grow in ETFs rather than try to loss harvest. If not, I would do one of those robo-advisors to deal with it, but earlier ppl said that wasn't worth the charges.

Donating shares is a good idea. Given the itemization thing, it would probably make sense to do them in pretty large tranches instead of a bit a year, but that of course risks the obvious never getting around to it...

Even if you're not itemizing, if you're going to donate it's always more efficient to donate appreciated assets -- you avoid paying the capital gains taxes.

for taxes, there's all the roth stuff, but you have to be careful about liquidity -- I thought I didn't care about liquidity until I wanted to build a house. Other tax points to think about:
1. Avoid turnover as much as possible. Short-term capital gains in particular really hurt. Watch out because some mutual funds will generate those gains for you. That's an argument in favor of ETFs.
2. Be careful about bonds that pay interest. Think about munis depending on your tax bracket.
3. Beyond IRAs and 401ks, you can also think about an HSA or 529.
I'm sure others have better suggestions.

The tax code is deeply exasperating because it wastes huge amounts of effort basically as a transfer to the upper middle class.

[Anonymous User]

I am the anon who suggested Vanguard Target Retirement Date Funds above, for context.

This thread has done an outstanding job of proving why so many (young-ish) people are overwhelmed by how to invest their money. A simple question like "how should I invest my money?" always seems to progress into an esoteric discussion of "you should do this" "no, this" "no, you should really doing this" "but have considered this?" And quick enough, it's back to the paralysis-by-analysis that causes so many people to throw up their hands and say it's all too complicated and I'll just hold on to the money for a while. And sadly, just holding onto the money in a savings account is often a low-risk, but very costly decision.

OP -- I am going to take a shot at giving you a simplified answer that hopefully will get you on the right track (with the caveat that you already know, which is that I am not your investment advisor and am an anonymous online idiot):

You've received a bunch of advice here, all of it erring towards investing your money one way or another in pretty broad-based funds that tend to be focused on stocks (as opposed to bonds) in the short term. And that's good advice.

The reason people suggest stocks in the short term is because you are a presumably pretty young mid-level and don't need the money for a while, therefore the swings of the stock market are not a big deal, because you're going to be sitting on this money for a long time. Over a sufficiently long period of time, the stock market tends to go up 7-9% per year on average, which is a good value proposition for your money generally speaking.

The reason they are suggesting a broad-based fund (as opposed to individual stocks) is largely because it will be very diversified, and that can smooth out the performance so that you're tracking whole economies/sectors as opposed to individual corporate winners and losers. Whether it's so diversified that it covers international stock or just domestic stocks (one of the previous debates) is a nice discussion, but probably more detail than you need right now. For your goals (as I understand them), it's probably not going to make a tremendous difference in the long run. And to the extent it would make a difference, that difference won't be based on things that are currently knowable to you or me.

People are now talking about tax optimization, and that's like step 12 and you're on step 1. So, I'd only focus on tax advantages to this extent: You should make sure you're doing this contribution, to the maximum extent possible, in a tax-advantaged account, whether it's your 401k or a Roth account. If you don't know, in a 401k, you get to defer your taxes -- i.e. you won't pay income tax on contributions or growth in your 401k account until you withdraw the money when you're older. In a Roth account, you do pay taxes now on the money you put in the account, but the growth of your investment in a Roth account won't be taxed when you withdraw the money when you're older. That's why people like these accounts. You probably cannot do a Roth IRA account (without an extra couple of steps), but you may be able to use a Roth 401k account -- check with your firm's benefits people to find out what's available to you.

There's nuance here and some strategy to optimize how you allocate money to your retirement accounts, but again, that will come at like Step 6. It's for another day.

If you've already maxed out your tax-advantaged options, you can invest this money in a standard brokerage account through Vanguard (or anywhere else, but Vanguard is a good choice). While there are some other strategies that could be more advantageous long term (like a backdoor Roth or a MBDR), those are more complicated and might be better left for another time if you're too intimidated now. Getting the money into an appropriate investment vehicle is the goal -- optimizing that investment in various ways is kind of like extra credit. Doing nothing with it is missing the goal.

You mentioned CDs and some other conservative investments. Based on what I know about you, I think those are really unproductive uses of your money that many years from now you'd regret using, personally.

I think your key takeaway should be not to be overwhelmed by every voice saying something different, to focus on getting your money from a savings account to an investment account (bonus points if it is tax advantaged), and to never let perfect be the enemy of good. If you get your money into a low-fee (i.e. Vanguard) mutual fund that's broad-based, you've succeeded in Step 1. Everything else for you is gravy.

Again, not your advisor, your results may vary, I am an idiot who does not know anything and you shouldn't listen to me.

[Sackboy]

As I said earlier, pick one of the funds that tracks the S&P 500, Russell 1000, or the entire market. It doesn't matter which one. Just pick one of the popular ones. Ignore all the target date fund advice. Target date funds are terrible for anyone who is young due to them having bonds, and they should be avoided like the plague.Buy one of the broad index funds and let it sit and think about bonds in 20 years. Also ignore all of the talk about international exposure. It's malarkey. All of the major U.S. companies, which will be reflected in the broad-based index funds I've recommended, have giant international presences. U.S. stocks have also historically outperformed. Even if international stocks perform better in the future, it's doubtful it will be by much. Just keep this simple. No bonds. No international. Buy a fund that reflects the S&P 500, Russell 1000, or entire market. This shit is stupidly simple. Everyone else is trying to make it complicated. Also, don't care about expense ratios. All the big funds (VOO, VTI, VONG, etc.) have minuscule expense ratios and any minor differences aren't worth caring about.

[Anonymous User]

Guys I think I might be doing this wrong?

Non-401k portfolio is UPRO, unlevered crypto (Eth, Btc, Sol, Dot, ftm, Avax), 2.5x levered co-invest to a PE LBO fund and a PE secondaries fund, an income property (80% LTV with fixed rate debt) + a few single line stocks (GLBE, BRDG, HHC, APO).

[Anonymous User]

I am OP. Thank you all so much for the thoughtful advice and links! I'll try to take it all in, though I did get lost in some of the posts about tax benefits. I know what I need to do, basically at least, and one of these posts actually helped me see that I had already made a mistake: I contributed to my IRA but then didn't do anything with the money, I had mistakenly assumed it would be invested automatically/as soon as it gets put into that sort of account, but it was just sitting in there!

I think I'll take some of the above advice, forget about the CD, and just focus on steps 1 and 2 and not worry about international exposure or tax benefits down the road, too. Sounds like VT or VOO is the right way to go (leaning towards VOO because I already have a Fidelity account open). Thanks again!

[Anonymous User]

I am OP. Thank you all so much for the thoughtful advice and links! I'll try to take it all in, though I did get lost in some of the posts about tax benefits. I know what I need to do, basically at least, and one of these posts actually helped me see that I had already made a mistake: I contributed to my IRA but then didn't do anything with the money, I had mistakenly assumed it would be invested automatically/as soon as it gets put into that sort of account, but it was just sitting in there!

I think I'll take some of the above advice, forget about the CD, and just focus on steps 1 and 2 and not worry about international exposure or tax benefits down the road, too. Sounds like VT or VOO is the right way to go (leaning towards VOO because I already have a Fidelity account open). Thanks again!

Sounds like a great plan!

[Anonymous User]

I bonds?

[LBJ's Hair]

As I said earlier, pick one of the funds that tracks the S&P 500, Russell 1000, or the entire market. It doesn't matter which one. Just pick one of the popular ones. Ignore all the target date fund advice. Target date funds are terrible for anyone who is young due to them having bonds, and they should be avoided like the plague.Buy one of the broad index funds and let it sit and think about bonds in 20 years. Also ignore all of the talk about international exposure. It's malarkey. All of the major U.S. companies, which will be reflected in the broad-based index funds I've recommended, have giant international presences. U.S. stocks have also historically outperformed. Even if international stocks perform better in the future, it's doubtful it will be by much. Just keep this simple. No bonds. No international. Buy a fund that reflects the S&P 500, Russell 1000, or entire market. This shit is stupidly simple. Everyone else is trying to make it complicated. Also, don't care about expense ratios. All the big funds (VOO, VTI, VONG, etc.) have minuscule expense ratios and any minor differences aren't worth caring about.

+1 million

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but in a similar position. I'm a third year big law associate who just recently paid off debt. I plan on keeping 3-6 months' living expenses in my checking account and dumping the rest in a Vanguard VT. My question is - should I be doing something different if I plan to buy a home in 2-3 years? Most of the advice I've seen on this thread is tailored for people who plan on not touching the fund for 20 years, but wondering if anything changes if I plan on taking out a pretty significant sum relatively soon.

This might be a dumb question, but I'm not the most financially savvy person so I didn't know if there is a disadvantage to taking money out of a fund early.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but in a similar position. I'm a third year big law associate who just recently paid off debt. I plan on keeping 3-6 months' living expenses in my checking account and dumping the rest in a Vanguard VT. My question is - should I be doing something different if I plan to buy a home in 2-3 years? Most of the advice I've seen on this thread is tailored for people who plan on not touching the fund for 20 years, but wondering if anything changes if I plan on taking out a pretty significant sum relatively soon.

This might be a dumb question, but I'm not the most financially savvy person so I didn't know if there is a disadvantage to taking money out of a fund early.

I'm in exactly the same boat re: buying a house soon and trying to figure out where to put the down payment money. The general consensus is that yes, this does change things significantly. VT (and all stock-based investments) are highly volatile over the short term, and it's possible that there will be less money in your account in 2-3 years than there is right now if you invest it in the stock market. For short-term financial goals, stability is more important than investment growth.

I'm keeping my down payment savings in a high yield savings account (HYSA). The best ones on the market right now (Marcus, Ally) pay 0.5% interest annually. It's not much, but it's a lot more than a regular savings account, and your money will be there for you when it's time to buy a house.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but in a similar position. I'm a third year big law associate who just recently paid off debt. I plan on keeping 3-6 months' living expenses in my checking account and dumping the rest in a Vanguard VT. My question is - should I be doing something different if I plan to buy a home in 2-3 years? Most of the advice I've seen on this thread is tailored for people who plan on not touching the fund for 20 years, but wondering if anything changes if I plan on taking out a pretty significant sum relatively soon.

This might be a dumb question, but I'm not the most financially savvy person so I didn't know if there is a disadvantage to taking money out of a fund early.

Typical advice if that if you're going to need it in the short run for a house downpayment, you don't put it in stocks. Some will keep it in a high yield savings account (like Ally), some will try to buy a relatively safe bond fund, but you don't want to put it into equities with a 2-3 year time horizon.

But, that can of course be a very expensive decision. If you'd done that this year you gave up 20%+ market returns. Some people are willing to take the risk that they just won't be able to buy a house when they want to (or that they'll have to sell at a low) and so they don't keep their house downpayment money in a "safe" investment. That's a question of risk tolerance for you.

I'm super conservative, kept my house downpayment in a savings account, paid my house off early. Have cost myself hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result. But I sleep better at night and so I don't really regret it, perse.

[Anonymous User]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

[jotarokujo]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

if you're in your 30s, you're young enough to all in VT or VOO. half and half is a great plan if you wanna decrease international exposure

[The Lsat Airbender]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

We're talking about tickers with eleven-digit market caps administrated by firms with thirteen-digit AUM. Your $250k is just a grain of sand on the beach. Better, for a number of reasons, to keep it simple.

Also, if you *did* want to segregate holdings for this reason, weird to use two Vanguard funds for that purpose.

[Anonymous User]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

if you're in your 30s, you're young enough to all in VT or VOO. half and half is a great plan if you wanna decrease international exposure

In same boat but like 100K (thanks DINK). Did 45% in USSG, 45% in ESGV (both US ESG stock funds) and 10% in VSGX (int'l ESG stock). I'm still pushing the ESG stuff, we can do that at least... (anon from above)

*not advice and I'm an idiot on the internet that follows what other randos on a message board say and then teaches it like gospel.

[Anonymous User]

I split my new money in thirds between MGK, VOT and VBK. Gimme that risk baby.

[Anonymous User]

I split my new money in thirds between MGK, VOT and VBK. Gimme that risk baby.

Huge balls. The bad boy of well diversified ETF investing here. To the moon!

[Anonymous User]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

if you're in your 30s, you're young enough to all in VT or VOO. half and half is a great plan if you wanna decrease international exposure

In same boat but like 100K (thanks DINK). Did 45% in USSG, 45% in ESGV (both US ESG stock funds) and 10% in VSGX (int'l ESG stock). I'm still pushing the ESG stuff, we can do that at least... (anon from above)

*not advice and I'm an idiot on the internet that follows what other randos on a message board say and then teaches it like gospel.

Anon who initially recommended VT here - Just so you know, your earlier post made me start looking into ESG funds. I think I'm going to move at least part of my position to one.

[Sackboy]

I bonds?

I Bonds are not an investment vehicle for all intents and purposes. Because they are directly tied to the rate of inflation, they are a hedge against inflation. Technically, they have a fixed interest rate too, but that has been 0% for awhile now I believe. I Bonds are where I advise people to put their emergency funds. The downsides of I Bonds are that you cannot cash them out until the 12 month mark and that you can only buy $10k/yr. (effectively, at least). This means you need to gradually transition into them while reducing your cash reserve. Because I don't peddle products that I don't use, I keep 4 months of emergency funds in I Bonds ($15k) and have about $5k in cash for immediate liquidity at all times. This is, in my opinion, a far better strategy than something like $25k in cash at 0.4% interest in a money market account or $5k in cash and $20k in the market, as the market going to shit probably has a decent likelihood in coinciding with my job going to shit.

[Anonymous User]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

We're talking about tickers with eleven-digit market caps administrated by firms with thirteen-digit AUM. Your $250k is just a grain of sand on the beach. Better, for a number of reasons, to keep it simple.

Also, if you *did* want to segregate holdings for this reason, weird to use two Vanguard funds for that purpose.

Well, my question was geared towards my risk, not the fund's risk. I understand it's a huge fund with 13-digit AUM so my contribution into it will hardly make any impact. My concern was more that I would be parking my full amount (~250-280k) into a single fund rather than spreading it across 2-3 funds.

The concern, I guess, is that maybe you guys all are operating with some unspoken/background understanding or assumption that there's an upper limit to how much you allocate into an S&P-tracking ETF of this kind, and beyond which you should put additional amounts into something else (whatever it might be).

I should have specified my amount in my original question (I'm OP) so that it would be clear what amount of money we're talking about; that's why I flagged it later on when the consensus answer emerged: I didn't want to be in a position where the advice would have been different if the amount had been known (I can imagine, for instance, some basic finance- or investment-savvy principle whereby at a certain amount, you don't just dump it all into one place, kind of an investment 101 type thing I just wouldn't have known about).

Thanks again though, all these thoughts are very helpful and apprecaited. My real-life friends are telling me to invest in crypto (20%-100% returns!) and the guy at Fidelity I talked to keeps trying to sell me on annuities for some reason...

[The Lsat Airbender]

Does the prevailing wisdom indicated in this thread (i.e., keep it simple, dump all the money aside from your rainy-day savings into an ETF fund that tracks S&P, like VT or VOO) change if the money is like, $250k? Is that too much to dump into a single investment vehicle, even if that vehicle is itself a diversified fund like VOO?

[If so, should I split the $250k into 2-3 similar things, like half in VT and half in VOO? Or find something else besides that type of fund?]

Thanks in advance!

We're talking about tickers with eleven-digit market caps administrated by firms with thirteen-digit AUM. Your $250k is just a grain of sand on the beach. Better, for a number of reasons, to keep it simple.

Also, if you *did* want to segregate holdings for this reason, weird to use two Vanguard funds for that purpose.

Well, my question was geared towards my risk, not the fund's risk. I understand it's a huge fund with 13-digit AUM so my contribution into it will hardly make any impact. My concern was more that I would be parking my full amount (~250-280k) into a single fund rather than spreading it across 2-3 funds.

The concern, I guess, is that maybe you guys all are operating with some unspoken/background understanding or assumption that there's an upper limit to how much you allocate into an S&P-tracking ETF of this kind, and beyond which you should put additional amounts into something else (whatever it might be).

I should have specified my amount in my original question (I'm OP) so that it would be clear what amount of money we're talking about; that's why I flagged it later on when the consensus answer emerged: I didn't want to be in a position where the advice would have been different if the amount had been known (I can imagine, for instance, some basic finance- or investment-savvy principle whereby at a certain amount, you don't just dump it all into one place, kind of an investment 101 type thing I just wouldn't have known about).

Thanks again though, all these thoughts are very helpful and apprecaited. My real-life friends are telling me to invest in crypto (20%-100% returns!) and the guy at Fidelity I talked to keeps trying to sell me on annuities for some reason...

Ah, ok, you're asking about diversification. To be clear, VOO and VT are rather strongly correlated (the S&P 500 comprise something like 40% of the global stock market) so there's not much benefit there. Having multiple different tickers is pointless if the underlying equities overlap like that. Indeed, a mix of VOO and VT is less diversified than VT alone because you're overweighting a certain segment of a certain country's equity market.

If you want to diversify away from global equities (VT), you'd have to look at other asset classes: bonds, gold, crypto, commodities, etc. Personally I have a small bond allocation. You should aim to have a principled basis for your allocation, and you should maintain your allocation over time.

The amount of money you're considering investing is only relevant insofar as people with larger NW tend to be more risk-averse (they tend to be older and/or closer to retirement, e.g.), but there's not really a causal relationship.

Annuities and similar products like "whole-life insurance" are usually a ripoff. They can make sense when used for very specific purposes (e.g., to optimize for taxes or as an estate-planning tool).

You should read this and try to understand it: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio

[Anonymous User]

The person trying to sell you an annuity is a salesman trying to sell you a bad product and you should never speak to him again, flat-out. He's trying to extract a commission from you. Leeches like that thrive off high income folks that don't know what to do with their money.

Crypto... I mean, people that have invested in it other than at the top have obviously done really well. But it's pure speculation. Maybe speculation that will pay off very handsomely. Obviously I wish I had put some money into it when I started investing in 2011 and forward, because I'd be on a beach somewhere instead of just having a couple million NW, but it is what it is. I paid my loans off within 2 years and bought my house and paid it off early--cost myself hundreds of thousands of returns, so be it--and have put everything else in index funds. I'm fine. The key is to not try to time the market.

The thing to remember is that, with a biglaw shovel, you don't have to hit investing home runs. You just need to keep your lifestyle rational enough that you're able to put a decent amount away and set yourself up for your next steps.

[VentureMBA]

The person trying to sell you an annuity is a salesman trying to sell you a bad product and you should never speak to him again, flat-out. He's trying to extract a commission from you. Leeches like that thrive off high income folks that don't know what to do with their money.

Crypto... I mean, people that have invested in it other than at the top have obviously done really well. But it's pure speculation. Maybe speculation that will pay off very handsomely. Obviously I wish I had put some money into it when I started investing in 2011 and forward, because I'd be on a beach somewhere instead of just having a couple million NW, but it is what it is. I paid my loans off within 2 years and bought my house and paid it off early--cost myself hundreds of thousands of returns, so be it--and have put everything else in index funds. I'm fine. The key is to not try to time the market.

The thing to remember is that, with a biglaw shovel, you don't have to hit investing home runs. You just need to keep your lifestyle rational enough that you're able to put a decent amount away and set yourself up for your next steps.

How long did it take you to hit $1m? $2m?