How should I pay off my law school loans? Forum

[Anonymous User]

First year associate in high cost of living city, earning $130k. I am in my mid 20s. I have $34,000 in student loans at around 6% interest (averaged out). Monthly take home pay is slightly more than $7000.

Rent and utilities is $1900 a month, $100 for monthly train pass, minimum student loan payment of $400 per month, and averaging $1300 a month for food/eating out/ entertainment/clothes/miscellaneous/other bills (phone, etc). Expenses total $3,700 month, which la remainder of $3,300 each month.

I am getting married in half a year, and will need to pay for the wedding. The wedding (small) and honeymoon should total $10,000. I have about $5000 saved up so far.

What should my plan be? Should I bite the bullet and just pay off the loan in the next year, so that I can be done with this mess? Should I save more for a raining day? Fiancé is still in school, with small research stipend of around $24k a year. Thankfully my fiancé doesn't have any debt! I like my job, but it is a big firm so who knows what will happen in a few years.

[star fox]

First year associate in high cost of living city, earning $130k. I have$34,000 in student loans.

I think you'll be fine….

[Anonymous User]

First year associate in high cost of living city, earning $130k. I am in my mid 20s. I have $34,000 in student loans at around 6% interest (averaged out). Monthly take home pay is slightly more than $7000.

Rent and utilities is $1900 a month, $100 for monthly train pass, minimum student loan payment of $400 per month, and averaging $1300 a month for food/eating out/ entertainment/clothes/miscellaneous/other bills (phone, etc). Expenses total $3,700 month, which la remainder of $3,300 each month.

I am getting married in half a year, and will need to pay for the wedding. The wedding (small) and honeymoon should total $10,000. I have about $5000 saved up so far.

What should my plan be? Should I bite the bullet and just pay off the loan in the next year, so that I can be done with this mess? Should I save more for a raining day? Fiancé is still in school, with small research stipend of around $24k a year. Thankfully my fiancé doesn't have any debt! I like my job, but it is a big firm so who knows what will happen in a few years.

If the sole purpose of this post was to make the rest of us jealous that you only have $34k in debt and are making >$100k, you've succeeded.

[Old Gregg]

You should refinance your student loans at a low interest rate, pay minimum payments, and then use the money saved for a bigger rainy day fund, general savings and maybe keeping the open bar at your wedding reception open a little longer than 9:30pm.

[star fox]

What's with the recent wave of "is it even possible to live on less than $160K?" posts?

[sparty99]

First year associate in high cost of living city, earning $130k. I am in my mid 20s. I have $34,000 in student loans at around 6% interest (averaged out). Monthly take home pay is slightly more than $7000.

Rent and utilities is $1900 a month, $100 for monthly train pass, minimum student loan payment of $400 per month, and averaging $1300 a month for food/eating out/ entertainment/clothes/miscellaneous/other bills (phone, etc). Expenses total $3,700 month, which la remainder of $3,300 each month.

I am getting married in half a year, and will need to pay for the wedding. The wedding (small) and honeymoon should total $10,000. I have about $5000 saved up so far.

What should my plan be? Should I bite the bullet and just pay off the loan in the next year, so that I can be done with this mess? Should I save more for a raining day? Fiancé is still in school, with small research stipend of around $24k a year. Thankfully my fiancé doesn't have any debt! I like my job, but it is a big firm so who knows what will happen in a few years.

F*ck you.

[gnomgnomuch]

You can go a couple routes.

1) Pay out your loans ASAP, live more or less frugally for a year or so, and then start putting money away for a rainy day.

2)

You should refinance your student loans at a low interest rate, pay minimum payments, and then use the money saved for a bigger rainy day fund, general savings and maybe keeping the open bar at your wedding reception open a little longer than 9:30pm.

[should-i-do-it]

You can suck cock

user has been banned for posting as a 0L in Legal Employment to tell someone to suck cock.

[20141023]

.

[tier3]

Since your in your mid twenties I'm presuming you recently graduated.

What's the secret of keeping your loans so low during law school? IE) Accumulating no debt? How does one do it?

[Anonymous User]

Since your in your mid twenties I'm presuming you recently graduated.

What's the secret of keeping your loans so low during law school? IE) Accumulating no debt? How does one do it?

Rich parents.

[Kratos]

Since your in your mid twenties I'm presuming you recently graduated.

What's the secret of keeping your loans so low during law school? IE) Accumulating no debt? How does one do it?

Rich parents.

Or get a full scholly at a school in a really low rent area and take out less than max COL loans. Or full scholly and lived with parents or other family or something. Or just rich parents.

Edit: mocked anon use without realizing it might be the original anon

[twenty 8]

I work with associates (in a metropolitan city) starting out at 125. What I hear is that they are setting aside 2k a month for tuition debt. They get by better than just ok. Granted, they sacrifice eating at expensive restaurants every night and settle for wardrobes that are less costly than Versace.

[JamMasterJ]

gais I have 177/3.9 where should I apply? Am I fucked because I didn't get a 179?

[Anonymous User]

OP here. My post wasn't intended to be me bragging or being a d*ck.

A little background may be helpful. I am an immigrant from Asia, moved to the U.S. When I was a child. I grew up poor, and dad worked for a factory and we barely had any money. Grew up wearing stuff on clearance and clothes my mom made, and qualified for free lunch at my public school. I had a full ride to a private undergrad, and almost a full ride to mid T-1 law school in a high COL city. (Wasn't smart enough to get into HYS, or anything crazy like that). I worked during law school, constantly worried about money, did not take extra loans that I did not need, lived in shitty apartments with roommates, and used the money I earned working to pay off some loans during school and the grace period.

I have always needed to budget and struggle financially to make it. Now that I am finally working and earning a decent salary, I wasn't sure if I should continue to struggle and pay the debt off in 1 year. Alternatively, it would be nice to relax a little and treat myself to nicer things. I don't know how many years the current firm will want me, so I need to plan ahead. I may not have this salary in a few years. Also, my next goal would be in save for a down payment for a house because renting in a high COL city is like throwing your money down an empty pit of sadness.

[brick_wall]

I had decided to post this as I read through this thread (i.e. before I reached the OP's recent response).

Why is everyone so quick to jump all over this guy? He didn't act like his position was a sob story--he just asked how to allocate his salary between debt, living, wedding. That is completely reasonable.

It would also have been completely reasonable if someone posted that they had zero debt and didn't know how to allocate their salary between investments, rent, kids' college fund, or whatever.

Guess what, there are a lot of people in this world better off (and worse off) than you (or me). So quit getting all indignant because someone who graduated from law school with 30k in debt and actually has a job wants to ask the internet for advice.

All of this should be true even if the OP's personal background didn't turn out to be as compelling as it is.

OP, congrats on all the hard work paying off. I don't have a good answer to your question but wish you the best.

[OklahomasOK]

First year associate in high cost of living city, earning $130k. I am in my mid 20s. I have $34,000 in student loans at around 6% interest (averaged out). Monthly take home pay is slightly more than $7000.

Rent and utilities is $1900 a month, $100 for monthly train pass, minimum student loan payment of $400 per month, and averaging $1300 a month for food/eating out/ entertainment/clothes/miscellaneous/other bills (phone, etc). Expenses total $3,700 month, which la remainder of $3,300 each month.

I am getting married in half a year, and will need to pay for the wedding. The wedding (small) and honeymoon should total $10,000. I have about $5000 saved up so far.

What should my plan be? Should I bite the bullet and just pay off the loan in the next year, so that I can be done with this mess? Should I save more for a raining day? Fiancé is still in school, with small research stipend of around $24k a year. Thankfully my fiancé doesn't have any debt! I like my job, but it is a big firm so who knows what will happen in a few years.

I have double your debt, a lower salary, and I'm also getting married in a year and I make it work pretty easily each month. Refinance your loans and forget about it, you've got it easy.

It shouldn't be difficult to "make do" off $130K. I make do on a lot less and I still have cash left over at the end of each month. I go out plenty and have a solid wardrobe. You can be smart about loan repayment and your budget without living off the dollar menu.

...
Why is everyone so quick to jump all over this guy? He didn't act like his position was a sob story--he just asked how to allocate his salary between debt, living, wedding. That is completely reasonable.

It would also have been completely reasonable if someone posted that they had zero debt and didn't know how to allocate their salary between investments, rent, kids' college fund, or whatever.

Guess what, there are a lot of people in this world better off (and worse off) than you (or me). So quit getting all indignant because someone who graduated from law school with 30k in debt and actually has a job wants to ask the internet for advice...

It's not exactly rocket science planning a budget. I mean, the guy did land a nice job that pays $130K/ year, it shouldn't be too hard to find a way to "make it work."