Top Law Schools

3rd year V100 M&A associate in NYC. I get bombarded by recruiter emails daily telling me the TX market for M&A associates is hot. Lately I've considered trying to move there for a few years to knock out the rest of my student loans and then move back to NY. Between the state taxes and lower CoL I could probably knock the remainder of my student loans out in ~3 years. How feasible is this? Has anyone ever done something like this? I have no ties to TX and don't know anybody in the state. If I could even pull off the first part of this, how feasible is moving back to NY after (wouldn't have to be biglaw at that point)?

You can definitely do it. I paid off my student loans after moving from NYC Texas.

That said, I wouldn't assume the cost of living difference is all that dramatic. A lot of those cost of living calculators assume you exactly replicate your lifestyle between cities, which is unlikely. For example, if you live an a 3,000sq ft house in Texas, you probably wouldn't rent a 3,000 sq ft apartment in NYC if you were to move.

If you want to live in the nicer parts of Dallas/Houston near the office, you are probably looking at perhaps $1,000 less per month in rent compared to what you might rent in NYC. That will be partially offset by the need for a car. You will save on taxes if you rent, but property taxes are high if you decide to buy a house. All in, I would not expect to increase your student loan payments by more than $20k a year from what you can do living frugally in NYC. That makes a difference for sure, but if you borrowed full freight it's not the difference between paying off in 3 years or 10.

If you are going to make the move, make it because you want a bit more space, a bit more laid back culture, and especially if you think you might want to start a family. Unless there's an opportunity that offers very unique experience, I don't think it makes sense to move for just 3 years. But if you leave NYC, you may wonder how you put up with it for so long

I can't speak to NYC as I have never lived there, but as a 5th year in Texas, I was able to pay off about $100k in student loans, pay for a wedding and have enough for a down payment on a nice house near the office by the time I finished my 4th year--also, I'm not on the FIRE plan and I took at least one overseas trip each year during that time. No state income tax, no city income tax and I'm at a biglaw firm with Cravath/Millbank salary and bonuses (our bonuses are actually above the Cravath/Millbank scale for high billers--i.e., over 2150hrs). My rent for a brand new, very nice apartment that was walking distance to the office was $1,850/month. You should easily be able to put upwards of $80k (or more if you want to pinch a bit) toward student loans on a biglaw salary in Texas.

And no Texas ties shouldn't be much of an issue for the big firms. We have several laterals that came simply to "settle" down or whatever.