Law Schools

Bar Tabs: Old Fashioned Talk About A Cosmopolitan Issue

Tip your bartenders 20%. Try to keep your loans below 4%.

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(Image via Getty)

Cheers, patrons!

First, I would like to thank everyone who sent in Debt Testimonials. It was helpful to see how other people are approaching their debts, and I’m sure it will help our fellow readers figure out their strategies.

Some general advice. Multiple people mentioned the disbelief that hit once they realized it was time to repay their loans. One reader shared that they were “physically ill once [they] saw their interest and realize that zero (READ: $0) of their monthly payment was going toward the principal!” Several readers shared that it’s surprising how quickly 5-8% compounding interest, err, compounds. FACTOR THAT IN WHEN YOU LOOK AT YOUR LOAN OPTION(s)!

I saw two responses to debt in the replies: 1) Pay the debt off quickly or 2) Delay repayment to invest elsewhere. Both have their own merits. One reader in the quick payoff camp is on path to pay off their spouse’s and their own debt pretty quickly. They bought a small home and will make repairs to it over time. Folks in the second camp chose to backburner their debt payments in order to do things ranging from buying a nice home for themselves and their family, saving up money for their child’s education, or refinancing their debt and coming to terms with paying $500 or so a month for the next 30 years.

Some advice for 1Ls: Factor price in when you consider which school to attend. Try to graduate with under 100k in loans. Compounding interest hits harder than understanding the Rule Against Perpetuities while sleep deprived. You presumably haven’t had property yet. You don’t know what it is for context. It’s hard. You’ve been told.

Some advice for 3Ls: At this point, you may be in survival mode. Worry less, the sleepless nights you’re having worrying about debt will not help you. Stress less and budget more.

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That’s today’s post! I have more responses to comb through, but please send me more at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com with the subject line “Debt Testimonial.” I’ll ask for some advice you would give to 1Ls, graduating 3Ls, and new hires trying to hit a net worth of zero and beyond. All information that is read and shared will be anonymous unless requested otherwise. Let’s figure it out together.

To participate in this series, you must meet these criteria:

  1. You did not receive a full ride, non-merit scholarship to your law school of choice. Partial scholarships are fine. Full-ride merit scholarships are not, unless you lost it at some point in your law school experience.
  2. Receiving gifts does not play a large role in your debt payback plans. This means no homes as graduation presents or small loans of a million dollars.
  3. You are in control of your own income. #FreeBritney
  4. You must be at least five figures in debt and have a JD. I don’t care if the debt is from school, GME shorts gone bad, or the like. You just have to be down bad.

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. Before that, he wrote columns for an online magazine named The Muse Collaborative under the pen name Knehmo. He endured the great state of Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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