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| Testimonial Tuesday is a semi-regular series. Here is our hope for these posts. If you would like to participate, contact us. |

In this rendition of Testimonial Tuesday, we look at a personal experience with graduate school, specifically law school. Many people would blindly argue that a post graduate degree from a top-tier program is almost always a no-brain-er. They argue that despite the cost, the degree holder will be certain to obtain a top notch job that will enable them to tackle their student loan debt. I believe this week’s contributor would disagree with that thought process.

Don’t get caught up in the post-graduate education hype.¹

It wasn’t that long ago that I was 100% completely debt free. Both my wife and I had been through college without incurring any debt. We owned both our vehicles. We lived in an apartment, so we did not have a mortgage. I was making $55,000 per year in a field with plenty of room for advancement. We had $10,000 in a bank account for a rainy day. In short, things were good from a financial standpoint.

Then I decided to go to law school.² My primary motivation for going to law school was not money, but I did not think that going to law school was a bad decision financially. All of the law schools I looked at touted what a good investment law school was and how quickly you could pay off the, admittedly, substantial cost of their fine institutions. So I thought that going to law school was, at least, a financially responsible decision.

When I graduated in 2008, I had $150,000 in student loans, about half of which were private loans at exorbitant rates. I did not incur that much debt through frivolous spending. We lived very humbly, and my wife had a job that met most of our basic needs. The 150k is almost entirely school-related expenses and interest.

I understood when I went to law school that I would be racking up that much debt, but, because of what the admissions departments told me, I thought that I would be able to find a job that would make it fairly easy to pay off my debt in a reasonable time. The school I went to advertised an average salary after graduation of $100,000. Like most people, I considered myself better than average, so I thought I’d be able to bring in $110,000 to $120,000 per year pretty easily. So I thought, if we continued to live humbly, I could pay off my debt in 3 to 5 years. Well, that’s not what happened.

Why? There were a few key things that none of the law schools I applied to mentioned. First, while some first-year attorneys make up to $180,000, that is only in the largest markets (New York, L.A., etc.), where the cost of living negates a large portion of that impressive number. Second, the only firms that pay that kind of money demand that you work ridiculous hours. 3500 hours per year requirements are not uncommon. Third, attorneys who take those kinds of jobs develop very few marketable skills during the first five years of their practice because they are stuck at their desks doing research most days. Fourth, the vast majority of attorneys who take those kinds of jobs leave for more reasonable, and less-paying, jobs within 2 years. Last, the schools don’t tell you what kind of interest rates your loans are going to be at. In my experience, it is not uncommon to have loans up to 8%.

In other words, what the schools don’t tell you when you’re applying is, that to make a reasonable return on your investment, you have to take a job that you’re probably going to hate.

So here I am, after 3 years of grueling school, with more debt than I ever thought I would have, making not that much more than I would have had I continued in my prior career. You might be thinking, “well, you must have gone to a crappy school, or you must not have done very well.” Admittedly, I did not go to Harvard, and I did not graduate magna cum laude. But I did go to a well-respected school that has consistently ranked in the top 20 in the country (out of more than 200 law schools nationwide). And I graduated in the top 1/3 of my class with several accomplishments and honors.

What’s the lesson here, from a financial perspective? Don’t get caught up in the numbers the schools publish. Do your own research, and ask hard questions of the admissions folks to see what “lies behind” the numbers. Ask if you can contact some recent graduates that are making what the school says you can make. Call those folks, and see what they had to give up to make that kind of money. If you don’t want to work in a city like New York then contact some graduates who are working in the area you want to live in and see what kind of money they’re making. In short, don’t get caught up in the hype.

¹ This article is entirely one-dimensional, in that it addresses only the financial aspect of post-graduate education. Whether to pursue post-graduate education is, of course, a very complex decision that involves social, family, religious, and other considerations along with financial considerations.

² While I speak entirely from my experience in law school, I think my point applies to many types of post-graduate education. For example see, this article.

~D. Adams

| Testimonial Tuesday is a semi-regular series. Here is our hope for these posts. |

Community College Psych test: Question 27, “ I am afraid when I swim in deep water alone: Sometimes, Always, or Never.”

I imagine my legs dangling below the surface of a dark brooding ocean and wonder, who wouldn’t be afraid of swimming in deep water alone? You have to be a touch of a lunatic to look at that question and think, “yes, this doesn’t bother me.” Aren’t we all afraid of being surrounded by the unknown? We’ve seen Jaws, we know that the stiller the surface the more likely you’ll wind up in pieces amid a cloud of your own blood.

My financial life was a dark, inky ocean. Instead of conquering it, it continuously conquered me.

Some people never seem to experience this. For them routines, budgets, calendars, day planners, birthday reminders, all spring forth from every movement as if by accident. Others of us are not so fortunate.

I’m a reader, and I don’t read discriminately so one rainy day I pulled the book “Smart Women Finish Rich” off of my bookshelf where it had been sitting (spine hidden inwards) for a few years. It was a gift from my aunt when she found out I was marrying a schoolteacher. Two chapters into it I realized the author was a man. It was doomed before it even began.

Although the feminist in me wouldn’t allow me to complete it, I was glad to discover that there are these systems for people like me. I realized I must not be the only one who wasn’t born with the ability to accidentally drop groceries into alphabetized piles. Otherwise why would there be a “FlyLady.com” system that sends you e-mails and text messages when it is time to clean the toilet?

Incorporating financial discipline into my life started out like my first yoga class: no mat, oversized sweat pants, tennis shoes still muddy from the last time I wore them five months ago. Rather than being surrounded by limber people and Tibetan chants, I was surrounded by labels, glue sticks with missing caps, and three years worth of receipts and unopened mail.

Eventually I realized all I needed to do was swim below the surface and open my eyes. I made a list of my bills, I checked my credit online. I made a file folder. I cleaned the toilet.

I’m not one of those psychologically complex individuals who marries their opposite. My husband and I are narcissistically similar. He got on board almost immediately and suggested Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. From there it was like stepping on one of those conveyor belts you walk on at the airport. We eliminated tens of thousands of dollars of debt, we made budgets and stuck to them, we learned the art of saving.

Although we had to stop attending the classes due to the distracting nature of the leader’s facial hair, we continued to listen to the CDs at home. Obviously financial discipline is a continuous process in which there is always a next step. However, I can say with relief that we both have experienced the bliss. Nowadays we fill our days fight-free, using cash, quoting Dave Ramsey like he’s Gandhi, paying bills on time, saving vigorously and frolicking through the sunny strawberry fields of financial freedom.

~Taking Control in Tulsa

Sound personal finance can often times seem like an allusive creature. With some of us, organization seems like an insurmountable task – something that is seemingly impossible to achieve. With others it is second nature. We wig out when we don’t have complete control of every detail, but we often can not see the forest on account of  the trees. But in either situation, it effects us. After all, it is personal finance. Like we mention in Our Mission statement when asked “Why Personal Finance?”:

“Because money can make dreams come true and control people’s lives, provide security and make people paranoid, help people and destroy marriages. Money is a big deal – for better or for worse.”

And it is for these reasons that I introduce to you, Testimonial Tuesday’s. This is chance for you to share your story (good or bad), to inspire others, and to pat yourself on the back. It’s our attempt to put the ‘person’ back into personal finance. If you have a personal finance story to share, email us. If it’s awesome, we’ll post it. It’s that simple.