See Jane Get Rich

Come spring 44,000 law students will graduate with their JD and what will the overwhelming majority have in common?  Debt to the tune of $76,563.  That is the estimated average law school debt.  Actually, those figures were for 2004-2005 and Forbes puts that number at $100,000.   Mint puts it at $92,937 in their interactive Student Loans by the Numbers guide.  Of course, this is in addition to any debt accrued from undergrad and graduate school. 

According to the American Bar Association, the average tuition and fees for a private law school rose from $16,798 in 1995 to $26,952 in 2004, including a 5 percent jump from the $25,574 tuition average in 2003. To help pay for that education, students attending private law school borrowed an average of $76,563 in 2004-2005, according to the ABA.

I always stayed away from debt because I wanted to know that after Law School where and what I decided to do would be my own choice.  That choice should only be dictated by my personal preference (and the job market) and not how much I must make to meet my monthly debt payments. 

Having such a huge debt means that students will not only forego an ideal job for one that pays the most, but research shows that student loans will cause 44% to delay buying a house while 28% will delay having children per Mint’s data.   

I don’t believe in the concept of good debt versus bad debt because I think all debt is debt.  Debt for education is not necessarily good because it is for education.  It will only be financially benficial if it will increase your earning power in a significant manner for the amount your paid for the education plus the amount of money you lost by staying out of the job market while pursuing the education.  I think the term ”good debt” causes people to skip the careful analysis that they should be doing whenever they take on any kind of debt. 

Do you agree with the concept of good debt and bad debt?

Jane the Way-Below-Average-Blogger:  There is so much going on in my life and I only get to share with you 5% or 10% of it. And sometimes I think, hey, I should like share way lot more stuff, ya know?  But, personal things aren’t “personal financy” enough and are just so super b-o-r-i-n-g!

Ideal the  See Jane Get Rich Blog Reader: I think a lot of bloggers share personal stuff like the daily growth of their chia pet, conversations with friends other people can’t see and hobbies like people watching.  I find these quite interesting.  You could join them, you know. 

Jane:  Ha, ha, ha haaaaa!  Oh, you were serious?  Um, ok.  I dunno ‘bout that.  Well, here is something “personal financy.”  I gave my first dinner party where I cooked and people actually liked what I made.  I was so insanely nervous about that dinner party. 

Ideal: You had a dinner party and you didn’t invite me! 

Jane:  Really, Ideal.  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.  You are really a figment of my imagination. 

Ideal:  I am as real as they come!  Anyway, what did you make?

Jane:  You should’ve been there.  I made Salmon with fresh dill, lime juice and olive oil with a side of asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.  I made a fantabulous spinach salad with crumbled goat cheese, dried cranberries, toasted slivered almonds and walnuts, dried cranberry and fresh grapes.  Served it with white wine and had assorted sweets for dessert. 

Ideal: That sounds like one tasty meal.   

Jane: Now, I am on this big cooking spree because I fancy myself a mini-Martha Stewart.  Um, without all the insider trading.  White collar crime is so 2002. 

Ideal: Well, this could be a really nice post about your first dinner party and how you did it the frugal way.  How much did you spend?

Jane:  I don’t want to share that!  And no, I am not going to post about this!  I overspent because I had no clue about the portions.  I over-shopped.  I got too much wine, too much goat cheese…well, too much of everything.  I am so not gonna tell them that I spent like $50 on a dinner for 4 people!  This is one post that is so not going to happen.  They’ll never know. 

Now, Ideal, it has been fun but I have more important things to do like measuring the hourly growth of my chia pet and watching unsuspecting people who walk by my window.

In my last post, I pointed out that I made a difficult yet strategic decision.  The difficult decision was between two externship choices.  Internship 1 was a regulatory externship where I would get to do legal work.  Internship #2 was also with a regulatory body but the internship would not be legal but it would be more related to my Master’s degree.   I was hoping to do both internships but I was told that I could do only one because to do both would be a conflict of interest. 

I had to make a decision about which internship to go with.  If I am only thinking about the short-term then the best choice would be internship #1 because it is a legal internship that would relate to the kind of courses I am taking right now.  Internship #1 is a highly desirable experience for a law student.   Internship #2 offeres regulatory work which isn’t strictly legal.  It also offered a smaller department to work in and a director who seemed eager to mentor incoming externs. 

I chose internship #2 and here’s why. 

 Mentoring – I felt that internship #2 had a director who was more focused on mentoring.  As a recipient of really good mentoring from many of my current and former mentors I strongly believe in it.  I need to have an ally or a “true fan” on my corner.   Having a mentor can smooth the road to attaining many goals.   I need to be very careful about that crucial “first job” of my career and I can see myself being part of this organization and growing within in it.    My director knows that I turned down a very sweet legal offer for the chance to work with her.  Coming in to an organization with a favorable impression is golden. 

I mentioned in my last post that I needed to get in the game.   By getting an externship I am on the sidelines watching the game closely.  My goal now is to make a move from the sidelines to the actual field and get in the game.  In other words, I need to land a job here. 

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And I need to start acting like it. 

It’s time to dust myself off and launch a new career strategy. 

Not getting an offer from the firm that I worked for last summer was an absolute blow to my confidence and my skills.  If I ever have been depressed in my life then it would have been from August to November.  Going home for a month allowed me to take a mental break from the big muddle that is my soon-to-be-career.   I am feeling better emotionally and last week I launched a difficult yet strategic move that may help my career. 

 Revised Career Strategy – 2020

Goal: In ten years, become skilled at financial regulatory work and position myself to become a senior associate for a law firm or to obtain a senior position with a financial firm. 

First, get in the game. 

Get a job in the financial regulatory industry to obtain experience. 

 Second, find other good players to model myself after.

Find engaging and skilled mentors with a pay-it-forward attitude. 

 Third, become a really good player.

Build an expectation of excellence and continually deliver on that expectation.  Obtain skills by taking on challenging work.  Take advantage of all educational and training opportunities.  Build and strengthen the personal brand that is Jane. 

Fourth, get true fans. 

Build meaningful relationships not relationships simply for career advancement.  Obtain true fans also through personal branding, networking and mentoring others.  

Fifth,  switch leagues.

Jump ship to become a senior associate for a regional law firm or a senior position with a financial firm.

Financial Goals for Fall 2009 – Update

 I had several personal finance goals for this fall semester and here’s how I fared on them.

Goals:

• Goal #1: Correct my social security earnings statement
• Goal #2: Open a Health Savings Account
• Goal #3: Start a personal finance blog
• Goal #4: Get a holiday job for my winter break
• Goal #5: Set a budget

 Goal #1: Correct my social security earnings statement

 Issue: What I saw on my paystubs and income tax statements did not correlate with what I was seeing in my social security earnings statement.

 Status: Done but…   Read the rest of this entry »

 Today I got my first paycheck from my holiday job. I was starting to wonder when that first paycheck would show up and I kept checking my bank account to see if the direct deposit had come through. I finally went and asked my manager and it turns out the direct deposit paycheck hadn’t gone through.

I was so excited to see my paycheck that I immediately opened it up to see how much I had made working. It was a whopping $161.29. What! No way! I know I am working for peanuts but that’s even smaller than peanuts. So, I started scanning my paycheck to see why the heck my paycheck is the size of a mustard seed and that’s when I noticed my big fat 401(k) contribution. So, here’s how my first paycheck breaks down.

Total Earned Paycheck: $515.12

Now, subtract the following: Read the rest of this entry »

Enountering Clueless Husbands

In my short holiday retail experience I have comes across the clueless shopper.  They’re usually men in their 40’s shopping for their significant other and they have absolutely no idea what her size is.  I am no longer shocked to hear  ”You”re the same size as my wife.  Will you try this on for me?”  or “So, if my wife wears a size 14 in pants what size panties should I buy her?”  And even, “Tell me, what size pants do you wear and what size panties do you buy?” 

Read the rest of this entry »

I've so much to look forward to on graduation!

Come May and June when high school, college, grad school and professional school graduates will march into the graduation arena to receive their diplomas to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance with their family and friends watching.  Accompanying this celebratory mood will be fear, anxiety and uncertainty similar to the class before them. 

Joblessness among young adults 16-24 is much more severe and the unemployment rate continues its steady upward climb.  This will likely lead to what Business Week calls “the scarring of a generation” that will create a Lost Generation—a disillusioned generation that will forever be affected by the remnants of the recession.

 ”…employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow’s would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation.”

  According to Business Week, The Great Recession is expected to impact young people in the following manner:

Read the rest of this entry »