I first focused on the legal sector, then narrowed it down to those with their doctorates so as to exclude paralegals.  Then I gathered all the data for the 25-29 age group.  I came up with 20 young lawyers between 25-29.  They all have decent to really good incomes.   Of the 20 young lawyers, 9 were making six figures.  The highest income was in the $250,000+ range while the lowest was in the $40,000-49,000 range.  And the average networth was…drum roll please…   -$22,651.  Yes, that is a negative netowrth.     Yikes.  Only 4 out of 16 or 20% of attorney’s actually had a positive networth. 

• Total young attorney’s with debts:  16 of the 20 or 80%
• Average Income:  Between $101,000 and $126,499
• Average debt: $84,942.93
• Average networth: -$22,651

This is quite a small sample size so, this is not exactly a scientific examination of the networth of young attorney’s.  But, it is very clear that young attorney’s are burdened with a lot of student loans (according to several of the profiles).  If their networth is the negative then after going to school for a very long time it is difficult for them to move onto other adult life stages such as purchasing a home, starting a family, saving and investing for retirement etc…

This little exercise reinforces my decision to go to a school from where I believed I could graduate without debt.  I wouldn’t want to have a debt load of even $22,651 to carry just as my career is starting.  Graduating into a recession means that I will be looking for a job past graduation if I want to hold out for something that I am actually interested in.  It’s good to know that when I graduate I will be with the 20% and will actually have a positive networth.    

 NetWorthIQ: Networth of Young Lawyers