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I’m coming to this thread hoping I can get my situation to the next level in terms of both career and personal finance. I graduated college in 2008 with crushing student loan debt (for a B.A. in English). I’m doing OK—certainly not in crisis—but I’m keenly aware of the fact that I’m not really getting anywhere. My mother died in 2013, and the small inheritance I received went largely to paying down debt (with only a tiny portion on top going toward new work clothes and a treadmill). My dad also recently made a massive debt payment on my student loans, paying off all of the ones that he was a co-signer on (I think he was sick of having them on his credit report—and also concerned that I was going to be hopelessly in debt forever). Thanks to these windfalls, I finally feel like I’m in control of my own destiny—or at least could be. I don’t want to waste this opportunity. The good news (at least as I see it):
The bad news:
About me (so you can understand my values and help me prioritize my finances): I spent the past 6-7 years since graduating college splitting my efforts between working at 9-5 jobs and thinking I could become a professional writer/poet. Luckily I never bought into the latter part enough to do anything drastic, but ultimately I believe diluting my energy this way caused me to underachieve. Since my mother died, I realized I need to grow up, and I can revisit my interest in writing once I’ve taken care of the business of securing my financial situation and getting on track toward a more rewarding career. I've realized that I value education and life-long learning very highly (similar to the way a lot of people put a really high value on travel, for example). I want to direct my choices going forward with this interest in mind so that I can enjoy what I’m doing along the way and feel like it’s enhancing my life and making me happier/more fulfilled. I have some mental health issues that went pretty much undiagnosed for most of my life. It’s pretty minor but chronic depression that then gets exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyle choices. I’m acutely aware of the need to make sure I’m taking care of my mental health. Examples of this include leaving my job in social work/teaching because it was too stressful. At my current job I’m staring at a screen all day at technical information, and my mental health has been better for it. My mom suffered from severe depression her entire life, so this is an area of my life that needs to be prioritized. I tend to get very anxious about my financial situation and obsess over it, even when there isn't anything I can do about it. The result is that I end up making big plans and then remaking the plans over and over again. I'll make an impulsive decision to open some account or move money somewhere and then a week later I'm regretting it and replanning the whole thing over again. My (erratic) career trajectory:
Assets
Net worth  Monthly expenses   Total comes to: $2,649.95 Take home pay: $3,186.00 (assuming two paychecks that month--sometimes there are 3) Line items that I'd like to start putting money toward on a regular basis:
So I guess the gist of the whole thing is that I'm overwhelmed about how to proceed. I have a lot of competing priorities, and I don’t know what order to tackle them all in or if I should eliminate some entirely. Should I try to do them all at the same time, or take them one at a time? I could use some help deciding what my specific goals should be and where I should start. List of competing priorities:
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for your feedback. I really appreciate it.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:06 |
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What is the interest rate on your student loan? 6.8%? Job-wise, I think the obvious thing to do is stay with what you're doing without making any big changes, at least for another year or two. It doesn't have to be a long-term commitment or a permanent trajectory, but it sounds like you need some breathing space and you said your current work is helping your mind, so... don't be in a big hurry to decide on your next step. slap me silly fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 22:36
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Does your job offer a 401k and is there a match percentage? If you have a match, standard wisdom is to contribute to the match percentage. If not, $100-200/month contributed towards a Roth (even at the expense of paying off the student loans faster) isn't a bad choice, since you only have a limited chance to catch-up your retirement contributions and it's a good general habit. What are the amounts/interest rates on your student loans? What does $45/month give you in terms of pet insurance? You have about a month's worth of expenses in your checking account and roughly $500 left to budget. I would suggest a 15k emergency fund target before you take a line item away from funding it, although I think adding a steady $100-$200 per month is appropriate for now. For all your other priorities, take a cooling off period of a year before you start seriously thinking about more education and make a plan for your career goals and funding that education before you spend money applying anywhere - you're all over the map with your history. If you put an extra $100 towards your e-fund (total $200/month), $200 as a car payment to yourself then put the rest towards your highest interest (or smallest balance if you want to snowball) loan, you'll be in a good position a year from now to reevaluate. Fundamentally though, it'll take a long time to dig out of 33k in debt on a 55k salary.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:40
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slap me silly posted:What is the interest rate on your student loan? 6.8%? $23,394.05 @ 2.750% (variable) $1,999.73 @ 2.08% (variable) $2,667.10 @ 2.08% (variable) $1,718.95 @ 5% (fixed) $3,843.80 @ 5% (fixed)
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Feb 18, 2015 22:41
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qmark posted:$23,394.05 @ 2.750% (variable) Put an extra $200/mo into the 1718.95 loan and kill it this year.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:43
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Ok, your student loans are fairly cheap right now. Here's a good first step - how big do you want your emergency fund to be? People might suggest anywhere from 3 months to 12 months worth of expenses, depending on: what family or kids you support; how secure your job is and how quickly you could get another if you lost this one; how old your car is; whether you own a house; how comfortable you are flying by the seat of your pants when poo poo hits the fan. I also like Lenk's suggestion to kill off the smallest / highest rate loan quickly. That's a small financial boost and and a large psychological one. Your emergency fund also depends on the amount of necessary expenses you have each month. What are you actually spending that $2650 on? Break it down a little more specifically.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:46
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Engineer Lenk posted:Does your job offer a 401k and is there a match percentage? If you have a match, standard wisdom is to contribute to the match percentage. If not, $100-200/month contributed towards a Roth (even at the expense of paying off the student loans faster) isn't a bad choice, since you only have a limited chance to catch-up your retirement contributions and it's a good general habit. My job does not offer any retirement benefits unfortunately. Engineer Lenk posted:What does $45/month give you in terms of pet insurance? My dog has been pretty healthy the past few years, but if he has any medical issue due to sickness or injury it's covered with either a $100 or $200 deductible (I can't remember which). A few years ago he swallowed an entire rubber ball and needed surgery. The surgery cost about $2,500, but I was only on the hook for about $100. He would have died without the surgery. So the value is not having to make life-or-death decisions about my dog based on how much money I have to spend. I still have to budget for routine veterinary care like vaccinations, etc. slap me silly posted:Here's a good first step - how big do you want your emergency fund to be? People might suggest anywhere from 3 months to 12 months worth of expenses, depending on: what family or kids you support; how secure your job is and how quickly you could get another if you lost this one; how old your car is; whether you own a house; how comfortable you are flying by the seat of your pants when poo poo hits the fan. I might be confused about the purpose of an emergency fund, so maybe you guys can help me out in understanding it. The way I've been thinking about it lately is that it's pretty much for if you somehow lose your income you live off of it without going into debt, but not really for something like car repairs or stuff like that. For the latter, it's better to be allocating money from your monthly budget based on an estimate of when you're going to need the money. So once I start building up the emergency fund, I wouldn't touch it for anything except losing my job or something. Any other expenses will have to come from somewhere else in the budget, correct?
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Feb 18, 2015 23:00
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slap me silly posted:Job-wise, I think the obvious thing to do is stay with what you're doing without making any big changes, at least for another year or two. It doesn't have to be a long-term commitment or a permanent trajectory, but it sounds like you need some breathing space and you said your current work is helping your mind, so... don't be in a big hurry to decide on your next step. Engineer Lenk posted:For all your other priorities, take a cooling off period of a year before you start seriously thinking about more education and make a plan for your career goals and funding that education before you spend money applying anywhere - you're all over the map with your history. Ok, this is good advice that I probably need to hear every now and then. It makes the situation seem simpler and more manageable.
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Feb 18, 2015 23:02
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Engineer Lenk posted:$200 as a car payment to yourself Would this be for car replacement (sometime in the future)?
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Feb 18, 2015 23:09
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qmark posted:Would this be for car replacement (sometime in the future)? I would keep it flexible; that money could go towards car repairs or it could serve as down payment on a new(er) car. It makes it so you don't have to scramble to fit an auto loan in your budget if you do need to borrow for a car in the future, and keeps you prepared for the true cost of car ownership.
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Feb 18, 2015 23:25
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qmark posted:I might be confused about the purpose of an emergency fund, so maybe you guys can help me out in understanding it. One purpose of an emergency fund is to cover a $2500 vet bill so you can keep your dog alive and not have to drain $45/mo for lovely pet insurance  But you are correct, yes. There are many things that will probably happen, you just don't know when, like car repairs, house repairs, vet bills. And ideally, you should have enough cash around to cover them when they happen without cleaning out your bank account. If you don't, well, at least you have the emergency fund so you aren't going to go into debt with a horrible car loan or Care Credit. There's not exactly a bright line there - you don't know how much your car repairs or vet bills are actually going to cost or how likely you are to lose your job. The goal is to have enough of a financial buffer that you don't have to panic when poo poo happens. That means something different to everybody.Since you don't have any retirement funds associated with your job, you might make that a priority after you get the emergency fund sorted out. Even as little as $50/mo into a Roth IRA makes a big difference down the line. It might be reasonable to wait until you get the student loans paid off, but frankly I would do at least a little bit of both going forward. Just to get in the habit, as Lenk mentioned.
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Feb 18, 2015 23:27
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qmark posted:Ok, this is good advice that I probably need to hear every now and then. It makes the situation seem simpler and more manageable. Also check to see if you workplace offers things like free classes, certs or other free job related training help. Getting you debt strategy squared away is important but you also need decent income growth to help dig yourself out of the debt hole.
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Feb 24, 2015 03:56
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Thanks for the feedback, all. Update: As some posters suggested, I've decided to start putting $200 month toward the low-balance 5% student loan. If all goes as planned, it will be paid off by the end of the year, and I'll snowball the payment into the next 5% loan. I should be able to knock them both out by the end of 2016. I'm also going to up my emergency fund saving to $200/month (from $100). In addition, I asked my boss for a raise. Long story short, instead of getting a raise, he agreed to pay for me to take computer science courses so I can (after a few years) sit for the patent bar exam. He also said he would kick me some more technical work once I've had a few classes under my belt so I can start picking up drafting skills. I still have the money in the 529 which I thought I would be using for the science classes. It can be used for career development sometime in the future. I thought about taking an additional class in technical writing and/or patent procedures, but they both seem like they would be a waste and pretty much just spending the money because it's there. I guess I can just leave it there for now.
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Mar 10, 2015 18:16
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Hey there English buddy  Lots of good advice in here. You can do it!
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Mar 10, 2015 18:29
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Take what I am saying with a grain of salt as I never worked in the US (4 years as a patent examiner then attorney) but without law school or a Engineering/Science degree (often attorneys/agents have a phd, or both!) you have basically no chance of ever progressing to become a Patent attorney. If your firm is an IP firm rather than a specialised patent firm I would strongly reccomend trying to transfer to a Trademarks or Copyright role, your chances of progressing from support to professional staff are a lot better with only a background in English. To be clear you are 29/30 or so? It sounds like your boss is pretty good about development and the demand for CompSci attorneys isnt going anywhere. If you are looking for simpler courses take have a look at the WIPO distance learning courses. Again not sure how usefull they are in the US due to its rather annoying habit of doing everything in IP differently than the rest of the world.
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Mar 11, 2015 14:01
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Saros posted:Take what I am saying with a grain of salt as I never worked in the US (4 years as a patent examiner then attorney) but without law school or a Engineering/Science degree (often attorneys/agents have a phd, or both!) you have basically no chance of ever progressing to become a Patent attorney. If your firm is an IP firm rather than a specialised patent firm I would strongly reccomend trying to transfer to a Trademarks or Copyright role, your chances of progressing from support to professional staff are a lot better with only a background in English. Thank you. This is very helpful. My boss was telling me that certain scientific fields require graduate degrees but that in computer science and electrical engineering you can get by with the fundamentals, provided you're willing and able to pick up the new concepts presented by each new invention. For example, a coworker of mine has an undergrad degree in biotech (a field in which he's had trouble finding clients/work) and a JD, so he's been taking very basic electrical engineering classes so he can work on electrical patents. The classes are not advanced, but he said he's had no problem adapting in order to do the work. Since my boss has offered to give me some drafting work once I've taken a few classes, I have the opportunity to gain some experience and see if I'm good at it before subjecting myself to the market, where I know my lack of a hard science degree (undergrad or otherwise) would make me uncompetitive. It's a unique opportunity because of how flexible/supportive my boss is. Due to how much time has gone by since undergrad and how old I am, I feel I need to avail myself of these alternative routes, because the ship has pretty much sailed on all the traditional routes. I understand I'll never be as competitive as 23-year-old PhD/JDs. Also: I have a 168 on the LSAT good for five years, so I could potentially go to law school at night if it turns out the work suits me. (I've completely ruled out quitting to go to law school full time). I'm not pinning all of my hopes on becoming a patent attorney, but I thought computer science courses would at least open some doors in this industry (so I don't feel like I'm going to work every day in a completely dead-end job). I thought the courses would also serve the purpose of opening doors elsewhere in the tech field in general in the event that my plan to become a patent agent doesn't work out. My firm does trademarks, so I'm going to put some thought into what you said about getting experience there. It's a small firm, so rather than have to transfer completely, all I'd have to do is let my boss know that I'm interested in taking on trademark work, and he'd most likely give me some without any big changes in my role at the company. A co-worker of mine (paralegal) has been drafting trademark replies. Thanks for the link to the WIPO courses. I'd actually looked these over once before and forgot about them. I'm going to consider giving them a try, especially because the first few are free. I do PCT work all the time and some correspondence regarding foreign filing, so I'm sure there's value in learning about non-US IP. Any further feedback is very much welcome, especially if you think I'm overlooking something or are completely delusional.
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Mar 11, 2015 15:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:06 |
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As for things you're overlooking: being a lawyer sucks, in a lot of ways. For the most part, you're a slave to the billables, especially in private practice (which is almost certainly what you'll be doing as an IP lawyer). Expect to be spending 60+ hours a week working. There's nothing wrong with being a paralegal. It doesn't pay as much as being an attorney, but you're currently entry-level; you can make a lot more money in time, and have a lot more time to enjoy it than an attorney would. That being said, if you're the type of person who needs to find your fulfillment in life through your job, I could see how it wouldn't be the best way to go.
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Mar 11, 2015 17:56
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