Four Years of Debt Freedom

Warren, you had one job!

Greetings from La La Land (or is it Moonlight?)! :) I couldn’t resist.

It feels like it’s been forever since I updated my blog! Thank you to everyone who emailed me or left kind words in the comments. It really helped lift my spirits since my last depressing post.

I figured that even though I’m still struggling with life here in the city of angels, I have much to be thankful for. To wit: March 2nd was our fourth anniversary of debt freedom! It’s surreal to think about because so much has happened since then. Here’s a recap of

"I'm Ten Times Richer Than My Big Brother Bob"

Ever since I quit my law job three years ago, I have noticed a disturbing trend.  People seem to have more respect for unemployed JD’s who are looking for attorney gigs than for gainfully employed JD’s who work in non-legal positions.  I’m not sure why.  Growing up, I got the impression that becoming a “productive member of society” included bringing home a paycheck and paying taxes.   

These days, though, people are preoccupied with labels and appearances.  A few weeks ago, I was at a birthday dinner for an older lawyer.  He got a little tipsy and asked me, “Do you ever wonder what a brilliant attorney you might be today if you just stuck with it?”  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the more appropriate question was how much happier I’d be today had I quit sooner, or never went to law school to begin with.  The point is, this man didn’t care what I was doing with my life; he was only concerned with what I wasn’t doing – practicing law.  He couldn’t get over the fact that I gave up the "prestigious" title of Attorney.  In his mind, the title should be worth it, no matter how much I hated practicing law with every fiber of my being.  (His line of thinking betrays a deeper insecurity of many attorneys: Why don’t you want to be like me?)

The $1,400 Credit Score

Photo courtesy of stockfreeimages.com

Ever since my husband and I became debt-free back in March, I have been trying harder than ever to cut back on expenses so we can try to finish saving for our emergency fund.  So I decided to run a little audit on our bank statements, and I came face to face with one cold, hard fact: I am a complete f***ing idiot.

Why, you ask?  Maybe it's because I wasted $90K on a law degree that I no longer use?  No.  Maybe it's because I quit my secure law job at the height of the recession so I could take a decidedly less prestigious job, and eventually deliver pizzas in order to pay off my law school debt?  No.  It all started when my younger sister came to live with me and my husband.

She's one of those sisters.  The kind who's never had a real job, who dropped out of high school because

Something Amazing Just Happened

I wrote a couple weeks ago about our progress in paying off the last of our debt, my federal student loan.  Well, since then, something really great has happened.  As of today, we are officially debt free.  How did this happen?  Well, we had saved up about $20,000 and we had $50,000 more to go.  When we moved across the country a couple years ago, we did so because my husband took a job with a start-up company.  His compensation package included stock options.  The company has since gone public, and in February, we were allowed to exercise the options.  After taxes, they were worth just over $50,000.  We took it as a sign from the heavens to cash out and be rid of the debt, so we did.  Today, we mailed the payoff.