A lot of FIRE bloggers grew up poor in families with at best limited means and so needed to pay for college (if they went at all) themselves. Others grew up loaded in families with greater means, but the parents made their kid(s) pay for part or all of college. I mostly grew up way better off than I deserved to be in a family with means, and my parents paid for my college. I attended my home state’s flagship public university, and the cost was modest, even by standards in those days: about $25,000 in the aggregate for tuition, room and board for four years. Yes, you read correctly. $25,000 total for four years. But make no mistake. I’m extremely grateful that it was paid for.
This all said, were I on the hook for college, I might have explored scholarship options, which if obtained would have saved money. And I’d have learned then about college hacking, an area I now am very interested in. I also may have gained valuable work experience and connections that could have helped me and opened up doors I could not possibly have known existed.
The financial benefit I enjoyed from a funded college experience was fleeting. For, Dear Reader, I decided to go to law school after college.
To my credit, I recognized the vast disparity between in-state public law schools and all other law schools. And I did apply to my undergrad university’s law school, which cost approximately $500 more per year than I paid for my undergraduate education. The admissions office laughed at me rejected my application.
Private parts
Tuition and room and board costs at the other public law schools in my state were even cheaper than at my undergrad university’s law school. But those schools were “ranked” quite low by a sham major ranking entity. So I turned up my nose at those schools decided to attend a private law school in the city I lived in. Between tuition and room and board, that cost was more than four times what my undergrad university law school would have cost. I could have lived at home and saved about one-quarter of the cost. But I was a total idiot didn’t do that.
Being young and very . . . very naive, having never carried any debt, and thinking that all law school graduates got jobs and that those jobs paid well, I gave no thought to didn’t give the high price tag much thought. I figured that loan repayment would be an inconsequential matter once I graduated.
School dazed
While I did mitigate my expenses by working and obtaining a small scholarship, I walked out of law school meekly owing about $85,000 (the equivalent of about $140,000 in 2019 dollars), with interest rates on my loans in the neighborhood of about 8.75%. And then I discovered that my preconceived notions about all law school graduates getting well-paying jobs could not have been further from the truth. It was then that I unknowingly enrolled in, and was accepted into, The School of Life.
The cost of attendance to that esteemed institution differs for each person. And the school’s administration is uncompromising. But the education was invaluable.
Through a law school friend, I also obtained a nonpracticing temp position in the legal industry soon after taking the bar exam. The pay was “meh.” But it was something. And after several months that gig led to a permanent position.
Course, work
In the meantime, I discovered that one of The School of Life courses I apparently enrolled in was Finance/Economics. In it, I learned about: (1) six-month-post-graduation forbearance of loan repayments, and (2) consolidating loans and refinancing from a 10-year repayment schedule to a 30-year one, which lowered my monthly payments, with the not so insignificant side effect of jacking up the potential interest I might ultimately pay.
I took “advantage” of both forbearance and consolidation. Both were expensive decisions, tho I didn’t fully appreciate how much so at the time. But they did enable me to pay my monthly loan payments. That was no small feat, and between those payments and my other living expenses, I had little extra to spare.
So aside from Finance/Economics, what other courses was I enrolled in at The School of Life? Well, one was called “Learn How to Cook, Idiot.”
While I already knew my way around a kitchen a bit (I wasn’t afraid of the room, and I could cook some basics), a chef I was not. But given that I could barely afford to pay all my expenses without an added cost of going out to eat (which I’d always done very little of), I started to learn more about how to cook and began using protein-rich items I’d rarely cooked with but that were cheap. Like tofu. I finished the course as a decent home cook. The extra bonus is that it instilled in me a love for cooking.
I also took a class called “Budgeting for the Marginally Competent.” Although I’d always lived within my means, I discovered that cooking my own meals allowed me not only to explore the art of cooking and to try new dishes, but also to gain a full understanding of the cost of groceries and how to better optimize my grocery spending.
Since then, I’ve bought produce only when in season, I lay waste to grocery stores when items are on a super, super sale, and I shop at small groceries to get lower prices and, often, items I can’t get (or that cost way more) elsewhere.
Our current cost-per-meal is quite low, and we essentially sacrifice nothing. We also eat mostly plant-based foods. For me, this aligns more with my ethical beliefs, and it does less environmental damage than would a meat-heavy diet.
“Budgeting for the Marginally Competent” also honed my already well-developed skills related to not buying anything I didn’t really need. And although my housing expenses could have been much . . . much lower, I’ve never lived in the very expensive neighborhoods that many of my friends lived in.
Yet another joint class I took was titled “The Legal Industry Is Wacky.” As the course name implies, the legal industry is, to put it mildly, wacky. No more so than in the segments focused on getting a job in a law firm, and on law firm salaries. I’ve been in the legal industry since graduating from law school, and the lessons I’ve learned about it are invaluable. I only wish I’d known them before. Or at least during my time in law school.
Grad the impaler
“The Legal Industry Is Wacky” was taught in conjunction with a course called “Going to Grad School Ain’t Always Smart.” At the end of the day, law school really just is a specific type of grad school. Don’t let the lawyers tell you otherwise. And, oh, they will try to tell you otherwise.
This class taught me that if you want to go to grad school just because you can’t find a job, or because you “think” you need a masters and/or doctoral degree, you should run far, far away from grad school. Sure, maybe grad school and an extra degree will help you. But the odds are slim if you don’t have a plan and if the program is in a field you’re not really interested in. And the financial consequences can ruin you be significant. And long-lasting.
If, however, you do have a plan and/or the field is one you’re very interested in, grad school might be for you. But before making a decision: (1) know the job market (including what it is expected to look like at the time you’ll graduate) up and down, (2) figure out the best- and worst-case scenarios for your post-graduation salary and how that will impact your living expenses, and (3) try to estimate the opportunity cost of going to grad school. You might reasonably conclude that while you’d love to get a graduate degree in Subject X, the financial impact either will for sure, or likely, be ruinous suboptimal. But at least your decision will be based on more and better considerations.
So, Dear Reader, beware student loans. But know that you, too, might later end up getting an invaluable degree from The School of Life.
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