Journal of Orthodox Caveman

[orthodoxcaveman]

Great to see another post from you and CONGRATS on the baby and on the great progress at paying down the loans! I was about 5 years into my legal career when I finally managed to get those 6-figure student loans paid off, and man alive, what a wonderful feeling it was. It gave me the freedom to make all sorts of positive and relatively drastic QOL changes, which have benefited me and my family immensely. Keep posting! I love reading about the experiences of another Catholic, law-firm lawyer who has his head screwed on a lot straighter than mine was at 29.

Thanks Hristo, good to hear from you. Yeah, paying down a good chunk this year felt good, I can only imagine what crossing that finish line must be like. Hope all's well with you.

[orthodoxcaveman]

Back with 2020 in the rearview.

Basic information:
Married man, 30, lawyer, southwestern US, Catholic, 1 baby.

Household income:
235k/yr(+ bonus potential)

Assets:
Total = 320k
125k retirement accts
84k cash
5k random stock
6k HSA
100k home equity

Liabilities:
Total = -309
-133k wife's student loans
-176k my student loans

Net worth:
+11k

Notes:

1. Had a baby, which has been thrilling and better than I expected. We're getting free to very cheap childcare from family.

2. The last president, then the current, froze student loan interest and payments until October '21, so I'm just accumulating cash. I will probably put that toward a new house soon. That fact in particular has saved me a lot of money.

3. In my 2019 post, I said I wanted to compete in a BJJ competition. I didn't get to do that because of Covid. I did (e-)publish my first novel though. and deadlift four plates.

4. We finally hit and passed zero net worth! This was a big milestone for me. Here's hoping the out of debt milestone comes very soon.

In 2021, I want to:

• Compete in BJJ competition

• Deadlift five plates

• Write and publish my second novel

• Have another baby

• Pay off the entirety of my wife's student loans

• Make a dent on my remaining loans

[Smashter]

Great progress, love the update. The student loans will be blitzed in no time. I had about 160k in student loans that I paid off as aggressively as humanly possible despite people in my life questioning that decision and I'm so glad I did. I'm rooting for you!

Are you still as happy in your job as you were in your previous updates? As someone who grew up with two parents as lawyers, I know that it can start to wear on you a bit. I hope you are finding the balance of billing those hours but not burning out. But I guess you already have that figured out considering you have time to write a bunch of novels? What's your secret??

[orthodoxcaveman]

Great progress, love the update. The student loans will be blitzed in no time. I had about 160k in student loans that I paid off as aggressively as humanly possible despite people in my life questioning that decision and I'm so glad I did. I'm rooting for you!

Are you still as happy in your job as you were in your previous updates? As someone who grew up with two parents as lawyers, I know that it can start to wear on you a bit. I hope you are finding the balance of billing those hours but not burning out. But I guess you already have that figured out considering you have time to write a bunch of novels? What's your secret??

No, I’m much less happy than I was. It’s definitely started to wear me down. I’m happy about my progress and my decisions because I’m much closer to having the freedom to not doing this anymore than I would be if I had not been on a strategic FIRE plan this whole time.

I’ve been writing fiction for a long time and I do it mostly just dor fun so it’s like a muscle to write now. I do it maybe a couple hours a week total but it adds up over time. I outline stories very carefully first so I never have to do a lot of major rewriting.

There’s no secret haha, life is difficult right now. It’s just nice that it’s difficult with some direction and plan instead of just difficult forever with no horizon.

[Smashter]

Cool,that all makes sense. It's huge that you've got a plan other than "make a lot, spend even more" which is the trap my parents and so many others fell into

[Hristo Botev]

Mazel tov! Enjoy that baby! (And also enjoy that free/cheap childcare!) Love to see that ya'll are aiming for another one in 2021.

Congrats also on crossing over into the black. Now just get those student loans paid off, and with free/cheap childcare, you'll be FI in no time.