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[00:00:07] Scott Benton: Hey everyone, Scott Benton here, how are you? I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast where we help you easily transition from a law school student into your professional career as an attorney and where we make the practice of law fun and exciting. Now today, we’re going to look a little bit at pursuing financial freedom as an attorney.
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[00:01:14] Scott Benton: Pursuing financial freedom. Now I’m not sure how often the question comes up in open dialogue when it comes to the idea of the amount of money an attorney can make. But, I think it’s safe to say that attorneys can make a fairly high salary over the lifetime of their legal career. And, if you do a simple Google search for the average amount an attorney makes in the United States, as of this recording, the answer that comes up, that came up for me, is just slightly over 100, 000 annually.
[00:01:45] Scott Benton: I’m sure that breaks down further if you get more specific about the amount of money people are making in the different areas of law and even what the average starting salary is. But for this discussion, we’ll just use 100, 000 as a convenient [00:02:00] benchmark. And not to mention, depending on the area of the United 100, is going to have a much different level of purchasing power.
[00:02:08] Scott Benton: In some locations, 100, 000 is going to go a pretty long way. While in others, it’s barely going to get you a bunk bed and a one bedroom apartment shared with five other people. Now I also don’t know if that number is going to rise because right now we’re currently experiencing an enormous amount of inflation.
[00:02:26] Scott Benton: So those numbers might be a little outdated, but in any case, we’re going to assume your starting salary, out the gate, as an attorney, is probably going to be in the 100, 000 ballpark range. There’s also the question of student loan debt that you might be carrying with you after you graduate. And that amount can be substantial sometimes.
[00:02:45] Scott Benton: But, we’re going to set that aside as well because even though student loan debt can be a big factor, over time the potential for an attorney to make a much higher salary as they improve their own practice generally makes [00:03:00] paying down large amounts of debt somewhat easier. So we won’t figure that into the pursuit of financial freedom here on this podcast episode.
[00:03:09] Scott Benton: Going after financial freedom where you have essentially replaced yourself as your one and only income generating asset, so you don’t have to work, is really what we’re going to be looking at. Now it’s true that a lot of people who become attorneys do so because they see it as a way to make a lot of money over their career and reach a place of financial freedom as quickly as possible.
[00:03:31] Scott Benton: They see themselves working extremely hard for several concentrated years, And putting together enough financial resources to stop working or even simply to retire early and enjoy the rest of their lives without stepping foot in a law firm ever again or really into any kind of workplace environment.
[00:03:51] Scott Benton: Now, if this is what’s driving you, and getting to a level of financial freedom is the purpose for practicing law so you can [00:04:00] stop working, And that’s the passion from which you’re working, and it fuels the work you do, then my thoughts would be simply just lean into it. Take every opportunity you can to make as much money as possible at the firm that you’re working for, and become truly excellent at your job.
[00:04:19] Scott Benton: You’re going to put in a lot of hours at first to become excellent at your job, and you’re going to be billing a lot of hours. If making a large amount of money is your priority, then you’re going to want to find out about every opportunity available to increase your pay, which is going to include things like reaching certain billing goals or earning promotions or bonuses or bringing in new clients.
[00:04:42] Scott Benton: And sometimes there are bonus incentives for bringing new attorneys into the firm. So you want to make sure that you know what is available. You also want to make sure that you know about whether or not there’s a partner track and what you need to do to make partner. In which case, you essentially become part owner of the firm and [00:05:00] share in the profit revenue.
[00:05:01] Scott Benton: However it is the firm is set up, you want to become extremely familiar with all of the bonus opportunities and then work very hard at reaching those. Let your passion for financial freedom drive the high level of excellence in your work and with your ability to serve your clients in a way that they simply won’t be able to help themselves from telling absolutely everyone that they know around them about you and how good of an attorney that you are. But one word of caution I would be remiss if I didn’t include in this episode, and that as we’ve seen with some of the many people who have gone before you themselves, who have reached their own level of financial freedom to go on and focus on playing golf or traveling or simply living a life of leisure, is that it goes back to that saying from Aesop who once said, it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
[00:05:56] Scott Benton: Inevitably, what we’ve seen, and granted it’s not with [00:06:00] everyone, is that those who reach financial freedom and live a life of leisure eventually come to find that they’ve lost their sense of purpose and meaning, and that the work they were doing, either in a law firm or in a business, it was the work that gave them their purpose and their meaning, and ultimately a great deal of fulfillment they no longer have access to once they stop working.
[00:06:22] Scott Benton: Take this as, I don’t know, a cautionary tale, or however you like, but if your motivation is simply to make a ton of money so you can stop working, just realize that you may need to plan that out very carefully. In fact, a lot of people who do end up reaching financial freedom continue to work, either in the same job where they reached financial freedom, or they go out and they find another job that they think they would love doing, and it might even pay less, which is fine, since they’ve gotten to a point where the amount of money they make is really no longer motivating the work that they’re doing, and this is not common for people who [00:07:00] finally reach financial freedom.
[00:07:01] Scott Benton: They find that their priorities change and instead of working, let’s say, to pay bills or working to support their family, they’re now working from a place of passion or maybe a place of personal mission. They’ll find companies that they can work with whose mission matches their own. So you want to make sure that you have some good options available yourself once you make it all the way to financial freedom.
[00:07:25] Scott Benton: My name is Scott Benton. I’m the host of the Classroom 2 Courtroom podcast. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If this is material that you like and you want to receive an alert every time we put out a new episode, you can go to our website, which is classroom2courtroom.
[00:07:39] Scott Benton: com. That’s classroom, the number two. Courtroom. com. You can leave us your contact information. You’ll get an alert when we put out a new episode. So how cool is that? Additionally, if you like this material, don’t forget to share and subscribe. And by doing that, it’ll help you stay on top of our newest episodes as well.
[00:07:55] Scott Benton: Cause you’ll get an alert through the podcatcher that you’re on. So until next time, we hope you’ll join us in [00:08:00] making the world a better place, one client at a time. Thank you so much
