Recent content by LawGirl

Malakito, I believe that Martha's list for the traits required for an attorney is excellent. I practice in a different area than Martha (employee benefits), but these traits are still required. In fact, I've been an attorney in a large firm, medium firm, corporation, and I'm now self-employed...

Brewer, I always swore that I would never drive a minivan. I could not believe it when one of my wildest and most fun friends traded in her Vette for a minivan. I was appalled. However, we broke down and bought a used minivan when my second child was born. I never thought I'd say it, but I...

I'll jump on this bandwagon as well. My husband is a financial analyst and was the one who forced me to pay off my credit cards when we first married (we were both 24). He was also dead set against carrying a monthly balance, which was totally opposite of how my parents handled their money...

Haven't read the book, but am now walking around with Triumph's "young, wild and free" song in my head. Thanks! Sorry for the unresponsive post. Lawgirl

Re: Safe Withdrawals of up to 6% per year? Part 2 Part 2 Following rules. The strategy of increasing withdrawals along with inflation works fine, provided the markets and inflation are moderately well behaved. But if you get hit with either rapid inflation or a devastating market crash, you...

Following is an article that appeared in the WSJ today. Normally I try to avoid all discussions of safe withdrawal rates because they tend to get a little combative. Also, frankly, a little boring. Thought I would see what reaction the article gets from the tough crowd on this board! LawGirl...

As the mother of two little girls (ages 4 and 2), I have a lot of recent experience with baby items. I'm frugal, and I sell a lot of my old items at consignment sales, but I don't usually buy the big stuff at consignment sales. I've found that the items have often been through so many kids that...

As a self-employed person, you can set up your own 401k plan with minimal expense and hassle. You can put in the 401k limits (including catch-up limits for people who are at least age 50, which totals $16,000 this year) up to your earned income. You can then also make an "employer" contribution...

If you are trying to save the most amount of money that you can without making things overly complex, I would recommend setting up an individual 401k plan. Most large brokerages can help you handle this. Mine is with Fidelity. You can contribute the maximum 401k contribution, $13,000 this year...

Martha, Getting the work done is always the hard part! I think job sharing is a great idea. Anything that allows us to earn some money and still have a life is a good thing. My only problem is that no matter how much I reduce my hours, I find myself wishing for just a little less work. Oh well...

Martha, No, I don't work for a firm. I have my own practice, mostly doing work for my prior corporate employer. There were several women who tried to go part time while I was still at a firm, and it really did not work well for most of them. Part time tended to mean that you made a lot less...

I went to law school and graduated with about $70,000 in student loans. The only reason it wasn't over $100,000 is that I received some scholarships. As with all professions, there are a lot of lawyers who, no matter what they make, spend more. When I worked at a big law firm, very few...