Tag Archives: featured

Financial Independence, Law Firm Partnership

Equity in a Law Firm Is Not Worth What You Think It Is

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A few years ago, my firm got a phone call. A larger firm, based in the Midwest, wanted to buy us. We were told that they had noticed what we were doing and thought it was cool and wanted to talk about what opportunities there may be.

Our firm had a new equity partner.* She was really excited – since she had just come to have equity in the firm, visions of selling her equity stake and living on the beach danced in her head.

Sadly, that’s not really how it works. If you build a tech company and you sell it, you get money to buy a beach house or live the dream of financial independence. If you build a law firm and a larger law firm takes it over, you get a job as a partner in the larger firm.

Like so much of a lawyer’s money life, if you build a law firm, you aren’t building wealth, you’re building income. Income is great if you want to stay on the treadmill; wealth is better if you want to have money that lasts. Lawyers tend to choose income. Which is another reason to think that lawyers tend to be not very bright.

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Lawyer Psychology

Doctors Have Better Personal Finance Blogs Than Lawyers

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There are plenty of lawyer blogs out there. There are plenty of personal finance blogs too. But what’s up with the lack of personal finance blogs for lawyers a more than only a few years into their careers?

Doctors have it good.

Lucky guy.

First, they get to help people. Second, in an emergency, their skills are useful. I thought about going to Haiti after the earthquake to volunteer to take some depositions, but then I realized I’m a transaction cost, and more transaction costs don’t help injured people.

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Lawyer Psychology, Parenting

Don’t Send Your Kids to Private School

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I was having breakfast with a lawyer a few weeks ago. He’s older than me; his kids are out of law school and starting their careers.

As a side note: I think I’ll have been kind of a failure as a parent if my kids become lawyers. I like the John Adams idea that I study law so that my kids can study art or philosophy. Or, if not art, something that they choose. Seeing someone follow in their parents’ footsteps, if they haven’t tried something else, makes me depressed. Is progress not the goal? Must we all be sheep? Well-shorn sheep, to be sure, but no more in charge of our own path in life. Though, of course, I also strive to be less judgmental. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Etc.

Anyway, I asked my breakfast companion for parenting advice, since he seemed like the kind of person who would like to be asked for advice.

His advice: don’t send your kids to private school.

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Book Review

I Finally Read Rich Dad/Poor Dad and Almost Liked It

I used to hate Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad/Poor Dad books. I’ve been really turned off by the promotional seminars and multilevel marketing built up around the book and the concept. And the spin off books also seem less about imparting knowledge and more about making the author wealthy(-er).

You, too, can have this! Buy my book! Buy! Buy! Buy!

I don’t mean to hate on a guy making a buck. Too many people, though, act like consuming a book on personal finance is the same as making progress on their personal finances, and I find that both gross and seductive. Much of the Rich Dad/Poor Dad empire preys on that.

So I’ve long resisted Rich Dad/Poor Dad. But I read it last week.

And, actually, it’s a halfway decent book.

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Lawyer Psychology

Why Read Personal Finance Blogs?

A while ago I got deep into triathlon. I’d work out for three or four hours in a day, then finish, eat, and think about triathlon some more.

Because there are limits to how much someone can really exercise in a day – and I hit them – I found myself still wanting to do something with triathlon. I was still thinking about triathlons.

So, what did I do? I read books on triathlon, I browsed blogs about triathlon, and – I say with no small amount of shame, given the forum – I bought stuff associated with triathlon.

Not making progress.

Virtually none of this buying, reading, or browsing did much to advance my triathloning much. My abilities were not such that reducing the weight on my bicycle, for example, but 30 grams made a tremendous difference in where I placed in a race. (more working out, though, did a lot)

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Goals

You’ve Got to Have Financial Goals. Here are Mine.

Having goals is a game changer.

For years, I didn’t have financial goals.

I’d max out my 401(k) (or TSP when I worked for the government) and, when my kids were born, put a set amount in their 529 plans. Then I’d go on my merry way, assuming that the 401(k) max and some amount in the 529 would be ducky.

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