Hello and welcome. I say this to myself and others, as I am new to this blogging world. I thought I'd give it a try so I can vent out some of my thoughts and save my family and friends the pain of listening to me and my problems.

I am in serious debt. Okay, now that that is out in the open, I will share with you my saga of getting out of this extraordinary debt. I am not talking about $20K in credit cards or any silly trifles like that; I am talking about close to $200K in debt from taxes, student loans, credit cards, and other bills.

How did I get here? This is a fair question. I made the decision (I am still in the process of deciding if it was a good or bad one) to go to law school following my graduation from Tulane (pre-Katrina, when NOLA was a beautiful place). I wanted, at that time, to join the CIA (don't worry, I came to my senses), so I selected law school in Washington, DC. Not only are there great law schools in DC, but there are also the most expensive law schools in DC. I wasn't worried at the time because I was going to join the CIA (the "Agency"), and they would help me pay back my student loans (both federal and private, all for the maximum amounts possible; how could I work while I go through law school? I needed those loans). Oh well, so much for my foresight.

Once I started law school, I actually read the Constitution. I think that course of action was a good start to my legal career. Knowing the basis of the laws of this country really helps one to be passionate about defending such laws and people's rights. Unfortunately, when I read the Constitution, I began to appreciate the incredible freedoms that we have, and didn't really want to sign those rights away by joining the Agency.

I am not a quitter, so even though I changed career plans, I wanted to stay in law school and become a lawyer. My new passion became environmental law, which is what I practice now. During law school, because I wasn't working, my student loans were not enough, so I began selling off my stock inheritance to support myself. My girlfriend came to live with me and also began selling her 401K earnings (she could not find work in DC). This all leads to our tax issues because when you sell stock, it is taxable income. My girlfriend's 401K money is taxable at a rate of 10%, plus, she is in the highest income bracket. It's all a real bitch, you know.

Another unfortunate turn of events was that when I graduated from law school, the market was terrible for new attorneys. Simply put, there were not enough jobs to employ all of the lawyers who graduated with me. I am sure you are thinking to yourself, 'but you have a law degree, you can get any job.' This is not true; I applied for every job posted on line, in papers, that I could think of in my head... all to no avail. No one would hire me because I was either over or under qualified. I ended up being unemployed for a year and a half, living off of the remainder of my stock inheritance.

This is where it gets really interesting. Being unemployed following law school meant that I needed to defer payment of my loans. The interest, however, did not go away, and it continued to acrue. When I commenced payment (once I finally got a job), the interest was added to my principal balance. Those loan companies are really clever; you think, 'wow, I have some payment relief!' In reality, you are just going to pay back a higher principal, with interest. It sucks. This job I got after a year and a half of beating myself up and feeling oh-so-depressed was not legal in nature. I ended up working for an environmental/engineering consulting firm doing technical writing and editing. It was great experience, but, it was lousy pay.

After a year and a half under-employed, I finally got a job as a "real lawyer," practicing environmental law. This is where I am now, and I am still not making enough money to survive; I already mentioned the state of the market for attorneys.

It is amazing to me that I survived without disaster as long as I did; however, all good things must come to an end. Approximately two months ago, my world came crasing down around me. I received a notice in the mail that my monthly loan payments were due. Not a new notice, I receive one every month. This month was different, however, because the bill was for $98K! I thought it was a mistake, so I called the collection agency handling my account (it is hard to pay bills with no money, hence collections). The statement was not a joke, in fact, it was quite serious. My student loan had defaulted because of insufficient payment. I had been diligently making payments, but they were not enough. My account had fallen to 120 days past due and that was all she wrote. I was given a week to raise $98K or the collection agency was going to garnish my wages, further ruin my credit (in the course of a day I went from a credit score of 712 to 566 when my loan was defaulted), and take away my license to practice law. Why they would take away my license that allows me to earn income is beyond me, but I don't think collection agencies are meant to be understood.

I tried to reason with them. "If you garnish my wages, you will get less than half of what I am willing to pay," I pleaded. It all fell on deaf ears. One stroke of luck was that I have a relative who came to my rescue, negotiated a settlement (with zero interest!), and set me back on my feet to rebuild my credit. That is where I am now. I created a budget and have started making my diligent monthly payments.