Attorneys and Financial Wellness:
The Forgotten Wellness Topic by Jen Lee
Physical Emotional Social Spiritual Environmental Intellectual Occupational Financial
20
MAY 2021
“I’m so embarrassed. I can’t believe I have to talk to an attorney about my own finances.”
Wellness ness follows. It is such a demeaning and condescending approach to the problem.
“I wish I never would have gone to law school. I’ll never pay off these student loans.”
What should we be talking about instead?
“I can’t sleep. I just stay up all night worrying about the bills I have to pay and that I don’t make enough to cover my regular living expenses.” I have heard all of these quotes and more from lawyers over the years and realized that financial wellness is not something really anyone wants to talk about or address. By not talking about the financial problems that lawyers are facing, many lawyers feel isolated and overwhelmed. This type of financial stress can also lead to mental health and substance abuse issues. The American Bar Association released its 2020 Law School Student Loan Debt Survey Report and the overwhelming statistics show that more than 75% of the respondents (new and young lawyers) had more than $100,000 in student loans at graduation.1 One of the biggest problems with financial wellness is the name itself. Financial wellness implies that everything is hunky-dory as long as you have some basic budgeting tools and are saving for retirement. The disconnect comes when there is actual financial stress and crisis. The term “financial wellness” itself is an out-of-touch statement, for example, telling someone with $300,000 in student loans that if they just budgeted better, financial well-
How can we encourage ourselves and our colleagues to not view financial difficulties as an embarrassment or failure? First of all, we need to get it out of our heads that financial stress is somehow rare. In recent years, statistics show that the number of people admit that they are financially stressed ranges from 62 percent to 80 percent and a whopping 90 percent of Americans say that money has impacted their stress level.2 However, when you talk to people or look on social media, you would never know because everyone is afraid of what others will think. Lawyers are people, too. We have the same financial problems as those around us and sometimes more because of the amount of student loan debt. A lot of us went to law school because of the income potential, but when your student loan balance is growing every year because of interest on income-based repayment, it is very stressful and discouraging. The idea of paying for 25 years and owing five times the amount borrowed will keep you up at night. Second, understand what financial stress does to our health, relationships and our job satisfaction. The ABA study summarized many of the responses regarding how student loans affect the lives of lawyers and
