Jaggers

If you really want to read stuff, read the newspaper. Every day. It would be a lot more valuable than law school textbooks.

Yup. Me too. Law school was a lot of fun and made my career options much better. It wasn't as expensive when I went, but even at today's cost, the return would be worth it.

I’ve had their insurance since I got a car (6 years or so). They have good prices, but I’ve never made a claim. I assume they just repurchase the actual insurance from one of the big players.

Yeah, I had a boss who let me work as much or as little as I could handle as well, and it was fantastic. I told him what I thought I could handle, and he gave me projects that were interesting that would occupy that much time. If you have that type of arrangement available, you'd be crazy not to take it. 20 hours a week is probably where it starts to make things tough, but less than that is doable. Though if you're talking 10+ hours a week, you'll probably want some flexibility to deviate from that around exam time.

Isn't that called a textbook?

I did alright in law school. But what is a hornbook?

The vast majority of people clerk to replace their articling. You are not going to lock up an associate position as a summer student - you look for jobs while you're clerking. I don't think most clerks have much trouble finding a job.

I went searching for some survey data about whether people are satisfied with their current salary. This is from 2014 and the US, but it's interesting... http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx The group that was happiest with their salary earned between $100 and $150K. Those who earned 75-100 and those who earned over 150 were equally happy. People earning less than $75K were less happy. About 8% of people thought they needed to earn over $150K to be happy. There seem to be pretty significant gender gaps relating to whether you need to make a lot of money to be successful. Men seem to be very insecure about how much they earn...

I could, except that I work for one of Canada’s biggest companies, so I can’t exactly change anything without involving 40 people and at least 2 SVPs. I’d rather live in in ignorance than tackle this particular issue.

I recently had a legal assistant at some small firm call me and ask for a fax number to serve something on me. I laughed and told her that although my business card does list a fax number, I actually have no idea what would happen if someone actually sent a fax to that number. I suggested she email it to me and I would happily confirm service.

Before I went to law school and my wife went to grad school, we probably made just over $50K together. Life was comfortable, but definitely not luxurious. We shared a 1 bedroom apartment, pinched pennies, traveled infrequently, never ate out. After law school, we probably made $150K together. Our life became quite luxurious quite quickly. We ate out all the time, got a two bedroom apartment, traveled once or twice a year, got cable so that I could watch soccer, etc. I felt like at that income level we never had to sacrifice something we really wanted. We now make a lot more than that together, but things haven't changed that much. There was a huge jump in our standard of living from $50K to $150K (obviously) but very little of a jump once we got to that point. I don't really feel like my life is much better now

They may not do it often, but it's important to do it once in a while to maintain some perspective.

i'd rather spend the money on groceries...

I'm constantly arguing with my wife about whether we need a car. Sadly, she won't let me get rid of it.

I don't skimp on groceries now (I used to for sure), but $800/month is almost $30/day. That's a lot of groceries. I'd say for two people who eat well, about $15-$20/day is more likely.