As a lawyer, you like to think about what’s next. You spend your career climbing the ladder from first-year associate to income partner to equity partner. But have you spent enough time thinking about life after the law and, importantly, how you’re going to pay for that life after the law? It’s likely you’ve at least thought about retirement, but taking a proactive, planning-based approach, especially at the start of your career, is another story. Here are some common retirement planning pitfalls that lawyers often experience. Do any of these sound familiar?
Waiting too long to start planning. You’re not going to sell your legal business and ride off into the sunset like your business-owner clients. A large, retirement-securing liquidity event is not in your cards, so time is truly of the essence. You have a limited number of years to maximize your savings, and the longer you wait to start planning the more pressure you will put on yourself in the later stages of your career.
