Financial Literacy for Attorneys: A Framework for Making Informed Career Decisions

As attorneys chart the course of their careers, financial questions often loom large. Should you stay in a higher-paying job with challenging hours or accept a lower-paying position with a better lifestyle? If you choose to start your own firm or pursue a similar entrepreneurial pursuit, how much income is enough to achieve your long-term goals? To a large extent, these and many other important career decisions are driven by financial considerations. 

In this session, we explore two fundamental questions that every attorney should be able to answer: How much income will you need in retirement? And how much do you need to save to achieve that retirement goal? By learning how to analyze and answer these questions, attorneys are empowered to make thoughtful career and financial planning decisions based on concrete data rather than speculation.  

This session is presented by Dr. Harry Mamaysky, a professor of finance at Columbia Business School and founder of QuantStreet Capital, an asset management firm that helps attorneys with investing and financial planning.

Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze and answer the question of how much income you will need in retirement
2. Determine how much you need to save now to achieve your income goal in retirement, bearing in mind the range of potential outcomes when investing
3. Identify the key considerations when determining how to invest your retirement assets, including a discussion of the types of investments that are appropriate and not appropriate for retirement