The Public Defender Salary
It is not easy to survive on a public defender salary. Some public defender salaries are not too bad, ranging from $70,000.00 to over $100,000.00 a year. But those salaries are earned after many years of experience.
During your first five years, you are looking at $37,000.00 to $50,000.00 if you’re lucky.
Between bars dues (because not all public defender agencies pay them), groceries, take out (because you won’t have time to cook those groceries!), suits, car insurance, car payments, gas, rent, and everything else you can imagine, it gets pretty tough living on a public defender salary. The money, coupled by the high level of stress the job brings, drives many people into private practice.
Being a public defender however can be sustainable and you can certainly make it the ten years need for loan forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program run by the federal government.
One of the keys is living within your means. Easier said than done! After all, you can’t drink Jim Beam every day. Somethings you need a nice tall glass of Basil Hayden after a long’s day of work. (Here’s $5 off your first bottle from Drizly. I get $5 towards my whiskey too).
Some Tips
This is not about making tons of extra cash on the side.
First of all, you won’t have time. After all, being a public defender is a 50-60 hour a week job. If you have time for a second job, you aren’t working hard enough for your clients.
Second, any extra income you make will be added to your adjusted gross income. For those of you taking advantage of PSLF, you will see an increase in your monthly payment under the income based repayment program. So, any money you have made, you are likely sending back to the federal government in the form of taxes and loan payments
Tip #1 Maximize PSLF
Under PSLF, your monthly payment will be determined by a few things including your Adjusted Gross Income and family size. I made some mistakes early on that caused my payments to be much higher than they should have been. Don’t falter where I did!
Family Size
The first thing you will want to do is make sure your family size is accurate. Married with a child? Great. Family size is 3. That’s easy math, even for a lawyer. But what if you’re married and your partner is expecting? Family size of 2? NOPE! It is 3! That’s right! Even if your child is not born yet, you can count them for family size purposes. And this makes a HUGE difference in your monthly payment amount. Blessed with twins? Family size is now 4!
Filing Status
The next thing to understand is that your spouse’s AGI is included with your AGI. Unless they also have a ton of federal loans, this is going to crush you. I would recommend filing your taxes as “married filing separately.” I know this seems counter intuitive and most tax prepares won;t understand why you are doing this, but just do the math.
Do your taxes as “married filing jointly” and then calculate your return. Then calculate your monthly payment with the combined AGI under the income based repayment plan. THEN calculate your monthly payment with just your AGI. Is the difference in monthly payments over the course of the year greater than your tax return filing as “married filing jointly”? If so, (and it will be in most cases), then you know to file as “married filing separately.”
Lower your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)!
Because your AGI is what matters you need to find a way to lower it outside of filing separately from your spouse. You could ask your public defender agency to pay you less, but that’s insane. So what do you do?
First, maximize your retirement contributions under your employer’s 401K or 403B retirement plans. Can you afford to contribute the maximum amount? The more you contribute, the less taxable income you have, the lower your AGI is, the lower your monthly payment will be!
And best of all? This is money that will grow over time and go right back into your pocket when you retire.
Second, if you have children take advantage of Dependent Care benefits. You can take out $5,000.00 a year if married, (unless you do your taxes as “married filing separately” in which case it is $2,500.00 per spouse.). You are paying that money to daycare or preschool already, so why not make a portion tax free AND lower your AGI?
Third, take advantage of Flexible Spending Account benefits. You can take out up to $2,700.00 a year. Again, this makes your eligible healthcare expenses tax free AND lowers your AGI.
Just remember, for Flexible Spending Accounts and Dependent Care, if you don’t spend the money, you LOSE IT!
One final note, be sure to read my post on 3 Public Service Loan Forgiveness Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them!
Tip #2 Bar Exam Expenses
Technically you are not surviving on a public defender salary at the time you take the bar. However, it will be one of your last big expenses before entering you new career. So why not try to make the best financial moves as possible?
Bar preparation courses and bar preparation materials are ridiculously expense. It’s crazy, but you spend over a hundred thousand dollars on law school, and then you have to shell out another thousand or two to take the exam they were supposed to prepare you for? Weak sauce…
But all is not lost. You can take advantage of promotions and even student representative opportunities to save money on your bar preparation courses and bar preparation materials. Also, check out Amazon.com for deal on prep materials. Do you need to spend all of that money on a bar prep course, or can you buy the materials and student independently or with a group?
I was also able to get creative when I took the Massachusetts Bar Exam, (the other state I took the bar in I did not try this). I saw that the bar applications were filed through the Supreme Judicial Court (Massachusetts’s highest court). Well, I knew that court fees were waived for indigent parties, and you don’t get more indigent than being a law student, so I filed a motion to waive fees for the bar exam. GRANTED! Saved me at least $750.00. And it also saved my closest friends some big coin too. Enjoy the free advice and I hope it still works! Don’t be afraid to try this in your home state and post your results in the comments below!
Tip #3 Grocery Savings
A big expense for me has always been food. As a public defender, eating out is the norm. You are constantly on the road driving between court, the jail/prison, and your office. And you have little time to make a lunch, let alone keep it cold! So you end up pulling over and running into a gas station, or a fast food joint, or even a grocery store to get a quick bite.
When you get home from a long day you are wiped and barely can muster the energy to crack your beer (or seltzer water), let alone cook dinner. So GrubHub it is! But this is not really sustainable on a public defender salary.
But outside of eating out less, planning and prepping meals, there are a few ways that you can earn a little extra coin! I like to use two apps, but will talk about three. Basically, it is all about mining your personal data. What you food you buy, when you buy it, how much you pay, etc.
Ibotta
Ibotta is my personal favorite rewards app. I have had the app for about three years and have earned over $600.00 in rebates. All to my Venmo account too! (They also send it to Paypal if you like).
Ibotta requires you to select promos by store, shop at the store, and then upload the receipt. It’s pretty easy and you can earn a substantial sum of money quickly. You can get rebates not only on food, but also booze!
What is also great about Ibotta is that you can do your Amazon shopping through the app and earn some extra money back on every purchase. This is a no brainer. If you’re going to buy the stuff anyways, why not go through the app and get a little bit back?
If you really want to crank up the saving, get an Amazon Prime Visa card and earn an extra 5% back on that Amazon purchase. Of course, if you do this, pay off the balance to avoid interest (defeating the purpose of this whole exercise!).
Ibotta also has a new feature where you can purchase a gift card through the app, use it to buy you goods, and then get a nice rebate on the purchase. Best of all? It doesn’t matter if what you are buying is regular price, sale, or clearance!
Fetch Rewards
Fetch Rewards is a decent app. Basically, you don’t need to select deals ahead of time. Just shop as you normally would, and then upload your receipt. You will get point which can then be redeemed for things like Amazon gift cards.
The return on Fetch Rewards is not at the same high level as those on Ibotta, but it is easy and you can use it in conjunction with Ibotta. So, when you think about it, in the time it takes you to take a picture of your grocery receipt, you can get 1-5% back! And over time, your points and rebates will add up and you will have a nice rainy day fund. Maybe pay off a few utility bills!
At the end of the day, it’s free money for little effort. There’s really no reason you shouldn’t do it. (And if you click on my links, you get a bonus, as do I!).
Checkout 51
I am not a huge fan of Checkout 51. The app does offer a similar rebate format that Ibotta uses but I find their offerings to be really limited.
Of course, over the past few years I have made over $65.00 and when you combine that with Ibota and Fetch Rewards, we are talking nearly $150.00 a year for simply taking a picture of your grocery receipt. And don’t forget, with three apps, you are able to get triple rewards on the same grocery trip!
Rakuteen
This is an app and browser plugin that you must have if you do any online shopping! For most major retailers, you will get anywhere from 1%-15% back in rebates, just for using the app or browser plugin! You can even get cashback on dining out if you register your credit card. I made over $300 in 2019 just by shopping as I normally do. Use my link for a promo bonus! (I also get a bonus).
Tip #4 Open a Checking Account
I know that this sounds a bit counter intuitive, but opening a new checking account will help you make a couple hundred bucks a year. In fact, you should open multiple!
Yes, this goes against your AGI and is taxable as bank interest, but it is not so much money that your loan payment will shoot up.
Banks will often have promotions whereby you will get $100 or more for opening a new checking account, setting up direct deposit, and having a certain amount of deposits within 90 days. There will also usually be tiers you can choose from so make sure you go with the account that has no fees!
Open up 3 or 5 checking accounts a year and you are talking some serious coin!
Right now, if you open an account with SoFi using my link here, you can get $25! (I also get $25).
Surviving on a public defender isn’t easy. But with a little extra work, you can create some breathing room.
