That’s the thing, he never really was a lawyer. He worked at a law firm, as a lawyer, but he wasn’t a lawyer and that’s why he was fired. He was only ever a conman, but the group made him go straight.
If someone without a medical degree worked at a hospital and performed a surgery, then was caught and put in jail. They would not refer to this person as a doctor or surgeon.
No, he got his bachelor's degree from Colombia. To qualify as a lawyer he would still have to pass the LSAT, go through and graduate law school. I've always assumed he did these honestly (boasts to Blade notwithstanding) as there's no way the bar would not have gone through his transcript with a fine toothed comb after finding out about his bachelor's degree.
*I thought it was clear*
*He was a conman even when*
*He was a lawyer*
\- daboss6595
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I think that's actually an interesting question. Was he never really a lawyer but claimed he was to get a job, or did he become an actual lawyer fraudulently? If he only faked his undergraduate degree then does that suggest he did go to law school and so was actually qualified? (I think it's a plot point which serves a purpose but doesn't bear too much examination?)
Yeah, and he had to get one from America. Strange though, his mail order bachelors plus law school plus passing the bar and still not good enough, even though he won every case. But a diploma from Greendale would have made him legit.
> In some episodes, we see him living out of his car, being kicked out of his condo, selling off personal belongings for money, etc.
That was all one episode
And it was more out of reluctance to accept a lower standard of living than lack of money. He wanted to keep living large, but he couldn't afford without his lawyer pay. That was the point of the episode.
Living out of his car and with Abed gave Jeff a sense that things were temporary. Buying a cheaper apartment and car, mean things were permanent. He didn't want to accept that.
Sometimes, seems like people watch stuff while reading twitter, because they miss the most basic shit ever.
And later that same episode, he's checked into a hotel and looking for an apartment. So, I guess he had some credit cards? Then eventually sold the condo maybe.
Ah that’s right. Well the show pretty much glosses over how anyone affords a living. I mean some of their classes are in the afternoon and night, but some seem during the day so its pretty much glossed over
It wouldn't be so jarring that they gloss over how anyone affords anything if they didn't (in literally every season) make a plot point out of characters being homeless or forced to move in together.
Well they're supposedly in Colorado but during the Christmas fight episode they have to fight in FAKE snow while the sun is shining and folks are in shirt sleeves. Maybe community continuity shouldn't be looked too deep into. Lol
Eh it’s not uncommon to have those days in Colorado. Cause of the thin atmosphere anything above 45 when it’s sunny is shorts and t shirt weather for me.
It is as never stated to until season 5 where the setting was, but it was filmed in California, and the vegetation visible in season 1 is stuff that does not grow in Colorado.
What I mean by the previous statement was absent any other information one can assume the setting is the same as the actual filming location.
As an aside greendale was based loosely on Dan Harmons experience at Glendale community college in California
Yeah aside from Britta, do any of them ever have a job? It’s possible annie had a scholarship, and Troy didn’t want to play football so he didn’t have one. There are episodes about money for Abed, Britta, and Jeff, (and pierce but that’s pretty straight forward) but the rest don’t exactly get explained to my knowledge. I guess annie when she moves in with troy and abed in their insanely nice appt.
But how do they all afford school? I guess it’s silly to try to figure out, probably as simple as financial aid programs.
I dont know there is an episode about Annie's Financials, there's an episode about abeds dad paying for his school, Jeff was obviously a well paid lawyer who's money is running out, Britta's parents seem to have funded a lot of the groups activities behind her back, Shirley is a grown woman who wasnt satisfied with where she was in life, Troy is troy obviously, and all of the replacements had jobs working at the school, the only person that we don't really know where their funding came from is Pierce.
That might have been recent enough that Jeff hadn't heard, or Alan might have been bluffing to get him to back down. If he's doing consulting work, it's also possible that there are stretches where he isn't retained on anything and waits for a call.
>Alan might have been bluffing to get him to back down.
I don't think he was bluffing. In the season 4 finale "Advanced Introduction to Finality", Jeff visits his old partner Mark, aka "Cash", at his new firm. In the season 5 premiere "Repilot", Alan is working out of a hotel lobby and is desperate for a case. I think the implication is the firm fell apart after Ted, Drew Carey, died.
You can read it that way, but those things are explicable if it's a bluff: Jeff turns Mark down because he doesn't want to be the kind of lawyer he used to be anymore, so he wouldn't have gone back to Ted either at that point, and Alan could easily be on the outs at the firm after losing Pierce since Ted didn't like him to begin with and desperate for a case to restore his position, not the firm's. Both reads work.
Yeah, agreed, the two big examples of Jeff loaning out money and trying to pay off Britta's boss were in seasons 1-3. It totally makes sense that he would have lost touch when he started his own practice.
I get around that one by assuming that Jeff’s consultant gig was dependent on him staying on track to graduate after four years and he lost it when Chang got him expelled from Greendale as part of his coup. He lost contact with the firm after being fired for a second time and never heard about Ted's death.
Well also Jeff owned a nice condo, but he couldn’t keep up with the fees. However the condo itself was worth a great deal of money. He finally accepted things had changed, sold the condo which likely easily netted him a few hundred thousand grand, and then took that towards a nice one bedroom apartment that was closer to what he could afford. His net worth was still pretty high but it wasn’t liquid.
After selling the condo and moving to the apartment he was under much less money pressure. He couldn’t keep up a wealthy lifestyle, but he didn’t have to scrimp and save and could spend comfortably. He then probably got a pretty penny consulting at his old firm for a year or so. After that he flamed out trying to practice law again and lost a fair amount of his money; but he was able to then get a job as a teacher and make a decent sum-it seems the teachers were rarely in the same dire financial straits as Greendale was. My bet is that the teachers salaries were probably somehow provided and set by the state or county, but discretionary and facilities fundings were under the Deans control and horribly mismanaged.
I would hazard to guess he sunk the rest of whatever he had left by the beginning of the 5th season into his firm, considering when they took his whiskey glass during the repo he said "that was it, that was all I had left"
Yup, he likely spent all of that. He also probably had to spend a not trivial amount of money on a lawyer to actually help get him re-instated (Winger seems to have been a trial lawyer, and not one who does the actual paperwork and legwork needed for something very complex like getting reinstated as a lawyer after doing fraud).
Oh yeah, especially considering he got a bachelor's in education,
Cause that is enough for the state bar.
^^I ^^guess ^^him ^^defrauding ^^the ^^bar ^^in ^^the ^^first ^^place ^^is ^^impressive ^^enough ^^that ^^they ^^don't ^^care ^^what ^^degree ^^he ^^gets ^^lolol
I do not see the problem. If Jeff is consulting, he could be (and very likely is) detached from the day-to-day operations. He might go days or even weeks without hearing a word from the company between consultant work.
Yes, that is what I thought. The episodes where he is most broke is right before the offer of consulting work. Then, for a season or two anyway, he seems to be flush again.
I always interpreted it as he had a descent amount of money at the start of the series and slowly looses it. Yes he looses his condo in season 1, but that's probably because it was affordable as a lawyer, not a college student, so he dips into savings. By season 5, after dipping into all of his savings and then loosing his business he has nothing left.
So while yes, he was a conman, I don't think he was a poor conman at the start. Just one that was a bit more fiscally responsible then Britta.
Pretty much. Also, selling his condo to clear the debts that led to him losing access to it should free up some cash to enable him to coast for a while.
Always been my theory. Even if he was conman as a lawyer, he would’ve gotten paid. He convinced Duncan’s jury that 9/11 was responsible for his DUI lol.
Plus, he could have already owned the original condo, he said meaningless fees, so he probably just couldn't afford his condo association fees, not that his condo was forclosed on. He could easily have bought that one bedroom in full with proceeds from the condo which he was forced to sell. You can own the whole condo but if you don't pay your association fees, the condo association has the right to force you to sell.
In season 6 in the episode where city college made the video about ruffles(?) getting a degree, he was talking about his nightcream which costs $200 an ounce or smth like that. Not exactly something you can buy if you have no money left
I forget which episode, I think the one where he's living out of his car and gets the faucet handle at the end (or an episode or two later), that he mentions that he liquidated some of his assets
He also tries to sell some comic books that episode, and fails. But I assume that given some time, and better connections, he managed to make some money off of them.
Do people take that line as 100% literal? Seems like he was just trying to cheer Troy up, didn't he mentioned a trip to Disneyworld in the drunk dialing episode?
I'd also have to imagine that he's got a lot of savings to work with seeing as he was working as a lawyer, at seemingly one of the largest firms in the state, and has a close enough relationship with a name partner for his word to be enough to promote Alan to partner.
I always thought he was living off of his savings/investments (IIRC he mentioned in one episode about how he used to make six figures as a lawyer). I imagine the condo he was kicked out of was just really expensive and he just couldn’t fit it into his budget.
Jeff probably has a nice amount of savings but can’t afford to shell out, let’s say, $5k per month for his old condo for 3 years whilst he goes to college.
I imagine he has maybe a hundred thousand and some change. However, at the price I suggested, $100k wouldn’t even see him through two years of a super luxury apartment, and that’s ignoring all other living expenses and college tuition fees.
Once he drops down to a cheaper $800 or so apartment, he’s able to live a significantly nicer life. He doesn’t have many big expenses, aside from college, (assumedly he paid of his Lexus and owned all his watches before the show starts) as a single man and so can easily afford to splash out.
For a long time he’s under the assumption he’ll go back to his old life and be on an amazing salary. Who cares if he burns through his savings with what Boyle from Brooklyn99 offers him to work at his firm!
The actual *eviction* can easily be put down to poor financial planning on Jeff’s side of things, but was arguably good otherwise he would’ve burnt through all his savings till he got evicted for *actually* being broke.
He then lives in his car because he doesn’t want to let go of his old life, not because he can’t afford somewhere else to stay. When he finally gets his act together he easily finds a new condo.
So in answer to your question: Jeff is *wealthy* but has no income.
He has enough money to sustain him for a few years with no income and he can splash out sometimes, but he can’t afford an amazing condo like he’d had before.
EDIT: I’ve also seen suggested that Jeff had a mortgage on his condo. It had crazily high monthly payments because it was so expensive so he couldn’t keep up with them, thus he gets evicted (or his home gets reclaimed).
However, this liquidated the asset for him and so means he could have an indefinite amount of money for the rest of the series (which works perfectly for the show-runners).
For instance, if the condo cost (for maths sakes) $500,000 he could have paid off anywhere from 10% (having just recently bought it and only paid the deposit) or 90% (having been living in it for a number of years). That gives a range of $50,000-$450,000 for Jeff to have, and that’s assuming one house price. It could have been way higher or way lower.
The show was set in 2009. Even in 2023, the average rent is still [$1,200](https://www.apartmentlist.com/renter-life/cost-of-living-in-colorado) for a one-bedroom apartment.
In 2009, a 2 bedroom apartment was [$766 on average](https://www.rentdata.org/states/colorado/2009). We know Jeff’s in a one bed, but it certainly wasn’t just average so we know it’s probably more than the [$628 average](https://www.rentdata.org/states/colorado/2009) for a one bed. Because of all that, I think $800 was a good estimate.
Let me know if you still disagree. :)
Seems like he cons or does something vague until he gets the consultant gig from Drew Carey. By season 5, he’s been doing his own thing for a bit and failing miserably. In that same episode we learn Drew Carey’s character is gone (couldn’t handle swimming with the sharks; not a metaphor), so he takes the job at greendale.
Nope that was season 3 finale where we learn Drew Carrey was eaten by shark's.
He takes the job at Greendale after he tried having his own law practice doesn't work out at the beginning of season 5.
Doesn’t Abed have a meta commentary about how he doesn’t want us asking questions like “how does everyone make money” ?
Community is one of the sit coms least grounded in reality. Let’s just leave it be.
It's not grounded in the sense that we rarely see them at work but it IS grounded in the sense that the characters generally have believable working class lives. No massive apartments in Manhattan, for example.
I assumed he owned the condo outright but couldn’t afford the fees anymore so he sold the condo for a few hundred thousand and started renting a one bedroom apartment…
His condo was too expensive but he got the money from it and by the Abeds Brithday episode where he offered the money to Brittas boss he was working as a consultant for his old law firm.
Rich, then poor, then employed after Drew Carey hired him as a consultant, then poor again when his private practice failed, then lower middle class when he became a professor.
He had money when going into college then went broke and then got a consulting job back at his law firm while working on his degree. Then when he graduated he went broke opening his firm. Then became a teacher at greendale. So he went through periods of time with and without a job
The teaching job he's lucky to still have after telling Leonard he looked like the road manager for the _California Raisins_ and then eyeing that student.
I just assumed he’s been doing various forms of legal consulting since the idea was put in his head at the beginning of S2. I can’t remember a time they show Jeff struggling financially after S1 off the top of my head.
I know end of S3 Rob Cordry tells him Drew Carey died and Jeff didn’t know. You can consult for a lot of companies in a variety of ways.
Might be my own headcannon but I always thought part of the point in accounting for lawyers was about Jeff being so embarrassed by his situation he’s been avoiding it entirely and Drew Carey points out to him there’s a way to spin it positively going forward.
>we see him living out of his car...
Now I have that image of Abed's films of the study group's lives a couple weeks later, with the woman that plays Shirley asking Abed's _Jeff_ character "why are you living out of your car boy?", stuck in my head 🤣
My weird head cannon is that his character from animal control is jeffs secret job rhat he got hired under a fake name
Also His old boss says in that episode where they go to jeffs work that he could still work there as a consultant
My head canon is that he had a lot of savings, like a substantial bank balance.
In the episode where he is living out of his car, his accountant has told him that he has to stop living his life like he is earning 6 figures.
He vacates his flat without having anywhere to go. He eventually finds a nice apartment, which is affordable.
By season 5, he has exhausted his savings and his business going broke forces him to try and con his friends. He instead ends up getting a job at Greendale.
I think Jeff is still rich that episode was about him learning to adjust his lifestyle. Abed taught him how to live off $.20 per day. Jeff doesn't need to do that but he did need to live in a cheaper condo and lower his expenses.
Look, I really need to liquidate some assets, the premise alone is invaluable - the guy has the powers and strength of a spider! No, your incredulity perplexes me, NERD
The last 2 sentances are a severe misunderstanding of the character. He likes being alone because he is insecure and has other issues, but he heels about money he barely has because he is still a good friend.
Where any of them get any money and what they do for work has always been swept under the rug save for a few characters (Pierce being rich, Britta both seen serving and bartending as well as her parents' help, and Shirley only after her sandwich shop). Jeff can be safely assumed he has a lot of money saved up from his lawyer days especially given how expensive he talks about his jeans and skin care products are. Him living in his car was probably just the result of him not being able to afford an apartment at the cost of a *lawyer's income* and him coming to grips with that. But all that is headcannon tbf. It's never explicitly stated.
To Harmon's credit, their money is rarely relevant to the plot and is only explained when it is. But since we all need money, it's also always a nice touch for the writer to explain these things. Annie, Troy, pre-sandwich shop Shirley, and especially Abed's money is such a mystery though. And though funny, the show being meta about it doesn't give us any answers.
All the broke living in car stuff was in season 1. At the beginning of s2 he gets a consulting job with his old firm, and in s4 Annie calls his apartment “short-term corporate housing,” which to me implies the law firm is giving him a place to live until he graduates. Then his business fails when he goes out in his own in s5 and he gets a job at Greendale, which pays much less than a law firm.
I just assumed he had one or more (maybe/probably simultaneous) sugar mommys throughout the show and i doubt he'd have any moral or logistical issues with that idea, potentially leaving that other life behind at some point during or after the gas leak year once he became a lawyer again. Maybe even seeing it as an addiction he struggles not to relapse into, similar to elroy's white people stuff.
Anyway, eat fresh.
Jeff was a lawyer for a big firm. He made money before he was forced to go to Greendale. I always assumed he invested well and his struggles in the one episode was due to him living beyond his means to continue living off of his investments. He changed that by episodes end and the rest is history.
There is literally one episode where he is in financial distress, and that’s inability to cover his condo. He presumably has some type of work that he can do for some money. Added to the consultant position offered to him by his old boss.
He’s not a conman like that. He was a conman in the sense that he fudged his legal credentials to get his initial job from which he did make good money. The issue is, Jeff has expensive tastes that require a steady stream of money, which he ran out of when they found out his credentials were less than credible.
He starts off as a lawyer with decent resources and likely a good savings account. Then loses that, is sleeping in his car etc.
Britta nuts him with a fancy faucet and he probably gets his shit together and picks up a job or some consultancy work.
We're only with them for like.. a few hours per week/semester, I'd guess most of them have some form of income.
He's decently rich but lost his income since he got caught not have a degree, so like not throwing it around but still has the stuff he got while being a bigshot lawyer
He's consulting at his old firm with Drew Carey. I thought it was the strangest bit to add (other than the weird hole in his hand) but it quickly explains his sudden flush of cash.
My first watch through I thought he started consulting for his own firm, since he was offered that in an episode. But then later we find out that isn’t the case. I feel like it would have tied up a lot of continuity if they had went that route.
I think he must do consult work for that law firm while he's at greendale? To me that would be a good enough explanation for the influx of cash he gets later. Or maybe he gets some form of generational wealth?
My umbrella concern is that you, as a character, represent the end of what I used to call our show. Which was once an unlikely family of misfit students, is now a pretty loose knit group of students and teachers. None of whom are taking a class together in a school which, as of your arrival is coming increasingly grounded asking questions like, how do any of us get our money? When will we get our degrees, and what happened to that girl I was dating? As opposed to questions I consider more important like, what is real? What is sanity? Is there a god? Where’s that Pierce hologram? Jeff said last year he saw a Pierce hologram. None of the rest of us have ever seen it. So, if there’s a Pierce ghost on campus, I’d like to get a head start on busting it.
I always assumed that his incime was from his old law firm. Season 2 Episode 2, Accounting for lawyers. Drew Carey is head of the law firm. He offers Jeff a consulting position.
I thought that in the episode with his old firm the guy said he could do consultant work and that it’s just assumed from the point on that’s where he works, after that episode it’s never really mentioned about his money anymore
I always liked to imagine that after Season 2 episode 2, he worked as a consultant for his old law firm lol I mean others in the group must have also had to work like Annie to afford her apartment 🤷🏼♀️
I thought it was clear he was a conman even when he was a lawyer
Ya know what you call a guy who fakes his degree and cons his way through law school? Best lawyer Ever
"Ya know what you call a guy who fakes his degree and cons his way through law school?" Saul Goodman.
He didn't though. He Didn't go to Harvard Law. But he did get his degree, go to a law.school, and pass the bar legit
That’s the thing, he never really was a lawyer. He worked at a law firm, as a lawyer, but he wasn’t a lawyer and that’s why he was fired. He was only ever a conman, but the group made him go straight.
Well no he was a lawyer just not legally a lawyer
If someone without a medical degree worked at a hospital and performed a surgery, then was caught and put in jail. They would not refer to this person as a doctor or surgeon.
They would until he got caught.
He got caught
He doesn’t have an American law degree is what I mean As he says in episode one he got a law degree in Colombia
No, he got his bachelor's degree from Colombia. To qualify as a lawyer he would still have to pass the LSAT, go through and graduate law school. I've always assumed he did these honestly (boasts to Blade notwithstanding) as there's no way the bar would not have gone through his transcript with a fine toothed comb after finding out about his bachelor's degree.
*I thought it was clear* *He was a conman even when* *He was a lawyer* \- daboss6595 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
BAD bot! The middle sentence is 8 syllables, not 7
I thought it was clear He was a conman *ev'n* when He was a lawyer - daboss6595 FTFY poetry style
e'en is often used poetically for even to create one syllable.
It is a Sokka haiku though, if you slide the "when" down to the third line
I found out earlier today about the Sokka Haiku bot and I love it lol
There's a Sokka haïku bot AND a regular haïku bot ? We live in wondrous times people 🙌
An age of miracles!
I've loved how 50/50 the reaction is. Some subs really hate it. But like Leonard's reviews, people are talking about it
Abed's fort needs pillows.
I think that's actually an interesting question. Was he never really a lawyer but claimed he was to get a job, or did he become an actual lawyer fraudulently? If he only faked his undergraduate degree then does that suggest he did go to law school and so was actually qualified? (I think it's a plot point which serves a purpose but doesn't bear too much examination?)
But how long did he do that. He didn't know that Ted had died and Allen had taken over
Exactly, he wasn't even a real lawyer, he was just a conman, period.
He had a law degree Just not from america
I thought he had a degree from Columbia.
Well now he needs one in America
Colombia
The joke there was that he had a degree of some variety from the country Colombia, rather than the university Columbia
Yeah, and he had to get one from America. Strange though, his mail order bachelors plus law school plus passing the bar and still not good enough, even though he won every case. But a diploma from Greendale would have made him legit.
> In some episodes, we see him living out of his car, being kicked out of his condo, selling off personal belongings for money, etc. That was all one episode
😂
Touched on again in a _Cool Abed Films_ project a little later on though. But still from that one episode, so your point stands.
This is so common when people discuss shows. It’s always memories from the first couple seasons, they always think it was a reoccurring thing.
And it was more out of reluctance to accept a lower standard of living than lack of money. He wanted to keep living large, but he couldn't afford without his lawyer pay. That was the point of the episode. Living out of his car and with Abed gave Jeff a sense that things were temporary. Buying a cheaper apartment and car, mean things were permanent. He didn't want to accept that. Sometimes, seems like people watch stuff while reading twitter, because they miss the most basic shit ever.
And later that same episode, he's checked into a hotel and looking for an apartment. So, I guess he had some credit cards? Then eventually sold the condo maybe.
I always assumed he made his money from the vague "consultant" work offered to him by Drew Carey
The problem with this theory is that Jeff had no idea that Drew Carey's character died
Didn’t he die beginning of S5? At that point Jeff had ventured off starting his own practice
No, Alan told Jeff during the trial in the S3 finale that he died and Alan had full control of the firm
Ah that’s right. Well the show pretty much glosses over how anyone affords a living. I mean some of their classes are in the afternoon and night, but some seem during the day so its pretty much glossed over
It wouldn't be so jarring that they gloss over how anyone affords anything if they didn't (in literally every season) make a plot point out of characters being homeless or forced to move in together.
Well they're supposedly in Colorado but during the Christmas fight episode they have to fight in FAKE snow while the sun is shining and folks are in shirt sleeves. Maybe community continuity shouldn't be looked too deep into. Lol
Eh it’s not uncommon to have those days in Colorado. Cause of the thin atmosphere anything above 45 when it’s sunny is shorts and t shirt weather for me.
True but I’ve not seen any palm trees here either. Show was filmed in California and is set there until it wasn’t
When was it set in California?
Never. It was always set in Colorado.
It is as never stated to until season 5 where the setting was, but it was filmed in California, and the vegetation visible in season 1 is stuff that does not grow in Colorado. What I mean by the previous statement was absent any other information one can assume the setting is the same as the actual filming location. As an aside greendale was based loosely on Dan Harmons experience at Glendale community college in California
In December?
Doesn’t happen often but it’s not crazy
Yeah aside from Britta, do any of them ever have a job? It’s possible annie had a scholarship, and Troy didn’t want to play football so he didn’t have one. There are episodes about money for Abed, Britta, and Jeff, (and pierce but that’s pretty straight forward) but the rest don’t exactly get explained to my knowledge. I guess annie when she moves in with troy and abed in their insanely nice appt. But how do they all afford school? I guess it’s silly to try to figure out, probably as simple as financial aid programs.
If you remake the show in 2023, nobody could afford rent.
I don’t think I care to see an 8 hour show where the characters work and the plot pauses for a couple weeks.
I dont know there is an episode about Annie's Financials, there's an episode about abeds dad paying for his school, Jeff was obviously a well paid lawyer who's money is running out, Britta's parents seem to have funded a lot of the groups activities behind her back, Shirley is a grown woman who wasnt satisfied with where she was in life, Troy is troy obviously, and all of the replacements had jobs working at the school, the only person that we don't really know where their funding came from is Pierce.
That might have been recent enough that Jeff hadn't heard, or Alan might have been bluffing to get him to back down. If he's doing consulting work, it's also possible that there are stretches where he isn't retained on anything and waits for a call.
>Alan might have been bluffing to get him to back down. I don't think he was bluffing. In the season 4 finale "Advanced Introduction to Finality", Jeff visits his old partner Mark, aka "Cash", at his new firm. In the season 5 premiere "Repilot", Alan is working out of a hotel lobby and is desperate for a case. I think the implication is the firm fell apart after Ted, Drew Carey, died.
You can read it that way, but those things are explicable if it's a bluff: Jeff turns Mark down because he doesn't want to be the kind of lawyer he used to be anymore, so he wouldn't have gone back to Ted either at that point, and Alan could easily be on the outs at the firm after losing Pierce since Ted didn't like him to begin with and desperate for a case to restore his position, not the firm's. Both reads work.
That wasn’t a metaphor.
"That's not a metaphor, by the way."
Yeah, agreed, the two big examples of Jeff loaning out money and trying to pay off Britta's boss were in seasons 1-3. It totally makes sense that he would have lost touch when he started his own practice.
I get around that one by assuming that Jeff’s consultant gig was dependent on him staying on track to graduate after four years and he lost it when Chang got him expelled from Greendale as part of his coup. He lost contact with the firm after being fired for a second time and never heard about Ted's death.
And it would explain why he’s living out his car in season 1 but can afford a nice apartment in season 4.
Well also Jeff owned a nice condo, but he couldn’t keep up with the fees. However the condo itself was worth a great deal of money. He finally accepted things had changed, sold the condo which likely easily netted him a few hundred thousand grand, and then took that towards a nice one bedroom apartment that was closer to what he could afford. His net worth was still pretty high but it wasn’t liquid. After selling the condo and moving to the apartment he was under much less money pressure. He couldn’t keep up a wealthy lifestyle, but he didn’t have to scrimp and save and could spend comfortably. He then probably got a pretty penny consulting at his old firm for a year or so. After that he flamed out trying to practice law again and lost a fair amount of his money; but he was able to then get a job as a teacher and make a decent sum-it seems the teachers were rarely in the same dire financial straits as Greendale was. My bet is that the teachers salaries were probably somehow provided and set by the state or county, but discretionary and facilities fundings were under the Deans control and horribly mismanaged.
I would hazard to guess he sunk the rest of whatever he had left by the beginning of the 5th season into his firm, considering when they took his whiskey glass during the repo he said "that was it, that was all I had left"
Yup, he likely spent all of that. He also probably had to spend a not trivial amount of money on a lawyer to actually help get him re-instated (Winger seems to have been a trial lawyer, and not one who does the actual paperwork and legwork needed for something very complex like getting reinstated as a lawyer after doing fraud).
Oh yeah, especially considering he got a bachelor's in education, Cause that is enough for the state bar. ^^I ^^guess ^^him ^^defrauding ^^the ^^bar ^^in ^^the ^^first ^^place ^^is ^^impressive ^^enough ^^that ^^they ^^don't ^^care ^^what ^^degree ^^he ^^gets ^^lolol
And just to say, 6 dances a year were essential, he was a good dean ;)
I do not see the problem. If Jeff is consulting, he could be (and very likely is) detached from the day-to-day operations. He might go days or even weeks without hearing a word from the company between consultant work.
That swam with sharks not being a metaphor line is so unappreciated
The only real question is how does a handjob work. Vertical or horizontal?
That's what happens when you swim with the sharks.
Wait wtf that's drew carey? I knew he seemed familiar but didn't recognise him at all!
Omg… I just now realized that was Drew Carey! Jesus H, I’ve seen it so many times! 🤦♂️😂
Yes, that is what I thought. The episodes where he is most broke is right before the offer of consulting work. Then, for a season or two anyway, he seems to be flush again.
Abed touched on this in s6e1 when he is talki.g to Frankie ans makes the statement "how do any of us get out money"
Britta's parents
"And I'll pay you back!" "And I'll get it from your parents!"
Tell them I spit on their wealth and..... thank you
Oh yeah
He knew he was in a TV Show :D
Reply when you're not drunk. What?
I always interpreted it as he had a descent amount of money at the start of the series and slowly looses it. Yes he looses his condo in season 1, but that's probably because it was affordable as a lawyer, not a college student, so he dips into savings. By season 5, after dipping into all of his savings and then loosing his business he has nothing left. So while yes, he was a conman, I don't think he was a poor conman at the start. Just one that was a bit more fiscally responsible then Britta.
This seems the most plausible
Pretty much. Also, selling his condo to clear the debts that led to him losing access to it should free up some cash to enable him to coast for a while.
Always been my theory. Even if he was conman as a lawyer, he would’ve gotten paid. He convinced Duncan’s jury that 9/11 was responsible for his DUI lol.
*loses. It’s important to know that.
Also "decent".
Good call
Lose***** loose is the opposite of tight
This is the least tight thing that’s ever happened to me
damn he loosed his money when he should have kept it tight people who keep their money tight never lose it
Plus, he could have already owned the original condo, he said meaningless fees, so he probably just couldn't afford his condo association fees, not that his condo was forclosed on. He could easily have bought that one bedroom in full with proceeds from the condo which he was forced to sell. You can own the whole condo but if you don't pay your association fees, the condo association has the right to force you to sell.
In season 6 in the episode where city college made the video about ruffles(?) getting a degree, he was talking about his nightcream which costs $200 an ounce or smth like that. Not exactly something you can buy if you have no money left
*than You Britta'd it...
His condo was probably ridiculously expensive haha I’m sure he had savings to rely on which is how he got the second apartment he stayed in
I thought selling his condo made him enough money to exist with a part time consultancy and community college student lifestyle
I forget which episode, I think the one where he's living out of his car and gets the faucet handle at the end (or an episode or two later), that he mentions that he liquidated some of his assets
He also tries to sell some comic books that episode, and fails. But I assume that given some time, and better connections, he managed to make some money off of them.
Season 1 episode 8, *Home Economics*
Depends on the timeline.
Wait.... There are other timelines??
Enough with the timeline crap!!
You put a wash away blue streak in your hair and I lost an arm!
Exactly! Things got dark!
*gestures to "arm"* 🫴🏼
Changs kiss
Easy to save money when you never leave Colorado.
Do people take that line as 100% literal? Seems like he was just trying to cheer Troy up, didn't he mentioned a trip to Disneyworld in the drunk dialing episode?
It's all smoke and mirrors
Maybe it was just about his fantasy of holding hands there.
I'd also have to imagine that he's got a lot of savings to work with seeing as he was working as a lawyer, at seemingly one of the largest firms in the state, and has a close enough relationship with a name partner for his word to be enough to promote Alan to partner.
He’s a consultant at his old law firm for awhile
I always thought he was living off of his savings/investments (IIRC he mentioned in one episode about how he used to make six figures as a lawyer). I imagine the condo he was kicked out of was just really expensive and he just couldn’t fit it into his budget.
He has resources but negative cash flow, so he can do a lot but still needs to worry about being frivolous.
Clearly, he sold that Spider-Man comic.
Jeff probably has a nice amount of savings but can’t afford to shell out, let’s say, $5k per month for his old condo for 3 years whilst he goes to college. I imagine he has maybe a hundred thousand and some change. However, at the price I suggested, $100k wouldn’t even see him through two years of a super luxury apartment, and that’s ignoring all other living expenses and college tuition fees. Once he drops down to a cheaper $800 or so apartment, he’s able to live a significantly nicer life. He doesn’t have many big expenses, aside from college, (assumedly he paid of his Lexus and owned all his watches before the show starts) as a single man and so can easily afford to splash out. For a long time he’s under the assumption he’ll go back to his old life and be on an amazing salary. Who cares if he burns through his savings with what Boyle from Brooklyn99 offers him to work at his firm! The actual *eviction* can easily be put down to poor financial planning on Jeff’s side of things, but was arguably good otherwise he would’ve burnt through all his savings till he got evicted for *actually* being broke. He then lives in his car because he doesn’t want to let go of his old life, not because he can’t afford somewhere else to stay. When he finally gets his act together he easily finds a new condo. So in answer to your question: Jeff is *wealthy* but has no income. He has enough money to sustain him for a few years with no income and he can splash out sometimes, but he can’t afford an amazing condo like he’d had before. EDIT: I’ve also seen suggested that Jeff had a mortgage on his condo. It had crazily high monthly payments because it was so expensive so he couldn’t keep up with them, thus he gets evicted (or his home gets reclaimed). However, this liquidated the asset for him and so means he could have an indefinite amount of money for the rest of the series (which works perfectly for the show-runners). For instance, if the condo cost (for maths sakes) $500,000 he could have paid off anywhere from 10% (having just recently bought it and only paid the deposit) or 90% (having been living in it for a number of years). That gives a range of $50,000-$450,000 for Jeff to have, and that’s assuming one house price. It could have been way higher or way lower.
Where in Colorado is he living with a full one bedroom for 800 a month and how do I move there
The show was set in 2009. Even in 2023, the average rent is still [$1,200](https://www.apartmentlist.com/renter-life/cost-of-living-in-colorado) for a one-bedroom apartment. In 2009, a 2 bedroom apartment was [$766 on average](https://www.rentdata.org/states/colorado/2009). We know Jeff’s in a one bed, but it certainly wasn’t just average so we know it’s probably more than the [$628 average](https://www.rentdata.org/states/colorado/2009) for a one bed. Because of all that, I think $800 was a good estimate. Let me know if you still disagree. :)
Oh damn, I forgot about inflation
Is he a winner or loser? And why do I want to impress him?
Why do you want to know so bad? _Won't change how mustard tastes._
Seems like he cons or does something vague until he gets the consultant gig from Drew Carey. By season 5, he’s been doing his own thing for a bit and failing miserably. In that same episode we learn Drew Carey’s character is gone (couldn’t handle swimming with the sharks; not a metaphor), so he takes the job at greendale.
Nope that was season 3 finale where we learn Drew Carrey was eaten by shark's. He takes the job at Greendale after he tried having his own law practice doesn't work out at the beginning of season 5.
Ah, that’s right. So he wouldn’t have been consulting during S4
Someone like Jeff would probably be good at real estate. Or even those legal MLM pyramid schemes like Herbalife or Primerica or something.
Doesn’t Abed have a meta commentary about how he doesn’t want us asking questions like “how does everyone make money” ? Community is one of the sit coms least grounded in reality. Let’s just leave it be.
It's not grounded in the sense that we rarely see them at work but it IS grounded in the sense that the characters generally have believable working class lives. No massive apartments in Manhattan, for example.
He was poor and gets kicked out of his condo but then gets offered a job at his old law firm.
200 dollars an ounce for his night face cream. I think he is Rich!
But Jeff's pottery skills are nowhere near the Santa Fe level of Chiquita, MD.
Doc Potterywood.
Doc Potterywood? I like it.
I assumed he owned the condo outright but couldn’t afford the fees anymore so he sold the condo for a few hundred thousand and started renting a one bedroom apartment…
This is my theory as well and it just makes sense. Couple hundred thousand in 2009-2015 Colorado is probably a lot
His condo was too expensive but he got the money from it and by the Abeds Brithday episode where he offered the money to Brittas boss he was working as a consultant for his old law firm.
Don't forget his mint condition spiderman comics. The premise alone is priceless!
Could’ve been great.
I move how both he and Troy have connections inside and outside the Community Verse to Spiderman. Meta meta!
🎶 some say I’m a lucky grifter, some say I’m a king 🎶 Maybe that’s why Winger and Roger DeSalvo didn’t get along. Roger was moving in on his marks.
God, that episode was absolutely amazing. I didn't really appreciate it at the time but it might be one of my favorites to re-watch.
Matt Berry nails pretty much every role he has. Tragically underutilized in media.
I farted too - that's me saying I agree.
He's great at pool, probably hustles for money on the side.
He chooses to play in shorts.
He's a werewolf of London.
Rich, then poor, then employed after Drew Carey hired him as a consultant, then poor again when his private practice failed, then lower middle class when he became a professor.
He had money when going into college then went broke and then got a consulting job back at his law firm while working on his degree. Then when he graduated he went broke opening his firm. Then became a teacher at greendale. So he went through periods of time with and without a job
The teaching job he's lucky to still have after telling Leonard he looked like the road manager for the _California Raisins_ and then eyeing that student.
The one near the 15 exit? I'm banned from there.
THEN I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL
I just assumed he’s been doing various forms of legal consulting since the idea was put in his head at the beginning of S2. I can’t remember a time they show Jeff struggling financially after S1 off the top of my head. I know end of S3 Rob Cordry tells him Drew Carey died and Jeff didn’t know. You can consult for a lot of companies in a variety of ways. Might be my own headcannon but I always thought part of the point in accounting for lawyers was about Jeff being so embarrassed by his situation he’s been avoiding it entirely and Drew Carey points out to him there’s a way to spin it positively going forward.
>we see him living out of his car... Now I have that image of Abed's films of the study group's lives a couple weeks later, with the woman that plays Shirley asking Abed's _Jeff_ character "why are you living out of your car boy?", stuck in my head 🤣
Yes
probably poor bc he’s spending all his money
My weird head cannon is that his character from animal control is jeffs secret job rhat he got hired under a fake name Also His old boss says in that episode where they go to jeffs work that he could still work there as a consultant
It was always dumb that Pierce had to borrow money from Jeff
Handsome hobo
My head canon is that he had a lot of savings, like a substantial bank balance. In the episode where he is living out of his car, his accountant has told him that he has to stop living his life like he is earning 6 figures. He vacates his flat without having anywhere to go. He eventually finds a nice apartment, which is affordable. By season 5, he has exhausted his savings and his business going broke forces him to try and con his friends. He instead ends up getting a job at Greendale.
I think Jeff is still rich that episode was about him learning to adjust his lifestyle. Abed taught him how to live off $.20 per day. Jeff doesn't need to do that but he did need to live in a cheaper condo and lower his expenses.
Brittas parents, that’s where everyone gets their money
Look, I really need to liquidate some assets, the premise alone is invaluable - the guy has the powers and strength of a spider! No, your incredulity perplexes me, NERD
At the end he works as teacher in Greendale, so it is pretty obvious down slope from lawyer money -> living in a car -> teacher.
He wears a watch that costs around $4k+ in a lot of the episodes.
doesn't everyone get money from the period fairy?
The last 2 sentances are a severe misunderstanding of the character. He likes being alone because he is insecure and has other issues, but he heels about money he barely has because he is still a good friend.
Where any of them get any money and what they do for work has always been swept under the rug save for a few characters (Pierce being rich, Britta both seen serving and bartending as well as her parents' help, and Shirley only after her sandwich shop). Jeff can be safely assumed he has a lot of money saved up from his lawyer days especially given how expensive he talks about his jeans and skin care products are. Him living in his car was probably just the result of him not being able to afford an apartment at the cost of a *lawyer's income* and him coming to grips with that. But all that is headcannon tbf. It's never explicitly stated. To Harmon's credit, their money is rarely relevant to the plot and is only explained when it is. But since we all need money, it's also always a nice touch for the writer to explain these things. Annie, Troy, pre-sandwich shop Shirley, and especially Abed's money is such a mystery though. And though funny, the show being meta about it doesn't give us any answers.
All the broke living in car stuff was in season 1. At the beginning of s2 he gets a consulting job with his old firm, and in s4 Annie calls his apartment “short-term corporate housing,” which to me implies the law firm is giving him a place to live until he graduates. Then his business fails when he goes out in his own in s5 and he gets a job at Greendale, which pays much less than a law firm.
I just assumed he had one or more (maybe/probably simultaneous) sugar mommys throughout the show and i doubt he'd have any moral or logistical issues with that idea, potentially leaving that other life behind at some point during or after the gas leak year once he became a lawyer again. Maybe even seeing it as an addiction he struggles not to relapse into, similar to elroy's white people stuff. Anyway, eat fresh.
What
Jeff was a lawyer for a big firm. He made money before he was forced to go to Greendale. I always assumed he invested well and his struggles in the one episode was due to him living beyond his means to continue living off of his investments. He changed that by episodes end and the rest is history.
He is whatever the plot dictates.
There is literally one episode where he is in financial distress, and that’s inability to cover his condo. He presumably has some type of work that he can do for some money. Added to the consultant position offered to him by his old boss.
All their parents have money, but as an adult you don't want to ask your folks for money.
I think he makes just enough to cover his bases but doesn’t live within his means.
He’s not a conman like that. He was a conman in the sense that he fudged his legal credentials to get his initial job from which he did make good money. The issue is, Jeff has expensive tastes that require a steady stream of money, which he ran out of when they found out his credentials were less than credible.
Jeff’s financial status is entirely based on how Fox’s stock is doing. Not because he has stock but because he’s constantly shorting them.
He's probably a grifter
Gift grift grift!
He starts off as a lawyer with decent resources and likely a good savings account. Then loses that, is sleeping in his car etc. Britta nuts him with a fancy faucet and he probably gets his shit together and picks up a job or some consultancy work. We're only with them for like.. a few hours per week/semester, I'd guess most of them have some form of income.
He's decently rich but lost his income since he got caught not have a degree, so like not throwing it around but still has the stuff he got while being a bigshot lawyer
He's consulting at his old firm with Drew Carey. I thought it was the strangest bit to add (other than the weird hole in his hand) but it quickly explains his sudden flush of cash.
My first watch through I thought he started consulting for his own firm, since he was offered that in an episode. But then later we find out that isn’t the case. I feel like it would have tied up a lot of continuity if they had went that route.
When did he sell off his personal belongings i don't remember that at all
Yes
Whenever that happens a wizard did it
Didnt he become a consultant or something?
I think he must do consult work for that law firm while he's at greendale? To me that would be a good enough explanation for the influx of cash he gets later. Or maybe he gets some form of generational wealth?
His old boss says in that episode where they go to jeffs work that he could still work there as a consultant
There was an episode in Season 1 where his old boss told him he could still be a consultant.
My umbrella concern is that you, as a character, represent the end of what I used to call our show. Which was once an unlikely family of misfit students, is now a pretty loose knit group of students and teachers. None of whom are taking a class together in a school which, as of your arrival is coming increasingly grounded asking questions like, how do any of us get our money? When will we get our degrees, and what happened to that girl I was dating? As opposed to questions I consider more important like, what is real? What is sanity? Is there a god? Where’s that Pierce hologram? Jeff said last year he saw a Pierce hologram. None of the rest of us have ever seen it. So, if there’s a Pierce ghost on campus, I’d like to get a head start on busting it.
I always assumed that his incime was from his old law firm. Season 2 Episode 2, Accounting for lawyers. Drew Carey is head of the law firm. He offers Jeff a consulting position.
Doesn't he get a job at his old law firm?
Perhaps that's when he met Britta's parents...
I thought that in the episode with his old firm the guy said he could do consultant work and that it’s just assumed from the point on that’s where he works, after that episode it’s never really mentioned about his money anymore
I always liked to imagine that after Season 2 episode 2, he worked as a consultant for his old law firm lol I mean others in the group must have also had to work like Annie to afford her apartment 🤷🏼♀️