Personal Finance for PhDs
213 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 46 ratingsAs a PhD (in training), you face unique money challenges that stem from your low stipend/salary during your years of graduate school and postdoc training. Listen here for the hard-won financial wisdom of your fellow graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs with Real Jobs. From budgeting and frugality to investing and debt repayment, this podcast is your higher education in personal finance.
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Episodes
As a Single Parent, This Graduate Student Utilizes Every Possible Resource
January 14, 2019 06:00 - 35 minutes - 41.5 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Lauri Lutes, a fourth-year PhD student at Oregon State University and single mother. Lauri's stipend is equivalent to the local living wage for just one adult, yet she supports herself and her daughter on it without using student loans. Lauri details how she makes ends meet by taking advantage of every possible university and community benefit, such as subsidized and free childcare, food assistance, and recreation and arts scholarships. Lauri additionally se...
An Unfunded Summer Didn't Deter this PhD Student Thanks to Her Creative Side Hustle
December 24, 2018 06:00 - 46 minutes - 54 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Bailey Poland, a rising second-year PhD student in rhetoric and writing at Bowling Green State University. Bailey earns a stipend of just $14,000 for the academic year, but manages to live a comfortable life thanks to her disciplined budgeting and two side hustles. Unlike many of her classmates, she devoted her first summer as a PhD student exclusively to research, relying on her side hustle income and savings from her stipend to tide her over until the next...
This Prof Used Geographic Arbitrage to Design Her Ideal Career and Personal Life
December 10, 2018 06:00 - 39 minutes - 45.7 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Amanda, a tenure-track professor at a small college in the Midwest. While a postdoc, Amanda listened to career advice from R1 university faculty, but ultimately decided their path was not for her. Instead, she employed geographic arbitrage to maximize her academic salary while minimizing her cost of living. This choice enabled her to quickly pay off her student loans, and now she is considering buying a house. Amanda gives great career and financial advi...
Working Hard and Playing Hard as a Grad Student in NYC
November 26, 2018 06:00 - 59 minutes - 68.3 MBOn this episode, Emily interviews Nicholas Giangreco, a bioinformatics graduate student at the Columbia University Medical Center. Nick’s expenses in Manhattan are relatively high – such as spending over 50% of his net income on rent – but his stipend still allows him to spend on his priorities and still save money consistently. Nick lived very frugally while he was paying off his student loans prior to grad school, and now applies his thoughtful budgeting skills to enjoying life in Manhatta...
How This Grad Student Had a Baby, Landed a TT Job, and Defended Her PhD within Six Months
November 12, 2018 06:00 - 55 minutes - 64 MBIn the last half-year of her PhD, Dr. Heather birthed her first child, completed and defended her dissertation, and landed a tenure-track job... all while caring for her infant alongside her visiting professor husband without any outside help. During the episode, we discuss many of the logistics that go into having a child during grad school, from arranging parental leave to conducting experiments around a nursing schedule. Heather shares how she learned to ask for the accommodations she nee...
Travel and Savings Are This Frugal Grad Student’s Top Priorities
October 22, 2018 05:00 - 50 minutes - 57.9 MBThis podcast episode is a budget breakdown with Latisha Franklin, a third-year graduate student in biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University. Latisha works to keep her housing and especially food spending low so that she can spend more on experiences, such as her yearly international vacation. She employs several powerful strategies in her frugality and budgeting to enable her saving, such as taking out cash for variable spending, prioritizing a “me” budget category, vegan ...
This PhD Side Hustler Maintains a Healthy Work-Life Balance
October 08, 2018 05:00 - 42 minutes - 48.9 MBToday’s podcast guest is Dr. Caitlin Faas, an assistant professor of psychology and perennial side hustler. We discuss her history with side hustling and her motivations for pursuing it. Caitlin’s current side hustle of academic coaching dovetails so well with her primary role as a faculty member that she’s even planning to include that work in her tenure packet. Her work involves coaching and teaching about time management, productivity, and overcoming psychological barriers to academic suc...
Even in NYC, This Graduate Student Maintains a Super Frugal Lifestyle
September 24, 2018 05:00 - 59 minutes - 68.3 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Athena Pierquet, a rising second-year graduate student at New York University in English. In her first year as a PhD student, Athena lived on her $28,000 per year fellowship and save all of her smaller income sources, but her finances are facing a new challenge as she transitions out of subsidized university housing. Despite living in Manhattan, Athena maintains a very frugal lifestyle, minimizing her spending on groceries, transportation, entertainment, and...
This PhD Student Paid Off $62,000 in Undergrad Student Loans Prior to Graduation
September 10, 2018 05:00 - 49 minutes - 56.9 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Jenni Rinker, a mechanical engineering PhD currently working as a researcher at the Denmark Technical University. Jenni paid of $62,000 of student loans from her undergraduate degree while pursuing her PhD at Duke University. Her average payment was approximately $1,500 per month on a post-tax income of $2,700-$3,000 per month. Jenni shares her motivation for setting her lofty debt repayment goal and the practical strategies she used to accomplish it. Af...
This Grad Student in DC Prioritizes Living Alone and Investing in Mental Health
August 27, 2018 05:00 - 41 minutes - 57.5 MBIn this episode, Emily interviews Christina Padilla, a PhD candidate at Georgetown University in human development and public policy earning $38,000 per year. Christina shares her top five expenses as a DC resident: rent, groceries, eating and drinking out, regular monthly expenses (i.e., phone, internet), and the copay for her therapist. They discuss Christina’s tips on leveling up her housing, meal planning, living car-free, and finding frugal fun in the city.
Serving as a Resident Advisor Freed this Graduate Student from Financial Stress
August 13, 2018 05:00 - 46 minutes - 64.5 MBThis episode's money story features an interview with Adrian Gallo, a PhD student at Oregon State University. Adrian serves as a resident advisor in a fraternity house close to campus. For most of his four years in the role, it was a dream side hustle: high-paying (in defrayed costs), low time commitment, and personally gratifying. However, when the house experienced a calamity, the time he had to spend in the role rocketed up; his research suffered, and he had to have difficult conversation...
Dual PhD Couple in Seattle Spending $20k/Year on Rent
July 23, 2018 05:00 - 34 minutes - 48 MBIn this episode, I break down my own budget from 2017. My husband and I earn about $100,000 per year and live in Seattle, WA with our two small children. I detail our top five expenses (rent, groceries, travel, kid spending, and transportation) as well as the financial goals that we're currently working toward. I give some advice for a budget-conscious person moving to Seattle. Finally, I share what it's like to be a renter in Seattle's rapidly inflating housing market, spending nearly $20,...
Our $100,000+ Net Worth Increase During Graduate School
July 06, 2018 03:31 - 40 minutes - 55.6 MBI share my personal money story, which is how my husband and I increased our net worth by over $100,000 while we were in graduate school. We carefully budgeted our two PhD student stipends to consistently add money to our investments and pay for both our regular monthly expenses and irregular expenses such as travel. Over our seven years as graduate students, we accumulated approximately $75,000 in retirement savings, $20,000 in cash, and enough money to pay off my student loans plus an addi...