Personal Finance for PhDs

In this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Gabrielle Filip-Crawford, the founder of the peer support network Recovering Academics. Gabrielle left her tenure-track position after discovering she was vastly underpaid with almost no room for salary growth even after promotion. Gabrielle shares the common financial questions and mindsets that she sees within the Recovering Academics community, such as not understanding what different careers pay and feeling guilty for needing to earn more money. Gabrielle and Emily discuss how graduate students and postdocs can improve their money mindsets prior to pursuing academic or non-academic positions post-training.

In this episode, Emily interviews Snehanjana Chatterjee, a 3rd-year international graduate student at Texas Tech. Snehanjana recounts her financial journey over the past few years, from how she funded her start-up expenses upon moving to the US to how she's gained scholarships and awards to increase her income. Snehanjana volunteers to help international students acclimate to the US, and she shares some of their concerns and questions. Finally, Snehanjana asks Emily about banking and investing as an international student not planning to stay in the US.

In this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Kate Sleeth, the founder of EduKatedSTEM, on salary negotiation for PhDs. They discuss why everyone should negotiate salary and why Kate regrets not negotiating in her first position in academia. Kate teaches how someone should calculate their minimum salary number before going into a negotiation, including the free tools to use. They wrap up with Kate's best single tip regarding the negotiation process and her best financial advice, both of which are straightforward to implement.

In this episode, Emily interviews Hui-Chin Chen, a Certified Financial Planner specializing in advising globally mobile professionals. Hui-Chin is a managing partner and financial advisor with Jade & Cowry, and she is a repeat podcast guest. Her first interview from 2019 is required listening for international graduate students and postdocs prior to starting this episode. Hui-Chin gives us a bird's-eye view of a simple investing strategy for nonresidents in the US if using a tax-advantaged retirement account proves too complex. Hui-Chin and Emily review the IRA eligibility criteria for nonresidents with respect to fellowship income and married filing separately. They discuss whether and when someone moving out of the US should engage a tax advisor. Finally, Hui-Chin answers one investing and one tax question submitted by subscribers to the Personal Finance for PhDs mailing list.

In this episode, Emily shares the microinterviews she recorded at three conferences this year. The conference attendees, all of whom either work at universities or have PhDs themselves, responded to this prompt: "What resource on your campus could graduate students and postdocs access to benefit their finances?" You'll hear the responses in order from the attendees of the National Postdoctoral Association Annual Conference, the Graduate Career Consortium Annual Meeting, and the Higher Education Financial Wellness Summit. You should be able to detect the transitions among the conferences as there are strong themes within each set. As a bonus, listen for a two-time contributor! While these are all real examples from individual universities, you can search for, inquire about, or request similar resources on your campus.

In this mostly solo episode, Emily shares how to manage lump sum fellowship income with respect to your budget, cash flow, and bank account structure. Grad students and postdocs struggle to manage their money when they are paid less frequently than monthly, such as once per term or once per year. This lump sum income occurs for some fellowship recipients, though it's not a common set-up. In the first half of this episode, Emily presents her suggested system for managing this type of income with respect to your bank account structure, budget, and cash flow. In the second half of this episode, Emily interviews Shalom Fadullon, a grad student at Northeastern who receives this type of income, on how she implemented Emily's system in her financial life.

In this episode, I share what I've learned recently about the landscape of postdoc benefits in the US, specifically with respect to health insurance and workplace-based retirement accounts. This discussion of employees and non-employees or fellows may be familiar territory to some of you, but I also know I'm reaching people who have never heard it before. I hope that this episode helps more postdocs access more benefits, but I will not present a single universal solution that can be immediately adopted. Please take what you learn today back to your peers at your institution to converse about what they're doing for their benefits and what may be possible for all of you.

In this episode, Emily explains how to live on time with your finances. Living on time means maintaining financial margin in your life to be able to absorb unexpected occurrences in your income or spending. When you're behind in your finances, your income is going out the door right after you receive it, you have balances on your credit cards that you can't pay off until your next paycheck comes, and/or you are unprepared for the next manual tax payment that is required of you. This may be true even if you're not experiencing financial consequences such as interest payments on debt. The good news is that it's very simple, though not necessarily easy, to transition to living on time once you know what it means.

In this episode, Emily presents five suggestions for reducing financial anxiety that you could use alongside your general anxiety management strategies. These five suggestions are designed to be used by graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs who are in objectively stressful financial situations. They include choosing just one financial goal, taking a small step, creating a recurring appointment, thinking through the worst case scenario, and talking with others.

In this episode, Emily interviews Hannah Takasuka, a 3rd-year PhD/DDS student at the University of California, San Francisco. Hannah is in the process of purchasing a condo in San Francisco as part of a governmental program to provide affordable housing. Hannah overcame multiple hurdles in the journey to home ownership, including being rejected by mortgage lenders over her fellowship income. Several puzzle pieces have to come together for any graduate student to purchase a home, and Hannah shares all the numbers and details for how it happened for her.