I could spend so much time talking about this!! I feel like finding people whose eyes didn’t immediately glaze over though was a different story 🤣
Knowing and tracking expenses is so important (and I also think very important for avoiding lifestyle inflation post-grad school). I use YNAB and they give students a free year 👀
I think a Roth IRA is definitely something grad students should know about and take advantage of. But honestly one of the best pieces of advice I got was to use a roboinvestor (controversial take). I would not have known where to start investing, but because I used a roboinvestor I just had to set up the automatic deductions and it does all the work for me.
I definitely “side hustled” my way through grad school and even though I made almost no money, it did give me a cushion that other people didn’t have (and I never had to pay for fitness classes)
Finance book wise, I always always recommend Ramit Seti’s book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” I also liked Grant Sabatier’s book “Financial Freedom”
Hi Linda! First, it's great to hear from you; I hope all is well! I also could spend so much time talking about this, as I wish I knew this stuff going into grad school.
Do you have any recommendations as to where I could share this post with prospective/current students? I feel like the financial aspect of graduate school is overlooked when making a decision to pursue science as a career, at least for those of us that are young and financially illiterate (like I was!).
And good on you for side hustling, tracking your expenses, and contributing to your Roth IRA during grad school. My new favorite investment vehicle is the HSA. It would have been nice if our institution offered this for graduate students, but looking back, I probably wouldn't have even known what it was!
And thank you for the reading suggestions! I'll certainly add these to my list.
Hmm I think the high touch way would be to reach out to graduate/undergrad schools and offer to talk about it. You could also consider pitching this idea to a student or local media company’s. A low touch way would be to continue to share it on social media (I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a personal finance content creator but I might be too far removed from grad school/academia to be relevant). Unfortunately I think that it really takes people seeking out this kind of information/education and/or finding pockets of people who are like-minded. Hindsight is 20/20 but I do sometimes wonder what if I had taken some more riskier decisions in grad school/straight out of grad school (ie buying a house in 2020/2021 😂)
Yeah I don’t think student health plans are eligible for HSAs, but I also think 529s would be super valuable for students who had kids during grad school who wanted to help set their kids up for success in a lower touch way. Roth IRAs are definitely underrated for grad students but I think is very dependent on how you get funded.
For side hustles, I feel like the difference (or what I tell myself) is that I was doing it more for the non-monetary benefits (free gym/yoga memberships) but knowing what I know about the fitness community now, I definitely could have been maximizing more of my earnings 😅
I could spend so much time talking about this!! I feel like finding people whose eyes didn’t immediately glaze over though was a different story 🤣
Knowing and tracking expenses is so important (and I also think very important for avoiding lifestyle inflation post-grad school). I use YNAB and they give students a free year 👀
I think a Roth IRA is definitely something grad students should know about and take advantage of. But honestly one of the best pieces of advice I got was to use a roboinvestor (controversial take). I would not have known where to start investing, but because I used a roboinvestor I just had to set up the automatic deductions and it does all the work for me.
I definitely “side hustled” my way through grad school and even though I made almost no money, it did give me a cushion that other people didn’t have (and I never had to pay for fitness classes)
Finance book wise, I always always recommend Ramit Seti’s book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich.” I also liked Grant Sabatier’s book “Financial Freedom”
Hi Linda! First, it's great to hear from you; I hope all is well! I also could spend so much time talking about this, as I wish I knew this stuff going into grad school.
Do you have any recommendations as to where I could share this post with prospective/current students? I feel like the financial aspect of graduate school is overlooked when making a decision to pursue science as a career, at least for those of us that are young and financially illiterate (like I was!).
And good on you for side hustling, tracking your expenses, and contributing to your Roth IRA during grad school. My new favorite investment vehicle is the HSA. It would have been nice if our institution offered this for graduate students, but looking back, I probably wouldn't have even known what it was!
And thank you for the reading suggestions! I'll certainly add these to my list.
Hmm I think the high touch way would be to reach out to graduate/undergrad schools and offer to talk about it. You could also consider pitching this idea to a student or local media company’s. A low touch way would be to continue to share it on social media (I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a personal finance content creator but I might be too far removed from grad school/academia to be relevant). Unfortunately I think that it really takes people seeking out this kind of information/education and/or finding pockets of people who are like-minded. Hindsight is 20/20 but I do sometimes wonder what if I had taken some more riskier decisions in grad school/straight out of grad school (ie buying a house in 2020/2021 😂)
Yeah I don’t think student health plans are eligible for HSAs, but I also think 529s would be super valuable for students who had kids during grad school who wanted to help set their kids up for success in a lower touch way. Roth IRAs are definitely underrated for grad students but I think is very dependent on how you get funded.
For side hustles, I feel like the difference (or what I tell myself) is that I was doing it more for the non-monetary benefits (free gym/yoga memberships) but knowing what I know about the fitness community now, I definitely could have been maximizing more of my earnings 😅