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Money Management Basics

February 1, 2015 by Emily

Money Management Basics explores in depth the basic techniques of handing money, which are unique to each individual.

The major sections of the presentation are:

  • identifying values, setting goals, and choosing tactics
  • budgeting methods
  • banking and credit
  • emergency funds
  • savings and debt repayment

This talk is a great fit for grad student orientations because it puts grad students in the proper frame of mind for setting positive financial habits from the beginning of school.

(45 minutes plus time for questions)

 

 

Filed Under: Services & Products Tagged With: seminar descriptions

Set Yourself Up for Financial Success in Your PhD Program, Postdoc, or Post-PhD Job

February 1, 2015 by Emily

Title: Set Yourself Up for Financial Success in Your PhD Program, Postdoc, or Post-PhD Job

Format: Live lecture with Q&A (in person or remote)

Intended Audience: Undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs graduating/moving on in the next year

Length: 60 minutes

Timing: Year-round

Summary: This seminar is designed for PhD trainees at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels who plan to graduate and/or take another job in the next year.

Outline:

  • What is financial success?
  • Overall plan for career transitions
  • Frameworks
    • Prioritization within budget plans
    • Goals pyramid
    • Balanced Money Formula
  • How to be successful with respect to:
    • Tax
    • Investing
    • Debt repayment
    • Cash savings
    • Living within your means
    • Budgeting
    • Moving
Schedule a Call to Discuss This Seminar

Back to Speaking home page.

Filed Under: Services & Products Tagged With: seminar descriptions

Personal Finance for Postdocs

February 1, 2015 by Emily

This comprehensive presentation or workshop teaches postdocs the basics of personal finance and how they can set and reach financial goals during their training.

The major sections of the presentation are:

  • values, goals, and strategies
  • budgeting
  • saving
  • tax-advantaged retirement accounts
  • investing
  • debt evaluation and repayment

(60-90 minutes plus time for questions)

Filed Under: Services & Products Tagged With: seminar descriptions

The Graduate Student and Postdoc’s Guide to Personal Finance

February 1, 2015 by Emily

Title: The Graduate Student and Postdoc’s Guide to Personal Finance

Format: Live lecture with Q&A (in person or remote), Pre-Recorded Lecture

Intended Audience: Graduate students receiving stipends

Length: 90 minutes

Timing: Year-round

Live Seminar Outline: The Graduate Student’s Guide to Personal Finance from Emily Roberts on Vimeo.

Summary: This comprehensive presentation or workshop teaches stipend-receiving graduate students and postdocs the basics of personal finance and how they can set and reach financial goals during grad school. This talk is appropriate for grad students of all years. It is well-suited as a stand-alone event or part of an orientation or personal/professional development series.

Outline:

  • Financial goals framework
  • Saving
    • Emergency funds
    • Targeted savings accounts
  • Investing
    • Tax-advantaged retirement accounts
  • Debt repayment
  • Increasing income
  • Budgeting and frugality
  • Pay types and tax implications
Schedule a Call to Discuss This Seminar

Back to Speaking home page.

Filed Under: Services & Products Tagged With: seminar descriptions

How Far Will My Stipend Go?

December 12, 2014 by Emily 1 Comment

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When you first receive your offer letter from your graduate program, it may be difficult to determine what kind of lifestyle you’ll be able to afford, especially if you don’t have previous experience living on your own in that city. You may not be able to tell if you’ll need to take on debt or if you’ll be able to live on just your stipend. If you can live on your stipend, it won’t yet be clear how high or low on the hog you’ll be living or what kinds of savings goals you’ll be able to set, if any.

The best way to put your stipend in context is to talk with other students at your university who receive a similar stipend who are a few years ahead of you. Find a few students who are in your program or your lab or have your same fellowship and ask them if they find the stipend livable. Graduate students who receive stipends are more open about money than most others because we are all in the same boat, so to speak. They will be able to give you advice on where to live to keep your rent reasonable and let you know how tightly you’ll have to manage your income.

If you aren’t able to get in contact with any other students, you can compare your stipend to the living wage in your local area. The living wage should give you an idea of how much is needed for basic living expenses. If your stipend is above the living wage, you should be able to get by without taking out any student loans. If your stipend is well below the living wage, you might consider taking out loans or finding a very inexpensive living situation.

Also check out this database of grad student stipends. If you search for your university, you will be able to tell if your offered stipend is above, below, or in line with what other students are receiving, and the comments may let you know how livable the amount is.

Once you know that you have a livable stipend, you can start to create financial goals for your time in grad school, such as living within your means, saving a certain percentage of your pay, or paying down a lump sum of debt. Before you arrive on campus, you can even sketch out a budget.

Further Reading: How to Create Your First Budget as a Grad Student (a Grad Student Finances Guide)

Filed Under: Stretch that Stipend Tagged With: cost of living, living wage, stipend

Money Management Systems and Tools

December 12, 2014 by Emily Leave a Comment

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There are two basic components to any money management system: the plan and the execution. The plan (aka your budget) tells your money where it should go. You successfully execute your plan through automated systems, self-control, and tracking where your money actually goes.

The Plan: Your Budget

Budgets are an incredibly flexible tactic for reaching your financial goals and fulfilling your values. Any type of plan that directs your money is a budget; it isn’t necessarily restrictive or limiting. While there are many different ways to budget, every budget will have some similarities.

Further Reading: How to Create Your First Budget as a Grad Student (a Grad Student Finances Guide); Six Different Ways to Budget Your Money

An effective graduate student budget should include:

  • A target amount of money to live within, i.e., income after taxes are withheld or self-withheld
  • One or more financial goals, e.g., saving or debt repayment
  • A plan for handling large, irregular expenses

There is plenty of variation within that basic structure for different types of budgets. You can be as general or as detailed as you like in delineating your income to your regular fixed and variable expenses.

Resource: Grad Sense Budget Calculator

The Execution: Tracking, Etc.

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The single most effective action you can take to change your spending is to track it. Even without budgeting, tracking your spending will cause behavior change for the better. Tracking is a major accountability tool.

You can accomplish tracking your spending manually or in an automated manner. In the manual method, you literally note every transaction you make into some kind of ledger – paper, spreadsheet, or app. This method takes time, commitment, and memory, but it forces you into a high level of intimacy with your spending, which is ultimately better for changing it. In the automated method, you use the electronic spending record for your debit and credit cards do the tracking for you. Most typically, you connect each of your banking and credit accounts with tracking software; the software then downloads and categorizes all of your transactions. This method is easier to maintain, but you still have to check up on the data periodically.

The best way to accomplish your financial goals such as saving is through automation. Once your goals are automated, you no longer have to use your memory or willpower to accomplish them. Even better, your automated transfers should pay yourself first.

Of course, at the end of the day it is down to you to stick to your budget. Tracking tools and automation can help, but you have to be committed to living within your means and reaching your financial goals.

Tools

There are many pieces of software and apps available to help you with tracking and budgeting. You should invest some time into finding one that fits your style and personality well before committing to one, because the switching costs can be high. Your bank might provide an app or program for free, but if you would like to budget and track across accounts an independent program is preferable.

A few examples of leading budgeting and/or tracking software are:

Mint: Hook up all your banking, credit, investment, and debt accounts for an instantaneous net worth calculation. Create a monthly template budget and track your spending against it. Keep track of your bills. Set savings and track savings goals. Analyze your past spending. Free.

You Need a Budget: Hook up all your banking and credit accounts. Follow four rules: 1) Assign every dollar a job. 2) Save in advance for irregular expenses. 3) Update your budget as needed. 4) Live on last month’s income. Free for students.

Mvelopes: Hook up all your banking and credit accounts. Digitally implement the envelope budgeting method (allocate money each month to category-specific envelopes and then spend from them). Especially helpful for handling irregular expenses. Free and premium versions.

Every Dollar: Dave Ramsey’s budgeting software that follows his budgeting principle of giving every dollar a job. Manual tracking for the free version. Free and premium versions.

Filed Under: Stretch that Stipend Tagged With: apps, budgeting, tracking

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