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.
Links mentioned in the Episode
- PF for PhDs One-on-One Financial Coaching
- PF for PhDs S4E17: Can and Should an International Student, Scholar, or Worker Invest in the US?
- PF for PhDs S22E1: The Simple Way to Invest as an International Grad Student or Postdoc
- Host a PF for PhDs Seminar at Your Institution
- PF for PhDs S20E8: Business Class Flights and Hotel Elite Status on a Grad Student Stipend
- PF for PhDs Subscribe to Mailing List
- PF for PhDs Podcast Hub
Teaser
Snehanjana (00:00): For one fiscal year after it was done, um, they paid me a thousand dollars as like a scholarship at the end of it.
Introduction
Emily (00:20): Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs Podcast: A Higher Education in Personal Finance. This podcast is for PhDs and PhDs-to-be who want to explore the hidden curriculum of finances to learn the best practices for money management, career advancement, and advocacy for yourself and others. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts, a financial educator specializing in early-career PhDs and founder of Personal Finance for PhDs.
Emily (00:48): This is Season 22, Episode 3, and today my guest is 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 and I discuss banking and investing for international students not planning to stay in the US.
Emily (01:22): Would you like to ask me a question like Snehanjana does in this interview or work through a tricky financial challenge? I have recently opened my calendar for one-on-one financial coaching sessions, priced on a sliding scale. I can help you with budgeting for an irregular income or irregular expenses, selecting and pursuing a financial goal using my 8-step framework, getting started with investing, evaluating a new stipend or job offer, and much more. Please find additional information and sign up for a free introductory call at PFforPhDs.com/coaching/. I can’t wait to speak with you! You can find the show notes for this episode at PFforPhDs.com/s22e3/. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Snehanjana Chatterjee.
Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?
Emily (02:23): I am delighted to have joining me on the podcast today, Snehanjana Chatterjee, a third year graduate student at Texas Tech, and we’re here to talk about her financial journey as an international student. So, Snehanjana, I’m so glad to have you on the podcast. Will you please introduce yourself a little bit further for the listeners?
Snehanjana (02:40): Thank you for having me on the podcast. Uh, I’m Snehanjana Chatterjee. I am from Kolkata India and this is my third year in my PhD journey at Texas Tech University. I am studying, uh, plant mycorrhizal interactions and how they’re helping in using, uh, uh, resources from the soil and the economics behind it. Um, I’m in the Department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech.
Emily (03:09): Wonderful. Tell us about how you’re funded as a PhD student.
Snehanjana (03:12): So I am funded through a teaching assistantship mainly. Um, so I have to teach, uh, every spring and uh, fall semester. Um, and you can reach out to the PI that you want to do a TAship under beforehand and you have to indicate that you want a TAship for that. Uh, previous, um, uh, semester and for summer, my PI provides, uh, funding, which is, uh, kind of more than what I get during spring and, uh, fall semesters. And I’m funded for those three months. And in those three months I do my research mostly.
Start-Up Costs and Challenges of New Grad Students
Emily (03:56): Let’s take it back to when you first arrived in the US and started graduate school. How did you, there’s a bit of money that’s needed up front, right? For the move and just everything that has to happen before you get paid for the first time. So for you, where were you drawing that money from?
Snehanjana (04:13): So, uh, one thing that I had to keep in mind that I didn’t get paid until October 1st. My TAship started from September 1st, but we didn’t until the 1st of October. So I had to come, uh, with a bit of money from India, uh, to make sure that I can sustain myself. Uh, I also had to pay the tuition, um, during that semester. So, uh, we have something called emergency payment plan, which divides the semester, uh, tuition into, into three parts. Um, so you can pay it upfront on September, in September or you can pay it like in different, uh, three install installments. So that was kind of tough and I did not know how to handle that and I thought they’re not paying us enough, um, which is a struggle we are still going through actually.
Emily (05:13): Can you tell me a little bit more about that? So you had the TA position and you had a paycheck coming, starting on October 1st, but they weren’t paying for your tuition that semester at all, or just the payment was like later
Snehanjana (05:26): They weren’t paying for a, uh, semester tuition. The thing is, so for fall it’s like from 2000 to 2,300, uh, dollars, and for spring it’s much more because it includes our health insurance. Uh, so for that, if you divide it into three installments, you have to pay like, I don’t know, 800 or 600 per month by 24th of that month. Um, so I did not have enough money, uh, to sustain myself at the beginning. Um, so I had to use whatever I brought from India, and that’s a big chunk of, uh, money that, uh, I had to ask from my parents.
Emily (06:13): Yeah, I I’m sure other people who are going through a similar transition have these same kinds of like concerns. Do you mind sharing with us like how much money you asked to, I don’t know if it was a gift or a loan, but how much money you asked from them for those, you know, the initial tuition payments and the move and the setting for the apartment and all that stuff, like it kind of to help other people estimate their budget?
Snehanjana (06:35): Yeah, I, uh, brought at least like $3,000, um, with me. And, uh, I had to open a bank account here. I did not know how to do that. I had to take help from previous students who were already here and after opening the bank account, I transferred all my money from my card to the account. Uh, so I think 2000 to 2,500 is completely fine if you, uh, bring that kind of money.
Current Grad Student Take-Home Stipend
Emily (07:05): Okay. So you kind of mentioned just now that getting paid enough is a struggle. Can you tell us maybe either what your stipend currently is, let’s say what you’re actually able to take home after you pay all your education related expenses or maybe what it’s been over the past few years?
Snehanjana (07:24): Yeah, so when I started, it was 1800 per month after taxes, but the department increased it gradually, uh, each semester and now it’s 2,300 per month after taxes. Um, but after paying my tuition and my rent, I barely have, uh, 1300, maybe a thousand to 1300. And with the grocery prices going up, it’s, it’s getting a bit difficult to live with that wage.
Emily (07:59): I can definitely understand <laugh> that it’s not going very far. Yet, that is actually a pretty big increase over just a couple of years. What was the reasoning behind why they increased the stipend? Was it due to students asking for it? Was it due to other factors? Do you know?
Snehanjana (08:16): Yeah, so we have a graduate representative committee and the this committee, uh, works with the graduate student and with the faculty and they listened to our grievances. Uh, like maybe they send a Google form and ask us what kind of concerns do you have? And they talked to the department chair and other faculty members at faculty meetings. And from that they decide if, uh, they need to increase our, uh, wages and if they have the certain budget for it. And I think they talked to the graduate school about this as well.
Different Strategies for Increasing Your Stipend
Emily (08:57): Okay. And I understand that you have also, aside from what the department chooses to pay you, like you personally have increased your stipend through various actions over the years. Can you tell us what those have been? What’s been effective?
Snehanjana (09:09): I personally, uh, reached out to certain, um, organizations. So I was Secretary of Association of Biologists at TTU and uh, for, uh, one fiscal year after it was done, um, they paid me a thousand dollars as like a scholarship at the end of it. And I am currently secretary at, uh, American Society for Microbiologists at Tech. And for that, uh, you also get a scholarship at the end of the fiscal year for about $500. Um, apart from that, I was also associated with the international, uh, council, uh, center, and I was a global guide there, so I was helping new and upcoming students to settle down. And for that I was paid $500 per semester. These things were added to my tuition, so they were not giving checks away, they were just adding it to my tuition bill.
Emily (10:14): Those almost sound like, well, they kind of sound like volunteer positions. Um, right. And then you sort of get like a, um, a sum of money as like a thank you for it. Any other ways that you’ve like increased your income or decreased your expenses over the past few years?
Snehanjana (10:30): I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but, uh, there was a time, um, I used to have one meal a day, which is not good. Um, so, uh, that is, that was one concern for me. But now I have like improved that, uh, and I have like three meals a day now. Uh, but circumstances, uh, kind of pushed me to do that. Um, and I was, uh, not being able to ask for help from my family because my mom and dad both are retired and that would put a lot of pressure on them, so I just did not tell them anything. Um, but I did apply for a scholarship, it’s not kind of a scholarship, it’s called, um, I forgot the name, but it’s for Texas, uh, students, uh, people living, sorry, students living in Texas. Um, so you tell them how much funding you need to pay your tuition, um, and it can be like from 500 to 1500 and uh, they give you the amount of money, they add it to your tuition account. But yeah, it has to be, if you’re going through like a very bad situation, like you have, uh, war back at your country, um, or you are going through really bad, um, I don’t know, financial situation, something like that.
Financial Hardship Scholarship
Emily (12:04): Hmm. It definitely sounds like you were there if you were eating only one meal per day and at some point. Yeah. I’m really sorry to hear that. Um, where did you find out about that scholarship?
Snehanjana (12:15): So the international office advertised about that and uh, I reached out to them and, uh, it doesn’t require a lot. You just have to write a, like a financial statement. Um, what kind of hardships are you, are you going through and, um, upload your, uh, tuition statements like how much you have paid over the, uh, semesters and they look at it and if you can provide more proof that uh, you don’t have enough, um, money in our account, they will definitely help you.
Emily (12:52): Hmm. Yeah, I’m really glad that they were able to connect you with that resource. Do you have a sense of like, were a lot of your peers applying for that scholarship?
Snehanjana (13:03): I don’t think so because it kind of is like a discreet thing that they do. Uh, it, it opens from like first to 10th of, uh, like February, March and April and then again in, uh, fall, maybe in, um, September, October, November. And they announce the awardee by the 24th of that month. And, uh, I have gotten that award three times. And, uh, it’s sometimes they give you the amount you want, sometimes they give you how much they could have given. Like if I want $700, it’s not, uh, like guaranteed that they will give me $700, maybe they will give me $400. So it depends on how much funding they have.
Emily (13:57): I’m, I’m really glad you’re sharing this though, like even though it sounds like kind of a, obviously you had to be in a difficult spot to be applying for and qualifying for the scholarship, but I’m really glad that you’re pointing this out because people may be, they may have access to this kind of resource at their institution and they’re just not aware of it yet. So it’s definitely worth asking. So your financial situation has been getting better over the years from the departmental side, from, you know, you taking some actions on your own behalf as well. So are you able to reach towards any financial goals at the moment?
Current Financial Goals
Snehanjana (14:33): For now, I don’t have a savings account. I would like to open one. I just have a checking account and, uh, to be honest, I don’t know how to invest money. So that is one, uh, goal that I would like to achieve maybe in 2025. Um, and whomever I reach out to, like any, uh, international students that have been alumni of Texas Tech, uh, they don’t really, uh, make me understand the process and it’s kind of confusing. So if you have any pointers that I can, I can learn from, maybe I can follow some of them.
Emily (15:18): I have a tip that I learned from, there was a podcast interview I did back in I think 2019 with Hui-chin Chen, um, who is a certified financial planner who specializes in cross-border tax issues. And this actually didn’t occur during that, that recorded episode, but something I learned from her during our later conversations. Um, so I don’t know if this is necessarily one of the difficulties you’ve been running into, but what I understand is that, um, not all brokerage firms where you would open, you know, an account to invest in, not all of them work with non-residents. So you may, and you can tell me if you have sometimes international students approach brokerage firms to open an account and somewhere in the paperwork it’s like, oh, no, no, you’re a non-resident, we can’t work with you. Has that happened to you?
Snehanjana (16:02): Uh, no, I have not approached them.
Emily (16:05): Okay. Um, but I know this is like something that is intimidating, like to non-residents, um, because they, they don’t wanna get told no and, you know, have to go through that process. So what I learned from Hui-chin Chen, um, is that there’s a brokerage firm called Interactive Brokers, which specifically sort of caters an advertises to non-residents. So if you or someone else is getting told no by a couple of your like top choices, then you could go to them and you’re gonna get a yes because that’s like part of their express business model. So that’s kind of one thing is like where to open an account, um, can I even open an account? Like those kinds of questions. What, what else has you like sort of stumped about the process?
Investing in the US Stock Market as an International Student
Snehanjana (16:50): So, so, um, in my bank app they always tell me to invest in like stocks and stuff, but I don’t understand that as well. And I don’t know if investing in stocks in the US will lead me to earn any money or not.
Emily (17:08): Hmm, yeah, kind of depends on your financial goal, right? Because with stock investing, um, it can be very volatile in the short term. Like we’re recording this interview in, uh, early March and the stock market has had some down days, um, in the past like month or two, like big downs. So we, when you say, you know, is it going to earn me money, you really have to talk about the timeline because over the short term, weeks, months, even small number of years, you know, you could put money in and have less money, you know, the next time you check, that’s absolutely possible. Yet over the longer term, 10, 20, 30, 40 years, um, you know, historical trends show us that the US stock market does very well over those kinds of periods of time. Um, as long as you stay invested <laugh>, right? As long as you’re not, you know, pulling money out, uh, when it drops and buying in when it’s high and, and those sorts of actions.
Emily (18:06): So, um, one of the things I talk about in that interview with Hui-chin Chen, which I would absolutely recommend, um, to anyone who’s a non-resident in the US, um, is about whether it’s, you know, prudent to invest in the US as an international grad student or postdoc, et cetera, when you’re not sure, are you gonna stay in the US long term or maybe move to another country afterwards? And her attitude was like pretty pro investing in the US but I would say you still have to, um, have that long term timeline in mind. Like if you’re going to be invested over the first few years, like you have to have a plan to probably stay invested over the long term to sort of, not guarantee, but have a much, much higher likelihood of a positive return on investment in that time.
Snehanjana (18:55): One other question is, I maybe don’t want to stay for long term in the US uh, so I have like two years left for my PhD. So for short term, maybe for the next two years, what do you recommend for international students? How, how should they proceed?
Emily (19:12): I think in my conversation with Hui-chin, if I remember correctly, the question was more about like, well, I’m not sure if I’m gonna stay in the US long term. And so she was kind of like, well, just get started investing. Now you don’t necessarily know what’s gonna happen, but maybe you’ll end up staying long term, or even if you don’t, you can like move the money. But if you’re saying more to me like, no, no, I’m sure I’m leaving in a couple of years, um, then I don’t know, I think cash is king in that case, like just, you know, park it in a high yield savings account. I mean, you said you don’t have a savings account here yet, but like, yeah, just park it in a savings account, get what you can without taking risk with it and start investing, you know, at the next place you move to whether it’s back, back to India or somewhere else, um, as soon as you can when you arrive there, because yeah, it’s certainly possible you could invest now and in two years if you’re trying to pull the money out, have less money than you did when you started, that’s definitely possible.
Snehanjana (20:07): Yeah. Okay.
Commercial
Emily (20:11): Emily here for a brief interlude. Would you like to learn directly from me on a personal finance topic, such as taxes, budgeting, investing, and goal-setting, each tailored specifically for graduate students and postdocs? I offer workshops on these topics and more in a variety of formats, and I’m now booking for the 2025-2026 academic year. If you would like to bring my content to your institution, would you please recommend me as a speaker or facilitator to your university, graduate school, graduate student association, or postdoc office? My seminars are usually slated as professional development or personal wellness. Ask the potential host to go to PFforPhDs.com/financial-education/ or simply email me at [email protected] to start the process. I really appreciate these recommendations, which are the best way for me to start a conversation with a potential host. The paid work I do with universities and institutes enables me to keep producing this podcast and all my other free resources. Thank you in advance if you decide to issue a recommendation! Now back to our interview.
Common Concerns of New International Grad Students
Emily (21:30): So you mentioned earlier that you were volunteering, I think you said as a global guide. What, what, what, um, office was that through?
Snehanjana (21:38): It was International Cultural Center.
Emily (21:40): Okay. So volunteering with the International Cultural Center. And part of your role was to like help new graduate students adjust right to life in the US. Um, and what kinds of questions or what kinds of concerns have you heard from those like new graduate students coming in that you know, you’ve learned from or you like to share, you know, what you’ve learned like with them or like what were those kind of common questions?
Snehanjana (22:05): The most common question is, uh, getting an apartment and before signing a lease, uh, they need to have like a person who guarantees that, uh, they’ll pay their, uh, rent every time. And if they’re not being able to have a guarantor for the lease, they need to pay extra money for that. So that is one of the concern that I heard. So, um, sometimes, uh, so when I came in I asked one of my lab mates, uh, to be a guarantor and she agreed, but that is not the case with everyone. Uh, most of the people who come here as undergrads maybe do not have friends yet. So, uh, finding a guarantor can be a bit of a problematic situation. And then they have to pay like $500 more, uh, for the rent, um, for first month at least.
Emily (23:02): Hmm. Yeah, I hadn’t heard of that in like a housing market before. So that, that’s a yeah, that’s a huge issue. So people are like arriving to your city and they don’t yet have a place to live, right? So they’re staying at, you know, hotels, Airbnbs, that kind of thing and finding a place to live signing a lease. But if they don’t have a guarantor, then they have, is it, um, is it money that they won’t get back or is it like an extra deposit that they do get back?
Snehanjana (23:31): They do not get back that. Um,
Emily (23:33): Wow, okay.
Snehanjana (23:34): Yeah, so that is a big chunk of money that is just taken away from them. And some of these, uh, places, they do not let the people move in until 18th of the month. So if the students come in for orientation day, like an eighth or ninth August, they either have to stay with, uh, someone else or at a hotel. Uh, fortunately, um, what the International Cultural Center is trying to do is trying to put them, um, at hotels that they do not have to pay for sometimes. Um, sometimes they find, uh, Texan residents who are willing to help these, uh, kids out and maybe they can stay with those residents for like 10 days and then move in later on.
Emily (24:20): Wow, okay. So it’s like the whole market is kind of, they have these sort of wide policies around this extra money that they have to pay or the date they can move in, like, wow, I hadn’t heard of that before. I wonder, I wonder how widespread that, that, that is in other, other cities.
Snehanjana (24:36): Yeah, so I think, uh, that is quite widespread, uh, at least in Lubbock. Um, because uh, the community I used to live at first, um, the management was not that good and uh, I used to get a huge utility bill at the end of the month, like $80 per person, uh, when we are sharing three bedroom, uh, apartment. Um, but uh, that has decreased for me when I moved into a different, uh, uh, community. Um, they have a cap for the utility bill and that helps out a lot.
Emily (25:17): How much like were these international students prepped in advance of their arrival of like, this is how this works. You’re gonna come here, we’re gonna try to help you find a place to stay, you’re not gonna be able to move until after the 18th. You’re gonna like, are they told this stuff in advance or, or not?
Snehanjana (25:33): Yeah, so the Global Guide program, um, hosted several, uh, seminars, uh, webinars. Uh, so some of the kids joined both grad and undergrad and we had to like tell them repeatedly that these are the rules that you have to follow. You’ll have a culture shock when you come in and it’ll get frustrating, but you can reach out to us anytime you want. Um, and they have voiced their frustrations whenever they get to learn that they can’t move in before like 18th of the month, but they have to pay the entire rent for the month. Um, yeah. So they have to pay like $480 for staying 15 days or less than 15 days, uh, in that apartment. And that’s a lot of money for an international student.
Emily (26:26): Yes, I would be culture shocked by this as well, moving from another American city to, to Lubbock. Wow. Okay. Any, any other like common questions or concerns that you’ve noticed?
Snehanjana (26:37): So some of them, uh, don’t know how to do groceries. So most of them, uh, either take the buses and the buses here stop running at 7:00 PM so it’s from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM Um, you don’t have to pay for the buses, uh, but carrying the groceries from Walmart to like your house is a big task. So what they do is go and go with a bunch of people together, either to Costco or to Walmart, and uh, they have all the groceries together and they carry those groceries all the way from Walmart, uh, to their house. Um, that is one huge thing that they do. And, uh, there are not many people who have cars and uh, that’s one of the big struggles that they go through. So they have a designated date or a date that they go for groceries, but some of the global guides are helping them. If they have cars, they take uh, like three or four of them together to the grocery store and they buy whatever they need and they give a ride back as well.
Emily (27:49): Yeah, those infrastructure issues are such a big thing. I remember when I lived without a car, I also was like, how am I doing this grocery thing? How, how was this happening? Um, and it was always kind of like a catch as catch can kind of like situation. Wow. Well, do you have, as we’re like wrapping up here, any um, questions for me beyond what you were just asking about investing? I mean, I’m happy to talk more about investing if you want, but any kind of other financial wellness related things that I might be able to help you with right now?
Savings Accounts and Credit Cards as an International Grad Student
Snehanjana (28:18): Not really. I just, I just really need to open a savings account as soon as possible, but it’s not, uh, you have to go to the bank to do that and with my schedule it’s kind of busy. Um, and you have to take an appointment with the bank, so I need to do that ASAP actually.
Emily (28:37): Hmm. Yeah. Um, who are you banking with?
Snehanjana (28:41): Uh, Bank of America.
Emily (28:42): Hmm. That’s your first problem. <laugh>, um, bank of America, I, I am a former Bank of America customer myself. Um, and the customer service is very difficult as you just said. Wait, why do you have to go into an account? Why into a branch? Why do you have to make an appointment? This is an easy process. Um, so I would actually say maybe don’t open a savings account with Bank of America. I doubt they’re gonna give you a very good interest rate anyway. Um, I would say look to the online only banks, um, that might be available. So for example, I bank with Ally. Um, another good one is Capital 1 360. Um, but even if you look at like a website like Bank Rate or NerdWallet, those kinds of sites, those aggregators, um, you can kind of search for like okay, what’s the best, you know, high yield savings account available, um, now and since you have an established bank account with Bank of America, like you’ve gone through the process of showing your ID and all that stuff that you have to do, um, once you have that it’s easier to get like a second account somewhere else ’cause the first bank has done like the work for it. Um, so yeah, I would say check out like an online only bank. Um, and I’m not sure if you would even have to open checking. You could probably just open the savings account if you’d like to and you know, start transferring money over there and getting a halfway decent interest rate on it.
Snehanjana (30:02): Actually I do have a question. So I have like four credit cards and I have friends that have like, I don’t know, 10 to 12 credit cards and they use these credit cards to book a flight and they get points for it and then they use those points back in India. And I was trying to understand the game, but it seems so complicated.
Emily (30:28): Yeah.
Snehanjana (30:29): Do you recommend having like 10 to 12 credit cards for like a each person to get these points?
Emily (30:37): I don’t think you necessarily have to go that far, but, um, for international flights, I actually recently started learning from the brand 10x travel. There’s a bunch of brands like this, like where they sort of teach you these, um, travel hacking, you know, flight, getting free flights, like kind of strategies. But the general thing that you do, and I have, I’ve done this much more on the domestic side than for international flights. So I’m a little bit speaking about something I’ve like learning, but I haven’t actually practiced yet. Um, it’s more about you figure out like what airline or airlines you commonly use. Like do you already have a preferred airline for your trips?
Snehanjana (31:21): Yeah, it’s mostly either Emirates or Qatar.
Emily (31:24): Okay. So for Emirates and Qatar, then you would figure out what bank or banks like Chase, um, Amex that offer like credit cards. There’s a bunch of them. Um, what, which banks are offering points that transfer to either those airlines that you want to fly on or one of their partners? ’cause these airlines are all in like alliances together and you can kinda um, like book, you know, a flight that’s ultimately on Emirates but you’re booking it through one of their partners. So sometimes you can get deals that way, whatever. So you figure out where you can like basically accumulate points through your normal credit card, you know, everyday kind of spending and how those points can be transferred to ultimately get you on the airline that you want to fly on. So I don’t know offhand like who works with Qatar or Emirates, um, but you could look that up and figure it out.
Emily (32:17): So then like I’m really familiar with the Chase system for example. So let’s just say that like Chase did transfer to those, I don’t know if they do. Um, so you would basically accumulate points on one or more Chase cards and you would also probably sign up for some new, um, credit cards that have signup bonuses. You would do that slowly, like as your spending is able to support it. Um, ’cause maybe you only spend on a credit card, I don’t know, 500 or a thousand dollars a month. You would have to make sure that your spending can meet their like minimum spend. So maybe it’s $3,000 in three months or $6,000 in four months, like whatever it is, make sure you can do it based on your projections of your spending. But signing up for those new cards and getting signup bonuses and also putting ongoing spending on these cards is kind of how you accumulate those points. And then you turn the points into redeeming them as like free flights. So it can get complicated, um, if you want it to be, but I think there’s also probably a way to figure it out to do it since you already know like your preferred airlines to do it like fairly simply. Um, yeah, so that’s kind of what I’m learning slash starting to like redeem on my end.
Snehanjana (33:28): Yeah, yeah, because I was asking one of my friend and he was kind of directing me and then he got, uh, busy with his research. So <laugh> I couldn’t anymore, so Yeah.
Emily (33:41): Yeah. Well you might go back to him when it seems like he has more free time if he can teach you like the system or whatever. Um, or you can go through, you know, like I just, I just mentioned 10X travel. I think there’s like the points guy, like there’s other places you can learn from. Actually the points guy Brian Kelly, he just released a book on travel hacking that I just got from the library. I haven’t started it yet. Um, so you could read something like that and figure out like how to play this game. But to answer your direct question of like, do you need 10 to 12 credit cards? No, probably not that many. Um, but should you be signing up for a new credit card, you know, once a year, twice a year, however much your spending can support? Yeah, that would certainly help get you there faster if you do these signup bonuses. But you have to be careful about it because your spending as a graduate student is automatically kind of on the lower side and a lot of these cards have annual fees. You have to make sure that the, you know, the benefits you’re getting are justifying the fee and all that kind of stuff. Um, it was pretty intimidating to me when I was in graduate school to think about pursuing credit card rewards and stuff, so I kind of stayed away from it until afterwards. But I think if you’re very careful about it, um, it can be beneficial. And actually, I don’t know when this episode is going to air, but I have um, another one that I recorded with um, Brendan Henrique and I’m not sure again what the publication date relative is going to be, but I think they both, this episode and that episode are gonna come out sometime in spring 2025. So you could, you could listen to that or the listener can look for that episode, um, in the recent past or the near future, um, to kind of learn more about the system that, that he’s using.
Snehanjana (35:13): Okay. Yeah, sure.
Emily (35:15): Yeah. Any other questions I can try to help with?
Snehanjana (35:18): No, but, uh, one common, uh, I won’t say scam, but kind of scam ish thing that I faced when I came to Lubbock was everyone was telling me to, uh, sign up for the Discover card because they were like, oh, I’ll get a hundred dollars cash back and you’ll also get a hundred dollars cash back sign up for that. And that Discover card has never helped me. It keeps on telling me that you’ll get cash back, but then some problem or the other arises from that card and will get any kind of cash back. Uh, I am thinking about, uh, not using it anymore.
Emily (36:00): Yeah, I wouldn’t, I would not have expected that. So Discover is not the most popular type of credit card, but it’s definitely one that sort of caters to like students or you know, like people new to the US like you were. Um, so I wouldn’t necessarily have called it a scam, although I’m not sure about like the, you know, what the benefits are that they were sort of holding out and that like didn’t really happen like either I I, you would know more than I would, I would be surprised if they were like outright lying, but like maybe they just made it way more complicated than anybody reasonably like would expect it to be. Um, so yeah, but if a card’s not working for you, totally move on because a Discover card is a great first card, but like, you don’t have to once you get, once you’re onto card number two, don’t worry about card number one. Like you could, I don’t know, I don’t necessarily wanna say like close it because it is helpful to have your oldest card like remaining open, but you certainly don’t have to use it in any significant way. Right.
Snehanjana (36:56): Yeah.
Best Financial Advice for Another Early-Career PhD
Emily (36:57): Yeah. But thank you for sharing that ’cause yeah, discover definitely does sort of advertise and cater to like people new to the credit world in the US Right. Um, okay. Well it’s been absolutely lovely to chat with you over the last few minutes and thank you so much for sharing like your own story and like what you’ve, you know, been able to help other international students with. That’s really insightful. Um, I want to end with what is your best financial advice for another early career PhD? And that could be something that we have touched on in the interview already, or it could be something completely new.
Snehanjana (37:27): My best financial advice that I learned from my father mainly is to save as much as possible, but don’t just save for like, oh, I’ll use it in the future. Have fun with some of it. Uh, not too much fun though. I’m very, I I can, I can tell you that I’m stingy, but not too stingy. I do like, uh, things I do, I am materialistic, so I buy stuff for myself and my for my friends, but I make sure that I’m on my budget, I’m on my limit to use this. I have that kind of sense because I was told by my parents like, you need to save for this. And currently I’m saving up for a house. That’s my goal. Um, I don’t know when I can buy a house, but that’s one of the goals that I have. Um, yeah. I’ll, I’ll put that money towards like buying a house, definitely.
Emily (38:26): Awesome. Well I love that advice too. It definitely is about having like balance, um, in your life and I actually really like saving specifically for fun things. Like, yes, I’m saving for the long-term future or yes, I’m saving for like emergencies boring stuff like that. But like yeah, I’m also saving for travel and I’m saving for entertainment and like having some, yeah, it just makes the whole process a lot more enjoyable when you can tie it to like, yeah, this is something I’m really going to, um, have fun with in the near future. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and it’s been great to have you.
Snehanjana (38:56): Thank you so much for having me.
Outro
Emily (39:09): Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode! I have a gift for you! You know that final question I ask of all my guests regarding their best financial advice? My team has collected short summaries of all the answers ever given on the podcast into a document that is updated with each new episode release. You can gain access to it by registering for my mailing list at PFforPhDs.com/advice/. Would you like to access transcripts or videos of each episode? I link the show notes for each episode from PFforPhDs.com/podcast/. See you in the next episode, and remember: You don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance… but it helps! Nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as financial, tax, or legal advice for any individual. The music is “Stages of Awakening” by Podington Bear from the Free Music Archive and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing by me and show notes creation by Dr. Jill Hoffman.
