• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Personal Finance for PhDs

Live a financially balanced life - no Real Job required

Main navigation

  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Tax Center
  • Work with Emily
  • About Emily Roberts

percentage-based budgeting

Dual PhD Couple in Seattle Spending $20k/Year on Rent

July 23, 2018 by Emily

In 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 $20,000 per year on rent and feeling shut out of the housing market.

Subscribe on iTunes!

Links mentioned in episode

  • Podcast Season 1 Episode 1
  • Avoiding an Expensive 401(k) Plan through Self-Employment
  • Frugal Blitz
  • Frugal Month
  • Volunteer as a guest in Season 2

dual PhD couple Seattle

1:05 Q1: Where do you live and what is your income?

My husband, Kyle, and I live in Seattle, WA, with our two daughters, a 2-year-old and a newborn. We moved here in 2015 for Kyle to take a job at a biotech start-up. I am self-employed; Personal Finance for PhDs is my main business, and I also have a side hustle. Our household income in 2017 was around $100,000.

Further reading:

  • Why I Still Side Hustle Even Though I’m Self-Employed
  • $100K Doesn’t Feel Like Enough in Seattle, Survey Shows

1:40 Budgeting Background Info

  1. Kyle and I practice percentage-based budgeting, which means that from our gross income we:
    • Pay income and FICA tax
      • through payroll deductions on Kyle’s income.
      • through quarterly estimated tax on my self-employment income.
    • Tithe (donate 10% to our church).
    • Save into retirement accounts (20% in 2018, 18% in 2017).
  2. We live on one income. Kyle earns most of household income and has a regular salary, so we base our budget entirely off of his income after the percentage-based allocations. All of my income after the percentage-based allocations goes to savings. This helped a lot when my self-employment income was irregular, although now I pay myself a salary.
  3. We budget for our regular (monthly) and irregular (yearly) expenses. More details about this system can be found in Season 1 Episode 1.

Further reading: How to Pay Tax on Your PhD Side Hustle

Join the Mailing List to Download Frugal Tips for PhDs-in-Training

The download includes 30+ frugal tips for PhDs-in-Training with links to video and additional written content.

You'll receive 1-2 emails per week to help you make the most of your money during your PhD training.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

4:19 Q2: What are your five largest expenses each month?

Our total spending in 2017 was approximately $47,500 (excluding the above percentage-based allocations and health insurance premium paid as a payroll deduction).

5:09 #1 Expense: Rent

In 2017, we spent $18,870 on rent, which is a monthly average $1,570 and 40% of our total spending.

Our rent went from $1495 per month to $1645 per month.

We live inside Seattle city limits. Our apartment in older building with no amenities. The apartment is approximately 850 square feet and has two bedrooms and one bathroom. We chose the apartment based almost solely on location and price.

When we next move, we definitely want to get a place with a dishwasher! Our kitchen is pretty small. We cook and eat in a lot and with two little kids so we wash a lot of dishes every day.

6:38 #2 Expense: Groceries and Household Consumables

In 2017, we spent $7,733.54 on groceries and household consumables, which is a monthly average of $644.46 and 16% of our total spending.

This amount of spending feels high to me, and this is a category that I keep a close eye on.

We meal plan, eat virtually every meal out of our own kitchen, and usually buy food on the less processed side of the spectrum. We shop mostly at Costco and Fred Meyer and also a little at QFC. We don’t seek out organic or similar food except when we buy directly from the from farmer’s market.

Most likely the reason we spend a lot in this category is simply that we eat a lot, and the food we eat is on the more expensive side of the spectrum. These days, we alternate between eating low carb/Whole30-ish and eating the standard American diet, which means we are consistently eating meat and often dairy, which are both more expensive categories.

Our typical meals are:

  • Breakfast: Egg casserole with sausage, sweet potato, onion, and spinach.
  • Lunch: Chicken yellow curry, chili, sausage and eggplant hash, fish plus sautéed spinach or zucchini.
  • Dinner: Meat with vegetable, e.g., balsamic vinegar chicken and roasted asparagus. Kyle’s favorite meal: Brussels sprouts bowls. One of my favorite meals: Mexican breakfast bowls.
  • Snack: PB and almonds

Our toddler is a very good eater. We followed the baby led weaning technique, and now she eats the food we do plus more milk, fruit, and cheese.

9:57 #3 Expense: Travel

In 2017, we spent $3,482.47 on travel, which is a monthly average of $290.21 and 7% of our total spending.

I was surprised that travel ended up in our top 5 because I perceive that we travel much less than before we had children.

In 2017 we traveled on five occasions: two weddings, our 10-year college reunion, a memorial service, and to one of our parents’ homes for Christmas.

In addition to the flights, on various of these trips we paid for hotels, rental cars, meals, entertainment, and registration.

We definitely spend more per trip than when we were in grad school. Flying with a baby has spurred us to take direct flights at convenient times of day instead of purchasing the lowest fare available.

Our current frugal practice regarding travel is to rewards credit cards; we currently have the Alaska Airlines credit card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

12:10 #4 Expense: Miscellaneous Kid Spending

In 2017, we spent $2,688.66 on miscellaneous expenses for our oldest daughter, which is a monthly average of  $224.06 and 6% of our total income.

This is the category I have the least handle on as it is so unpredictable.

Our one regular expense included in this category was preschool tuition, but that only applied for a few months

Our spending out of this category was all over the place

  • Medical copays, occupational therapy copays, breastfeeding medicine.
  • Travel car seat and travel stroller (in addition to the ones we use at home).
  • Bookcase, mattresses for grandparents’ houses, jacket, and teether.
  • Toddler class at the local community center and zoo membership

This is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants category.

I was surprised these miscellaneous kid expenses as a category cracked top 5 because our first-time-parent start-up expenses hit in 2016.

14:30 #5: Transportation

In 2017, we spent $2385.77, which is a monthly average of $197.98 and 5% of our total spending.

I really thought transportation expenses wouldn’t be in our top five; low transportation spending is a point of pride for me!

It turns out that 30% of the spending was from our regular monthly budget, and 70% was from our irregular expenses budget. Our regular expenses included gas and parking, whereas our irregular expenses included car insurance, registration, and maintentance.

We own one older car and don’t use it for commuting. Kyle has a sub-10 minute bike commute and I work from home. We generally just use the car for errands, activities with the kids, church, grocery shopping, etc.

Those irregular expenses hit in only 3 months of the entire year, which is why I sort of forgot about them. We pay our car insurance once every 6 months, and it’s inexpensive. We spent over $1000 in car repairs/maintenance in 2017, which was unusually high and not a yearly occurrence.

All of our top 5 expense categories together accounted for 74% of total yearly spending.

17:20 Q3: What are you currently doing to further your financial goals?

1: Retirement Savings

We save a fixed 20% of our gross income into our retirement accounts.

We actually don’t use Kyle’s 401(k) through work at all because of high fees. Instead, we put our retirement savings into our two Roth IRAs and my individual 401(k), which we had total control over. Kyle’s 401(k) is the account of last resort because there is no match.

Details on Emily's Roth IRA

Sign up for the mailing list to receive a 700-word letter on which brokerage firm I use for my Roth IRA and what it's invested in.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

2: Down Payment Savings

In 2017, we saved 21.7% of my income and all of our self-tax refund for a down payment on a home.

Further reading: Creating Our Self-Tax Refund

In early 2018, paused our down payment savings to save into a fund to help with expenses and lost income associated with the birth of our 2nd daughter’s.

Once those expenses have settled, we’ll resume saving for our down payment. In the remainder of 2018, we plan to save a fixed rate from Kyle’s income plus 22.7% of my income.

Our initial down payment goal was $60,000, but now that we’re getting close to that number, we want to keep saving and perhaps make $100,000 our next goal. We’re not necessarily shooting for a 20% down payment, but having a lot of money available for the down payment, other fees and expenses, and moving costs will be good.

3: Kids’ College

We save a nominal amount of money toward our children’s college expenses. We plan to hit this goal harder after we buy our first home.

4: Paying Down Student Loan Debt

We are currently making only the minimum payments on a standard 10-year repayment plan on my student loans. Episode 1 explains why we have not yet paid off these loans. However, as of the day of the recording, we received an update on the loans and decided to pay them off completely.

20:47 Q4: What don’t you spend money on that might surprise people?

1: Kid Expenses

A: Childcare

We don’t spend much money on childcare because of the way we have structured our life. Kyle has a regular job, and I’m self- employed. I’m also our children’s primary daytime caregiver. I work when Kyle is home with the kids and when they are sleeping. In 2017, I worked around 20 hours per week with this system. When I travel for speaking engagements, we hire sitters through a service we subscribe to, but this is irregular. We don’t have any regular childcare as of now. We are considering hiring a part-time nanny this fall since we now have two kids to help keep my work hours up.

B: Diapering and Clothing

We cloth diaper, which means we paid a bunch of money for diapers in 2016 but not in 2017. We use disposable diapers when we travel and disposable wipes sometimes.

Further reading: Cloth Diapering in an Apartment

We didn’t have to spend any money on clothes in 2017. The communities we’re plugged into gave us lots of gifts, hand-me-downs, and borrowed clothes.

Further reading: Outfitting Our Baby with Hand-Me-Down, Borrowed, and Used Stuff

When we buy stuff for our kids, we often look to the secondhand market first.

2: Eating Out

We only spent $254.38 on eating out in 2017, which is an average of $21.20 per month. This is a shockingly low figure to me. Since having our first child, we basically don’t go out to eat or get take-out any more!

We don’t drink coffee, which many people pay for out of the house.

Kyle does buy a beer at occasional happy hours with his coworkers, which probably accounts for a good fraction of the spending in this category. I’m in a non-drinking phase of life due to breastfeeding and pregnancy.

3: Entertainment

Our only recurring entertainment expense is Netflix. We are still avid Duke basketball fans, but as we’re not attending games anymore that is an inexpensive hobby.

This low spending is a big change from before we had kids. We used to have season tickets to the Broadway musicals series our local theater, which is not something we’re doing now.

Most of our entertainment now revolves around our toddler: going out doing activities or playing with friends and even at home. We attend lots of free activities around Seattle: parks, toddler rooms and gyms at community centers, and libraries. We also hang out with her toddler friends and our kids tag along to game nights with our friends.

I’m chalking this low spending up to this being a unique phase of life! We expect to spend more in this category again later.

26:31 Q5: What are you happy with in your spending and what would you like to change?

Overall I am quite happy with our spending and progress toward our financial goals.

I don’t love that we spend almost $20,000 per year on rent, but it is reasonable for this city.

I’m not so happy with the grocery and kid expenses.

I feel like we’re spending a lot on groceries. I have some frugal practices, but could do more. During the Frugal Blitz this coming September, I will focus on frugalizing my groceries.

I don’t mind spending what we do on the children, I just want it to be more predictable! Perhaps we will institute a monthly cap on spending or try to anticipate the larger expenses as they grow.

28:11 Q6: What is your best advice for someone new to your city who is budget-conscious?

Focus on housing and transportation: Do your research in advance about where to live and what your commute will be like.

Renting and buying in Seattle is on a quick timeline. Places listed for rent are available immediately or like one week out, and little notice is required when you move out of a place. In 2015 when we moved to Seattle, the rental market was quite competitive. We had to make quick decisions on where to apply and compete with others.

We handled this market by researching the prices in the neighborhoods of interest before we started our moving trip, even though we were not expecting that any of those same rentals would be available when we arrived. This gave us the ability to spot a good deal.

Further reading: Apartment Search in Seattle

You should factor in your commute if you know where you’ll be working. A lot of people avoid the higher housing prices by living outside of Seattle, but that usually increases their commute time. We chose to eliminate the commute and pay the higher housing cost so that we could have more time together.

Don’t assume you’ll commute by car. Over 50% of people in Seattle commute by other methods: bus, biking, walking.

30:52: Q7: Would you like to make any other comments on what it takes to get by where you live on what you earn?

In Seattle, the high tech industry is quite dominant. Those positions are very well paid, and housing costs are being driven up quickly.

In 2017 and the first half of 2018, Seattle had the fastest-appreciating housing market.

Housing prices are heading up quickly, and it’s very discouraging for renters/first-time buyers.

Purchasing a home in our current neighborhood (maintaining that short commute) would be very difficult for us. Even earning $100,000 per year, the most we could afford in our neighborhood is the lowest priced condo possible. The median home value in our neighborhood is almost $1,000,000. The median condo price in Seattle is nearly $550,000. It’s also very hard to not get swept up in the hype of the market.

We are leaning against ever buying in Seattle. Housing is quite a struggle for first-time home buyers.

I’d love to hear from other PhDs (in training) who make less than what we do on how you manage your expenses!

Join the Mailing List to Download Frugal Tips for PhDs-in-Training

The download includes 30+ frugal tips for PhDs-in-Training with links to video and additional written content.

You'll receive 1-2 emails per week to help you make the most of your money during your PhD training.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Our $100,000+ Net Worth Increase During Graduate School

July 9, 2018 by Emily

I 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 additional $5,000. I detail the five strategies we used that made the largest positive impact on our cash flow, which enabled us to increase our savings percentage over time.

Subscribe on iTunes!

Links Mentioned in the Show

  • Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves
  • Speaking
  • Investing Webinar Series
  • Membership Community

Would you like to be a guest on season 2 of the podcast? Please fill out this survey!

100k during PhD

Timestamped Show Notes

0:00 Introduction and Outline

1:45 Background Information and Income

When we graduated from Harvey Mudd College, I had $17k in student loan debt and no savings, and Kyle had zero student loan debt and approximately $5,000 in savings. Kyle went straight into a PhD program at Duke University in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. I spent one year in the National Institutes of Health’s postbac program before starting a PhD program at Duke University in Biomedical Engineering.

Our $100k+ increase in combined net worth occurred between 2007 and 2014 when we earned two graduate student stipends. My NIH stipend was $24k/year, and my Duke stipend went from $24k/year when I started to $28k/year when I finished. Kyle’s Duke stipend went from $25k/year when he started to $29k/year when he finished.

In the first three years, Kyle and I were dating and kept separate finances. We got married in 2010, so for the last four years of the seven-year period we kept joint finances.

4:00 How We Increased Our Net Worth

  1. Saving and investing consistently throughout the whole period.
  2. Budgeting intensively to keep a lid on expenses and funnel more money into savings.
  3. Investment growth due to the bull stock market that started in 2009.

Join Our Phinancially Distinct Community

Receive 1-2 emails per week to help you take the next step with your finances.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

4:51 High-Level Strategies to Increase Net Worth

  1. Our programs paid us above the local living wage, and Durham, NC is also a medium cost-of-living city.
  2. We identified our values, which included financial security and family/community. This meant that saving, including for retirement, was a top priority, as well as travel to visit family and friends. We reduced our spending on everyday expenses so that we could funnel more money to our top priorities.
  3. We employed percentage-based budgeting. Right off the top, we paid our taxes, tithed (10% of gross income to our church), and saved for retirement and near-term expenses.
  4. Any extra income we received, such as gifts, side income, and credit card rewards, went toward our financial goals instead of general spending.

7:38 Net Worth Breakdown

8:07 IRAs ($0 to $75k)

I started saving 10% of my gross income into my Roth IRA as soon as I started receiving a stipend and maintained that savings rate for 3 years. Kyle didn’t intentionally start saving right away, but allowed money to build up in his checking account. He opened and maxed out a Roth IRA in 2009, and maxed out a Roth IRA every year following.

Further Reading: My Biggest Financial Mistake and Why I’m Glad I Made It

Once we got married, we made a game of trying to max out two Roth IRAs each year. We never quite achieved our goal, but we did increase our savings rate from 10 to 17%.

What exactly we were invested in doesn’t matter as much as our savings rate, though I am happy to share my investment choice.

Details on Emily's Roth IRA

Sign up for the mailing list to receive a 700-word letter on which brokerage firm I use for my Roth IRA and what it's invested in.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

12:11 Cash Savings ($5k to $20k)

Initially, I didn’t focus on cash savings. In 2007, I paid off a $1k unsubsidized student loan. When I started grad school, I bought a car with a $3,500 car loan. Later that fall, my parents gave me $10,000, which I used as a general savings account/emergency fund. I paid off my car loan, then repaid my “car payment” to myself to rebuild my savings. Kyle naturally lived below his means, and he continued to accumulate savings in his checking account.

The year we got married, 2010, was a financial reset point. From our cash savings, we paid approximately $10k in wedding expenses. When we joined finances, we assessed our combined balance sheet.

We each had money in our IRAs, and we also had $17k in cash. We set $16k aside to pay off my student loan balance and set up a $1k emergency fund. However, that left us with no savings for near-term expenses, just whatever we could cash flow.

We built up $20k in savings between 2010 and 2014 using targeted savings accounts. We were inspired to start using targeted savings accounts by several large irregular expenses that hit right around the same time and were difficult to cash flow: an expensive wedding season, two university parking permits, and season tickets to the Duke men’s basketball games and Broadway theater series.

Further Reading:

  • How to Manage Irregular Expenses with Limited Cash Flow
  • Our Short-Term Savings Accounts
  • The Benefits of Targeted Savings Accounts – and Their Uncertain Future

We decided to start preparing in advance for anticipated expenses over the next year. We started out with savings accounts for Cars, Entertainment, Travel. We set up budget for each account by anticipating when we would need or want to spend money and calculating a savings rate. Targeted savings accounts turn large, irregular expenses into small, fixed expenses that are easy to write into a budget.

By 2014, we had more savings accounts: Travel, Cars, Entertainment, Appearance, Electronics, Medical, Charitable Giving, CSA, Taxes, and Camera in addition to our checking and emergency fund accounts. We used Ally Bank, which did not charge us any fees or require minimum balances, etc.

We set up automatic savings rates into the targeted savings accounts, then manually pulled money back for each expense when it occurred.

We built up the savings in these accounts because we over-estimated what we would need in various areas, which caused us to over-save.

Join the Mailing List to Receive Your Free Targeted Savings Worksheet

The one-page worksheet guides you in brainstorming and categorizing your irregular expenses, including three questions to ask yourself and a list of common irregular expense categories.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

20:43 Student Loan Payoff Money ($0k to $16k in cash savings, then $16k to $21k in investments)

By 2010, we had the money to pay off $16k in student loans. Instead of paying it off, we chose to conservatively invest they money to earn a small return. It was difficult to choose how to invest the mid-term money, and we wanted to be conservative so as not to lose it.

We decided to conduct an experiment on ourselves to find out what kind of investors we were. In 2011, we put a large fraction of the money in a CD, a small fraction in aggressive stock mutual funds, and a large fraction in conservative mutual funds (stocks and bonds).

We learned that we are committed to passive investing.

Further reading:

  • Why I Didn’t Pay Down My Student Loans During Grad School
  • Why Pay Down Your Student Loans in Grad School?
  • What We Learned from Our Short-Term Investment Experiment
  • Revealed: Mid-Term Investment Choice from 2011

23:57 Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves

I started blogging at Evolving Personal Finance in 2011; learned a ton from my fellow personal finance bloggers and developed my own ideas about how I should manage my money. I published a post near the end of grad school on the best things we did to increase our available cash flow for saving and investing. This list largely explains how we increased our retirement savings rate from 10% to 17% savings and built up $20k in cash savings.

25:24 1. Moved to decrease rent twice (savings $2,340/year).

Initially, we lived in a great apartment, but one year the rent jumped up so we moved to a townhouse, decreasing our rent by $110/mo (what it would have increased to over the new rent). The next year, we moved again and decreased our rent by an additional $25/mo (previous year’s rent to new rent).

Through those two moves, we maintained our home size (1,200 sq. ft., 2 BR, 2+ BA). With the latter two townhouses, we actually reduced our commute to Duke, so the saving was even deeper than just the rent decrease. We did give up some amenities we had through the apartment complex, but that was acceptable.

Further Reading:

  • Your Most Important Budget Line Item in Graduate School and Why You Should Re-Evaluate It
  • How Much of Your Stipend Should You Spend on Rent?
  • Searching for a New Home
  • The Cost of an In-Town Move
  • The Cost of an In-Town Move Part 2

27:48 2. Cancelled cable TV (Savings: $1,208.16/year)

We cancelled our cable TV in favor of paying for internet only. We bought an antenna so we could still watch broadcast TV.

Further reading: How to Cancel Cable When You’re Addicted to a Show

28:47 3. Signed up for rewards credit cards (Income: $991.18/year)

We signed up for cash back rewards credit cards, both for good ongoing rewards and good sign-up bonuses. We looked for minimum spends that we could actually meet and timed application so that we could put our large irregular expenses on the new cards to help meet the minimum spend.

Further reading: Perfect Use of a Credit Card

30:00 4. Became a One-Car Family (Savings: $972.03/year)

After we got married, we started commuting to Duke together. Around that time, my car needed some expensive repairs, so we stopped using it. Our reduced expenses came from lower car insurance, dropping one parking permit, less gas used, half as much maintenance required, and less need to keep money on hand for repairs. We had to work out our schedules to be able to share the car and ended up spending a lot more time together, which was wonderful!

Further Reading: The Financial Implications of Dropping One Car

32:19 5. Switched to an MVNO (Savings: $544.34/year)

I started using Republic Wireless, paying approximately $25/mo for service. (Kyle has since switched to Google’s Project Fi.)

The best thing about these pain-free money-saving moves is that they don’t require any ongoing effort/willpower. Typically, we just had to carry out one-time decisions.

34:41 How Our Accomplishment Led into PF for PhDs

I had been blogging about personal finance for 3.5 years by the time finished grad school, and I also volunteered with Personal Finance @ Duke. After I defended, I decided to give my own seminar on personal finance for graduate students. I had the best time making and delivering the seminar and answering questions from my peers. I asked myself, how can I teach my peers about personal finance as my job?

The initial phase of my business was as public speaker; I gave seminars at universities all over the country. That first seminar I created is now titled “The Graduate Student and Postdoc’s Guide to Personal Finance,” and I have others on taxes, investing, budgeting, and starting grad school on the right financial foot. If you’d like to (figure out how to) bring me to your university for a seminar or workshop, please email me at emily at PFforPhDs.com.

In addition to speaking, I’ve added other aspects of my business, ebooks and online courses. I have two new initiatives launching later this year, an investing webinar series and a membership community.

38:31 Conclusion

A Graduate Student’s Balanced Money Formula

June 18, 2018 by Emily

Grad students frequently wonder how much they should spend on various expenses or even how much they should be saving. The Balanced Money Formula (BMF) answers this question for the average American, but how applicable is it to a grad student’s budget?

Further reading: The Power of Percentage-Based Budgeting for a Career-Building PhD

grad student balanced money formula

A version of this post originally appeared on GradHacker.

What Is the Balanced Money Formula?

The BMF, as defined in All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan* by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, is a high-level allocation of your net (after tax) pay to three areas: needs, wants, and savings. The idea is that if you conform to this ratio throughout your life, you will have a great chance of feeling satisfied with your current spending while saving enough for your future. The trap that many people fall into is letting the needs component of their spending take up too much of their income, which crowds out saving and inhibits spending your money in areas that bring you a lot of comfort and satisfaction (your wants).

[* This is an affiliate link. Thank you for supporting PF for PhDs!]

The magic ratio of the BMF is 50% to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings. The definitions of these three categories are a little different than what you might intuitively think. Needs are defined as all expenses that must be paid on a regular basis, such as rent/mortgage, minimum debt payments, insurance, contracts, groceries, transportation, and utilities. Wants are defined as discretionary purchases such as restaurant eating, entertainment, shopping (beyond basics), and travel. Savings is broken up into a few stages and categories. When you have debt other than for your mortgage, savings means accelerated debt repayment (the minimum payments are in the needs category). Once you are out of all debt except your mortgage, the 20% to savings becomes 10% for retirement, 5% for extra mortgage payments, and 5% for your “dream” goal.

Keep in mind that the BMF was not designed for a Millennial audience. I’m particularly concerned about the advice to save only 10% of net income for retirement (and only after you’re out of non-mortgage debt). Millennials will likely only have one-and-a-half legs of the older generations’ three-legged stool available to them – personal retirements savings and a reduced Social Security benefit (no pensions). That personal retirement savings leg is going to be doing most of the heavy lifting, and 10% of net after you’re debt-free probably isn’t going to cut it.

What I think is valuable about the BMF is the emphasis that there is a place for each of needs, wants, and savings throughout your life, the stern warning against letting the needs category inflate, and the suggested 5:3 ratio between spending on needs and wants.

Can and Should Every Graduate Student’s Financial Management Conform to the BMF?

Absolutely not.

1. The BMF may be right for a lot of people, but ultimately it is just an opinion. You can create your own BMF with a different ideal ratio among needs, wants, and savings that works best for your life. The point is to find a ratio that keeps you on track to accomplish your financial goals without feeling too restricted.

2. Even if you do agree with the BMF, All Your Worth acknowledges that an individual might not stick to the BMF during special life circumstances. Living on a low stipend for a limited period of time while you’re receiving training can qualify as special life circumstances if you need it to. You can find another ratio to keep during grad school and set up your post-grad life to fit the BMF.

Given these caveats, the BMF is still a good starting point for planning how to allocate your stipend pay.

How Can a Graduate Student Create a Balanced Money Formula for Herself?

First, categorize your spending according to the BMF’s needs/wants/savings definition and see how it compares to the suggested 50:30:20 ratio. When I did this during grad school, I was pleasantly surprised that my financial allocation aligned within 1% of the BMF (though my full 20% to savings was going into retirement savings). This told me that my gut feeling that my spending and saving was in balance and sustainable was probably correct.

The danger for graduate students is the same as for the population at large: the needs category ballooning and edging out what makes your life stable (savings) and fun (wants). Even for graduate students, the percentage of your post-tax income that is spent on needs rising above 50% should give you pause and compel you to consider ways to reduce your spending. You may not get it under 50%, but the better you do with minimizing that category the more ‘in balance’ you will probably feel.

In some high cost-of-living areas, close to 50% of a graduate student’s stipend might be spent on rent alone and of course in those cases the BMF cannot be achieved. But if you are over 50%, you should be doing as much as you reasonably can to minimize that category of expenses overall. For example, perhaps your rent is high, but you live with a roommate to get it as low as possible, and the location allows you to live car-free, which minimizes your overall needs spending. Consider capping the percentage of your pay that you are willing to spend on needs at your absolutely maximum (e.g., 70%) to trigger yourself to reduce one of your large fixed expenses, even if it requires moving, should your needs ever rise to that level.

Join the Mailing List to Download Frugal Tips for PhDs-in-Training

The download includes 30+ frugal tips for PhDs-in-Training with links to video and additional written content.

You'll receive 1-2 emails per week to help you make the most of your money during your PhD training.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Some graduate students with more generous stipends and/or a manageable cost of living may spend significantly less than 50% of their stipends on needs. In the case, the best course of action is not to intentionally spend more on needs (though you have the leeway if you would like to), but rather to increase the amount you save and/or spend on wants.

If you have asked yourself if you are spending a reasonable amount of money on your wants and needs and saving enough, the BMF is a great formula to use as a starting point for your budget. However, over time you will likely want to adapt how you allocate your money to best match your values and goals.

Savings in Graduate School

If you want and are able to follow the BMF, the 20% of your money that is saved during graduate school could go toward building an emergency fund, investing for the future, and/or paying down debt. You should start with at least a baby emergency fund of $1,000, if not a few months of expenses. According to All Your Worth, your next step should be to pay off all non-mortgage debt, but if (some of) your debt is at a low interest rate and doesn’t bother you, investing for retirement is a great choice as well. Let both the math of the situation (interest rates on debt vs. expected rates of return on investments) as well as your personal disposition toward the options lead you to the correct choice in your life.

While I am a proponent of adding money each month to targeted savings accounts to help you pay for irregular expenses, I think this type of saving should come from your needs or wants categories. Saving with respect to the BMF should be only for mid- or long-term goals, whereas saving for irregular expenses is a short-term goal.

It is enormously worthwhile to start building the habit of saving during graduate school, even if you can’t reach the 20% target from the BMF. Applying compound interest in the form of investing or debt repayment to even a small percentage of your pay is amazingly powerful.

Free Email Course: Investing for Early-Career PhDs

Sign up for the mailing list to receive the free 10,000-word email course designed for graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs in their first Real Jobs.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

For Stipends that Are Just Too Low

Not having room for needs, wants, and savings to some degree in your grad student budget is an indicator that your pay is too low or your spending is askew. If you are earning too little from your role as a graduate student, your options are to develop a side income or take out student loans. You must carefully weigh the consequences of your choices. Student loans will hold you back from building wealth post-grad school. A side income might benefit you if it furthers your career goals, or it might distract from your degree progress, which should be your top priority.

Increase Your Income

Join the mailing list to receive our 7-part video series, "How to Increase Your Income as a Graduate Student," including side hustles and passive income.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

What percentages of your net pay do you spend on needs, wants, and savings? Have you ever successfully reduced the amount of money you were spending on needs?

The Power of Percentage-Based Budgeting for a Career-Building PhD

May 7, 2018 by Emily

I would imagine that most workers in the US don’t experience large income jumps after they start working full-time. They will receive periodic raises and perhaps some small jumps if they change career tracks or negotiate well with a new employer, but nothing like increasing their incomes by 50 or 100% at one time. However, those types of jumps are common for PhDs. The income jump from graduate school to a postdoc is roughly 50%, and the jump from a postdoc to a career job is perhaps another 50 to 100% or even more. At least, that’s the expected track! Having that expectation, whether or not it conforms with reality, can bring about some strange attitudes towards money. However, if a PhD(-in-training) adopts percentage-based budgeting, it has the potential to keep her finances in balance even through the income jumps.

percentage budgeting PhD

What Is Percentage-Based Budgeting?

There are many versions of percentage-based budgeting in terms of how it is enacted and the appropriate percentages to assign to various budgeting categories. The foundation of all of them is that your financial goals and expenses should scale with your income according to a consistent percentage.

Retirement Savings Rate

The most common example of percentage-based budgeting is the advice to save a percentage of gross or net income for retirement. It’s not reasonable to say that everyone should max out their 401(k)s ($18,500 in 2018) every year – though I have read that advice time and again in the personal finance blogosphere – not only because not everyone has a job that offers a 401(k) but also because that would be an incredibly high savings rate for someone earning what a graduate student or postdoc does. It’s much more reasonable to assign a percentage for your retirement savings goal, e.g., 5, 10, 15, or 20%.

The big advantage for using percentages instead of absolute numbers for savings rates is that it allows you to create a positive financial habit or even becomes part of your character (“I am a saver; I contribute 10% of my gross income to my retirement account”) at a level that is possible for your income. As your income grows, your absolute contribution to your savings grows as well.

Free Email Course: Investing for Early-Career PhDs

Sign up for the mailing list to receive the free 10,000-word email course designed for graduate students, postdocs, and PhDs in their first Real Jobs.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Other Budget Applications of Percentage-Based Budgeting

Tax

I like to think of income taxes as another type of percentage-based budgeting category, even though individuals don’t have control over the tax rate. If you have income tax withholding set up, you are sending a (more or less) fixed percentage of your gross income to the IRS throughout the year. If your withholding is accurate, this percentage is your effective tax rate. Your marginal tax rate is the tax rate on the income bracket that your income tops out in (e.g., 12%), but your effective tax rate is the amount of tax you actually pay divided by your gross income (e.g. 6%).

Another type of tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), is also percentage-based, although students and non-wage earners are exempted and the tax phases out at higher incomes ($127,200 in 2017).

Spending Categories

One of the most well-known percentage-based budgets is the Balanced Money Formula, which is detailed in All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan* by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi. It is a recommendation of how much of your net income to spend in three areas: 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings and debt repayment. The 50% of net income to needs (defined as housing and transportation; contracted payments; and basic food, clothing, etc.) is emphasized as the category that tends to grow out of control and lead to financial stress in American households.

[* This is an affiliate link. Thank you for supporting PF for PhDs!]

Further reading: A Graduate Student’s Balanced Money Formula

Dave Ramsey, a well-known get-out-of-debt financial guru, also makes budget category recommendations for his followers (after they have gotten out of non-mortgage debt). He lists percentage ranges for eight budget categories in addition to saving and giving, e.g., housing should be 25-35% of net income, food should be 10-15%, etc.

Further reading: Starter Percentages for an Every Dollar Budget

These percentage-based budget category suggestions are just that – recommendations based on what that particular expert has observed to work well for most American households. You will, of course, find your own levels of spending that feel comfortable for you. But these kinds of recommendations are great to compare with your current spending from time to time so that you can see if any category seems wildly out of line, especially if it’s a category you can adjust.

The advantage to basing your spending on percentages of your income is that, again, you spend less when you earn less and spend more when you earn more. Your lifestyle scales with your income, and you automatically live within your means.

Using Percentage-Based Budgeting on Only Part of Your Income

Percentage-based budgeting is a useful structure not only on your salary but also on any variable income you might have, such as from a side hustle. If you budget all your basic and regular monthly expenses on your salary, you can use your extra income to fund, in a percentage-based allocation, some extra splurges or savings.

Increase Your Income

Join the mailing list to receive our 7-part video series, "How to Increase Your Income as a Graduate Student," including side hustles and passive income.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

For example, for every dollar of side income money you earn, you could allocate a percentage for taxes (I use my marginal tax rate plus 15.3%, the self-employment tax rate), a percentage for saving, and the remainder for little luxuries or lifestyle upgrades. That way, you both further your financial goals and reward yourself for a job well done.

Further reading: Side Income (Category), Best Financial Practices for Your PhD Side Hustle

What Are the Pitfalls of Not Using Percentage-Based Budgeting?

For PhD trainees in particular who are anticipating income jumps, it is very tempting to tell yourself that you will work on financial goals such as saving and debt repayment once you are earning more. In fact, you might even allow yourself to live above your means and accumulate some debt in the confidence that you will pay it all off later on.

Further reading: A Low Income Is a Blessing in Disguise

If you’ve ever heard of the permanent income hypothesis, you might be tempted to add its label to the above line of thinking. However, I think rather than a strictly rational calculation, it is simply our natural procrastination and fear of financial sacrifice disguising itself as a reasonable argument. Keeping a lid on your lifestyle is difficult when your income is low. Saving and debt repayment are difficult. We imagine a brighter future when those actions won’t be so challenging, and assume we can make it Future Us’s problem.

Further reading: You Should Spend More and Save Less (Especially Grad Students)

While I certainly hope that you experience the income jumps you anticipate – and don’t forget, there’s no guarantee that they will materialize – it doesn’t really become easier to save with age the way most people think it will. As the decades pass, on average your lifestyle starts to cost more and more. You buy a house. You have some kids. You upgrade your car. You’re pressed for time, so you don’t practice frugality the way you used to. The fact is there is always a reason not to make financial sacrifice today, especially if you’re an optimist. Percentage-based budgeting keeps your lifestyle in line with your current reality and doesn’t allow you to defer accepting responsibility for your financial life.

Where Does Percentage-Based Budgeting Break Down?

Low Incomes

Percentage-based budgeting works well over a range of incomes, but there is a floor to its functionality, and it’s somewhere around the living wage for each local area. At some point, when your income is low enough, you can’t scale your basic needs down to that ideal percentage of your gross income. And unfortunately, a lot of graduate students and some PhDs are living right around that breaking point. Savings/debt repayment will be cut back or eliminated, needs will balloon out of proportion, and there will probably be little spent on wants. You may even find yourself accumulating debt. The best solution to this conundrum is to land a higher-paying position as soon as you can, following graduation if necessary. A side income may help keep you afloat in the meantime, but don’t let it slow down your progress to that better job.

Taxes

Some percentage-based budgeting formulations, like the Balanced Money Formula and Dave Ramsey’s, work off your net (after tax) income. I like to work off my gross income and think of taxes as part of my percentage-based budget, but as I said earlier, your effective tax rate is not a percentage that you as the taxpayer control. As your income increases, all else being equal, your effective tax rate will increase as well, meaning that everything else has to shift to accommodate it, so your percentages cannot stay totally fixed.

My Experience with Percentage-Based Budgeting

I implemented percentage-based budgeting early on in graduate school for my high-level financial goals that are still the same today. I paid my taxes (through quarterly estimated tax, at times!), contributed to my Roth IRA (starting at 10% of gross income, working my way up to 17% by the end of grad school, and 18% today), and tithed. Beyond that, I did check that my spending on needs and wants was more or less in line with the Balanced Money Formula. I found that a 5:3 ratio of spending on needs to wants is quite comfortable.

I’m so glad that I implemented percentage-based budgeting, at least for my high-level goals, during grad school. It has helped my husband and I keep perspective about our finances through the income increases and moves we’ve undergone. We now have one regular income (my husband’s salary) and a few variable income streams (from my business and side hustle), and we practice slightly different forms of percentage-based budgeting with each. We pay taxes (at different rates), contribute to our retirement accounts, and tithe from each income, but we budget all our expenses off my husband’s income and use mine for extra saving (usually for a house down payment).

Probably the thing I like best about percentage-based budgeting is that it’s so flexible; you can make it entirely your own based on your goals and your lifestyle preferences. Yes, there are guidelines out there for you to access if you want to, but the final decision is yours. If you find a comfortable ratio among savings, needs, and wants while your income is low and maintain it as your income grows, you can confidently enjoy the fruits of your success.

Footer

Sign Up for More Awesome Content

I'll send you my 2,500-word "Five Ways to Improve Your Finances TODAY as a Graduate Student or Postdoc."

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Copyright © 2023 · Atmosphere Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • About Emily Roberts
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact