I’m shaking things up for Season 15 of the Personal Finance for PhDs Podcast and need your contribution(s)!
Instead of publishing long-form interviews over summer 2023, I’m planning to publish compilation episodes of short contributions from the PhD community. The contributions could be recorded audio or written text (if text, I will read them for the episode).
I’d like to give these episodes certain themes and specific prompts. I came up with a few ideas and also solicited some from people on my mailing list. (Not on the mailing list yet? Join through this link.)
The compilation episodes can only go forward if we have enough submissions for each topic, probably at least half a dozen. I’m using this page to track the identified volunteers for each theme. Once I’m confident that an episode will move forward, I’ll get in touch with the volunteers with the specific prompts for the submissions.
| Theme | Number of Volunteers |
| Side hustles: What’s your side hustle? How/why did you start? How much do you make? | 9 |
| Bridging the funding gap: If you are an underfunded grad student or postdoc, how do you bridge the gap between your stipend and your living expenses? | 0 |
| Negotiation (individual): How did you approach negotiating your grad student stipend? Were you successful in increasing your stipend and/or benefits? (2021-2023) | 5 |
| Unionization: What has been your experience with the union or unionization movement at your university? | 3 |
| Providing financial support/remittances: If you are supporting another person, at least in part, on your grad student stipend, how are you doing so and what impact does that have on your finances and life overall? | 1 |
| Home ownership in grad school: What has been your experience with home ownership in grad school? Has anything interesting or unexpected occurred during the purchase process or ownership? | 3 |
| Humanities commentary: How are you handling your finances as a graduate student in the humanities? | 1 |
| Program selection based on finances: If you chose a PhD program or switched to a PhD program at least in part based on the stipend/benefits or cost of living, why and how did you do so? | 2 |
I really want you to participate in Season 15! If you see a theme here that you’d like to contribute to or want to suggest a new theme, please email [email protected]. I’m considering making one of these episodes a catch-all for any type of story you’d like to share. Thank you!
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