In this episode, Emily interviews Elle Rathbun, a 5th-year PhD candidate at UCLA. Elle shares her financial origin story of growing up in a low-income family, becoming a QuestBridge scholar during undergrad, and working for two years before matriculating at UCLA. During those years, Elle developed her financial acuity and prepared financially for grad school, including investing for retirement and saving up cash. This energy carried forward into grad school, where within her department Elle started a group to chat about money and created resources to help her peers navigate the financial aspects of their fellowship and UCLA’s bureaucracy. Tune in to the next episode for part two of the conversation!
Links mentioned in the Episode
- PF for PhDs 15 Minute Introductory Calls
- Host a PF for PhDs Tax Seminar at Your Institution
- PF for PhDs Subscribe to Mailing List
- PF for PhDs Podcast Hub
Teaser
Elle (00:00): I think a lot of undergraduates and techs and PhD students are like, oh, I’m not making money yet, um, to any real degree. Like, I’ll just wait. Um, and I think that’s one of the worst things you can do is to wait. Um, and I think even if you have five extra dollars to put into a Roth IRA, I think that is worth doing.
Introduction
Emily (00:25): 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 (00:54): This is Season 19, Episode 5, and today my guest is Elle Rathbun, a 5th-year PhD candidate at UCLA. Elle shares her financial origin story of growing up in a low-income family, becoming a QuestBridge scholar during undergrad, and working for two years before matriculating at UCLA. During those years, Elle developed her financial acuity and prepared financially for grad school, including investing for retirement and saving up cash. This energy carried forward into grad school, where within her department Elle started a group to chat about money and created resources to help her peers navigate the financial aspects of their fellowship and UCLA’s bureaucracy. Tune in to the next episode for part two of the conversation!
Emily (01:41): This fall, I’m opening my calendar for 15-minute introductory calls! This is a chance for you and me to meet one-on-one. I want to hear your current financial questions and challenges. If I can provide some quick value by answering a question or pointing you to a resource I absolutely will. These calls are a way for me to keep a pulse on what’s going on financially in our community so that I can address whatever comes up through my seminars for universities and the free content I create. I would love to meet you, so please sign up today at PFforPhDs.com/intro/. You can find the show notes for this episode at PFforPhDs.com/s19e5/. Without further ado, here’s part 1 of my interview with Elle Rathbun.
Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?
Emily (02:40): I am delighted to have joining me on the podcast today, Elle Rathbun, who is a, an entering fifth year PhD candidate at UCLA and Elle and I actually met last spring when I was giving an in-person seminar at UCLA, and she was there because she was part of the financial wellness office, so she was there with a booth so the students in attendance could get some extra resources after my presentation was done. And she came up to me after the presentation introduced herself, which I love it when people do that. So podcast listeners, if you ever have the opportunity, please, please introduce yourself. We had an amazing conversation right then and there, and I immediately invited her on the podcast. So we’re gonna have a really good time today learning about Elle’s story, how she came to work for the financial wellness office, everything she’s done in her personal finances, in between. So Elle, I’m absolutely delighted to have you on the podcast today, and would you please introduce yourself a little bit further for the listeners?
Elle (03:30): Absolutely. Thank you so much, Emily. I am so excited to be here. First of all, I am a long time listener, even before I started graduate school. This is really something that, um, this podcast kicked off my, my interest in personal finance as a PhD student. Um, and so yes, I was, uh, raised in Durango, Colorado, so a very small rural mountain town. Um, and my parents always sort of, um, struggled to keep things afloat in terms of, in terms of finances. Um, and so I was able to get the QuestBridge Match scholarship to the University of Chicago for my undergraduate degree. So that meant that I got a full ride, uh, uh, to to University of Chicago where I majored in neuroscience and biological sciences. Um, and I was really, really grateful for, for that opportunity. Then I stayed at the university, uh, for two years in a biophysics lab. So I was a tech there. Um, and that sort of is really when, uh, things started coming together for me in terms of what I wanted to do academically, but also when it came to personal finances. And, um, and then I ended up at UCLA’s graduate program in neuroscience. Um, and that’s where I am now.
QuestBridge
Emily (04:39): Okay, fantastic. Now I wanna talk more about your, um, interest in personal finance, your passion for the subject. And you mentioned this QuestBridge program, so maybe we should start there. Can you tell us more about that program?
Elle (04:51): Absolutely. I’m happy to. So QuestBridge is a phenomenal nationwide program that basically helps match high achieving low income students with some phenomenal, uh, undergraduate universities. So I think at the time I applied, I, we had 35 partner colleges and now we’re way above that. Um, and essentially what it is, is it’s an application on its own. You apply as a high school senior before in the fall, um, and then the people at QuestBridge look through those applications, figure out who qualifies, uh, both financially and academically, and then helps match those students to a partner college. And it’s a phenomenal program. You rank which colleges you would want to go to, and the deal is whichever one you rank the highest that accepts you, you have to go there, but you get a full ride. And so for me, that also included a stipend for housing and included money for books and for travel, um, and for food and board. And so it was just, it was a phenomenal experience. Um, and it allows me to not have the burden of student loans, which I have come to learn more about. Um, and it’s, there are thou- now thousands of, of QuestBridge alumni, um, and I’m continuing to work with them, uh, in terms of guide, sort of guiding Questees for, um, preparing for graduate school, whether that’s law school or medical school or PhD programs, um, and sort of things that people from, especially from low income backgrounds, don’t necessarily know or not are not, uh, privy to, especially since so many of them are children of immigrants, first generation students, college students, um, et cetera.
Emily (06:27): What an incredible program. I had no idea that it was both, you know, the, the tuition and fees and everything and all that plus the stipend and your living expenses. I mean, it’s a very analogous situation to, um, being in a funded graduate program, really. And so that’s a very interesting kind of like, um, twist on this in that you had some experience prior to starting graduate school with managing that kind of budget, right? The stipend kind of budget. Um, it’s just incredible that you had that opportunity and that you’re giving back now to like, you know, help shepherd, you know, other people interested in the path that you’ve taken, uh, along that same route. Okay, awesome. So college, no student loan debt. Um, great. And talk to us a little bit about that, um, interim time period before you started graduate school and like what was going on with your finances, and it sounds like you started listening to this podcast, maybe looking at other resources too during that time. Tell us that story.
Financial Journey From Childhood To Grad School
Elle (07:12): Um, I started working when I was very young. I started, uh, selling rocks by the train, uh, in Silverton, Colorado. So if you’ve ever visited Silverton, um, or took the drain from Durango to Silverton and saw kids selling rocks, I used to be one of those kids. Um, and so it was very sort of my personal finance story started very young. I I always thought about money, not necessarily always with a negative connotation or a positive connotation. It was just a reality. Um, and I knew how many rocks I had to sell in order to buy the grilled cheese sandwich that I needed, that I wanted at the end of the day. And so, um, when I entered college, I had some savings from the rocks, from working in multiple restaurants, um, in my parents’ shop, et cetera. Um, and so you’re Yeah, exactly right. That was sort of my emergency fund going into undergrad where a lot of things were paid for, but I had some flexibility and I knew I had to be very careful with that stipend. So coming out of undergrad, I was able to, I had about, I was, my net worth was about the same as going into undergrad. Um, and then I realized, okay, I need to start saving money. One of my reasons for staying in Chicago, um, for those two years before my PhD was because I knew the lay of the land. I knew that it was affordable. I knew I could get cheaper housing here than I could in LA for instance, or New York or Boston. And so, but I knew that in order to be stable and to feel, uh, like I had flexibility, um, and to be able to help my family if they needed it, I needed to really get my stuff together, um, and, and understand where I was, where I wanted to go, and how I could get there. Um, especially before starting, uh, graduate school. And so I started listening to this podcast. Um, I think this is the main podcast that I’ve just continued listening to. Um, and I think I fangirled out when I met you <laugh>, um, just because I’ve listened to like almost every episode. Um, and, uh, but I also start, I listened a little bit to Dave Ramsey, uh, which I think is fine for people with credit card debt, but that wasn’t necessarily my case. Um, the Dough Roller Money podcast Money Girl, um, I read Beth Kobliner, uh, Get a Financial Life, um, in your twenties and thirties, um, and then sort of just hodgepodged a lot of podcasts, resources, pamphlets, booklets, webinars, um, and, and try to figure out, okay, what do I need to prioritize? What do I need to do? And when can I apply to graduate school? Because applying to graduate school isn’t necessarily cheap. Um, and so, so that was sort of what, what came to be over those, over those two years.
Emily (09:48): So it sounds like you, um, knew that you were probably headed to graduate school at the, even coming out of undergrad, right? But you wanted to take some time to get your feet under you, figure out where you wanna do that. Exactly. I have the same story for my, you know, between undergrad and grad school kind of time period. Um, were you intentionally then working on like building up savings to have maybe a more robust emergency fund? Were you working on investing because maybe you knew that would be more difficult, you know, once you started graduate school? Like what, what sort of goals did you set during that time period?
Elle (10:16): At first, I was just like, okay, just figure out where I am, like, figure out how many credit cards I have, figure out how much I have in savings, figure out what those savings are for, um, how much I feel a need for a comfortable emergency fund. Um, so the first goal was just to understand where I was. And then the second goal was me looking at my benefits and being like, what is a 403B? I have never heard of that. I’ve heard of a 401k. Um, and that’s sort of it. And so it became pretty apparent that I needed to educate myself further because I knew, okay, if this is taking a good sum of my paycheck, I wanna know what that’s going into. Um, and also in my junior year, senior year, one of my, uh, older friends who worked at the university told me, just open a Roth IRA, just trust me. You won’t regret it, just open it, throw a couple dollars in, um, and, and then educate yourself on it. And so I had done that as well. And, but I had, I had put it in there, um, but didn’t invest it, uh, just was sort of sitting in that, in that cash account. And so that was my, my second goal. So after I understood where I sort of was coming from and what I had, um, I wanted to learn more about invest investing. Um, and so a lot of my youth was, uh, I was told, don’t invest. That’s fake money. Like the stock market isn’t real money. Um, and so I sort of had to reeducate myself, um, in, uh, sort of the risks, but also the benefits of investing in the stock market and the bond market, um, and what a retirement account was, why it existed, um, advantages of, of those and, and tax laws and things like that. And so, um, so that was my next step was to just sort of understand and start investing.
Resources For Learning How To Invest
Emily (11:58): You’ve already listed a few different resources, like podcasts that you listen to. Was there anything that you found, well, is there anything you would recommend to the listeners who are at a similar stage and wanna learn what investing is and how to do it and what a Roth IRA is and what a 403B is and all of that? Any books or, or any resource that you enjoyed?
Elle (12:15): Yeah, I think that Get a Financial Life book was a game changer for me in reading that. Um, and also this podcast and Money Girl, I think, um, oh, I forget the host’s name currently, but, um, the, the host does a phenomenal job breaking down everything. Um, and also, uh, if you can by Bill Bernstein, um, just sort of it, because that especially takes, really takes into account like not everyone can do this, um, but a lot of people can do at least a little bit. And that’s where to start. It’s so important to start building that habit. So once you can contribute more to a retirement account, you already know what that is and how to do it. Um, and also just your local hr,
Emily (12:55): I’m really glad to hear these resources, some of which are new to me, like the Bill Bernstein book that you just mentioned. Um, I’m gonna check those out because I found that a lot of the maybe most popular personal finance, or maybe now it’s financial independence material is much more geared for high income earners who have a different set of financial things to deal with than lower income earners. Um, I’m not at all surprised that you mentioned Dave Ramsey because even though his philosophy is maybe at odds with mine or other people’s at certain points, he does try to speak to people who are lower income at times. And so yeah, I’m just, I’m really glad to hear these resources and, and yeah, to have you speak to this because it’s a different set of things that you need to handle when you’re not quite in graduate school yet or, or in graduate school than you would, you know, later in your career.
Financial Goals Before Applying to Grad School
Elle (13:42): Yeah, absolutely. And I think, um, that, that’s something to, to keep in mind as well for, for listeners, for people who I coached, which we’ll get into later. Um, but in terms of just building the habit, um, right, I think a lot of undergraduates and techs and PhD students are like, oh, I’m not making money yet, um, to any real degree, like, I’ll just wait. Um, and I think that’s one of the worst things you can do is to wait. Um, and I think even if you have five extra dollars to put into a Roth IRA, I think that is worth doing. Um, just to, to figure out what it is. I had, I think I had $500 sitting, sitting in my Roth IRA for like two years before I figured out what that actually was. Um, and, and then as soon as I realized, oh, okay, I need to invest this, um, that sort of just took off flying. And so that was, that then became my main goal because I didn’t know when I was going to start a PhD program. I didn’t even know, even know what PhD program I was going to apply to. Um, I was deciding between, uh, neuroscience or biological sciences or even biochemistry. Um, and so while figuring out all my academic stuff, um, I decided, okay, I will apply to graduate school when I am comfortable, uh, with the idea of maxing out my Roth IRA for five years. Um, and so I didn’t necessarily need to have all of that money in cash right away, but I needed to have a plan to max out my Roth IRA for five years. Um, and that’s, that was sort of my, my threshold for, for applying to graduate school.
Emily (15:13): Hmm. That’s a really interesting goal. I mean, I definitely see the merits of it, of course. Um, now I’m wondering when you were applying to graduate school, how much you had the stipend and the cost of living, um, in mind since it had been such a focus for you over the past couple of years?
Elle (15:26): Very much in mind, um, the first, the first job was to get into graduate school. And so, um, so I sort of, I, when I applied, I didn’t consider it. I think I had looked at what graduate housing options were in all of those areas, but, um, I knew I didn’t necessarily have to go, uh, even if I applied. And then once it came time to decide, um, I was basically, it, it, it got narrowed down eventually to just two options. One was UCLA, which is, um, in a very high cost of living area, um, but it would be new to me. And they offered me basically a recruitment, um, scholarship, which was a large enough sum of money to make me feel comfortable matriculating in this program. But the other option was to stay at UChicago. Um, and there I had cheap slash uh, cheap housing essentially. Um, I was living in a house where I would be taking care of the dogs and I didn’t necessarily have to pay rent. Um, and so, but I, so that would mean that I could essentially keep the majority of my stipend and continue saving. And so in that regard, I decided that UCLA was the better career move, um, and even the overall better financial move, I could make more connections. I would have more opportunities, and I would be studying precisely what I wanted to study. Whereas UChicago, which just wasn’t as good of an academic fit.
Emily (16:47): I think that’s the ideal position to be in when you are, um, applying to graduate school and you are keeping an eye on the personal finance side of things is just the decision is not gonna be completely determined by the finances, but you least need to set some kind of bar of, like, anything above this bar I’m gonna be able to say yes to, and I can decide based on the academics or whatever other factors are important to you. But you just know that anything below that bar is, is really just not a viable option. And a lot of times you don’t really, even though it’s great to check out what the stipends are, what the, you know, what the base stipends are, what the cost of living is, et cetera, in advance, a lot of times you don’t know until you get into admission season exactly what they’re going to offer you. Because like you said, with UCLA, they could come up with an extra scholarship or fellowship that you weren’t aware that they were going to offer you. And that can completely change the calculus of the situation.
Elle (17:32): Oh, absolutely. I had, I had my mock budgets of whether I stayed or at U Chicago, whether I continued living in that house or whether I came to UCLA and lived in graduate housing versus with, without roommates. I had all the mock budgets just because, um, it’s, it’s a commitment. It’s like a five plus year commitment, um, for, especially for the biological sciences. Um, and so I knew that like, okay, this is a financial decision as much as it is a educational and, uh, career decision.
Current Housing Situation
Emily (18:03): And I’m really glad to hear that you had those different like scenarios modeled out too, because sometimes, okay, so I don’t know. So are you living in graduate housing now?
Elle (18:12): No, I, I started, uh, because I matriculated in 2020 and then, um, and so I lived my first year here in graduate housing and then I moved to a, a private rental.
Emily (18:23): Okay. Was that the plan all along or was there a possibility that you could have stayed in graduate housing?
Elle (18:28): UCLA offers three years of graduate housing. Um, and then after that it’s really hard to stay in it unless you move to family housing. And so, um, I think my plan was always like, okay, start in, uh, graduate housing, um, and then maybe go live with friends, sort of get a lay of the land <laugh> after Covid is over and, and then, um, move somewhere cheaper because graduate housing is in West la. Um, but that’s not necessarily where I needed to stay. So currently I live in Studio City, in the Valley.
Current Financial Goals
Emily (18:56): Okay. So we’ve talked about kind of the lead up, you know, your decision to go to UCLA now that you’ve been in graduate school for four years. Um, what kinds of goals have you been working on? You mentioned the Roth IRA earlier. Have you been able to do that? Anything else? Just let us know how your finances have been going
Elle (19:11): In graduate school. Yes, I’ve been keeping up with the, the Roth IRA, I’ve been learning more about different retirement, um, options. Um, and I’ve sort of stuck with the same strategy, just index funds, putting extra savings into, uh, different account types and, um, keeping up with my budget, I budget with YNAB or you need a budget, which is a phenomenal budgeting service. Um, and just sort of making sure that my finances and how I spend my money align with my goals and my priorities. So that absolutely includes, uh, investing for retirement, but also, um, I am also investing in, uh, a taxable account just for an eventual down payment on a home. And, um, making sure to spend, spend, uh, enough money on, on funds, so things like travel and seeing different sites in la. Um, and then I also, on the non-money side of things, um, sort of just created a lot of resources for myself and for others where I could sort of track my net worth because that is very motivating to me just to be able to see progress over time. Um, but also getting things in order. Like I, uh, I signed up for life insurance term life insurance, uh, when I was a first year graduate student, just because I am sort of my family’s overall retirement plan. And so if anything were to happen to me, I would want to make sure that they, um, are at least somewhat stable financially. And so, um, so sort of putting that into place, getting a feel for, um, what’s su- what is sustainable in terms of credit cards. I’m big on credit card bonuses and rewards. Um, and so that’s something else that I’ve sort of made sure that I was good to go, um, and, and to sign up for more credit cards, um, while still maintaining a good, uh, credit score and, but being, being able to take advantage of, of that, that as well.
Emily (21:10): So exciting. I love all of those. Um, I love that there’s a variety of goals in different areas, right? It’s not just about increasing the net worth, it’s also about increasing your own financial, um, education you could say, or just your, um, acuity and also like some budgeting stuff. I love that you mentioned Y-, uh, YNAB you need a budget and you know, the credit card stuff. I’m curious, um, about how your spending is overall. ’cause you mentioned that you, you wanna spend on fun things on discretionary items. You may have heard me mention on the podcast before, like the balanced money formula. It’s probably something you’re familiar with. Um, I’m curious how your overall budget conforms or doesn’t conform with the balanced money formula, because it can be so challenging to achieve that on a grad student stipend in a high cost of living area. So go ahead and have you made that comparison before?
Current Budgeting Process
Elle (22:00): Not explicitly. So I think the sort of, the way I approach things, especially in YNAB is the, I still stick with the whole pay yourself first thing. So, um, I, um, have a specific set amount that I put aside for the Roth IRA that’s just determined by the federal maximum, um, every month. And then, and I always, I save up throughout the year and then deposit it right at the beginning of the year. So I try to get it in there as, as soon as possible just so I can forget about it, um, and not have to like, keep such an eye on it or figure out when I want to, to invest it or not. And so, so that’s my strategy for that. And then I also have specific amounts for, um, a home down payment and a car down payment. Those aren’t necessarily massive funds, but they are goals of mine. And so I just make sure that every month I put in, um, that set amount. And um, and then after that I figure out, okay, like how, how am I doing, uh, and where are my finances? And then I go ahead and distribute throughout the rest of the categories, starting with, with needs. So of course, like rent, utilities, groceries, uh, gas, those are basically my big ones. Um, and I, I have a monthly goal of how much to budget, so not necessarily how much to spend, um, but how much do I wanna allocate to each category? Um, and usually I don’t really know how much I spend in a month because that varies all the time. And also if I go get car maintenance and it costs $1,500, that kind of offsets my monthly spending, but it has almost no impact on my monthly budgeting, um, because I save for that, I know I eventually need car maintenance. I know I’ve eventually want to buy an expensive plane ticket. And so, um, so my, I don’t focus too much on the spending. Um, I just make sure that I spend whatever I have available in my budget and if I don’t, I sort of just reallocate, um, when I’ve called it rolling with the punches. Um, and so, um, and then after I reach sort of that amount that I am comfortable with budgeting, if I have any leftover, then I just start putting it in next month’s categories. Um, and then if I get more than two months out ahead, um, then I just, everything else just goes straight to, um, my home down payment fund.
Emily (24:15): So I’m not a YNAB user, but I’m a longtime wine nab admirer. Does the software en enable you and, and sort of teach you how to do all the things you just mentioned? And I’m specifically wondering if the software makes any suggestions on where you house these different pools of money? Like does the software think it’s okay to all stay in your checking account? Does the software want you to have like a single separate savings account? Like sort of mechanically? How do you communicate between the software and like how you structure your accounts?
Elle (24:42): Uh, great question. Um, I love YNAB because it is so flexible, it doesn’t necessarily give information as to whether it’s something should be checking or savings, um, or a cd. Um, that’s sort of for you to completely decide. Um, and so, and then I just write it in the account name. So I have like an ally cd and that’s where I house my emergency fund because if I need, if in case of emergency, um, break glass, I don’t really care about the interest that I might lose, um, if it’s like fairly short term. Um, but they do separate things into budgeting versus tracking accounts. So basically anything that looks that is within budgeting is for spending. And if you move something from budgeting to a tracking account, it looks, it comes up in your spending reports. So I love this feature because it allows me to make saving look like spending. So if I pull up my spending reports, um, and I don’t filter out anything, it, I see exactly how much I put aside for my home down payment for my car down payment, um, and for retirement, and I can always filter those out to get my actual spending. Um, but it sort of removes it mentally and within the software of, okay, <laugh> no touching, this is for these goals only. Um, of course in reality, if I really needed those funds, I can, I can pull from them, but I also would have to go through the hassle of adding them back into my budget where it would look like income. And so, um, in terms of, of checking and savings, it doesn’t really matter. So I think you’ve talked about ally buckets before, um, and I love those. And so for me, my ally buckets are listed as different accounts within YNAB even though in reality they are one actual account with one account number one routing number. Um, and so there’s a huge amount of flexibility in that. Um, and YNAB has like several, like four main rules, um, that, uh, really just help you figure out how to approach things. Um, and yeah, it’s a great software. Highly recommend it
Emily (26:40): Since you’re highly recommending it. Um, I, if I remember correctly, it’s free for one year for students, but then after that you pay for it. Um, can you tell people where to find this, how to sign up <laugh>?
Elle (26:53): Absolutely. Um, and so this is actually one of the many resources in, uh, a folder that I share with, um, UCLA students and my friends. Um, but yes, you can actually get 13 months for free. So YNAB offers all users a 34 day trial. So what I recommend to, especially students, unless you’re about to graduate, is sign up for the 34 day trial, then you just email them saying, hi, like, I did a 34 day trial, um, I’m still really interested, but I am a student, um, and I would like to sign up or I would like to get the year, uh, free that you offer students. Um, and, and then they say, no problem. They just need a proof of enrollment or acceptance. So I started mine even the summer before I matriculated, but at that point I had already had on my paperwork from U-C-U-C-L-A, so they accept that as well. So if you’re like a tech or about to reenter school, you can still, um, get away with that as long as you can have proof of being a student or about to be a student.
Emily (27:50): Oh, perfect. Thank you so much for the detail on that. Sometimes people really need like a what exactly when exactly,
Commercial
Emily (27:58): Emily here for a brief interlude! I’m hard at work behind the scenes updating my suite of tax return preparation workshops for tax year 2024. These educational workshops explain how to identify, calculate, and report your higher education-related income and expenses on your federal tax return. For the 2024 tax season starting in January 2025, I’m offering live and pre-recorded workshops for US citizen/resident graduate students and postdocs and non-resident graduate students and postdocs. Would you please reach out to your graduate school, graduate student government, postdoc office, international house, fellowship coordinator, etc. to request that they host one or more of these workshops for you and your peers? I’d love to receive a warm introduction to a potential sponsor this fall so we can hit the ground running in January serving those early bird filers. You can find more information about hosting these workshops at P F f o r P h D s dot com slash tax dash workshops. Please pass that page on to the potential sponsor. Now back to our interview.
Talking to Peers About Money
Emily (29:15): You obviously have, you know, a great deal of passion, a great deal of knowledge about the subject area. You’re working on your own finances. I understand that you then started talking to your peers and started having more sort of interpersonal interactions around money. So can you tell us how that got started and, and what you were talking about with your peers?
Elle (29:33): Absolutely. So I, as soon as I started educating myself, um, about finances and personal finances and sort of really building up that confidence, um, and then starting graduate school, um, I wouldn’t really shut up about money. And so I would have, um, I would host these discussions just among my cohort about, um, finances. And everyone was coming in from different places. You know, some people were coming in straight through undergrad, um, and then some were married, some had been already been in the workforce for the better part of a decade. Um, and so it was really nice just to be able to see, um, how’s everyone doing? Um, right, how are we figuring out stipend housing? Um, how are we saving for retirement? Um, is anyone doing any side hustles gig work? Um, TA ships and, and sort of just opening the floor for those conversations. Um, and so that was really useful. And we also have to take a presentation class, um, as a first year and, but we can pick anything. So, um, I talked about finances, um, and, uh, and I think that really made me realize how much I loved educating people and just having a discussion and being educated. Um, I don’t necessarily, it’s not a one-way conversation most of the time. I learn a lot from everyone I talk with. Um, and so before graduate school, I, I started realizing this about myself and I was familiar that, um, or I knew that UCLA has a financial wellness program. So actually before I started graduate school, um, I reached out to financial wellness and talked with the, uh, then and still current director, um, Sara Potter-Gittelson. And she just sort of reaffirmed what I was doing. She said, she told me my options in graduate school. Um, we just sort of talked about retirement investing and, and aspects of being a student at UCLA, um, and how it impacts my finances and my financial wellness.
Emily (31:22): What are the specific kinds of like issues or questions that came up during like these money talks, money groups, conversations with your peers? Um, because I understand eventually you started creating some resources. So there, there must have been, you know, certain topics that came up over and over against certain questions or certain issues.
Elle (31:38): A lot of it was based on your podcast. And so one massive thing was taxes. Like how do we pay quarterly taxes? Do we have to pay quarterly taxes? Um, what, what’s the step by step for doing that? How, how well do they need to be calculated, et cetera. So, um, taxes were a big thing. Uh, payment schedule thing, scheduling was another. Um, and so just because UCLA, they, they’ve restructured the whole system, they just restructured it again. But when I started, we got paid pre-work. So our, um, our September stipend would disperse mid August, um, which was really nice. But once you join a lab and start being employed by your PI’s department, then it goes post work and it becomes a W2 income. And so just making sure everyone was sort of understanding what, um, that situation is. Um, making sure that if sometimes issues would arise with, uh, with how we got paid. So with our stipend, which also is how we paid our housing. So, um, if we got, if we got underpaid with our stipend and then housing just took that back up, we now have no disposable income and have to use like something like credit cards or loans if we don’t, um, have an emergency fund. And so, so those are things that I think came up a lot. Um, some people were, uh, uh, thinking about tutoring. Um, so a lot of like gig work. How do we manage that? Um, is it possible to do, um, and, and sort of all the implications that come with that. Um, and yeah, yeah, I think that’s the, the majority of it. And then of course I was just saying like everyone should open a Roth IRA and I got multiple people in my cohort, uh, to open a Roth IRA, um, which I am very, very happy about <laugh>.
Emily (33:24): Uh, honestly, I mean this is something that I get to hear through my work from time to time, but I, if they haven’t already said it to you, like, that literally changes people’s lives like five years from now, 10 years from now. Like if they haven’t said it already, like they’re going to think back on that and like, really, really appreciate that they ran into you that they were, you know, had the good fortune of just being in your circles and, and hearing that. ’cause they probably wouldn’t have gotten it, you know, from many other sources at that time. So, um, that’s amazing. So tell us more about the resources. Were they about taxes? Were they about these crazy bureaucratic pay schedule things like, um, I love how specific this gets to be, right? UCLA certain fellowships your program, like, let’s talk about that.
Financial Resources for Grad Students
Elle (34:01): Um, the resources, it’s just a, it’s just a folder where I’ve put everything that I’ve created. And so, um, I think one of the, the main things that I have the pleasure and privilege of doing is the orientation finance presentation, um, just to the program, just to the first year cohort, um, sort of orienting them on, okay, this is how we get paid, um, taxes are a thing, but also, um, I have a couple slides on credit and credit cards just to make sure that everyone’s sort of on the same page and we can have a discussion about that. And if you’ve never really considered credit or if you’ve never checked your credit report, I am available to go through it with you just because I think that is so incredibly important. Um, and I also just give, I cannot give tax advice. I am by no means qualified to do that, but I do provide links. Like this is exactly where you go to get your 1098T this is exactly our site ID that you enter. Um, here are the links to the California Franchise Chat tax board that is create an account, make your tax payments. These are the dates. Um, so just sort of links to things that are kind of hard to find sometimes. Um, and that’s even when you know you need to find it. And, and I think the major case with graduate school is that, especially at a place as big as UCLA is that it’s really easy for communication to sort of, um, be looked over, right? Like we get so many emails, we’re just inundated with all this information, especially while starting a graduate program, um, that I sort of try to synthesize the main key points of information, um, and, and, uh, communicate it to the incoming cohort. I also go through pay schedules. So I say, okay, this is our stipend, but also if we’re getting paid in May for June work and then we get paid in August 1st for July work, that means you have no more income coming in between May 20th and August 1st. Um, so sign up for direct deposit to make sure that your check gets, or that your, uh, uh, income gets to you in time. Otherwise they will mail you a check and you won’t get it till August 5th. And if you rent is due August 1st, you need that money. Um, so sort of just going over things to, so that people can either approach me about it if they have any questions later. Um, right. Roth IRAs and investing are a multiple day long conversation. Um, but uh, just sort of putting things on people’s radar. Um, I tell them, uh, oh, just put it in your calendar right now, um, or set aside money or this is where to go get a loan if your, uh, payment doesn’t come through, um, et cetera. Just so they have like a go-to uh, person and also a go-to presentation that. And then I give them the link to the presentation, um, that is just full of notes and links <laugh>. So, um, those, that’s the main, uh, resource that I, uh, created. And then every year the, the presentation changes, just depending on how long the presentation is and, and what changes the university has undergone.
Emily (37:04): Your program is so lucky to have you honestly <laugh>, um, because a lot of the things you just listed, um, I actually have, I I even use the same like phrasing that you do, but I created a new workshop this year called Your Financial Orientation to Graduate School. Um, and so it’s got a lot of, it has credit, like I never talk about credit, but I decided to put it in there because I was like, this is the best time, like right at the start of graduate school to be, you know, reassessing, rethinking, um, starting to build credit if you haven’t before. Uh, but my main point though is that like, even when I’m brought in by a client to give this presentation for like a specific university, and I do look into some policies, like I try to figure out, um, about their tax policies and I try to figure out about their pay schedules and, and all that stuff, but it’s not honestly not the same as having the lived experience of and knowing all those details.
Emily (37:49): And so I honestly can’t get to that level right without working through across many different clients. So your program, UCLA more generally is very lucky to have you have put this together because these resources are needed and they are really hard to find. And until you have, um, walked through it, it’s, it’s hard to know everything that you need to know, right? Until you’ve been through it. So they’re lucky this is not happening at other places. Although by the end of this interview we’ll get to how can this be happening at more places. Um, but that is just awesome and amazing. So next phase of this is, you already mentioned that you would approach the financial wellness office, you know, sort of as a, as a, as a client. Um, but then at some point you started working with them. So can you tell us why you took that step?
Working For the Financial Wellness Office at UCLA
Elle (38:33): Definitely. So, um, at the end of my third, third year of graduate school, I had applied to an NRSA an F31 diversity. Um, and so it’s just a, a grant. Um, and I had completed my qualification exams, um, and I was sort of just looking for more whether that was, um, volunteering and I, and I signed up for some volunteer opportunities. Um, and then in the fall, um, one of the two financial graduate consult financial wellness graduate consultants, um, was no longer able to maintain the position. And so they put out like a mid-year, like hire, um, job posting. And so I said, great, I already know that this is a great office. I’ve already met with Sara, um, and I wanna be a part of this because I’m already doing so much of this work and I’m spending so much time on Reddit giving people financial advice, um, or to, uh, redirecting them to, to resources. And so, um, so I sort of wrote out a whole thing to my, to my PI saying, this is not a zero sum game. Like, this is how I will make sure that I maintain my hours in lab, because that still is my priority, but also this is a huge passion of mine and I feel like I can absolutely really help people to an even greater extent. Um, and so it was really nice just because that was all in like October of, of 2023, um, and I got my PI’s approval, which I, uh, needed, um, on a practical and moral level. Um, and, uh, so I applied the interview was, was great. And when I was, uh, being onboarded, um, things went really smoothly and they had me sort of just go through a lot of their, their training that they typically do with consultants over the summer. Um, but we were sort of working on a, on a condensed timeline. Um, but fortunately I had been able to educate myself a lot, um, in regards to personal finances and, uh, so a lot of the stuff I was just able to like reaffirm, um, and I think it was mostly like student loans that was, uh, I was mostly unfamiliar with just because I don’t have personal experience with those. Um, but then we just dove right in. Um, so after a few weeks of, of training, um, I was signing up for, for workshops and for appointments. And so those are the main aspects of my job is giving, uh, workshops and the slides were already created to undergraduate students and graduate students. Um, so clubs or organizations within UCLA could ask us to come and talk to them. So these were like resident assistants, um, who wanted us to talk about credit to their, uh, to their residents, um, in the residence halls or, uh, more specific like biology PhD students who wanted me to talk about, um, graduate school and investing. And so, um, they could request that we go and talk to the group, um, and, and just be, be available as a resource and really just tell them like, Hey, if you want to dive more into your personal situation, you can make an appointment with us. So that was the other aspect of my job was one-on-one coaching, um, just sort of helping people figure out what resources were available to them, um, just to, you know, and it kind of motivated them to put a little thing together, just say, this is where I am, this is where I wanna go, help me get there. Um, and so, um, that was a phenomenal opportunity and I got to speak to, um, not just PhD students in the Biosciences, but also PhD students, um, in, you know, the humanities and in education and also, uh, law students, medical students, um, master’s students who are about to enter, uh, some really high paying jobs, but they didn’t know what to look for in their offer letters or, um, how to talk about like, uh, restricted stock units. And so I, I really was able to get, um, a whole breadth of, of people to talk to and I was able to educate myself. So we would have the coaching appointment, um, and, and then I would follow up with, with actual links and sort of an outline of what we talked about, an action item list if we created one together. Um, and, and I think with almost every single followup email, um, I think I included one specific, uh, uh, uh, episode from your podcast, like Emily talks about it here. And so, um, especially for, for uh, students who were expecting parents or who had just had a baby, um, or living in family housing, I think those episodes were incredibly useful. Um, and so yeah, so that was sort of my experience with financial wellness.
Emily (43:13): So exciting. Again, what a credit you are to this office, <laugh>, um, coming in with a great deal of like knowledge and, and, um, experience talking with your peers and so forth.
Outtro
Emily (43:32): 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 Dr. Lourdes Bobbio and show notes creation by Dr. Jill Hoffman.
