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The Financial and Career Opportunities Available to National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows

April 20, 2020 by Meryem Ok

In this episode, Emily interviews Kelsey Wood, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow who now teaches others how to write competitive applications for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). They discuss the decisions that new fellows have to make regarding when to start receiving the funding and the internship opportunities available. Kelsey also issues a warning regarding paying quarterly estimated tax and gives great insights from her course for GRFP applicants. At the end of the interview, Kelsey shares her best financial advice for current graduate students and postdocs.

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Teaser

00:00 Kelsey: I think that a lot of times the graduate groups or the administration will attempt to get as much free labor out of graduate students as they can, but there is actually a lot of money there to pay people, so I think a lot of times grad students need to be proactive in asking for money for things like leading workshops or teaching classes, TA-ing, et cetera.

Introduction

00:26 Emily: Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast, a higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts. This is season five, episode 16, and today my guest is Kelsey Wood, a graduate student at UC Davis and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. We discuss the decisions that new NSF fellows have to make regarding when to start receiving the funding and the internship opportunities available. Kelsey also issues a warning regarding paying quarterly estimated tax. Throughout the interview, she shares her insights into how to best manage your finances as a fellowship recipient. Kelsey now teaches others how to write competitive GRFP applications, and she details some excellent strategies from the online course she developed. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Kelsey Wood.

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

01:15 Emily: I am so delighted to be joined on the podcast today by Kelsey Wood. She is currently a graduate student at UC Davis, and she is also a former NSF GRFP fellow. And she’s going to be talking to us about that program and also the advice that she gives people in her course regarding applying successfully for the application. So, Kelsey, I’m so glad to have you. Welcome! Will you please tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

01:39 Kelsey: Sure. Thanks for having me on. I am a PhD student about to graduate in integrated genetics and genomics at UC Davis and I currently am studying plant pathogen interactions. I got my bachelor’s in biology from Reed College where I studied animal behavior and then I happened to get a job in the biotechnology industry working on potato disease resistance. And I really liked my time in industry, but I found that I was frustrated that I couldn’t pursue my own independent research questions. So, I realized I needed to go to graduate school.

02:14 Kelsey: And so, I applied for the NSF GRFP during my first year. Mostly due to peer pressure from a senior grad student who was a GRFP fellow, and he actually gave a workshop on the fellowship where he basically convinced everyone to apply. And I’m glad I did because I actually got it. And then after I received the fellowship, I decided take over that workshop and also encourage other people to apply and give them tips on how they can actually get it. So, I’ve offered a variation of that workshop for the last five years, and I did an online version last year. I held some free webinars that were attended by over 200 people all across the U.S., and then I also offered an intensive workshop with additional webinars, one-on-one and personalized editing services. Participants said that was really helpful in preparing their applications. And actually, out of the 10 people who submitted in the workshop, three of them got it this year and one honorable mention. So, I’m really proud of them and happy that I kind of helped people to get it.

Kelsey’s NSF GFRP Workshop Updates

03:18 Emily: That’s incredible. Oh my gosh. I would have loved to participate in something like that when I was early on in graduate school. Tell people right up front where can they go to find more information about that course?

03:27 Kelsey: Right now, the best place to probably get updates on what I’m going to be offering it–and I’ll also be posting a lot of the materials–is my Twitter. It’s @klsywd (Kelsey Wood), but without any vowels. So, K L S Y W D.

03:42 Emily: So, it sounds like you were a fellow between your second and fourth years of graduate school. Is that right?

03:49 Kelsey: Let’s see. I started the fellowship–it would have been in June, 2014–the summer before my second year. Yeah.

Major Decision Points for NSF GRFP Recipients

03:58 Emily: Okay. And so, what are the decisions? Okay, so let’s say we’re speaking to one of the people who has just found out that they received the GRF. Amazing, congratulations! But they’re faced with a few decisions either right away or during the course of their tenure. So, can you talk through–kind of give them a little preview, what are those decisions that they need to make, and what are some things they should consider as they’re making them?

When To Start Receiving the Stipend

04:23 Kelsey: Sure. So, I mean the first one is when to start receiving the fellowship stipend. So, you’re technically a fellow for five years, but you’re only receiving the stipend for three of those years and then the other two years you’re on tenure–you’re either on tenure or on reserve. Anyways, you only get paid for three years and then the other two years you just you have additional benefits that you can receive from the fellowship, but you’re not paid any longer. And you can start that at any time. What you really want to consider is potentially what other funding sources you might be encountering during graduate school. For example, there are a number of fellowships that you can get after you’ve passed your qualifying exams, which usually happen second or third year. So, if you think you’re going to be applying and getting those fellowships, it can be really good just to start the GRFP right away.

Consider Timing (and Adequate Payment) for TAships

05:14 Kelsey: And then the other fellowship will take over once your GRFP funding runs out. Some really lucky people got multiple fellowships, actually, right at the beginning. Somebody I knew got the GRFP and the Ford fellowship this year, actually. So, they need to decide which ones, what order to get those because you can’t get them both at the same time. But that’s a pretty lucky problem to have. I would say that. And then the other thing is, some people have to do TAships in order to satisfy a degree requirement. And you can’t do a 50% TAship while you’re doing the GRFP. That’s not allowed. So, you might want to maybe get that out of the way first so you can pass your qualifying exams and have that TA under the thing. What I did is I actually TA-ed for free. But in retrospect, I don’t know if I would make that same decision again because it was a lot of work, and I don’t know. I’ve kind of changed my feelings on just doing things like volunteering and for free because there actually is–I think that a lot of times the graduate groups or the administration will attempt to get as much free labor out of graduate students as they can. But there is actually a lot of money there to pay people. So, I think a lot of times grad students need to be proactive in asking for money for things like leading workshops or teaching classes, TA-ing, et cetera. So, that’s what I found. I started asking for stipends for my workshop and I got them. I started asking for stipends for TA-ing grad level classes. They weren’t offering them before, and I started to get them. So, I think in retrospect I maybe would have tried to get paid for a TAship to meet my degree requirements and then taking the GRFP.

07:09 Emily: It is kind of strange that universities have different policies around who gets paid for doing what exactly, because TA-ing–sort of similar to your situation, but–in the department that I was in, in graduate school, we had what they called, a graduation requirement to TA for two semesters, and it was not tied to our stipend. So, we were all being paid in some manner, either research assistantship or on fellowship or something, but we just had to do this TA work on top of it during a couple of semesters. So, that was the way they structured it. It wasn’t tied to our income. But in other places, of course there are some people who are TAs and that’s their stipend and that’s their funding and that’s the source of it. But then there is even another option that I’ve heard of which is essentially sort of being hired as an adjunct, as a graduate student. So, it doesn’t have to do with your base stipend. That could still come from a fellowship or research assistantship or whatever else. But if you take on an additional class as a TA or even as the lead instructor, you could be paid like an adjunct would be paid. So, different places do things different ways.

Check with Your Advisor About Research Grant Cycles

08:11 Emily: But I think to your original point about deciding, “Okay, when do you want to be paid for these three years when you’re in those three years of having the GRF?” You said that you should think about, “Are you going to be applying for different kinds of fellowships post-quals or post-prelims? Are you going to need this TA thing?” You could potentially get it out of the way first and have your funding come from there, initially. I would also want to throw in there, maybe ask your advisor about research grants, and are they at the end of a grant cycle, the beginning of a grant cycle? Because that could also play into it. You don’t want to take the fellowship when your PI has tons of money and then, you know, three years later, maybe there is no funding there for you. So, that’s a potential risk too. So, it’s just kind of being open about what are all these financial factors within your department, within your group, that could play into this.

09:03 Kelsey: Yeah. And actually, that’s a really good point. Because for a lot of people, getting the GRFP actually influences what lab they can join because you’re coming in with your own funding. So, you might be able to join a lab that you wouldn’t have been able to join otherwise. And in that case, you’d probably want to start using your funding right away. And then, you know, you can essentially help your PI get other grants that will take over once the funding runs out. So, that’s a big benefit.

Are You Listed as a Dependent on Your Parents’ Tax Return?

09:33 Emily: I wanted to add one more point. It’s tax season right now. So, I’m thinking a lot about taxes. And so, this weird thing happens with fellowship funding when you’re under the age of 24. I don’t know how old you were when you first started, were you under 24?

09:48 Kelsey: No, I don’t think so.

09:49 Emily: Okay. Yeah. Because you had had at least one year of work experience. But if you’re starting when you’re 22 or 23, anytime that you have fellowship income in a year when you’re age 23 or younger, some weird stuff can happen with your tax return. Namely, your parents might be able to have more of a claim on you as a potential dependent on their tax return, which is not good for you if it turns out that way. And secondly, you might be hit with this weird high tax called the “Kiddie Tax.”

10:16 Emily: And so, I don’t want to go into all that right now, but if you go to my website, pfforphds.com/tax, there are articles there about both of these issues. But my point is just when you have fellowship income and you’re under the age of 24, sometimes it can have these weird effects of making you pay a lot more in tax than you would normally if you were over the age of 24. So, to me that’s just another factor that I want to throw in there of, “Hey, if you’re under the age of 24, maybe consider delaying a year until you actually turn 24, and then take the fellowship if your alternative is having a research assistantship instead, which is W2 income, which is treated somewhat differently tax-wise. So, more details about that if you want to talk with me about it or read about it more, but I’ll just throw that in there for those of you on the younger side.

25% TAships Possible During GRFP

11:00 Kelsey: That’s a really good point. Oh, and I actually thought of one more thing regarding TAships, which I think a lot of people don’t know–or I didn’t realize at first–is that it usually is possible to get a 25% TAship while getting the GRFP. So, that might be an option if that will satisfy your degree requirement. And the other benefit is that you actually get paid on top of the GRFP additional money for the 25% TAship, and that’s allowed within the GRFP rules. So, it’s just something to consider. I did that for one quarter, and it was really nice.

Financial and Career Opportunities for GRFP Recipients

11:34 Emily: Yeah, I love hearing all of these different ideas. Okay. So again, speaking with a new fellowship recipient, what are some of the financial and career opportunities that come along with receiving the fellowship?

11:46 Kelsey: Well, probably the biggest one is just the fact that the stipend is a lot higher than most standard stipends offered for grad students. And so, that makes a really big difference to be able to afford cost of living, which has really gone up in a lot of places, especially in California. I’m sure other places as well. And then another benefit for your career is that winning one fellowship usually leads to winning additional fellowships and awards. And I think one reason for this is that the reviewers look at your CV and they’re like impressed that you have the GRFP so they are more likely to give you these other awards. And then the other reason is that I think that just the practice of writing the fellowship in grants, you become better and better at it. And so you’re able to write more convincing applications.

12:35 Kelsey: So, for me personally, after I got the GRFP, I won research funds from UC Davis. I got like three or four travel awards for conferences. I got the USDA predoctoral fellowship. And then I also applied for a Dean’s award for mentorship and got that. And I’m pretty sure the GRFP helped me a lot in that. And also writing these and teaching classes on fellowship writing probably helped me also become a lot more convincing. So, that’s a huge benefit for your career.

Get the Snowball Rolling, Start Early

13:05 Emily: I’ll actually add in there that I think it makes a ton of sense, like what you’re doing with your course, or the students in your course, it makes a ton of sense to focus and put so much effort into these really early funding applications like before you enter graduate school in your first, maybe second year of graduate school. You don’t have to say, “Okay, this is going to be my bar for every application I’ll ever do.” But as you said, if you can get that snowball rolling of receiving awards right away in the start, it does make the rest of it easier and is very impressive. It’s a wonderful fellowship to win. So, I’ll just say, go take Kelsey’s course. Or somebody else’s. Just get these resources and make sure that you are putting as much effort as you possibly can into these early applications. And like you said, the skill of writing the application itself, that is something that carries over into the future. So, yeah, when you have your time before you’re deep into your research and you’re still doing your classes or whatever, make time for this. Make it almost like a course in your schedule in that semester that you’re applying. Because it really is worthwhile to put in the effort.

14:08 Kelsey: Yeah. And a lot of people don’t want to apply, for example, because they just don’t think they’re going to get it, for various reasons. And I encourage them just to do it anyways as an exercise. And usually by the end of it, I always ask my students during the course evaluation if they thought that the class was worth it, even if they don’t get the fellowship. And like 95% of them say yes, just because it’s the skill, it’s writing about your research. A lot of times if you’re actually writing about your real research, you can use that GRFP application in other grants or your qualifying exams, which is really useful. So yeah, definitely a good skill to get and to get early. And then if you get it, like you said, it’s just a snowball effect.

Internship and International Travel Opportunities

14:54 Kelsey: I was going to mention just the internship and the international travel opportunities that GRFP fellows are able to apply for. So, I didn’t actually apply to either of these, but I have known people who have done the Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide, the GROW program, and that just allows you to do like three to six months research abroad. You identify a host in another country and then you apply for it. And I heard it has around like a 50% acceptance rate, and they fully fund your travel and living expenses abroad. So, it’s just a nice way to kind of get some international experience, maybe learn a new technique, or use some instrumentation that’s not available at your home lab. And it’s just another fellowship you can add to your CV.

15:49 Emily: I’m also thinking that that’s just an incredible thing to be able to talk about in future job interviews, or whatever. Just having a different kind of experience that broke up graduate school a little bit. Expanding your network, you know, seeing things from another perspective. It’s in the name, right? It’s a real growth opportunity.

Even Without the GRFP, Talk to Your PI About Collaborations

16:08 Kelsey: And I mean, something to consider too is even if you don’t have the GRFP, if your PI does have enough funding, this is something you could probably set up on your own basically doing research in a collaborator’s lab internationally or in the U.S. So, I think it’s something to consider just to diversify the experience that you get and you can talk to your PI about it and it might be something they go for.

16:34 Emily: Yeah. I know actually one of my labmates while I was in graduate school did the Whitaker Fellowship. I don’t know how subject matter-specific that is, but he was able to spend nine months in East Asia. And yeah, I think it was a great experience.

16:48 Kelsey: Yeah. The NSF has another one too that I think is open to all, not just GRFP fellows, that’s just a travel abroad or research abroad fellowship. There are other ones out there too. So, it’s definitely something to look out for and apply for.

17:03 Emily: Okay. So, that was the GROW fellowship, but there’s another internship program, right?

17:07 Kelsey: Yeah. So, there’s the GRIP program. So, it’s the Graduate Research Internship Program, and that one you do research at a federal agency. I don’t know all the ones, but I know like you can do research in the Smithsonian for example, any of the agencies, basically the governmental agencies.

17:28 Emily: That also sounds like an incredible career opportunity.

17:32 Kelsey: Especially if you want to go into government research. You know, I think that nowadays more and more graduate students are realizing that the academic path of being a professor–there are so few opportunities for that and so many graduate students trying to get those, that a lot of people are considering alternative career paths like industry or government jobs. I had a lot of people who took my class who really wanted their end goal to be to work for a governmental agency and do research in that respect. And actually the NSF really encourages that for GRP applicants. So, I tell people, if that’s their career goal, to write about that in their application.

Timing of Internship Programs During Fellowship

18:16 Emily: Just to add on to that, I think having outside work experience before you actually finish your PhD is incredible for finding whatever your next job is. Even if you decide to stay within academia. Again, it gives you multiple perspectives, broader network. But a question I have about the internship programs, is that something that you have to do during your funded years or is that something you can still do on the remaining two years?

18:39 Kelsey: Yeah, that’s a good question. So, both the international program–the GROW program–and the internship program can be done while you’re on reserve. So, while you’re not receiving the stipend. So, it has to be done within the five-year period of when you first start the fellowship. But yeah, that’s really one of the benefits. And I think the GROW is really something you’d probably want to do towards the end of your graduate career–probably both programs–because one, it’s additional funding? So, maybe your GRFP funding has run out and now you can get some more funding for your travel and living expenses.

Design a Custom Internship

19:16 Kelsey: And then the other thing is that you really are probably better able to identify a lab or a governmental agency that would be a right fit for your research at that point. And actually something else regarding internships is, you know, there was a program at UC Davis that’s like the biotechnology program. It’s like a degree, an “emphasis,” and they require that you do an internship as part of the emphasis. But one thing I realized is, even if you’re not in a program like that or even if you’re not a GRFP fellow, you can a lot of times arrange an internship in industry towards the end of your graduate career. Potentially, the company will fund you to do that, too. And it can be a really good chance to explore these career opportunities.

20:07 Kelsey: A lot of times, if you end up doing a good job, the company will be really excited to hire you and it kind of lets you trial industry or trial a company and maybe contribute something else to your research, too. So, I just have realized that a lot of times you can kind of design your own programs. Obviously, you want your advisor to be on board with this, but a lot of times, especially if you can get funding from the company, then they’re going to be very happy about that and they also want to see you grow in your career. So, I think that’s something that people should consider. Even if you’re not a fellow or even if you don’t have an official program, you can kind of craft your own internships during graduate school.

20:51 Emily: Yeah, I totally agree. I think it’s one of the most powerful things you can do for your career, prior to finishing your PhD, while you know you have something to go back to after the summer ends, or whatever. I actually did a science policy fellowship that was three months, the Christine Mirzayan policy fellowship. It’s at the National Academies. And I did it after I finished my PhD. I applied basically around the same time that I was defending, but it’s open to current graduate students as well. In retrospect, sort of like you, I wish I had done it while I was still in my program and I think it would have informed some of the decisions that I made as I was finishing up. So, internships, great for everyone. I know not everyone thinks that internships are for them. I’m from an engineering field, so it’s sort of more normal to think about doing an internship. And of course in computer science or similar fields like that. But I think it’s expanding and it should expand more to other disciplines where it hasn’t been a traditional part of the PhD path.

Commercial

21:50 Emily: Hey social distancers, Emily here. I hope you’re doing okay. It took a few weeks, but I think I have my bearings about me in my new normal. There is a lot of uncertainty and fear right now about our public and personal health and our economy. I would like to help you feel more secure in your personal finances and plan and prepare for whatever financial future may come. You can schedule a free 15-minute call with me at pfforphds.com/coaching to determine if financial coaching with me is right for you at this time. I hope you will reach out, if only to speak with someone new for a few minutes. Take care. Now, back to our interview.

Financial Advice for Fellowship Recipients

22:36 Emily: So, let’s broaden this line of questioning a little bit. Not just for people who have just received the NSF GRFP, but people who have received it in previous years who are still receiving that higher stipend. And maybe other people who’ve received outside fellowships that also have some stipend augmentation based on that. What’s your financial advice for people who have received one of these lucrative outside fellowships?

File Estimated Quarterly Taxes (NOT Yearly)

23:00 Kelsey: Yeah, so I think the biggest pieces of advice I have are regarding taxes and savings. And so, the thing you should do immediately is start to file your taxes quarterly instead of yearly. And you can estimate how much taxes you’re going to have to pay quarterly so you can start to save up. My personal sob story is that I did not do this the first year and I ended up filing my taxes and I owed about $5,000, which I didn’t have saved up. So, I ended up having to do a payment plan with the IRS which charges interest, actually quite a bit of interest. So, I ended up having to pay way more in taxes than I would have if I had just started filing quarterly. So, do that right away. I know taxes are not fun, but it’s actually not too hard to calculate if you’re only getting the stipend income, and that’s way better than having to owe it.

23:56 Emily: Actually, let me pause there because this is one of my big areas, right? It’s tax for fellowship recipients. So, was that $5,000 just the IRS or was that split between California and federal?

24:08 Kelsey: Oh, yeah, it was California and federal, split.

24:10 Emily: Okay. That’s within the more reasonable realm. Okay. Yeah, definitely. I mean I’ve actually had, I think, two other people interviewed on the podcast who have also set up payment plans with the IRS based on this exact same situation. So, this is not at all uncommon, and it’s one of my big areas of focus is to get this information in front of new fellowship recipients. No longer is income tax–this is the case at almost all universities–no longer is income tax going to be automatically taken out of your paychecks. It’s something you now have to take responsibility for, like you were just saying.

Personal Finance for PhDs Tax Center

24:43 Emily: So, most likely you are going to be required to pay quarterly estimated tax. And I have a ton of materials about this. Again, if you go to pfforphds.com/tax there’s an article there. And in particular, I have actually a workshop for people in just this exact situation. If you go to pfforphds.com/qetax for quarterly estimated tax, it will forward you to my most recent workshop. And probably similar to yours, Kelsey, I have prerecorded videos for that, and I also do live Q&A calls to help people with questions as they come up through tax season. So, just because of when we’re recording this though, I want to add in that part of the response to the coronavirus crisis actually has been to delay the first, like the Q1 payment for 2020. So, just like with your annual tax return, right now, this year in 2020, it’s no longer April 15th, but rather it’s July 15th.

25:34 Emily: So, for those fellows out there, you have a little bit extra time to figure out what’s going on in 2020 regarding your quarterly estimated tax and making those payments. So, the first payment as of this recording is actually due [July] 15th, which is the quarter two payment. But yeah, totally a common story, like you were just saying, Kelsey, is just to not realize the change that had gone on with your income tax and catching up with it when you actually file your annual return and realizing, “Gosh, now I have all this money that I owe to the IRS.” So, how did that payment plan go for you? Like was the increase in stipend more manageable, or what were your tips around saving I guess?

Start Saving Immediately

26:11 Kelsey: Yeah, so I think I’m still paying off some of my taxes monthly for that. So, anyway, just do it ahead of time and you won’t have to worry about it. And then in terms of saving, the other thing is that, because the GRFP stipend is a lot higher than the normal grad student stipend, you can kind of get used to a certain style of living. Like you’re able to go out to eat more or buy more expensive groceries. And then as soon as the stipend stops, it can be kind of a shock. So, what I’d advise doing is actually just start saving almost immediately. And I use automatic monthly withdrawals to a mutual fund. And the benefit there is I don’t see the money. Like it’s just automatic.

27:02 Kelsey: The savings are out of sight, out of mind. And then when I actually really need it I can go and be like, “Okay, here’s how much I have.” And I’ve done that a few times. I used that to fund a vacation to Europe. And so I advise just like setting something up right away and make sure you can’t see the money. Save up for when the GRFP ends, and also just because you have all this extra money that you wouldn’t be getting otherwise, so you might as well save part of it and not just spend it all.

27:33 Emily: Yeah, I definitely echo what you’re saying. And I think especially where you’re living, it’s a high cost of living area. It’s probably already challenging to live just on that GRFP stipend and it’s certainly less than we’d be making if you were having a regular job. But, think about your peers who are somehow probably managing to survive, hopefully without debt, on that lower stipend level and see if you can maybe keep your fixed expenses, like your housing, your transportation, at that lower level, so that if your income does drop after the fellowship ends, you don’t have to move or you don’t have to sell your car. Or you can adjust the groceries and adjust the restaurant spending. And it’s much easier and more palatable than having to go through those more major upheavals. So, I totally agree with what you’re saying.

Stipend Negotiations and Bonuses for Fellowship Recipients

28:19 Emily: So, something I know that some fellowship recipients do–and it sounds like maybe you didn’t or maybe it wasn’t possible for you–is that once they know that they’re receiving the fellowship, they actually negotiate to have their stipend stay at that fellowship level. Even after it ends, instead of going back down to the baseline level. Or, alternatively, sometimes programs give out one-time bonuses to fellowship winners. Have you heard about that or have any experience in that area?

28:47 Kelsey: It’s something I thought about asking my PI, because after the fellowship ended, I was struggling a little bit, financially. I ended up doing the 25% TAship to recover that income. But I do think that, I mean it’s really going to depend on your PI and their sources of funding, but it is something that is possible, potentially.

29:15 Emily: Yeah. I think it’s kind of a “no harm in asking” situation. And actually, if you happen to receive this fellowship when you’re not yet committed to a program, so prior to starting your first year of graduate school, that is something I would take to every program that you’re heavily, heavily considering, saying, “Okay, I got this fellowship. Can you augment, can you extend the guarantee?” Like what more negotiation room is there now that you’re bringing in all this money for them, right?

29:46 Kelsey: I mean, exactly. You’re bringing in just about a hundred thousand in your stipend dollars alone, not to mention tuition and fees. So, it is pretty lucrative. It’s lucrative for a program and a lab to want to accept you because you’re coming in with all this money and you just asking like, “Oh hey, can I get an extra $5,000 a year?” When you’re bringing in $100,000, it’s really still a pretty good deal for them. So, I definitely encourage people to do it. I’d love to hear if anyone is successful at this.

Details on Kelsey’s NSF GRFP Course

30:17 Emily: Yeah, I always want to hear negotiation stories. Absolutely. Email or tweet me those. So, let’s hear more about your course and the content that you create there. You said the best place to find out more about that is your Twitter, could you repeat your handle?

30:34 Kelsey: Sure. It’s @ K L S Y W D (@klsywd). So, it’s my name without any vowels. It’s pronounced Kelsey Wood.

30:41 Emily: So, tell us a little bit more about the structure of the course. I know you’ve mentioned this a little bit upfront, but last year for example, you ran it between what month and what month and you know, what goes on in that time period?

30:53 Kelsey: Yeah, so one of my biggest pieces of advice for the GRFP is to start it early. So, it’s due in like October now. And if you’re on the quarter system, like UC Davis, classes start at the end of September. So, it’s basically due during the first month of classes and it’s also your first month of grad school. So, you’re either just starting in a lab or doing rotations, and that month is just crazy. So, if you don’t start the fellowship early, it’s going to be really hard to do it all and do it well. So, my course actually starts in August, so then you have kind of a full month to start to think about stuff, outline it.

31:35 Kelsey: And then you have September to really refine it before classes start. And then we do all the final drafting and editing in October. So yeah, my course is a three-month thing. And that’s one of the benefits of doing it online. I wasn’t able to start in August at UC Davis because not everyone had come to Davis yet because it was still summer. So, doing it online, I was able to get people just at least starting to think about it and getting ideas rolling. And so, what I do is I had four different webinars on different topics. So, I covered the two NSF criteria, which are intellectual merit and broader impacts. Basically like a full 45-minute webinar on both of those topics. And I think that’s really important because especially the broader impacts one is really confusing to a lot of people.

Focus on Broader Impacts, Know Your Audience

32:27 Kelsey: It’s something that you pretty much probably have never heard of until the NSF fellowship. And it’s a really important part of that fellowship, too. So, I really emphasize the importance of that. And also, it’s really important that you get broader impacts experience before you apply. And if you’re starting the application early or even people who are listening to this, thinking about applying for next year, should basically right now find some activity that you can do that you can write about in your broader impacts section. So, volunteering, outreach, teaching, et cetera. Because if you don’t have any experience, you’re not going to get it. And then I also do a webinar on writing tips. The biggest one that I’ve learned in all my years of writing is probably just like really knowing your audience and writing for them.

33:21 Kelsey: So, you really want to just imagine who’s reading it and who they want to fund, and you really want to just be that person that they want to fund. I help people do that in their essays. Something else that’s really interesting, and it actually might be a regional difference, is in the way that you want to sell yourself in these essays. So, a lot of people are really understated or humble, and I’m like, “No, you have got to really come off like a rock star and show off all the awesome things that you’ve done.” And apparently, somebody told me that that’s actually frowned upon in the UK or in Europe to do that in your grants.

34:10 Kelsey: But in the U.S., at least, it seems to be more popular or more of a winning technique. And so, the other part of the course is that I read people’s essays and give them a ton of tips and just help them write it and rewrite it to just have a better chance of getting the fellowship. And I also set up peer editing groups, too. And I do think that that’s something you want to do, if you take a class or not. Just find somebody who, especially who’s experienced with the NSF, and have them read your proposal and give you feedback. So, for example, when I applied, I was really lucky to have a former NSF reviewer read my application and give me feedback. And he pretty much destroyed my initial draft. It was red everywhere and he’s like, “Get to the point. Be more concise. This is too vague.” And so, I kind of have internalized his feedback and I use that now when I’m editing people’s essays.

35:13 Emily: Yeah, that sounds incredible. Thanks so much for telling us about the course. And were there any other tips you wanted to add in? I know you just gave several already, but any others?

35:23 Kelsey: I guess the last one would also just be to read a lot of example essays, too, for inspiration. And there are a lot out there. I have my own personal collection. I actually have quite a few in my personal collection that I share with people in the course. And then the ones that are okay to share publicly, I’ll probably be posting on my Twitter or on my website once I get that up.

Best Financial Advice for Early-Career PhDs

35:46 Emily: Yeah, that sounds great. Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for joining me for the interview today. And final question that I ask of all my guests is what is your best financial advice for another early-career PhD?

35:59 Kelsey: Well, I think the number one is to apply for fellowships and you know, cast a wide net and apply for anything that you’re eligible for, pretty much. I think it’s totally worth it. I have a quote that’s from that previous grad student who helped with the NSF workshop, which is, “You win 0% of the fellowships you don’t apply for.” So, I think it’s worth it. You can do it. And I guess the other thing is that I think it is important to consider the cost of living and the stipend amount when you are choosing a graduate school. I don’t know. This wasn’t really made apparent to me. And you know, you’re just like, “Oh no, you just choose the best school or the best lab.” But there is kind of a range in stipends across the U.S. and cost of living. So, I think it’s something to really consider because your finances are a part of your happiness in grad school. So, apply for fellowships, and consider that.

36:58 Emily: Totally, totally concur. Absolutely. Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for joining me today and telling us more about these decisions that come up for GRFP recipients and your own experience and about this fabulous course. Thank you.

37:10 Kelsey: Yeah. Thank you.

Outtro

37:12 Emily: Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode. Pfforphds.com/podcast is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There, you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, please consider joining my mailing list for my behind-the-scenes commentary about each episode. Register at pfforphds.com/subscribe. See you in the next episode! And remember, you don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance, but it helps. The music is Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear from the free music archive and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing and show notes creation by Meryem Ok.

How and When Will I Receive My Stimulus Check?

April 16, 2020 by Emily

In this episode, Emily explains how and when the stimulus checks from the CARES Act will be sent to qualifying individuals. She points to new IRS tools to help you track your payment and ensure that your payment arrives in a timely fashion. A minority of citizens and residents may need to submit their 2019 tax returns or other information prior to receiving their checks.

Links Mentioned in the Episode

Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs Podcast: a higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts.

This is Season 5 Bonus Episode 2, and in this episode I will answer the question: How and when will I receive my stimulus check?

I’m recording this on April 15, 2020. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act aka the CARES Act was signed into law a little less than three weeks ago, and one of the major components of the bill was economic impact payments aka stimulus checks sent to qualifying individuals.

Stimulus checks have just started arriving in people’s bank accounts this week. In fact, my family’s stimulus check showed up this morning.

If you are expecting a stimulus check but it hasn’t arrived yet, you are probably quite anxious to know when it will come and if there is anything that you need to do to hasten the process, so that is the subject of this podcast episode.

For most Americans, the stimulus check will be delivered automatically, without having to take any action. However, some people do need to take steps to receive the payment or to receive it sooner.

While you’re listening to this episode, I suggest you go to the URL IRS.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments. That link will be in the show notes for this episode as well.

On that page you will find a link to the Get My Payment tool, which was launched earlier today. That is where you can check on the status of your stimulus check so you know when it will arrive. You can also provide the IRS with your banking information to enable direct deposit.

If you received a tax refund last year by paper check, chances are the IRS does not have the ability to directly deposit your stimulus check into your bank account. The same goes for if in the last two years you paid additional tax along with your tax return, which is common for fellowship recipients who don’t have automatic income tax withholding. In that case, you should use the Get My Payment tool to submit that information. If you’re eligible for a stimulus check but don’t have that direct deposit information on file, you’ll likely wait several months to receive your paper check rather than just days or weeks for the direct deposit.

Further reading: The Complete Guide to Quarterly Estimated Tax for Fellowship Recipients

If you were not required to file a tax return in 2019 or 2018, you should go to the other link on the webpage I referenced, which is called Non-Filers: Enter Payment Info Here and fill out the application. It is a very short form to collect your information so that IRS can issue the payment. You do not need to take this step if you receive Social Security retirement, disability, or survivor benefits or Railroad Retirement and Survivor Benefits.

For some of the younger members of my audience, perhaps 2019 was the first year in which you were ever required to file a tax return. In that case, according to the Get My Payment webpage, you do have to file your 2019 tax return to get your stimulus check. If you need help doing that, you can find all my best resources at PFforPhDs.com/tax.

Now, let’s say you qualify for a stimulus check but for some reason you don’t receive it or the one you receive is not as large as it should have been. You can rectify this on your 2020 tax return.

The stimulus money is technically a new refundable credit for 2020 paid out in advance of the tax filing season. Therefore, on your 2020 tax return, you can show that you should have received more of this stimulus money, and the IRS can add the missing money to the tax refund you receive in spring 2021.

If you are not sure if you are eligible for a stimulus check or have other CARES Act-related questions, I recommend purchasing the webinar I gave last Saturday, April 11. You can find the webinar page at PFforPhDs.com/CARES.

I’ll leave you with one final note about scams. IRS scams have run rampant in recent years, and the stimulus checks are an enormous opportunity for scammers. Please be vigilant against phishing or scam attempts both for yourself and your elderly loved ones, who are particularly vulnerable. The IRS will not ask you for your personal information via phone, text, email, or social media. Don’t open unexpected emails that appear to be from the IRS. Please report phishing attempts directly to the IRS.

That’s it for this episode! I’ll catch you again on Monday for our next regularly scheduled interview.

Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode!

pfforphds.com/podcast/ is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved!

If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, please consider joining my mailing list for my behind-the-scenes commentary about each episode. Register at PFforPhDs.com/subscribe/.

See you in the next episode, and remember: You don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance… but it helps!

The music is “Stages of Awakening” by Podington Bear from the Free Music Archive and is shared under CC by NC.

This PhD Student Buys Her Time Back by Living Car-Free

April 6, 2020 by Meryem Ok

In this episode, Emily interviews Alina Christenbury, a first-year PhD student in computer science at the University of Delaware. Alina doesn’t own a car, preferring to bicycle for her daily commute to her university and around town as much as possible. She relies on her roommate, sister, and other friends for occasional rides to the grocery store, bus stop, or hometown, but also uses ridesharing apps and dreams of owning a portable bicycle. While living car-free certainly helps keep Alina’s expenses down, the reasons for and benefits of her commitment to a cycling lifestyle go far beyond money. This is a great episode for anyone interested in living car-free.

Links Mentioned in this Episode

Teaser

00:00 Alina: I think, financially, it’s generally a really good idea to have your priorities figured out. Like I’ve decided personally for me right now that cars are not important at all. And that lets me focus on things that are more important and dedicate my time and energy and resources to the ones that do matter.

Intro

00:25 Emily: Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast, a higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts. This is season five, episode 14, and today my guest is Alina Christenbury, a first-year PhD student in computer science at the University of Delaware. Alina is committed to cycling and does not own a car, which frees up a great amount of her income and time to be used for other purposes. We discuss how the location of your home and your city’s infrastructure can support or not support a cycling lifestyle as well as how Alina handles transporting groceries and traveling outside of her city. At the end of the episode, we touch on how Alina’s cycling lifestyle supports her values of frugality, time freedom, and sustainability. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Alina Christenbury.

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

01:16 Emily: I am delighted to have joining me on the podcast today Alina Christenbury, and she is going to be talking to us about a commitment to cycling, which is a topic that I’ve been searching to find someone to talk about. So, I’m so glad that Alina and I found one another. On Twitter, in fact. I’m really excited about this. So, Alina, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. And will you please tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

01:37 Alina: Yeah! Thanks for having me and everything. So, I just finished up my undergrad degree at the University of Delaware in computer science, and I just started my PhD in spatial computing–well, technically computer science, but the study area is spacial computing–in June. So, that’s very recent.

02:00 Emily: Yeah, I should say we’re recording this in August, 2019.

02:04 Alina: Yes.

02:05 Emily: So, you have just, in the past few months, it sounds like, transitioned out of undergrad and into a PhD program.

Transitioning from Undergrad Into Grad School

02:09 Alina: Yeah. I wasn’t really planning on doing this, but then circumstances kind of arose where it seemed like it was a good idea for me. Particularly, they hired this professor who started a human-computer interaction lab at the university. So, that’s very related to my interests, and I kind of immediately latched onto her. She’s cool, and I’m working in her lab. I’ve been working in her lab for the past year now, since she was hired, essentially. So, yeah, it’s going pretty well, I think. For the lack of planning that it had, it’s turned out really well.

02:49 Emily: That’s really good to hear. It is a pretty easy way to get into a PhD is to just work with someone in an undergrad who you’re really clicking with and they just say, “Yeah, just come into my program, just come into my lab. I’ll accept you. I’ll make it happen. You don’t even need to apply, or you know, submit your GREs or whatever has to happen.” But yeah, it’s a great, stress-free way to go about it. So, you must like the University of Delaware to want to stay there longer, right?

03:14 Alina: It’s a good place. I started going here because it was in-state and because tuition costs are crazy and I’m not trying to incur a lifetime of debt. So, that’s kind of why I ended up going here initially. But I’ve kind of grown to really like the bikeability of the place, which is definitely really a contributing factor into how I’m going to examine life situations for the rest of my life. And I’ve gotten a lot of friends and kind of buried myself in a community here. So, yeah, I like it so far.

Personal History with Biking and Driving

03:53 Emily: Great. I’m so glad you brought up bikeability and the environment that you’re in right now because of course, that’s the topic that we have for today. So, tell us what is your personal history with biking and also car ownership? Have you always been a cyclist? Have you ever owned a car? That kind of thing.

04:12 Alina: So, in high school, I started driving. I used to live in southern Delaware, which is like an hour and a half south from where I am now. And you have to drive there because it’s just so spread out and very rural. And then when I moved to Newark, I pretty much immediately got a bike because it’s a lot closer and it’s actually viable for someone to bike here on a regular basis without too much hassle. So, I started in undergrad, like 2015 I want to say. And I’ve been biking pretty much daily ever since. Just commuting and going to classes, living life. I still do take infrequent car trips particularly for grocery shopping and visiting family downstate because they’re far away and I don’t want to take three days to go see my family, just getting there. So, yeah.

05:02 Emily: Yeah. We’ll get into kind of all those challenges in a moment. But first, I kind of wanted to ask you. So, okay, you’ve just transitioned out of undergrad. Are you living off-campus? Or were you living on campus for part of undergrad? Or what’s been the living situation versus where you work?

Commuting to/from Campus in Grad School

05:21 Alina: So, I live off-campus but very close. It’s maybe a six-minute bike ride from The Green, which is the central area for the University, pretty much. It’s maybe a 20-minute walk or so. Some people bike, some people drive. There are a lot of commuting options. I’ve pretty much always lived just off of campus within a 10-minute bike ride max, which has definitely helped a lot. So, yeah, the one time I stayed in dorms, even then it was on the northern part of campus, which is farther from the base hub of it. So, even when I was living on campus, it was kind of off-campus and still far enough away to make biking seem much more appealing than just walking everywhere.

06:12 Emily: That’s good to hear that you have been able to situate yourself so close to campus. And maybe you don’t know yet because you’ve been a graduate student for a short amount of time, but do a lot of graduate students live that close to campus or do some people live farther away?

06:28 Alina: The few whose houses I’ve been to are pretty close. There’s this one guy, Kent, who lives about the same distance as me, and I’m actually living with another grad student in another department in the same house and he’s as far away from campus as me. So, I’m not totally sure how common it is across the total grad student population, but I’m not the only person doing this.

06:53 Emily: Yeah. There are at least some opportunities to live that close to campus.

06:57 Alina: Yeah.

Bikeability of Newark, Delaware

06:57 Emily: So, tell me a little bit more about the city and how it’s set up to support cycling or not.

07:06 Alina: So, it’s very much a college town. The University really defines a lot of how Newark operates. So, during the summer it’s very, very quiet because all of the students are just gone. But beyond that, infrastructure-wise, there are a handful of bike lanes. Campus itself is very bikeable so you can pretty easily weave in between different university buildings and everything to get around, which is helpful. They’re actually redoing some of the main streets over the summer while a lot of the students are gone, which should make it even easier in the future. But yeah, so it’s set up pretty well to just be a person on a bike, which is not something you can say about every place.

07:48 Emily: Yeah. So, specifically, when you say it’s set up pretty well, can you describe exactly what you mean by that? Like, are there dedicated bike lanes? How do the drivers behave?

08:02 Alina: Dedicated bike lanes is the big one. Drivers aren’t too aggressive. I mean, it’s a small city, so there’s not hyper crazy traffic like somewhere in like New York. Yeah, I don’t think there are any protected bike lanes. There are some bike trails though that kind of snake in circles around. And then there are like some different park-ish areas that it goes through too. So, that definitely helps a lot too, I think.

Comparison to Dedicated Bike Lanes in Seattle, WA

08:33 Emily: Yeah. So, I’m at home in my apartment in Seattle right now, I’m looking out the windows onto a rather major street from my neighborhood that we live off of. And in the last couple of years that street has switched from having, I would say not actual–I guess there are bike lanes, right. But they’re not protected. So, on either side of the road, right. One going north, one going South. It switched to having a totally separate bike lane in parallel with the road that essentially takes up about as much room as a car lane. But there was, not physical barriers, but some space between the bike lane pair and the car lane pair. And my husband cycles to work along this road. And so, I think it’s really been helpful in giving me peace of mind knowing that he’s not so close to cars, you know?

09:18 Alina: Yeah.

09:18 Emily: But it sounds like there aren’t necessarily dedicated bike lanes like that, but there is designated space on either side of a lane of traffic for bikes.

09:25 Alina: Yeah, it’s more like where the shoulder would be is a bike lane and then maybe a shoulder beyond that. I do love how some cities are doing the dedicated bike lanes thing. And I wish we had more of that, but it’s hard to say how it’s going to shape out, I guess.

09:41 Emily: Yeah, there’s actually–not super close to where we live, but along the same road and bike path at a little bit of a more major intersection–the bike lane even has its own traffic light now, which I feel like is so European or something. Like, wow, the bike lane has its own traffic light and a time when they’re allowed to go and the cars aren’t allowed to go. In Seattle, there are a lot of people who commute not by single car. A lot of people cycle here. So yeah, the infrastructure is really being set up to support that. So, it’s really nice.

When Driving is a Necessity

10:11 Emily: Okay. So, we talked about Newark a bit. So, you brought up earlier that you do use cars infrequently for some certain special situations. So, when you do have a challenge, what are the kinds of things that you can’t or don’t at this point accomplish on your bike? And then what do you do to accomplish them?

#1 Grocery Shopping

10:30 Alina: So, the most frequent is probably grocery shopping, which I can kind of do, but I’m only within range of the more expensive grocery stores and the cheaper ones are a little farther away. Usually, I’ll go like grocery shopping with one of my roommates and we’ll just pick up a bunch of stuff for the week and then bring it home, everything. But sometimes for single one-off bits where I need food for just tonight, I’ll just bike to one of the stores and get like two things.

10:56 Emily: Is the main challenge more the distance or is it more transporting the groceries?

11:02 Alina: It’s more distance. For transportation, if it’s like only a couple items, I generally have a basket on the back of my bike that can handle small amounts. Not a whole truckload or anything of groceries, but enough for like two people for a week. And yeah, some of the other grocery stores are just, again, farther away and it’s like an hour-long bike ride to get there and then back would be another hour. It’s not necessarily as feasible.

11:35 Emily: You know, I saw a really funny thing the other day. I was just at Costco a couple of nights ago because I’m a Costco shopper. I actually saw someone in Costco in cycling type clothing and he had one of these little trailers that usually goes behind a bike that I see children sitting in but it was filled up with his Costco bulk food. It’s like, wow–and he also had his dog, like, you are dedicated to your craft, sir.

12:03 Alina: Part of me wants to try that one day. But I have not gotten around to it.

12:08 Emily: Yeah, I’ve never seen that before, but it happened just this week. Yeah. So, okay. So, you covered grocery shopping, but you also mentioned when you go visit your hometown because of your parents in that situation.

#2 Visiting Family

12:20 Alina: Yeah. So, my parents and six younger sisters all live in Millsboro, which is a little bit of a drive. So, maybe every couple months I’ll go down there for a weekend and hang out, you know, missing them and everything. So, it works pretty well. My sister coincidentally lives right across the street. So, she’s very close and we’ll generally drive down together for a couple of days.

12:50 Emily: So, if I’m hearing this correctly, your sister lives where you do and has a car?

12:56 Alina: Yes.

12:56 Emily: And so, you will both go back and visit at the same time. And that’s how you get there. Have you ever traveled without your sister?

Community Reliance When Car-Free

13:04 Alina: Yeah. So, sometimes she’ll drop me off at the bus station and stuff, or I’ll just borrow her car. So, those are kind of some of the workarounds there. Sometimes I’ll take trips up to see friends in New York for a weekend or two and they’ll just drop me off at the bus station in Wilmington and I’ll just take a Greyhound, which I don’t know if I’d recommend. The Greyhound is okay. It’s very cheap but a time.

13:32 Emily: So, I had one year when I lived car-free when I was living just outside of DC. I was working at the NIH and I had a postbac there and I lived car-free. But, like you, I did some things borrowing other people’s cars or asking for rides from other people. So, the grocery situation, right? Going with a roommate. My now-husband, then-boyfriend, when he would drive his car to visit me there in Maryland, I’d be like, “Okay, well, you’re coming for the weekend. Awesome. We’re going to go to the grocery store as part of this trip. So I could mooch off you with the car situation.” So, I’m very familiar with this solution of, “Well, you end up relying on your community a little bit.” Which is not a bad thing. But I wonder, so in the 10 plus years since I did that one year living car-free, ridesharing has become a total thing. So, do you use Uber or Lyft or anything like that to any degree?

14:32 Alina: Not on a daily basis. I have occasionally used it to get to bus stations and airports and stuff. Just when the timing hasn’t worked out for other people. But generally, I try to go with friends and just make a whole thing out of it. So, yeah. I’ve mostly used it when navigating other cities when in conferences and stuff. But I kind of really want to get a folding bike so I can just take it with me and do that instead of relying on Uber and Lyft and those kinds of ride-sharing services.

Portability of Folding Bikes

15:06 Emily: Yeah, I saw a folding bike actually for sale a couple of days ago. I don’t know if I’d seen one in person before. It was very impressively small, but it looked kind of heavy. I don’t know. I didn’t try picking it up. How portable are they, really?

15:19 Alina: I mean it depends, right? There are ones that will fold to the size of maybe, I don’t know a good comparison for this, like a large dog, I guess? And then others that’ll be a lot smaller and just very light. There are a lot of variants within that whole arena. But I think if I can get one that is small enough that I could just carry it on a plane or a train or something, I think that’ll deal with a lot of those niche edge cases when traveling in other places. So, yeah.

15:53 Emily: Yeah, I would think that if you’re able to bike to a public transit hub and then take your bike with you, if it’s going to be a longer trip, that can definitely solve a lot of those issues.

Commercial

16:08 Emily: Emily here for a brief interlude. Tax season is upon us, and while no one loves this time of year, it’s particularly difficult for post-bac fellows, funded grad students, and postdoc fellows. Even professional tax preparers are often thrown for a loop by our unique tax situation. And don’t get me started on tax software. I provide tons of support at this time of year for PhD trainees preparing their tax returns, from free articles and videos, to paid at-your-own-pace workshops, to live seminars and webinars for universities and research institutes. The best place to go to check out all of this material is pfforphds.com/tax. That’s P F F O R P H D S.com/T A X. Don’t struggle through tax season on your own. Visit my website for the exact information you need in the most efficient form available. Now back to the interview.

Benefits to Living Car-Free

17:12 Emily: What benefits have you experienced by this commitment to living car-free?

17:17 Alina: So, it gets me outside, which is really nice. It’s one of those things where I am not naturally very motivated to exercise without a real reason. And transportation is a real reason that gets me consistently sort of working out, but just moving and doing something with my body. I only really recently started going to the gym regularly with some friends and that was mostly for social reasons and not necessarily for fitness. So, it kind of built-in this exercise regimen without me necessarily having to think about it and plan for it and everything, which is I think is really helpful. So, yeah.

17:58 Emily: Yeah. So, you get outside. You get your body moving. This is a personal finance show, let’s talk about the numbers. Let’s start with how much money you are spending. So, where did you get this bike from? And how much does the maintenance cost?

18:14 Alina: So, the bike I got at a local bike shop. I think it was around $500, and then another maybe $200 and little add-ons like the rack and some bike bags and stuff. And then maybe once or twice a year, I’ll take it back over there for maintenance. But initially, when I got it, I got a maintenance plan. So, even when I do get it maintained, the labor’s free and I only have to pay for parts. So, I maybe get my brake pads replaced once every year or two years, or so. And then stuff like with tires blowing out or whatever is also pretty infrequent. So, it’s really not a lot. I’d say like a hundred in maintenance a year. And I’m not paying for insurance. I’m not paying for gas. I’m not paying for the “car” bike itself. So, yeah. I haven’t really looked into buying a car, so I don’t totally know what the numbers would look like if I were doing that instead. But I think the financial savings are pretty substantial just based on the frequency of use alone.

19:19 Emily: Yeah. I mean, I can tell you as a car owner, cars are a lot more expensive. Even a very, very cheap car–several times as expensive as a bike as well. And really, the gas costs, the insurance, as you mentioned.

19:33 Alina: It all adds up over time.

19:35 Emily: Yeah. And the maintenance, too, on a car is like–if you haven’t planned for it, if you haven’t saved for it, budgeted for it–it can be a real shock. I mean $500, a thousand dollars, multi-thousand dollars easily for maintenance. And you’re just not going to get to that scale with a new bike. You’re just going to buy a new bike if things got to that degree of a problem. Yeah. So, I’m sure it helps with the budgeting and everything. So, yeah. Have there been any downsides to this commitment? Aside from the slight challenges that we’ve already discussed. Like I don’t know, maybe weather? Anything like that?

Downsides to Biking Commitment: Weather and Community Reliance

20:10 Alina: I was going to say, the weather is probably the biggest one. I definitely have to limit how I dress in certain ways during certain seasons in order to accommodate this. It’s pretty hard for me to wear longer dresses and skirts and stuff because it can just get caught up with the gears and everything. And then I definitely have to layer well, particularly in cold and rainy weather. Otherwise, my entire body just gets soaked, which is not great. I don’t recommend it. But yeah, that’s probably the biggest one, honestly. And then again, the community reliance is a little bit annoying sometimes. But we have backups for that, like Uber and Lyft, so it’s not as much of a hurdle as it would be otherwise. Yeah, those are the two biggest downsides, I think.

21:05 Emily: Yeah, it definitely sounds like a worthwhile tradeoff given the amount of money that you are not spending. And I can just say, again, my husband cycles to work. We live in Seattle. It rains–not heavily, but quite frequently–here. And so, he’s biking in the rain a lot and like you said, he had to buy some special clothing that’s water-resistant, waterproof. But after that, he’s pretty okay. Like, it’s alright, he just takes off that layer when he gets to work and puts it back on when he leaves again.

Peer Perceptions About Not Owning a Car

21:34 Emily: So, what do your peers think about you not having a car? Is this an unusual thing?

21:44 Alina: I don’t think it’s totally unusual for this age range and location. I’ve definitely convinced some of them to try this more because I really like this, I just talk about it a lot. So, I’ve kind of seen a handful of my friends pick up their own bikes over time, which is always like, “You’re doing it! Good job, I’m proud of you.” So, I mean, they’re generally supportive, I think. So, yeah.

22:13 Emily: It’s clear from your enthusiasm in this conversation that you are a biking evangelist, right? You want to spread the good word about biking.

22:23 Alina: Yeah! It’s so much cheaper! There are so many benefits!

Additional Bike Benefit: Sustainability

22:28 Emily: Well, another benefit that you haven’t brought up yet is sustainability and energy usage. So, can you talk a little bit about that?

22:34 Alina: Yeah. So, the only thing it really costs is human energy. And even that is beneficial because it’s cheaper than a gym membership, for one, but it doesn’t pollute the air, which is a perk. And it’s very location-dependent, but if you can get past that, it doesn’t damage anything.

23:09 Emily: Yeah. I have observed that there are many, many overlaps between frugality and living a more sustainable or a smaller carbon footprint kind of life. This is one of the big areas, right? If you drive less, if you can drive less to the degree that you don’t even need to own a car, then you’re really shrinking your carbon footprint as well as not having those line items in your budget that are pretty big ones.

23:38 Emily: I mean after housing, transportation, and food are like the next two big expenses for Americans. And so, if you can pretty much eliminate one of those three big ones by using a bike instead–as we said, it’s a very small outlay of cash to buy the bike and the maintenance is very, very low–it has an incredible impact on your finances, but you can also feel good about the impact on the Earth, right?

24:05 Alina: It doesn’t use as many resources as a car, that’s just fact.

24:08 Emily: Right. And many, many of us Americans, we have calories to expend, I’ll put it that way. There’s plenty that we’re already eating that if we decided to burn it off through biking, that’s a great use. As you said, instead of maybe going to the gym. Like maybe just building this exercise into your general lifestyle and then not having to seek it out on extra time and extra kind of dedicated way that again, costs more money as you were just saying. I understand that you are, well, I don’t know what you’d like to call yourself. Some people say FIRE walkers, right? What’s the term that you like? You are pursuing FIRE, which is financial independence and early retirement, and I understand that this cycling lifestyle plays into that. Can you talk a little bit about that?

FIRE: Financial Independence and Early Retirement

24:56 Alina: I mean, I don’t really like titles. I’m just a person trying to live in what I think is the best way that I know of so far. But the FIRE movement is really inspiring and I think really had an influence on how I look at priorities in life and what really, really matters. And cars, I’ve decided really don’t matter for me and I’m willing to work around that in other ways to work on other things. I think freeing up most of my time is really important just so I can work on things that aren’t necessarily going to be paid. So, I wouldn’t necessarily say volunteering, but community organizing is really important to me. Game design is really important, and there are all kinds of other things that are more deserving of my attention than cars. So, this helps free up the most time for that, I think.

25:57 Emily: Mhm. So, you’re really thinking about and being inspired by the FIRE movement, not only in having more control and autonomy over your finances but also over your time?

26:06 Alina: Yeah, I mean I view it as buying my time back, really. This is a really big motivation for looking into it and kind of following a lot of the tenets, I guess. So, it’s one of those things where I don’t think the ultimate purpose of humanity is to work and accumulate capital, right? There’s so much else to do, but you have to have the time and autonomy to do that. And if you don’t have that, then you turn it into this negative cycle of just always working for someone else and never really fulfilling what you really want to do with your time.

More Details About the FIRE Movement

26:43 Emily: Mhm. Yeah, so we haven’t really defined this that well in this episode, but if people want to hear more about FIRE, financial independence and early retirement, I did a two-part interview with someone else pursuing FIRE, Dr. Gov Worker, that was published in season three of the podcast. So, you can go check that out. But basically what we’re talking about is lowering your expenses, raising your income, saving a whole lot of money so that you can, as you were just saying, buy back your time. Maybe you want to leave your job, eventually. That would be more like what we call retirement. Maybe you want to do that particularly early, early retirement, or maybe you just want to have the ability to be able to have more control over what your job is. Like have more negotiation ability around what your job is because you have the ability to walk away.

27:29 Alina: Being able to say, “No,” matters so much because if you feel like you can’t say, “No,” to bad opportunities and bad decisions, then you don’t really have a lot of power over your life. And then it just gets really depressing, which is where policies like universal basic income can be really empowering to kind of fix that issue for the general person across everywhere instead of specific niches that are trying to do it themselves.

28:03 Emily: Yeah. This is so interesting. I would love to talk about this topic further, but we said we were going to keep this episode about cycling, so that’s I think we’re we’ll leave it. So, there’s definitely a lot to follow up on if other people are interested in being inspired by the FIRE movement, as you were. Can you give a couple of recommendations for where you learned about this or maybe people to follow in the movement that you like?

Personal Finance Subreddit and Mr. Money Mustache

28:27 Alina: So, the only real interaction I had was the personal finance subreddit. They have a very extensive FAQ and Wiki, and it goes into a lot of different detail about different strategies for managing your finances and potentially reaching early retirement. Mr. Money Mustache is also the really big figure people probably should already know about him by now. He’s been around. And then I actually took a personal finance class in high school because I was like, “I need to be prepared for this. It’s an inevitability of adult life.” So, those are the majority of my influences here.

29:06 Emily: Yeah, that’s great to know. I also really enjoy the personal finance subreddit. Mr. Money Mustache–you have to have a certain taste for his material. I’ll say that. You either love him or not so much, but he’s a great person to have at least a little bit of exposure to, as you said, because he’s such an influential figure in the FIRE movement broadly. The thing is, his definition of frugality, definition of what living a rich life is on a low amount of money is very compatible and consistent with the graduate student experience. So, if you are looking for ways that you can be inspired to spend less money–maybe because you don’t have money to spend–Mr. Money Mustache is a great person to look to and he is, not surprisingly, a huge cycling advocate as you are. Yeah. So, if you’ve been intrigued by what Alina’s had to say, as a next step, go to Mr. Money Mustache’s blog and read more about cycling because he will definitely motivate you.

30:09 Alina: Oh my gosh. Yeah, he’s crazier about it than me.

Best Finance Advice for an Early-Career PhD

30:12 Emily: Yes, he’s very committed. So, last question here as we wrap up. What is your best financial advice for another early-career PhD?

30:21 Alina: So, I think, financially, it’s generally a really good idea to have your priorities figured out. I’ve decided personally for me right now that cars are not important at all. And that lets me focus on things that are more important and dedicate my time and energy and resources to the ones that do matter. And if you don’t necessarily have that straightened out, it can be kind of difficult to budget and figure out what you really want. And finance is just another element of that.

30:53 Emily: Yeah, I totally, totally agree. I mean getting your priorities straight, figuring out what’s most important to you is super foundational and helpful in personal finance, but it’s really something that you need to know in every area of your life. Especially as a graduate student or a postdoc and early-career PhD, you’re making a lot of decisions around your career. And so, I think, unfortunately, sometimes because of the bleak job prospects at the faculty level, we can get a little like, not very confident or down on ourselves about our employment prospects and can kind of be like, “Oh, just take whatever comes my way. Anyone who wants to get me a job, like I’m going to take that job.” And having thought through a little bit more, what are your priorities when it comes to your career? What are your priorities when it comes to your personal life? How can your career support your personal life? That can help you be a little more selective around the job choice and as you were saying, be able to walk away or design the job that you want to, if you also have your personal finances in order. That gives more power on your side of the table rather than your employer side of the table. So, Alina, it’s been a real pleasure chatting with you about this and I’m so excited for you starting your grad student journey. And yeah, thanks for coming on the podcast.

32:05 Alina: Yeah. You can find me on the internet at alinac.me and @AlinaWithAFace on Twitter.

32:11 Emily: All right. Thank you so much.

Outtro

32:14 Emily: Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode. Pfforphds.com/podcast is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There, you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, here are four ways you can help it grow. One, subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it on Apple podcast, Stitcher, or whatever platform you use. Two, share an episode you found particularly valuable on social media or with your PhD peers. Three, recommend me as a speaker to your university or association. My seminars cover the personal finance topics PhDs are most interested in like investing, debt repayment, and taxes. Four, subscribe to my mailing list at pfforphds.com/subscribe. Through that list, you’ll keep up with all the new content and special opportunities for Personal Finance for PhDs. See you in the next episode! And remember, you don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance, but it helps. The music is Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear from the free music archive and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing and show notes creation by Meryem Ok.

This Grad Student Didn’t Let a $1,000 Per Month Stipend Stop Her from Investing

March 23, 2020 by Meryem Ok

In this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Rachel Blackburn, an assistant professor at Columbus State University. Rachel’s PhD stipend at the University of Kansas was approximately $1,000 per month and her rent claimed half of that, but she resolved to do more than scrape by financially. Emily and Rachel discuss in detail how Rachel optimized her pay rate in her side hustles, generated extra income through credit card churning, and travel hacked her personal and professional trips. By combining these techniques, Rachel not only contributed to her Roth IRA during grad school but also paid down student loan debt. You won’t want to miss the excellent insight she shares at the end of the interview.

Links Mentioned in the Episode

Teaser

00:00 Rachel: Don’t underestimate your own creativity. One of your strengths and skills as a PhD student is researching, so why not take that same skill and apply it to your financial life?

Intro

00:18 Emily: Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast, a higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts. This is season five, episode 12, and today my guest is Dr. Rachel Blackburn, an assistant professor at Columbus State University. Rachel’s PhD stipend at the University of Kansas was approximately $1,000 per month, and her rent claimed half of that. But, she resolved to do more than just scrape by financially. We discuss in detail how Rachel optimized her pay rate in her side hustles, generated extra income through credit card churning, and travel-hacked her personal and professional trips. By combining these techniques, Rachel not only contributed to her Roth IRA during grad school, but also paid down student loan debt. You won’t want to miss the excellent insight she shares at the end of the interview. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Dr. Rachel Blackburn.

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

01:17 Emily: I have with me on the podcast today, Dr. Rachel Blackburn, and she has a really exciting story to tell us from back when she was in graduate school, how she managed to generate extra income so that she was able to start a Roth IRA which is just an amazing goal and I’m so excited to hear more about the story. So, Rachel, thank you so much for joining me today, and would you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

01:40 Rachel: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. So, I am Dr. Rachel Blackburn, and I am currently an assistant professor at Columbus State University, which is in Columbus, Georgia.

01:51 Emily: Great. And where were you in graduate school?

01:55 Rachel: So, I did a Master of Fine Arts degree at Virginia Commonwealth University, and then I did my PhD at the University of Kansas.

02:04 Emily: Excellent. So, you’ve moved around quite a bit, it sounds like.

02:08 Rachel: Yeah, I have.

02:11 Emily: Tell me about your stipend during graduate school and why you needed to look outside of that–why you ended up generating extra income.

Grad School Stipend at the University of Kansas

02:20 Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. So, during my MFA program, it was all student loans. That’s all it was. And when I got to my PhD at KU, I was really determined to not take out any more loans no matter what my stipend was. And my stipend was basically $1,000 a month, and my rent was of course about half that. And so, I realized that if I ever found myself in a situation where–it was okay to scrape by, like if I budgeted really carefully, I knew I’d be okay. But I was worried about unforeseen elements like a car breaking down, a major hospital visit. You know, something that would really require me to come up with a lot of money at once. And that’s what I was concerned about.

Balanced Money Formula: Necessary Expenses = 50% of Pay

03:08 Emily: A couple of points in there that I just want to follow up on it because I think it’s a great example for anyone who’s maybe looking at a stipend offer letter or maybe you’ve just started graduate school and you’re kind of still figuring out what your budget’s going to be. So, you just mentioned your rent was about 50% of your pay, which is sort of widely considered to be too high. Right? So, according to the balanced money formula, which to me is a good reference point, all of your necessary expenses should be about 50% of your pay. So, not only rent but also utilities and paying any contracts that you’re in and your transportation and your basic food–all of that stuff is supposed to be within 50%, which is actually a high bar for many graduate students to reach, but it’s just kind of a good reference point.

03:53 Emily: So, you knew seeing rent at 50%, this is going to be pretty challenging. And like you said, you also were anticipating having occasional large, hard to cashflow expenses, which is so, so common. Anyone who lives for about a year or longer, you’re going to realize you have these large expenses sometimes. So, that’s why you turned to generating extra income outside of your stipend. So, did you start that right from the beginning of graduate school–or, rather at the beginning of your PhD program–and I’m wondering, was this a common thing among your peers? Did your advisor know about it? Was this a thing that people did and they were open about or was it more kept quiet?

Side Hustles and Financial Situation Often Kept Quiet

04:34 Rachel: You know, it was really kind of kept quiet. I don’t know how many students revealed to faculty that we were all taking on side hustles. I think maybe later on it did when push really came to shove and things like my advisor saying, “I think we need to look to defend your dissertation in the following semester instead of this one.” And me being like, “I literally cannot afford another semester of tuition. You’re going to have to help me get this done now.” So, things like that. I think when push came to shove, we probably revealed a little bit more about our financial situation, but really the only people that were doing okay in grad school and didn’t need to side hustle were frankly people that had two-income households. So, most often married couples. Yeah.

05:25 Emily: Yup. Super common there. I mean, really, paying $1,000 a month. The faculty should be aware–I mean also living in the same city, right? And presumably having a much higher income. They should be aware that that is not enough to live on without either taking out student loans, which as you said, people have enough experience with student loans to know that they should avoid them if at all possible. No, it’s really not enough to live on. So, it should be no surprise to anyone that this is going on. Yet, as you said, most of the time, it’s not really something that is talked about very openly, at least between students and their advisors or students and the administration. Maybe students, among themselves, talk to each other. Okay. So, thanks for giving us kind of the picture for being on the ground there. So, just give me a quick overview. What were your methods of generating extra income that we’ll then dive into?

Primary Side Hustles: House and Pet Sitting

06:15 Rachel: I would say, primarily, my side hustles were housesitting and pet sitting. Those were easy to do, and what was great about them is that if you did a decent job with one, that professor would recommend you to other professors. And professors are always going out of town for guest lectures and conferences. A lot of them have pets. If you have a halfway decent sense of compassion as a human being, you’ll be fine taking care of a pet. Some just want their plants watered or some just want their home to look lived in while they’re away. So, falling into that circle is a really great thing. And that was a lot for me. Also, I did some teaching online and there are various ways to do this. So, I actually taught online for a community college in just outside of Lawrence (KS). And also, another hack about this is that if you’re interested in possibly teaching English online, for whatever reason, there are a lot of companies specifically for Chinese and Korean and Japanese students who will advertise their online teaching English programs, but they will do so on the New York City Craigslist. At the end of the day, you only need be online. You don’t have to live in New York City, but they’re targeting those bigger markets because they’re just expecting to have more people that they can interview. And so, I honestly went on to New York City’s Craigslist a number of times and found online teaching that way as well.

Secondary Side Hustles: Online Teaching and Waiting Tables

07:43 Emily: Just to jump in there, I have another interview where another grad student is currently side hustling with VIPKid, which is one of the companies that you just described that offer that kind of work. So, if anyone’s specifically looking for a company that’s going on right now and we’re recording this in July, 2019, check out VIPKid and check out that other interview. Yeah. Any other online teaching besides that, that you did?

08:08 Rachel: Those mainly comprised what I did online. Now, some people are a fan of waiting tables. This is also something I did. And, really, the only hack there is that if waiting tables is something that really takes it out of you, energy-wise–and it can, you’re on your feet the whole time–I recommend if you can only do it like once a week, do it on a Friday or Saturday night when the restaurant is busiest, that’s when you’re going to make the most tips. Doing a Wednesday lunch is not going to help you out. Doing a Friday night dinner might actually cover your groceries that week, or what have you. So, that’s the hack there. Try and get signed up for the busiest times.

08:48 Emily: Get that hourly rate up as high as you possibly can so you can minimize the number of hours you actually have to do it. Okay.

Side Hustling Apps

08:56 Rachel: I will just add really quickly that there are a few apps out there that can help you generate income as a side hustle. I made a list of some that I’ve used. So, Rover is a pet sitting app, so sign up to petsit. TaskRabbit is basically anything. So, somebody in the neighborhood needs help painting a fence. That’s TaskRabbit. Turo, you can rent your own car out to other people. That’s T U R O. Fat Llama is where you rent out your own possessions. So, say you have a Nintendo Wii sitting around not being used. You could rent out your Nintendo Wii for a weekend to some kids. So, there’s that. Also, Instacart is where you shop for other people. So, anyway, those are some of the ones that I’ve tried.

09:44 Emily: That’s awesome. Thank you so much for adding those specifics. In fact, I guess I talk about side hustling a lot on this podcast because in fact we have another interview where someone’s talking about using Rover and another interview where someone is discussing Instacart. That’s season three, episode two with Shana Green. That one’s already out. So yeah, to follow up on any of those, but thank you so much for giving those specifics. That’s a really great next step for anyone looking to those side hustles. And we also wanted today to talk about credit card churning and travel hacking. So, the listeners may not be very familiar at all with what credit card churning is, what travel hacking is. So, can you start with some basic definitions here for, let’s say, credit card churning first?

Credit Card Churning Fundamentals

10:29 Rachel: Yeah. So, credit card churning is the idea that you take advantage of credit card signups who are offering major big signup bonuses for when you sign up for that credit card. Now, let me preface and say that I’m really just a beginning level churner, like beginner-level churner. Some people are really sophisticated with how they’re tackling this. And I’ve seen spreadsheets of multiple cards when you’re signing up, when you’re canceling the card and things like that. In a nutshell, that’s credit card churning.

11:10 Emily: There’s suddenly a huge subculture within personal finance that is specifically about credit card churning and maximizing credit card rewards. So, if people want to dive, dive, dive into this, that is available. We are fine with the beginner level here. So, whatever you’ve been doing is great. I want to specifically point out that there’s a difference between credit card churning and having credit cards on a longterm basis that give you ongoing reward. So, what we’re specifically discussing today is getting, as you said, those signup bonuses. And so signing up for new cards fairly frequently, doing whatever you need to do to get the signup bonus. And then usually either moving on–keeping the card open, but not using it anymore–moving onto the next card in your churn list, or, potentially closing it pretty quickly. So, just wanted to clarify that for the listeners. So, can you tell us how you got started with this? What was the first credit card you opened for this purpose, for example?

12:06 Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. So, my first year in my PhD program, I was friends with a guy who was an entrepreneur and he was opening his own business. And he fell into the credit card turning scene because he was starting to try and figure out, “How can me and my business partner fly around the US? Because we anticipate that we’re going to fly a lot. So, how are we going to cover all of those tickets?” And so, he really introduced me to the world of credit card turning. So, I should say from the very top that if you’re someone who has trouble paying off your credit cards every month, if you have not so good credit, it’s not the best thing. It’s really ideal for someone who’s really good at paying off the full amount every month, who’s really good at not spending a credit card on things that either you don’t need or things that may be superfluous to your daily life. And so, the one that I opened was Chase.

Disclaimer: Use Credit Card Churning Wisely

13:10 Emily: I want to jump in a second and just emphasize that point because credit card churning and using credit card rewards is really a fairly advanced strategy. I would not recommend this for anyone who is new to using credit cards. My personal rule on this would be use credit cards in your life, in your regular budgeting for at least one year before you even attempt something like this. Because you need to have a lot of confidence in yourself, as you were just saying, that you’re going to be paying off that card in full every month, that you’re not going to be spending any extra money just for convenience factor or whatever it is because you’re excited about the rewards. You need to be a super, super good budgeter and super, super organized before you jump into this world. And it can be really lucrative, as we’ll get into in a moment. So, it’s very tempting, but show restraint. Hold back. Be sure you have your budget totally aligned before you try to attempt it. I’ll link in the show notes, I have an article that I wrote previously called, “Perfect Use of a Credit Card.” So, that will outline what you need to master in terms of using a credit card before you jump into what we’re talking about now. So, thank you so much for emphasizing that. Now, you were just mentioning that you opened a Chase card, first.

14:18 Rachel: Yeah. So, when I first started to get into this–now, like I said, I just wanted to take baby steps. I have used credit cards for most of my adult life, and I feel pretty confident with my use of credit cards that I don’t really have an addictive personality. I don’t go gambling or drink alcohol very much. I’m just kind of pretty unattached that way. So, I felt confident starting to do a baby churn with just one card. I should also mention by the way, that if you open too many cards within the space of 12 months or 24 months, some credit card companies will take note of that and they’ll say, “Okay, don’t give them any more cards.” And it can damage your credit that way. So, that’s just something to be aware of.

15:03 Rachel: So, I recommend, personally speaking, I would probably top out at three in the space of one year. I think that’s plenty to keep up with. So, Chase, for example, had a credit card, and often what they are is that there’s a signup bonus and in order to achieve that signup bonus, which is usually in the value of points and then those points can be exchanged for either travel points, like they can translate to air miles. They can translate to gift cards. Sometimes they can translate to cash back. With Chase–and I did this a few years ago, so I can’t speak to what it is now, but–when I took the Chase card a few years ago, I crunched the numbers and I basically found that gift cards was my biggest bang for my buck. So, I exchanged my signup points all for gift cards for things that I would spend money on regardless, like grocery stores, gas stations, things like that, Walmart, those kinds of things.

Credit Card Churning: Timing is Everything

16:05 Rachel: A lot of these signup points are dependent on you spending a certain amount of money within the first three months, that’s often the typical amount of time. So, I would time my opening a credit card with an event in my life where I knew that I’d be spending more money than I typically do. So, say for example, I think mine was $1,000. I had to spend $1,000 within the first three months of opening this card. And if I did, I was given a reward of 50,000 points, which ultimately translated to my plane ticket to a conference I was presenting at. So, I timed this for when I had been to the doctor and I’d had a hospital visit and I knew I was going to be paying off a lot of doctor’s bills. So, I knew I’d be spending that money anyway. So, that’s how I timed it.

16:53 Emily: We use the exact same strategy–I wouldn’t say we were credit card churning, but signing up for signup bonuses from time to time–doing the exact same thing as you did, like looking at our upcoming six months or a year, whatever, and identifying a few points in the year where, “Okay, we are going to pay our car insurance once every six months.” So, that’s like a pretty big bill, we can put that on the card. “Oh, we’re going to have to buy a flight to here or there. We can put that on the card.” All within a window that was the window that we needed for achieving the signup bonus. So, we did the exact same thing. I think that meeting those minimum spending requirements can be, very typically, a challenge for someone who lives on a lower income, right?

17:31 Emily: Because you don’t have a lot of spending that goes on in a given month, let’s say. Most people will not be paying their rent with a credit card. Usually you have to pay a fee or something to do that. So, if you’re going to exclude rent from this calculation, then there are not that many other things, maybe, that will help you achieve this minimum spend. So, definitely looking your calendar and anticipating upcoming expenses, signing up for a card that’ll give you the right window when you’re going to have to pay those expenses. There’s a little bit of a trick to it when you have a lower-spending lifestyle.

18:00 Rachel: Absolutely. Timing is everything. I also didn’t realize, even for myself, how much I spent cash on lots of things. When I started really concentrating and focusing and saying, “Okay, I could pay cash for this, but I could pay a credit card. Let me just pay with a credit card.” I’m starting to realize that there are very few instances in which it benefits me to use cash, to be honest. Now, I do keep cash on me at all times, just in emergencies. Who knows. But I did start using a credit card for a lot more things than I had. And I find that the rewards do come back to me. Yeah. But no, that’s a fair point. Timing is everything with the credit card churning. When you open the card, when you decide to cancel the card, that kind of thing. Yeah.

Credit Card Points for Gift Cards and Air Miles

18:50 Emily: So, you said that for you, you probably max out at about three cards per year. That’s what you’ve decided you can handle in your personal spending and tracking everything. Other people do a lot more, but that’s what works for you. And that, when you first started doing this, you would trade these points you generated for gift cards because that was what you figured was going to be maximizing those points. Has that continued to be the case? So, do you always do gift cards, or have you redeemed for other types of rewards?

19:18 Rachel: At one point, I did redeem for travel points because, like I said, I was paying for a plane ticket. So, it was easy to translate those to air miles and to do that. What I have found, in my experience–what’s helpful is letting life happen and determining, “Oh, okay, you know what? This month, I have a lot of unexpected expenses. So, actually what I could do to save myself some money this month is go ahead and redeem some points for, say, a grocery store gift card or a gas station gift card. Because that helps offset the unexpected expenses that I’m having.” However, later on down the year, I might find like, “Oh, I really need to take a trip to this conference,” or, “I need to go on this research trip.” And at that point, maybe the air miles are more helpful.

20:10 Rachel: So, it just depends. The nice thing about gift cards too is that if you want to, dare I say, splurge, and get yourself a gift card to like AMC Theatres so you can see a movie, or something that’s like a small, not too expensive luxury. Later on, when you go use that gift card to go see that movie, you don’t really feel as guilty about it because you’re not spending your own money. You’re actually just spending the rewards that you’ve already incurred from paying on your credit card. So, that’s kind of a nice thing that I feel like is a guilt-free way of treating yourself to the occasional movie, or what have you. Because, as we all know, grad school is so stressful. Yeah.

Credit Card Churning: Spreadsheets Are Your Friends

20:53 Emily: I really like that strategy that you’re using the points or whatever that you build up as almost kind of a piggy bank that you can then deploy as needed in the future. And of course, using it for lifestyle upgrades, like going to the occasional movie or whatever you want. When you have your stipend paying your baseline expenses, then you can use your side hustle money, the credit card rewards, whatever it is, for big expenses as they come up to ease your stress or just more of life’s pleasures. So, I really like that strategy. Any other things you want to share with us regarding credit card churning?

21:27 Rachel: I really do recommend keeping a spreadsheet with all of your information, just to make sure that you’re keeping track of what you’re spending, you’re keeping track of, “Is this really for sure financially benefiting me? Am I getting rewards?” Versus, “Am I tempted to spend more money just because I’m trying to meet some kind of signup reward, or something.” Also, don’t be afraid to cancel credit cards. A lot of these cards start off free the first year, but then have an annual fee that they’ll charge you. And sometimes those annual fees hit you and you go, “Oh no, I didn’t realize I was already a year out from when I started this card.” So, you know, make sure that you keep a tally of dates of like, “Okay, I need to make sure I cancel this card by this date,” and so on and so forth. Just to keep yourself on the straight and narrow with the churn.

22:18 Emily: Totally. Totally agree. I have to admit myself, just last month I had an annual fee for one of my cards hit, and I was kind of like, “Oh I guess I’m keeping that card another year.” I mean, I could probably still call and get out of it, but I was kind of debating, “Should I cancel it before the year is up or should I keep it?” And then the year was up before I had my bearings about it. So, I’m going to start a spreadsheet and put that in because I’m definitely canceling it by the end of the second year. In fact, it’s already on my calendar as a reminder to do that. So yes, being very organized, super, super crucial with this strategy.

Commercial

22:57 Emily: Emily here for a brief interlude. Tax season is upon us, and while no one loves this time of year, it’s particularly difficult for post-bac fellows, funded grad students, and postdoc fellows. Even professional tax preparers are often thrown for a loop by our unique tax situation. And don’t get me started on tax software. I provide tons of support at this time of year for PhD trainees preparing their tax returns, from free articles and videos, to paid at-your-own-pace workshops, to live seminars and webinars for universities and research institutes. The best place to go to check out all of this material is pfforphds.com/tax. That’s P F F O R P H D S.com/T A X. Don’t struggle through tax season on your own. Visit my website for the exact information you need in the most efficient form available. Now, back to the interview.

Let’s Talk More About Travel Hacking

24:01 Emily: So, let’s talk more about travel hacking. And you already mentioned using the credit card signups to then generate points that can be translated to different airlines depending on the card and who their partners are. So, that’s definitely one way to go about travel hacking. But you said you had a few other travel hacks that you like to use.

24:19 Rachel: Yeah, I do. So, okay. So, some of these are really simple and kind of a onetime thing. Some of these are a little bit more “shady,” if you will. Not shady, I’m not going to recommend anything illegal, but a little sneaky. So, one of the sneaky things that I did, and I’m sure I can’t be the first person to do this or come up with this, but I would be very careful about timing my applications for funding within the university, because some funding applications will say, “Are you receiving funding for many other source?” And I want to be able to say, “No, I’m not.” And that’s true if I have not yet received official funding from another source. So, I was very careful to time my applications in such a manner that allowed me to always be able to say, “No, I’m not receiving funding from another source.” And if I then applied to another source after I submitted that application, well you know, who could have foreseen that I would do that. So, that’s one. Yeah. Another smaller hack is that a lot of us, I think, forget that as grad students, we’re still entitled to student discounts. So, things like STA Travel, which is the Student Travel Association. They have a website where you can look up airfares and all kinds of things. That’s something to take advantage of in addition to all of the sort of usual suspects like couchsurfing and Airbnb, and things like that.

25:52 Emily: I don’t know about Student Travel Association. Can you say more about that?

STA Travel and Hostelworld

25:56 Rachel: Oh yeah, sure. Student Travel Association. I discovered them when I was in college, actually, because I was studying abroad and I was looking into airfares and things and wondering if, “Is there a way I can hack my way into traveling more beyond my study abroad semester?” So, that’s when I discovered STA Travel. STA Travel covers a lot of things. They also, and I could be wrong on this, but I believe they are the same company that issues international student identification cards. That’s the ISIC card, International Student Identity Card. And that has some benefits to it. In fact, recently they’ve started making them like a credit card so you can even add money onto them and use them as a form of payment. But yeah, STA Travel has a lot of different options. And some of the airfares might be, the stipulation is merely just that you’re a student. Some of them might be, you need to be 35 years and younger. So it kind of depends. You have to check it out. But it’s at least another source.

27:00 Emily: This reminds me, and maybe this is part of that association, but just about hostels–like some of them are only open to students or maybe people of a certain age; not super common in the US. But abroad, much more. So, is that kind of the same idea?

27:14 Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. And actually when it comes to hostels, if you haven’t discovered Hostelworld–hostel W O R LD.com–they’re a great source for housing. And I’ve used them abroad a lot. But in the bigger cities in the U S you’ll find Hostelworld locations, too. And it’s amazing how cheap you can get. A lot of people say, “Well, I don’t feel comfortable sleeping in a room with 10 other people that I don’t know for $10 a night.” A lot of properties on hostelworld.com do offer private rooms, and they’re still cheaper than what you would find on Airbnb.

27:54 Emily: I actually used Hostelworld–I think it was through Hostelworld–when I traveled to Chicago one time when I was in graduate school. And my husband and I, who had no interest in staying in separate rooms with many other people, were able to book a private room together at the hostel, which worked out really well for us. It was very inexpensive. So yeah, thanks so much for mentioning that. And also STA Travel. I spent 10 years in college and graduate school and I’m really kicking myself that I did not know about this. So, thank you so much for mentioning it. What’s the next travel hack on your list?

Budget Airlines, Driving, and Incognito Browsing

28:26 Rachel: Yeah. Okay. So, some of those websites also worth mentioning briefly if you ever are traveling abroad. Ryanair and EasyJet are budget airlines and they’re really inexpensive. That’s helpful to know. But unfortunately, those seem to be limited to Europe. Okay. So, I’ve also crunched the numbers on this, and if it’s possible to drive and if you are receiving funding for say a conference or a research trip, driving actually optimizes the money that you’re spending because you might actually get more back. A lot of universities have a really nice high mileage reimbursement for driving. And so if you can drive but you were thinking of just taking a plane just because, it might actually be worth your while financially to drive. Another thing is, I don’t know if this is widely known, but browsing “incognito” on your browser when you’re looking at flights and hotel rooms and things like that.

29:27 Rachel: So, with most browsers, you just go to the settings. I use Google Chrome. So, for Google Chrome, it’s the upper right-hand corner, and you pull down the dropdown menu and you just say that you want to browse incognito. And what that does is it sort of erases all of the memory and cookies that are stored in your browser. And for whatever reason, say like Orbitz for example, if they know that, “Oh, Rachel Blackburn comes to us and she buys plane tickets through Orbitz a lot, we can probably charge her just a little bit more because she’s likely not going to look at any other sites for fares.” And so browsing incognito takes away their ability to do that.

30:12 Emily: Yeah, really good tip. Anything else in that travel hacking list?

For the Bold and the Brave: Motel Pricing Negotiation

30:18 Rachel: Okay. So, one thing I’ve done–and this might be a little on the riskier side, and I certainly would never, ever blame anybody for not wanting to do this–but, let’s say I’m driving long distance and I know that I’m going to have to crash somewhere. If you feel comfortable, and especially as a single woman, maybe you feel more comfortable doing this if you have a friend with you or something like that. A lot of hotels that are these kinds of like motels that you see on the side of the highway when you’re driving long distance and you’re kind of in the middle of nowhere. They will lower their fares quite a bit if you show up late at night and you’re like, “Hey, I need a room.” And they’ve only got like maybe 10 other people in the hotel and they’ll say, “Okay, it’s $99 for the night.” And I’ll say, “Oh, you know what? I’m sorry. That’s a little bit more than I was wanting to spend. So, I’m just going to go on.” And then they’ll say, “No, no, no, no, wait.” Because who else is going to drop by late at night to stay? So, a lot of them will actually negotiate fare with you, and they’ll drop it down, say like, “Okay, well can you do 75?” “Yeah, that’s better.” Okay. Now, that does mean that you’re not making a reservation ahead of time. You also run the risk that they may not negotiate with you. That can happen too. So, if I’m taking this route, I try to always stop off in a town that’s large enough to have at least three or four off-the-highway motels where I can try that tactic.

31:52 Emily: I’m really glad you mentioned that because we have so few opportunities for negotiation in the US for these types of sales. So, yeah, that never occurred to me, but I really like this strategy. I can’t say I’ll necessarily do it, but I like the idea.

32:08 Rachel: Yeah, it’s for the bold and the brave for sure.

32:11 Emily: I mean, if there is a town where there are two, three, four of these, then they know that you can just walk down the street and try the same tactic. It’s not going to cost you hardly any more time. So, why not? How late is late at night by the way, for you, after what time?

32:25 Rachel: Hmm, that’s a great question. Most people, especially thinking of highway driving, a lot of people like to be in a motel before it gets dark, especially people with families and stuff like that. So, I would say any time after sunset you’re good to negotiate. Yeah.

32:44 Emily: Yeah. Sounds good. Any more travel hacks?

Inviting (non-PhD) Friends to Conferences

32:49 Rachel: One thing I have done, and I wouldn’t exactly call this a hack, and anytime I have done this, I’ve been totally upfront with my friends about it. If I’m going to, say, a research conference or a research trip or something. I’m going somewhere, I can anticipate I’m going to need a hotel room or an Airbnb. I will often invite my friends along, and not friends who are PhD students, but just friends of mine. And I’ll be upfront and I’ll say, “Listen, would you want to come hang out with me in this city for a weekend? We can split an Airbnb, and when I’m at my conference, you can do your own thing. And when I’m not at my conference, we can hang out together.” And I’ve done that before and it’s great. It’s a double benefit of getting to see friends that you wouldn’t otherwise see. But also, you have someone to share the conference with who’s not necessarily associated with the conference. So, I did a research trip to LA at one point and I invited two of my girlfriends along, and I said, “Hey, I’m going to be in LA for a long weekend. Come hang out with me. There’s going to be times when I’ll have to be at this conference, but most of the time I’ll be free to hang out.” And so they shared an Airbnb with me and immediately split my Airbnb three ways instead of one way. So yeah, that’s another hack, sort.

34:06 Emily: Yeah, why not? If you’re going to a desirable location and you like your friends and like to hang out with them, no harm in suggesting it, certainly.

34:13 Rachel: Yeah. I mean, I know so many people that go, “Oh no one else is going to this conference. I guess I’m footing the bill for the whole hotel room by myself.” And it’s like, “No, you might have some friends who like to travel and who would love the excuse to just get away for a weekend.” So, yeah.

34:33 Emily: Yeah. I like that idea.

Prefixes: To Doctor, or Not To Doctor

34:35 Rachel: Okay. Last one. This is the last hack. I often, when I’m booking a hotel or a plane, I have read that specifying your prefix as doctor can make a difference. Even if you’re not a doctor yet, what are they going to do? They’re going to go find your transcripts? Probably not. I don’t think American Airlines has time for that. So yeah, start using doctor as a prefix. It couldn’t hurt.

35:03 Emily: So, when you say that it can help, what do you mean? Would that actually change the rate that you’re paying, or what difference would it make?

35:13 Rachel: Yeah, well I’ve read stories of people saying that they got a better seat or they got a better rate. Sometimes it might just be like, “Oh, you’re a doctor? Continental breakfast is free for you,” or whatever. Or maybe it’s just a few dollars off your bill, or something. But my guess is that this only leads to really minute differences, but again, every little bit helps. Why not? Worst-case scenario, somebody calls you Doctor?

35:44 Emily: Yeah, I think I may try this out. I’m trying to remember. I think in most cases when I travel, I don’t use doctor as a prefix because I don’t want to be approached with a medical situation on a plane. Of course, I’ve never even seen that happen. So, the chances that it would are really, really, really tiny. But I think that’s been my reason to shy away from using my proper title. But now that I know that I may actually get something out of it, I might try using it consistently going forward. Okay. So, we’ve talked about your side hustling. We’ve talked about how you’ve generated other extra income and how you’ve reduced expenses with your associated travel and so forth. And you told me when we started preparing this episode that all this allowed you to open a Roth IRA during graduate school, which, if you told me I’m being paid $1,000 a month and I’m going to be living in Lawrence, Kansas, I’d be like, “Good luck with that.”

36:46 Emily: You know, who would ever think that that would be possible? Yet, it sounds like through these different mechanisms that you were able to. So, tell me more about why you decided to start saving for retirement while you were in graduate school and why in particular you used a Roth IRA?

Why Start a Roth IRA in Graduate School?

37:00 Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’m in the humanities. I was a theater professional, theater artist for many, many years professionally before I decided to go back to school, years later. And because of that, I was a freelance contractor for a lot of my life–a lot of my working adult life. So, I was never hired on a permanent full-time basis. I was often hired on a full-time basis for the next three months, you know? And then I was again hired somewhere else for the next three months. And I think in the back of my mind, I kept hoping, one of these days, surely, I will get a job that will offer me benefits and savings plans and things like that. And after a few years, I realized, that’s not going to happen. And then when I went back to school, I didn’t know what my options would be there, either.

37:54 Rachel: I knew it was going to be a tight budgeting situation. I was not under any illusion that I would be–I mean, the idea of like saving for an IRA was completely out of my mind. But somewhere during the PhD–and at this point in my life, I’m like early thirties, 32, 33–and I thought, “If I don’t make this happen for myself, it might never happen.” We all know the statistics about finding a tenure-track job after you graduate. And I just thought I can’t keep telling myself, “Don’t worry. One day you’ll get that job. Don’t worry, one day you’ll get those benefits.” I thought, “Okay, it’s up me. It’s up to me to do it. So, I just need to really be creative and smart about how I’m saving money.”

Know Yourself to Choose Which IRA Works For You

38:42 Rachel: I was able to open a Roth IRA with Vanguard. Now, there again–and for those listening, PhD students who are great at research–just research around, figure it out. One thing I liked about Vanguard was that they seem to have, I believe–and I don’t want to misspeak because I could always be wrong. There could be information I don’t have–they seem to have kept their nose clean, relatively, through the recession. And that was one thing that really attracted me to them. I also spoke to friends and family that were involved in business and they all said, “Oh yeah, Vanguard’s a great company.” So, that’s how I chose them. I also just researched financial products and I said, “Okay, what makes the most sense to me?” I wanted something that would hold onto my money and wouldn’t let me at it. Because if I could pull it out without penalty, I probably would. And that’s just a personality assessment on myself. So, I wanted a financial product that I could put money into anytime. I wasn’t worried about being taxed on it. So, that’s why I chose the Roth IRA that I did. And, it would give me incentive to not take the money back out. So, yeah.

39:53 Emily: That sounds perfect. I think you had great insight there. If you don’t make this happen for yourself, it may not happen. Now, we know that you now have that tenure-track position. You’re one of the lucky few, right? But so many people, so many people currently in grad school or maybe in a postdoc or something–yeah, you don’t know what your job is going to be in the future. And kind of the way things are trending is, not only are pensions in many cases a thing of the past, even having what would be full-time benefits, like having access to a 403(b) or 401(k) or whatever, that is disappearing too as more and more people are entering the freelance market, as you said, or doing contract work. So, really, at some point, as you just said, you just need to make it happen for yourself because you can’t necessarily rely on an employer to do this for you anymore.

40:50 Emily: So, it’s a hard realization, but it’s one that if you do have it early on, like you did prior to graduate school or maybe during graduate school or during a postdoc for other people you know what, go ahead and get started. Because now is always kind of the best time to do it, right? Like best time to start saving for retirement. Well, that was 10 years ago, but the second best time is right now. So, go ahead and get started and don’t let, “Oh in the future things will be different hold you back from that.” So, I really love having the story from you of, “Yeah, my stipend was very small, not really sufficient for even a relatively low cost of living area. Yet, this is what I did to change this. I hustled in this way. I was super smart about deploying my credit score in this other way. I kept my travel expenses down in this way, and look at that. I was able to start saving for retirement based on all those strategies.”

Best Financial Advice for Early-Career PhDs

41:39 Emily: And now of course you have the full-time job and things are working out very well, it sounds like. So, love this story and thank you so much for this interview. And as we kind of sign off here, I just wanted to ask you, what is your best financial advice for another early-career PhD?

41:55 Rachel: Don’t underestimate your own creativity. One of your strengths and skills as a PhD student is researching. So, why not take that same skill and apply it to your financial life? If you had told me when I was in my MFA program, “Hey, guess what? In a few years, you’re going to make up your mind that you’re bound and determined to open an IRA.” I would’ve said, “That’s crazy. How am I ever going to save for an IRA on a stipend that I have?” And my other best piece of advice, I decided that because your loans are deferred while you’re in school, if you can pay on your loans while you’re in school, you’re only paying principal. So, that was my other goal throughout grad school. Financially speaking, I was bound and determined, even if it was $10 a month, that was still $120 less on my principal at the end of the year. So, however small it is, just chipping away at those student loans while you’re in school will really help you by the time you’re out of school.

43:01 Emily: I love both pieces of advice. Deploying your creativity and your research skills to your finances as well as your academic interests. And then, just because your student loans are deferred doesn’t mean you have to ignore them. Go ahead and start paying on them to whatever degree you can or are interested in. And/or do this retirement investing. Both of them are going to greatly benefit you by the time you finish up with graduate school and start having to make payments on the student loans. So, Rachel, thank you so much for this interview. This is really, really insightful and I enjoyed speaking with you.

43:34 Rachel: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It was great talking to you.

Outtro

43:38 Emily: Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode. Pfforphds.com/podcast is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There, you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, here are four ways you can help it grow. One, subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it on Apple podcast, Stitcher, or whatever platform you use. Two, share an episode you found particularly valuable on social media or with your PhD peers. Three, recommend me as a speaker to your university or association. My seminars cover the personal finance topics PhDs are most interested in, like investing, debt repayment, and taxes. Four, subscribe to my mailing list at pfforphds.com/subscribe. Through that list, you’ll keep up with all the new content and special opportunities for Personal Finance for PhDs. See you in the next episode. And remember, you don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance, but it helps. The music is Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear from the free music archive and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing and show notes creation by Meryem Ok.

Learn From This Poor Kid-Turned-PhD Student’s Different Perspective on Frugality and Debt (Part 1)

March 9, 2020 by Lourdes Bobbio

In this episode, Emily interview ZW Taylor (Zach), a PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. As a child, Zach identified as a “poor kid” and never thought higher education was for him. His upbringing and winding path through community college and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees taught him lessons about money that he has carried into his life as a PhD student – for better and for worse. In this first half of the conversation, Zach shares the financial struggles his family experienced when he was a child and how he finally committed to higher education – without debt – as a way out. Living in Austin, Texas, with its rapidly inflating cost of living, has its own challenges, and Zach still employs some extreme frugal strategies that he developed earlier in his life.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

Teaser

00:00 Zach: Whenever I submit to a conference, I will email the conference chair and try to arrange some sort of email conversation or phone call and ask to volunteer in exchange registration feeds. So there are probably 25 conferences that I’ve gone to in state and out of state. I have never been turned away.

Introduction

00:25 Emily: Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast, higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts. This is season five episode ten, and today my guest is Zach Taylor, a PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Zach has such a unique perspective and so much wonderful advice that I’ve split our interview into two episodes, this one and next week’s. In this episode, Zach shares the financial struggles his family experienced when he was a child and how he finally committed to higher education, without debt, as a way out. Living in Austin, Texas with its rapidly inflating cost of living has its own challenges and Zach still employs some extreme frugal strategies that he developed earlier in his life. Without further ado, here’s the first part of my interview with Zach Taylor.

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

01:20 Emily: I have joining me on the podcast today Zach Taylor, and this is a really special episode for me because we’re recording this in August, 2019 and Zach and I actually met at a conference just last month. We were both at the Higher Education Financial Wellness Summit and Zach was a keynote speaker. And he had just this incredibly compelling story to tell during that keynote, which he’ll tell us a shortened version of that during this podcast, of his own personal story. And then during that keynote he also talked a lot about his academic work and we’re not going to get into that so much in this interview, but rather how Zach’s upbringing and the money mindsets and lessons he learned as a child have affected how he handles his finances as a graduate student. And also some tips for other graduate students who may find themselves in a similar financial situation to Zach. Zach, I’m so happy to have you on the podcast today. Will you please introduce yourself a little bit further to the audience?

02:17 Zach: Absolutely. Thanks Emily. Zach Taylor. At this point, I’m a PhD candidate at UT Austin in Higher Education Leadership. I have done a lot of things in education. I’ve been an admissions reader, college instructor, high school English instructor, youth coordinator, mentoring program coordinator. I’ve kind o, been in education my entire life. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and be talking about this because so many of my life lessons in living an educational life. My mom was also a teacher. It’s been constantly learning new things and ways to save money. I’m so excited to be able to share it today.

Early Childhood and Living in Poverty

02:58 Emily: Yeah. Perfect. So let’s go back to your childhood, your pre-college days and tell us what was going on with you around that time, what was going on with your family?

03:09 Zach: I grew up very low income in the Midwest. Kind of grew up all over the place. My dad had a really hard time holding a job and it came to a head when I was about seven or eight years old. I think my mom realized that she couldn’t just take care of my brother and I, she needed to work, because my dad just couldn’t do it. She became a teacher, and we lived on that teacher salary pretty much my entire adolescence until I was 13. Something kind of tragic happened in my family at that point, so my mom and I decided to leave and go make a life on our own. And if any listeners out there are children of divorce, you can know how financially crippling that is, especially on a teacher’s salary. My mom paid child support to my dad. We were very, very poor. We split a apartment together. She became kind of more than a mom to me. She was kind of my roommate and my best friend and someone who split expenses with me.

Zach: And that was happening during high school. I was an athlete in high school and I quit most all sports by junior year because I needed to work. I needed to make money. I wasn’t able to buy food and pay for transportation and feel like I could save any kind of money at all. And that mindset growing up, coming from the family, I came from — loved going to the library because the library was free. I loved riding the bus because the bus was free. It didn’t cost anything. It was always reliable. It was always there for me. And so as I was growing up, having lived with my mom and having worked really, really early on, a lot of those behaviors really carried into college. I still, to this day, I love a good library. I love a good bus ride. I love having roommates. I’ve never really lived on my own because I’m so used to splitting expenses and living as frugally as possible. I’ve kind of foregone a lot of privacy in my life for that reason. I’m happy to share a lot of those experiences, and how they’ve translated in my college life because I’m again surprised how many habits were formed when I was a young kid that actually, I still practice to this day.

Path to the PhD

05:39 Emily: Yeah, we will definitely get into that in a moment. I also wondered if you could share for the listeners a little bit of your nontraditional path to the PhD. Because there may be some people in the audience who are thinking, well, they have some degree of imposter syndrome as many people do, but maybe a higher degree than others because of not going directly to college after high school or starting in a community college like you did. So can you talk about how you got to where you are now educationally?

06:08 Zach: Yes. I was not a good high school student. Like I said, kind of a broken home, working a lot. I never wanted to go to college. I actually didn’t think about going to college until my stepdad — I was living in my mom and stepdad’s basement working at a gas station and he had said, you’re a smart kid, you can probably go to community college. I was actually not fully admitted to community college. I had to take remedial courses. I had not taken even Algebra II at high school. I didn’t even pass Geometry. I was really credit deficient. I had no AP classes. I barely graduated when I did. And part of the reason I graduated was because my mom was a teacher and kind of helped me out doing summer school and getting and making up credits. I was extremely credit deficient coming in. Took the remedial coursework at my community college the first semester. I joked during the keynote that tuition at the time was $150 per class, but to me that was like food for months. That seemed so unaffordable. $150 per class was unaffordable to me and was initially a deterrent.

07:21 Zach: But I slowly came to realize that education was a way out of working at that gas station and being a poor kid. It was a a way out in many ways. I eventually finished about 18 credits or 21 credits at the community college. Got some really good academic momentum going. I applied to the cheapest in state public school that I could. I wasn’t looking at academic programs, wasn’t looking at what I was going to do. I solely looked at the tuition rates and I said, what can I afford to do as a part time student working part time so I don’t take out any loans? I was very debt averse and one of those things from childhood was if you couldn’t pay for it in cash, you didn’t buy it. And the same attitude translated to college. If I could not pay for tuition in cash, if I could not afford to support myself, I was not going to go. There were a couple of times then throughout undergrad where I stopped out and took a semester off and saved money and came back the next semester. I remember professors telling me, I hope I see you in the spring because they knew I wasn’t going to be there in the fall because I was going to take a a gap semester and make some money.

08:44 Zach: After seven years, I eventually finished. I transferred a few times trying to save money. My parents lost a lot of money in the housing collapse in 2008 so I ended up stopping out again and going back to work. But I was very persistent and also, another lesson from childhood was no waste. Don’t waste anything. And I had already had 80 or 90 credits. I didn’t want to waste those. I wanted to finish. So that was something that really propelled me forward was this investment. I already knew how many sacrifices, how much money, how much time I had already put into this thing, and I really wanted to finish.

09:24 Zach: I eventually did finish. Got a job as a mentoring program coordinator and teacher. I paid for master’s degrees with cash. I didn’t take out any debt. Granted, it took me five years to earn those degrees, but I didn’t accrue any debt because I paid as I was being paid. I was never able to save any money. To this day I have not had a savings account over a thousand dollars. however, I don’t have any debt. I don’t have any credit card debt. I don’t have any college student loan debt, specifically because I paid as I went. Now, that is not going to sound like how a lot of students do it. A lot of students go right from high school to college. They take off those loans, they get that degree as soon as they can. I took a much different path, but in looking back on it and hearing some of the stories that I hear from some classmates, some of them are a little envious of how I did it. And granted there were lots of sacrifices along the way, but being 33 years old, being in a really great PhD program, almost to the finish line and not having any debt is something I’m really proud of.

10:37 Emily: It’s a truly incredible story. And I hope that anybody who can relate to your path in any way, either about growing up as you said, as a poor kid and having some of the mindsets that come with that, or taking this sort of longer term route to get to the PhD to get to where you are now. But by the way, being 33 and being almost done with your PhD doesn’t sound too far behind to me. I hope that they’ll be able to follow up with you if they have anything that they want to you know, talk with you further about or learn from you about.

Carrying Forward Financial from Growing Up Poor

11:08 Emily: What I wanted to ask you about now is some of the attitudes or mindsets that you have carried from your childhood that are, that you’re carrying forward. Whether they are mindsets that you think help you or whether there are mindsets that you think kind of hurt you. You’ve already mentioned a couple of them. One is you being extremely frugal. We’ll get into more of that in a few minutes. Being extremely frugal, not wanting to waste anything. The other one is debt aversion, which I learned at this conference that we both attended is a very common thing for people who grow up in lower income families is having debt aversion, which can be very helpful in some situations and can also, as you were just saying mean that it takes you more time to do certain things like finish your education. If you’re not taking out student loans, there are just trade offs. Are there any other mindsets that you can see from your childhood that are carrying over?

11:58 Zach: I’ll start with the positives. Having the work experience and the education has been so helpful in interpersonal communication and just professionalism. I waited tables and I stocked shelves at gas stations and grocery stores and that kind of manual labor. And working with other people, working your body, you’re really just kind of come to an understanding that there are a lot of different kinds of work out there, about the different kinds of people out there, and to respect all professions and be able to communicate with folks from lots of different professions. In a positive, feeling like I needed to avoid that debt and work my entire way through, I’ve got to meet a lot of people I would never get to meet. I’ve got to develop my communication skills to a degree where I feel as comfortable on a public bus or a shelter or a church or a tier one research institution. Talking with senior level administrators, same level of comfort because I’ve been around and lived amongst all those kinds of folks. So that has really, really helped me in terms of the negatives.

13:13 Zach: Growing up, never went out to eat, never vacationed. The longest vacation we actually ever took was a weekend trip to Minneapolis when I was, I think eight or nine years old and that was it. That was the only vacation. Never left my home town. My first plane ride was at age 30, coming and visiting UT Austin. We never took vacations, kind of with the idea that if you can’t pay for it in cash you are not going to pay for it. And then thrifting almost everything. In prepping for this podcast, I was trying to remember going school shopping and I don’t think I ever did. I don’t think we ever went school clothes shopping. It was either hand me downs from older kids in our neighborhood and cousins or it was going to St. Vincent DePaul and getting used clothes. And to this day when I need something, a chair, shorts, shoes — I just bought a really great pair of used shoes — I still go thrifting for a ton of stuff. That has stuck with me, for better or for worse. To this day, I also just seek out free stuff even if I don’t feel like I belong, like free food on campus. There are speaking events that I go to that if they fit in my schedule, I’ll go for the food and for the socializing, which is totally free sponsored by the university. Also though, with having a really kind of frugal mindset, I had still made some really bad choices. I still tend to eat spoiled food and expired food. It’s just a bad habit to break. It’s kind of the no waste. I buy in bulk as much as I can and then if it goes bad, I still eat it. I still, for better or worse, shop at Walmart. A lot of my classmates are hard on me for shopping at Walmart, but it was the only grocery store in my hometown. It is consistently the cheapest. They always have discounted poultry and meat and bakery. I always freeze things and can things when I can. Some people have thought that I’m kind of weird for doing that. Like buying day old bread and buying day old meat and freezing expired food to kind of stretch the eatability and the usability of the food.

15:42 Zach: That has actually been a little socially stigmatizing. I find myself kind of gravitating toward other folks who grew up poor and just understood that that loaf of bread should last you a week and a jar of peanut butter should last you two weeks. And those can be meals, every single meal if you need them to be. It’s also been a little stigmatizing being an Austin because there’s so much money in this town. There’s so much technology and a lot of folks do come from money and going out to eat twice a week. Living downtown in a $2,500 a month apartment isn’t anything out of the ordinary. It’s so foreign to me and it’s been hard to relate to some folks who grew up that way, especially if we’re in the same PhD program, because I just don’t have those experiences. I don’t feel good about doing those things. So there are some positives than, as you said, there’s obviously some negatives too.

16:43 Emily: Yeah. I’m so glad that you’re telling this story here. It’s really good for me to get your perspective because I did grow up very differently, and most people who I know grew up more middle-class like I did. Or maybe if they had a background more similar to yours, maybe they were sort of concealing that. It sounds like you don’t do that, at least not all the time.

Commercial

17:12 Emily: Emily here for a brief interlude. Tax season is upon us and while no one loves this time of year, it’s particularly difficult for post-bac fellows, funded grad students, and postdoc fellows. Even professional tax preparers are often thrown for a loop by our unique tax situation. And don’t get me started on tax software. I provide tons of support at this time of year for PhD trainees preparing their tax returns. From free articles and videos, to paid at-your-own-pace workshops, to live seminars and webinars for universities and research institutes. The best place to go to check out all of this material is pfforphds.com/tax that’s P F F O R P H D dot com slash T A X. Don’t struggle through tax season on your own. Visit my website for the exact information you need in the most efficient form available. Now back to the interview.

Finances During Grad School

18:16 Emily: Okay. My question is around sort of the PhD program being kind of an equalizer in terms of income. Not that every PhD student or every PhD student at UT Austin makes the same amount of money, but more that you know, you’re kind of put on, let’s say within a factor of two, within your university, of one another. Now, some people coming into that situation are used to living a lifestyle that is higher than what they can afford on their PhD stipends. You, maybe, I don’t know, we’ll get into it, this may be have been a lifestyle increase to be able to have the stipend that you have, based on where you were coming from before that. But everyone has a choice to make when they hear the stipend that they’re receiving. They can choose to live within their means, at least semester by semester, sometimes funding changes, but they can choose to attempt to live within their means. Or they can choose to take on outside work or take out student loans perhaps and augment that stipend income with other sources of income or debt. I was wondering, maybe you could speak a little bit about what your finances are like right now — what is the stipend that you get at UT Austin and how did that compare is really briefly to cost of living? And whether or not you’re able to save on that or does anybody save on that?

19:35 Zach: In the college of education and most social sciences, the typical graduate research assistant or assistantship stipend is between $1,400 and $1,700 a month.

19:46 Emily: Not generous.

19:48 Zach: Not generous. And if you look around Austin, the typical one bedroom, entry-level, we’re talking no amenities, no garage, you might not have central air conditioning, you may have a box air conditioner, $1,500 a month, $1,700 a month, and if you want to live downtown and not have a car, it’s going to double and sometimes triple. It’s pretty ridiculous. The living stipend does not let you live comfortably whatsoever. And even really for my standard of living, you know, trying to find a one bedroom apartment on $1,500 a month, it’s incredibly hard to do and so incredible that I have had roommates my entire time here because there is no way that it would have been able to work. And in talking with other grad students in my program and, and in social work, and in psychology, sociology, linguistics, I don’t know anyone who lives on their own. They either live with family or they have roommates. Really in Austin there’s no other way to do it.

20:56 Zach: In terms of saving, there has been no saving. It has been avoiding debt. I’ve not had to take out any debt, but I’ve also not been able to save anything. And that’s common almost across the board. It’s just kind of four or five years of “I’m going to sacrifice earnings. I’m going to do my best to say at a debt, but I know I’m not going to save anything on the stipend”. Now at UT Austin, we do have healthcare paid for, so that is really great. It’s a great healthcare system. It’s really has really great coverage. There are other student benefits. We get to ride the bus for free. We get discounted food on campus. I mean there are lots of other perks of being a student. You are paid in other ways than just monetarily, but that money does not stretch far, that is for sure. In terms of being able to make ends meet and making enough money to be able to afford this town, I’ve picked up several other jobs, so I do work more than my assistantship for sure. I generally put in between 60 and 70 hour weeks. I also am an admissions reader. I teach courses part time at a nearby university. I edit dissertations part-time for about $75 an hour. And that has helped me make rent and pay for food some months. I also take automated surveys on Amazon Mechanical Turk during my bus rides. I’m a little bit car sick, so I can’t read a book and I can’t study, but I can be on my phone and take surveys. And through Amazon Mechanical Turk I can usually make $8 or $10 per commute, so I will drive my car to my park and ride for about 15 minutes. I’ll have about a 45 minute bus ride in, but in those 45 minutes I can make between $8 or $10 and that could be my food for a couple of days. I’ve been able to really stretch that out, but as you kind of alluded to debt aversion, but no savings whatsoever.

22:58 Emily: Yeah. Well I’d like to get now into more how you make it work. You mentioned what the stipend is at UT Austin, which I mean Austin is a rapidly increasing cost of living city, so I think what’s common in those cities is that the stipends that graduate students are paid and probably other people, the university, their salaries are not indexed at all to what the cost of living is increasing by. It’s a really tough situation to be in, especially as a graduate student, as you mentioned. Coming in and having maybe a five plus year path to the PhD, I mean in that five years, the cost of living can go up tens of percentage points, but your stipend is going to increase very little. So the situation that you sign on dotted line for when you start graduate school is not necessarily the situation that you’re in by the time you finish because your stipend is not going to be keeping up with cost of living. Just a word of warning there for prospective graduate students.

Frugal Strategies as a PhD

23:55 Emily: Now I would really love to talk about how how you make those ends meet. What are the frugal strategies? You mentioned extra income, which is fantastic, but on the side of being frugal, what are the strategies that you’re using that maybe you carried over from these mindsets from your childhood that you think are a little bit unusual? We already mentioned roommates. Okay. A lot of people have roommates. It’s kind of a necessity in most places. What are some other things that you’re doing that maybe other students wouldn’t think of? The idea behind this question is just so they can get some more ideas for other ways that they might be able to cut expenses. And also, with each tip or some of the tips, maybe say what you’re sacrificing to do things that way because there is always a trade off.

24:36 Zach: Absolutely. So, when I looked at moving here, I first and foremost looked at where the fastest public transportation was located and on which streets. In Austin, the big buses run on Congress and Lamar, so I knew I wanted to live off of those streets because I also understood that transportation was free with my student ID. First and foremost, before I even moved here, it was a very strategic move of I need to live on public transport and I also need to live near a grocery store because Austin is kind of known for having these food deserts and other major cities do as well, where there might be an entire swaths of the city where there is not a grocery store within walking distance or on public transport. Before I moved it was getting on transportation and getting on food and specifically living near a Walmart because I knew how much money I could save. Just being kind of a Walmart shopper, already having my budget from where I was moving from, I knew roughly how much I would spend so I could really budget my money really well.

25:48 Emily: With the first part, I just want to add that the selection, the location where you live determines so much about what you’re going to be spending during graduate school. You obviously are more highly aware, maybe then most students coming into graduate school. I really think this is something that other, you know, example that other people should follow.

26:05 Zach: And to your point about sacrifices, I do not live where the bars are or where the entertainment district is. I live miles and miles away from that. Right now, if I wanted to get to some place that had the live music venue, it’s a 12 mile bus ride. I do not live where all the action is in Austin and that’s a sacrifice. I lived on the bus line, I reserve myself to a 45 minute, one hour bus ride that was free. So those are are part of the tradeoffs. But I also went a step further specifically with Walmart and some thrift stores. And I asked, first of all, I would call the location and say to Walmart, when do you discount bakery? When do you discount meat? What day of the week do you put that out? And they’re happy to tell you like bakery and my Walmart is Mondays and the meat is Thursdays. So I know that I go Thursday morning, try to do grocery shopping on Monday and save a ton of money that way. And we’re talking, you know, ground beef that might be $12 is down to $4 and it’s the same amount of meat and you can still freeze it. So stuff like that.

27:14 Zach: Also thrift stores — when do you inventory and when do you give things away? A lot of folks who don’t shop at thrift stores don’t know that thrift stores throw out about 25% of the things that they get in donations and they tend to save those. So they’ll load everything in the back, they’ll sort through what is salable and then they’ll actually throw away everything that they don’t think is salable. A lot of good stuff is still in there though, so you ask thrift stores, down here it’s Goodwill. There’s lots of Goodwills and they are different in different places, but they’ll tell you when they’re going to chuck stuff and you can go on that day and not pay anything. You can go through and get good chairs, good tables. And especially in grad school, if you’re only going to be in a place for four to five years, a lot of that furniture can be just a rental, a four year rental. You go get a free set of kitchen table and chairs for free from a Goodwill, use them for a couple of years, and then give them away. Going the extra mile, especially knowing where I was going to live, but then the social services I was going to use — how could I maximize those? So that when I got here, it wasn’t a huge culture shock. I was doing a lot of same things back home that I had been doing here.

28:29 Emily: Yeah, I really love that combo, those first two tips of it’s not only where you shop, but when you shop. And I don’t think that second step when you shop is something that necessarily occurs to people right away. Thank you for that insight. What’s another tip that you have?

28:47 Zach: this is more along the academic side. in being a PhD student, there’s always pressure to publish and go to conferences and be an academic. But I have found that I am able to save quite a bit of money and do a lot of travel that I would never be able to do by one, when I do go to conferences, be extremely outgoing and friendly and —

29:11 Emily: I can attest to this, you are extremely outgoing and friendly. Yes.

29:14 Zach: And specifically try to meet people that are not from your state and those people become your friend network and those become people who have couches and floors that you can sleep on. So I have gone to a ton of conferences and not paid for a hotel or an Airbnb at all, just knowing someone in that spot. I’m going to Portland in the fall. I’m staying with someone. I’m going to San Francisco next spring. In San Francisco, the group hotel rates were $190 per night. I’m staying for free with a friend who I met at a conference and I have them return that favor. People who are coming to conferences in Austin, I always put them up, I keep a spare mattress, we throw it in the living room and they sleep on a mattress in the living room floor. That’s saving them hundreds and hundreds of dollars of conference hotels.

30:08 Zach: And then actually attending the conferences — I heard a lot of folks tell me they could never do this, but whenever I submit to a conference I will email the conference chair and try to arrange some sort of email conversation or phone call and ask to volunteer in exchange registration fees. So there are probably 25 conferences that I’ve gone to in state and out of state where I know when I will arrive and I’ll say, I can give you eight hours of my time before my presentation. I’ll help you at 5:00 AM and I’ll get the conference room set up. I’ll set up tables, I’ll put up projectors. TACAC is the admissions conference here in Texas and I have done check-in for the past three years in exchange for registration. I will happily volunteer a few hours of labor for a $200 registration fee that I don’t have to pay. And it also doubles as great networking, because they see a grad student who is eager to volunteer and help out and chip in, and I have never been turned away. I’ve never had anyone say, “no, we can’t support you in some way.” It’s not only saving the money in your personal everyday life, but in your academic life, there’s also some ways you can save some serious money and that money adds up over time. I’ve saved at this point over three years, thousands of dollars by doing those things.

31:34 Emily: Yeah, that’s a really incredible and powerful tip that I’m so glad you shared because I hear all the time, um, about how conference expenses are such a limiting factor in a grad student’s ability to network, ability to get their research out there and so forth and those fees and so forth are real barrier. Even if your department or your funding agency or whoever pays for part or all of it, it still is hard to have that money up front and what you’ve come to here is just a really brilliant solution, and I hope that a lot more people will start following your example. I mean the fact that you’ve never been turned down like when given that offer is just incredible. Well, I hope not too many people start doing it or else maybe you’ll have some competition for the volunteer jobs, but it’s a great, great idea and such an actual tip. Thank you.

Outtro

32:25 Emily: Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode. PFforPphDs.com/podcast is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There, you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, here are four ways you can help it grow. One, subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it on Apple podcast, Stitcher, or whatever platform you use. Two, share an episode you found particularly valuable on social media or with your PhD peers. Three, recommend me as a speaker to your university or association. My seminars covered the personal finance topics PhDs are most interested in, like investing, debt repayment, and taxes. Four, subscribe to my mailing list at PFforPhDs.com/subscribe. Through that list, you’ll keep up with all the new content and special opportunities for Personal Finance for PhDs. See you in the next episode, and remember, you don’t have to have a PhD to succeed with personal finance, but it helps. The music is Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear from the Free Music Archive and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing and show notes creation by Lourdes Bobbio.

How The Lucrative Artist Identifies and Reverses Negative Money Mindsets with His Clients

February 24, 2020 by Meryem Ok

In this episode, Emily interviews Dr. Brian Witkowski, a Doctor of Musical Arts and the founder of The Lucrative Artist. Brian serves as a business and leadership development coach for artists and teachers. Brian often sees money mindsets in his clients that don’t serve them well, and these mindsets are common among PhDs as well. If left unchecked, these mindsets have detrimental effects on our finances. Brian and Emily discuss how to reverse negative money mindsets and how entrepreneurship is often the most lucrative and satisfying career for a PhD with a transformed money mindset.

Links Mentioned in the Episode

Teaser

00:00 Brian: When you’re starting out just by yourself, you don’t have to do all that. It’s just a matter of figuring out what’s your actual service, and who are the people you’re going to serve, and then what kind of value exchange you’re going to be creating that you can reasonably get paid pretty well for it, from the right people, in the right way.

Intro

00:20 Emily: Welcome to the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast, a higher education in personal finance. I’m your host, Dr. Emily Roberts. This is season five, episode eight and today my guest is Dr. Brian Witkowski, a doctor of musical arts and the founder of The Lucrative Artist. PhDs, like many artists, tend to have certain money mindsets that do not serve them well, such as a scarcity mindset. Brian and I discuss how negative money mindsets can detrimentally affect our finances and how to reverse them. For many PhDs, and Brian’s clients, the most lucrative and satisfying career path forward might be through entrepreneurship. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Dr. Brian Witkowski.

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

01:06 Emily: I am delighted to have on the podcast today Dr. Brian Witkowski, and we’re going to be talking about mindset work and entrepreneurship and other fascinating topics like that. So, I’m really looking forward to this conversation and learning a lot from Brian. Brian, will you please introduce yourself a little bit further for our audience?

01:23 Brian: Yeah, so I’m originally from Michigan. My grandparents immigrated from Poland. My dad grew up in a very poor area of Detroit and kind of aspired to a much higher middle-class life and worked his way up and eventually became a professor and then raised me to someday want to be a professor, too. Obviously, the world is a lot different today than it was for the generation back then. You know, I’ve had to explore how else, where I can take my teaching and my work and what I really want to do. And so, when that tenure track job, after I finished my doctorate eight years ago, didn’t quite come up, I started exploring other opportunities. I started to really think what else is not being taught that we all could be taught and how can I better serve people. So, I started studying more about business and finance and looking to see where we can help people. Especially as myself, I have a doctor of musical arts degree, and especially in music and the arts, we know nothing about finance or financial literacy.

02:13 Brian: There’s so much to be learned and needs to be learned. So, you not only can just, you know, understand about money and know how to conduct yourself in life. And because we can’t just expect those few jobs we’re trained for, we have to be entrepreneurs, we have to come up with multiple streams of income, and come up with other opportunities and open our minds up to creating new opportunities as opposed to competing for just a few things that less than 1% actually end up having. So, basically, entrepreneurship is kind of the new golden age for higher education in some ways, is what I like to say. Because we can take our expertise and leverage it in new ways and recreate different learning opportunities, not just for the people in the college classes but for the lifelong learners. So, that’s kind of where I’ve taken my teaching nowadays.

Unhealthy Money Mindsets

02:56 Emily: Oh, that’s fantastic. I’m so excited to dive more into all of that, and I’m really excited to have you on as a guest because a lot of my audience, I think, is currently still in PhD training as graduate students or postdocs or maybe closely following that. They may still be competing for that tenure-track job or not sure what they’re going to do if it doesn’t work out. And so I’m really glad to have you on as someone who’s several years further down that line and has a lot more life experience and career experience in that way. One of the things that we said that we would talk about during this interview was money mindset. Because I think the people who you work with through The Lucrative Artist and also the people who I see through Personal Finance for PhDs have some troubling mindsets around money. So, can you talk a little bit more about the mindsets that you see your clients that also maybe overlap with mine? The money mindsets that they have that don’t serve them very well?

03:48 Brian: In some ways, one thing that doesn’t serve a lot of people is just that mentality that we don’t have enough and there’s never enough there. And we always think that it’s a scarcity mindset complex that so many of us have. Even my own father did, even though his adulthood was phenomenally better than his childhood, he was still struggling financially as a professor just putting it all together. There’s a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad* by Robert Kiyosaki. More or less, he talks about how his poor dad actually worked his way up in higher education and became the administrator in the state of Hawaii, and so forth. Back in the fifties and sixties, when his “poor dad” was his friend’s dad who didn’t have any college training and just focused on acquiring real estate and thinking about owning a business and trying to earn money that way. And so, he more or less points out how we’re not taught about how to actually earn money other than to expect the job. So, part of the mindset is having your mind open to the possibilities of where you can create new income opportunities and new sources of revenue, and so forth, for your personal life using all you have to offer.

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

04:52 Emily: Yeah, I can definitely see how the scarcity mindset–if you’re thinking only that, again, that tenure-track job is the only one for you and the only thing that’s worth doing after after a doctorate–there is scarcity in terms of that actual career path. That’s not imagined. That’s perfectly real. But I guess the mindset that doesn’t serve you is thinking of course that that’s the only or the best option for you following finishing your higher education. So, to think a little bit more broadly about your career track would be, I guess, the way to combat that scarcity mindset. Any other kinds of mindsets that you see in those populations?

Aim High: Raise Your Anchor Point

05:30 Brian: The only thing is, I guess we’ve focused so much like on student loans and the cost of higher education. It’s like we let the four-figure, accruing interest, to get in the way of thinking how we could maybe use that same energy toward, “How can I create maybe six figures of income or more later on?” We don’t open our minds up to the possibility of earning way more than what certain salaries we’re used to or what our parents or colleagues are earning. In a lot of different ways, if we package our expertise and services in the right way, you can find that clientele or that other startup, that kind of business that can easily make you enough money to more than pay off your debt and then some. And sometimes we get so bogged down with getting depressed over having a big student loan sum and we don’t realize that yes, it’s not that great, but it’s better than some other forms of debt that are out there.

06:19 Emily: Yeah. So, I think that’s like having an anchor point, right? So, like you in your mind around the amount of money you can make, you have anchor points, whether it’s what you were earning as a graduate student, if you had a stipend or as a postdoc or what you expect to earn as a faculty member or another kind of professional. Or, like you were just saying, the balance of student loan debt that you have or maybe the living expenses that you have to cover each month. These are anchor points that float around in your mind as, “Okay, I need to make this much money.” But really there’s no limit to that. Like, why are you anchoring yourself there? Go ahead and anchor yourself at 10 times that amount or a hundred times that amount, maybe.

06:55 Brian: Yeah, definitely. And there’s one interesting exercise that I sometimes give the clients to consider. Okay, what are you earning right now? What would you have to become to suddenly earn double that? Like who are some role models out there? Because there’s always going to be somebody out there we can imagine who’s already making more than what you’re making that you could easily–sometimes not even actually do a whole lot more, but just adjust the way you’re presenting yourself and to the right audience, and so forth. And then figure out how we can double that from there. If all else fails, at the end of this exercise, people usually say they’re going to be Oprah or Tony Robbins or something, which is great. You’ve got to not be afraid to think big like that.

07:32 Brian: Too often we think small, we don’t think we can be these celebrities and these great leaders, but anyone can really grow themselves to be more than just what they thought they could. And sometimes we’re not taught enough of that in our school. My father taught leadership courses when he was a professor. So, those are classes where I’ve kind of avoided anything that he taught when I was in school. Hence, I’ve got a doctor of musical arts degree. His degree was in criminal justice. And so, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just recreating everything I absorbed by osmosis as a child. I guess you could say it was part of my motivation to make sure I picked a very different degree program. But there’s so many of these things that my father taught in his classes that are not taught to people in the arts and so many other fields as far as management skills, how to interact with people, and what kind of personal growth is out there. We’re too conditioned to just do the exact training for the exact skill to get specific sets of jobs and not necessarily create the jobs instead.

Challenges in a Culture of Volunteerism

08:29 Emily: Mmm, yeah. Great point. So, anything else on your observations around detrimental money mindsets and then how they translate to ill effects in our finances?

08:42 Brian: Yeah, I think partly the scarcity mindset that sometimes starts with just the job market and the opportunities for earning money. Another problem is, especially in the arts and education fields, it’s almost like there’s a nonprofit aspect to it or more if you’re working for a religious institution or, in my case as a professional singer, getting paid to sing in churches and so forth. There’s that guilt trip kind of situation where some people who are cutting the checks kind of make you think you shouldn’t be earning as much as what you should be. And there are other situations too where it’s kind of like the negotiation turns into a coerced charitable contribution in some ways, but not in one in which you can actually get a tax deduction for your time in a concrete kind of way. So, it’s another situation we have to deal with, whether we’re in the arts or in education. There’s that mindset, “Wait, I’m not supposed to get paid this much. I’m supposed to do it for the children and do it for God or whoever, whatever the cause is, basically.” So, that kind of keeps people from realizing their potential. And then I try to tell people to be in a position where you can actually tithe or donate that 10% back as we all ideally should later in life.

09:49 Emily: Yeah, I agree to great, great extent. There’s this, I guess I call it kind of a toxic culture of like compulsory volunteerism in academia and in other similar fields. Exactly as you were saying. When the high level institution has some kind of nonprofit-like status that somehow translates to, “We don’t pay people what they’re worth or we don’t pay people to do work for us. We expect a degree of volunteerism.” I encounter this myself sometimes with institutions who want me to work without pay or with much less pay than I’m asking for. They can kind of use that, “Okay, well we’re a nonprofit,” as like an argument, somehow. But it’s just something that it’s hard to combat because as you said, when you’re sort of indoctrinated into that culture, you think, “Yes, well I’m supposed to be giving back. I’m supposed to be doing this for X, Y, Z. What about the people who won’t benefit from receiving my talents if I don’t take this opportunity?” But at the end of the day, you have to feed yourself, right?

Finding Balance in Value Exchange

10:54 Brian: Yeah. And that’s the other thing. I also tell people that, at the very least, it’s a two-way street. How can they serve me in return if there’s an imbalance in the actual value of exchange that’s taking place? At the very least, maybe that institution could give you a referral for another service you’re providing, or they might allow you to advertise something else. Or, like I tell people who are performing artists, maybe they can sell CDs or trade their mailing lists. There are other ways to at least get some kind of fair exchange of value if you open your mind to those things. I try to help people think about those things and make that happen so that at least if they’re not getting necessarily the actual money, maybe they’re getting a leisurely vacation out of it if it’s a traveling musical gig or something like that. They’re getting something that makes it still worth their while to otherwise feel like they’re volunteering their time.

11:41 Emily: Yeah. Something that can be mutually beneficial instead of just beneficial going one direction. Okay. So let’s say, you know, someone in our audience has identified, “Okay, well I do have that scarcity mindset,” or “Yeah, my anchor point is 10 times lower than it should be,” or what have you. Any of these money mindsets we’ve been talking about. How do you actually go about changing a money mindset that doesn’t serve you well once you’ve identified it?

Changing Your Money Mindset: Self-Talk

12:05 Brian: For me and for people who I work with, sometimes I give meditative exercises. You have to think positively. Positive manifestation-type statements, saying to yourself, “Your bank account may be empty,” but rather than say it’s empty, say, “It’s wide open and ready to receive.” It sounds silly, but you have got to think, “Okay, the money is going to come to me eventually.” You can’t think that you’re never going to get it. It’s just a matter of figuring out the right way to find the right people willing to give you that money, basically, for when you willingly deserve it and earn it.

12:37 Emily: So, it’s kind of about self-talk, then, I guess is what you’re saying? Like it’s about, “Okay, I’ve identified my bank account is empty. Oh, it’s always going to stay empty.” That’s the toxic mindset.

12:48 Brian: So, it’s reinforcing that negative stuff. And before you know it, you’re staying on the floor at the bottom and not working your way up. And then another thing is, there’s the song “Love is in the Air,” but also you could say money is in the air, too. The way the global economy works, the way money compounds everywhere, there’s always going to be enough. You know, sometimes we think, “If I take this job then suddenly somebody else is not going to have any money,” and that’s not how the world works, actually. When we keep getting all that we’re supposed to earn, then there’s more to give around and more to grow the pie.

13:22 Emily: Mhm, yeah. So, it’s not like a fixed pool of money, right, that we all are trying to grab a little bit of a piece of, it’s about growing the entire economy–the entire pie for everyone. Is that what you’re saying?

13:34 Brian: Yeah, exactly.

13:34 Emily: Yeah, so we aren’t thinking, “Me gaining something is someone else losing something.” That’s not how it is.

13:40 Brian: Yup.

13:41 Emily: Yeah, great.

13:42 Brian: It’s how the markets work. If you notice, if you had invested a dollar a hundred years ago, it would probably be who knows how much now. It’s partly a result of that.

13:51 Emily: Mhm. Yeah. Anything else that we can do to change the money mindset aside from turning things in a more positive way and reinforcing that by self-talk?

Open Your Mind to New Revenue Streams

14:02 Brian: The other way probably: be open to thinking of new ways to earn, and be open to new revenue streams. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box as opposed to how you can make a living. Because we all get so caught up trying to apply for the exact same jobs and thinking these are the only ways to earn. There are so many different audiences out there and clientele that we could actually be serving that we don’t even think about. Especially for myself. People, my colleagues mostly, aspire to teach students who are college students and aspiring professional singers. And it’s kind of like we subconsciously only focus on the clientele that is like ourselves. And we don’t realize there’s another whole clientele out there that might be willing to pay way more, or you could actually set up scalable situations where you could easily earn way than you otherwise are used to earning. So, you’ve got to let go of that in one direction and think 360 every way around you, there’s something more you could probably do.

15:00 Emily: Yeah, I think this kind of relates. For people who are still in academia, they might not feel very special because everyone they’re surrounded by also has crazy advanced degrees. Very smart, very talented, very trained in a similar way. But if you can turn and look outside of that immediate environment like you’re talking about, you can see that there are many, many other opportunities to serve different groups of people or to leverage your skills in a different kind of way. And once you do step outside the ivory tower, your skills are going to be regarded in a way that you’re not used to. Right? They’re going to be much more highly looked upon because you are special. There’s only like 2% of the population or less or something that has doctoral level degrees. So, it’s not actually that common if you find the right group to serve. So, this translates really well once you’ve opened your mind to these other types of clients and other types of work that you might be able to do. At that point, why is self-employment more attractive than a job? Or why does self-employment serve you better with a different kind of money mindset than a job would?

You Can Be Self-Employed and Still Have a Job

16:07 Brian: It’s not necessarily mutually exclusive from having a job. And I think sometimes people get caught up thinking they have to quit their job and suddenly be a sole business owner right away. Not necessarily, although sometimes there are situations where you just need to get out of a toxic environment that doesn’t pay you enough. Then you easily find that one client and you can easily–or a few clients–you can suddenly afford to just say farewell to the job that wasn’t really serving you. But I think when you’re stuck in a job, you’re stuck with a cap on your income. Whereas if you start a business, you could think owning your own business, being self-employed, you’re open to more possibilities and there’s no limit necessarily. So, it’s like you’re removing an artificial cap and you’re also giving yourself more freedom once you get it going, you find the right clientele to serve, and so forth.

16:51 Emily: Yeah, I think this goes back exactly to that Rich Dad, Poor Dad book or idea that you were talking about earlier. The poor dad, right, has a job and his income is, as you were just saying, capped and scaled by the employer. It’s sort of out of his hands, right? But the rich dad is an entrepreneur and–well, Robert Kiyosaki’s really into real estate, so lots of different ways to be an entrepreneur–and in that case, the income streams are unlimited. And each income stream itself is unlimited in how much money you can actually bring in. So, there’s a downside to that, but there’s a big, big, big upside too, if you choose to walk away from a job. Which, like you said, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. So, some people in my audience, again, are still in training. Self-employment is something that they can do on the side while they’re still in graduate school, while they’re still in a postdoc for now, as long as it’s permitted by their visa and their job and everything. But it’s something you can dip your toe into and see how it’s going, and you don’t have to just take the leap, like you said, right away.

17:53 Brian: Yeah, definitely.

Commercial

17:58 Emily: Emily here for a brief interlude. Tax season is upon us, and while no one loves this time of year, it’s particularly difficult for post-bac fellows, funded grad students, and postdoc fellows. Even professional tax preparers are often thrown for a loop by our unique tax situation. And don’t get me started on tax software. I provide tons of support at this time of year for PhD trainees preparing their tax returns, from free articles and videos to paid at-your-own-pace workshops to live seminars and webinars for universities and research institutes. The best place to go to check out all of this material is pfforphds.com/tax. That’s P F F O R P H D S.com/T A X. Don’t struggle through tax season on your own. Visit my website for the exact information you need in the most efficient form available. Now, back to the interview.

Pay Attention to What is Not Being Taught

19:01 Brian: The great thing is, while you’re still in grad school, it’s your perfect opportunity to realize what is everybody doing the same? Where do you feel like you’re literally just in “the Matrix,” and what’s not being done? I stress to people that it’s the perfect time to really observe and reflect and take notes for what’s going on and what’s not being taught that still needs to be taught in real life. Because there’s just so much of that that still needs to be taught. Whether it’s with finances or just personal development or other aspects of just knowing how to live. Too many aspects of our degrees are just kind of geared to train us for specific jobs but not for creating jobs. So, one strategy is to just observe what’s not being taught. And then how could you actually teach that? I like to joke with people who are getting their terminal degrees, their PhDs, that they could actually create something in which those same people who may not hire you for a faculty job might actually hire you to do their professional development. Because you never know. That fresh perspective of being young, just finished your degree, and offering a different viewpoint is something that’s going to be valuable to them.

20:07 Emily: You’re exactly describing my own journey into Personal Finance for PhDs, because what was going on for me in graduate school was, I was learning about personal finance because I had to apply it in my own life, or felt that I had to, right? So, I was learning how to apply it and then over some time sort of looking at the way my university was or was not supporting that growth and that journey. And I should say that Duke, which is where I did my PhD, actually does a great job with personal finance in comparison to many, many other institutions. But even so, I could see that there was more that could be done there. And that’s exactly how I stepped into my business was seeing, “Okay, well no one is teaching personal finance from the perspective of a graduate student or a postdoc or a PhD. They’re teaching personal finance from the perspective of a CPA or a financial advisor who deals with very, very wealthy clients.” And this is just completely foreign to the people that I was coming out of. And so, I decided to turn around, right? And teach the people who are coming up behind me those principles. So, exactly what you described. And as you said, I never applied for jobs, universities, or faculty positions, but I am now hired by plenty of universities to do professional development in this area. So, it’s totally, totally, exactly what you said.

Different Business Models for PhDs

21:22 Emily: So, what are the different business models that you can see with PhDs or other people with doctorates that are successful, that are easy for them to access, given the skills they’ve been learning throughout their higher education?

21:35 Brian: Yeah. One thing is just to simply think, “What kind of professional development services could I offer? Are there businesses, are there organizations or clients where what I have to offer with my knowledge and expertise can be valuable to them?” And sometimes it’s not necessarily just regurgitating the same content, but how can you repackage it in a way that is more meaningful to them. Sometimes, with my work, I stress that you can kind of integrate some personal development, leadership growth, using your content as the vehicle, so that people are thinking not just that they’re learning more about a certain thing about history, but they’re realizing how their own life embodies that same historical thing you’re trying to reinforce. Find something like that.

22:19 Brian: It personalizes it more and really fits the clientele or the audience that you’re serving. So, there’s that. Sometimes you can do something as simple as different kinds of coaching, whether it’s life coaching, business coaching. There are so many forms of coaching out there that still people need to hire people. That’s not enough just to go about life waiting for the job or expecting your business to take off. We always need more people to help us in different ways to give us different perspectives, different viewpoints to push us in different ways. In the arts, even though I have my degrees, I still take voice lessons. My voice is an evolving instrument. I’m always learning how to use it in different ways. And the older I get, the different kind of repertoire I suddenly get to sing. So, it’s a never ending thing. And there are other aspects of life where it’s the same way. So, people with PhDs and other graduate degrees, just that background alone gives credibility with certain types of audience members.

Self-Employed PhD and Beyond the Professoriate

23:11 Emily: Yeah, absolutely. So, I’m part of a community called Self-Employed PhD, which is underneath the Beyond the Professoriate umbrella program. And so, what Jen Polk and Maren Wood do, who run that program, is they are career coaches for PhDs. And there are many other people who have stepped into the same area. Seeing again like we were just talking about that a lot of universities don’t prepare PhDs well for knowing the possibilities for their careers outside of academia or being prepared to actually apply for those jobs or network for those jobs or get those jobs. Many people have decided to become career coaches in this area because there is a lack of support from many universities in that area. So, exactly what you’re just saying. Any other business models that you see as very accessible for this audience?

Think Big, Think Lifelong Learning

23:56 Brian: Sometimes it can just be simply, create your own school. It might even rival your university. Don’t be afraid to think big like that. Or something else to that effect. Some kind of supplementary, after-school program for elementary kids or high school. Really any age group. I read an article that there is going to be an enrollment crash in higher education soon where suddenly, because there’s going to be way more retirees than young people, not as many young people enrolling in college. So, more job cuts and other drama might be around the corner. But at the same time, we have a retirement population that is just growing, and they’re bored. There are ways to serve them. So, rather than think higher education, think lifelong learning or higher learning and other things you can offer that can serve any kind of population.

24:45 Emily: Hmm. Yeah. If what you really wanted to do when you were pursuing that faculty position was teach–I mean there are so many different audiences and different ways that you can do that. Even within the subject matter that you were highly trained in, if you want to stay in that area.

24:59 Brian: If you’re willing to leave the country, there are 7.6 billion people in the world. There’s going to be somebody out there who will pay you to teach them something.

25:06 Emily: Yeah. Or work online, and have access to everybody in the world. Yeah. Any other business models you want to add to that list?

Other Business/Teaching Models

25:14 Brian: Yeah, one-on-one coaching, teaching, offering professional development seminars or other workshops, and so forth, using your expertise. Also, you don’t necessarily have to not teach the same students you’re expected to teach that you went through school. You just need to be offering them something that’s different from what they’re used to. So, that’s why I also, with my own business, I help people specifically in the arts figure out how can I do this likewise? How can I create something different and empower myself to have control over my career and do more of the things I actually authentically want to do? Because one thing, especially in the arts, there’s a lot of interesting toxicity that goes on when it comes to career expectations. Especially with professional singers. We have a lot of people who started their careers in the last century and sometimes they just went about teaching as if that last century way of life was still going about and everybody could easily have the same career they had. Or at least that’s how they’d go about, conduct themselves, and just kind of otherwise disregard your actual career and what you’d be doing.

26:16 Brian: You have to really be more of an entrepreneur nowadays as a performing artist if you’re not going to suddenly get some of those few jobs that are still out there. So, position yourself to help those same people who are in your field, not getting the help they probably should have had.

26:29 Emily: Mhm. Yeah. And you mentioning actually using the specific skill you’re trained in, singing. But I’m thinking about–so I have a colleague named Chris Cloney who has a business doing research. He has an independent research company, specifically translating the research that he did as a PhD student into basically another way of delivering it to the world. So, we’ve talked about teaching and coaching and speaking and so forth, which is what you and I do. But there are other ways to translate even more precisely what you were doing in graduate school into the entrepreneurial sphere instead of just going after a job. So, you brought up what you’re doing through The Lucrative Artist. I would love for you to tell us a little bit more about that. Maybe a couple of minutes on how you came to this point. We’ve already heard some of that journey, and then what you do for clients right now.

Brian’s Work with The Lucrative Artist

27:16 Brian: Yeah. So, what I do is I help clients literally figure it out. Sometimes, the biggest barrier that we need to break through is figure out what else we can do other than those few jobs we were conditioned to expect to get. And so I help people think, “Okay, how can I assess all your skills and your strengths, your weaknesses? What’s something that you can synthesize that can actually become a viable product or service that you could give to other people? And you’re more or less in a position where you’re not having to worry about competing against other people and you’re serving the audience that really wants you to serve them and so forth?” And so helping people really package that together. We do authenticity training where we think, “What is it we really, truly want to do?”

27:57 Brian: Like, “What is your purpose? What really drove you to want to teach? And how can you get more to that?” Like for me, it wasn’t really necessarily about the actual content, but it’s about helping people really actually change their lives. Like I’ve witnessed my father as a child, growing up. He did the same thing with his students, seeing people who were, likewise like him, grew up really poor, had no idea what they’d be doing later in life. Then finally they realized, “Oh, I can learn this. I can do this.” And suddenly they have great jobs or they have their own businesses, they’re making a great living, and so forth. So, helping people realize there is another way out there, and anyone’s capable of doing it. And then basically once people figure out what ideal business would be for them, what kind of service they’d be providing–sometimes there’s not a specific service, it’s like a bunch of different services related to themselves through their art form. So, for people in singing, for example, sometimes it’s teaching lessons, sometimes it’s teaching speaking lessons, presentation lessons, helping people patch together other skills related to their singing. So, they’re not just performing, but they’re also providing expertise and educating the public more about the works to bring awareness and you know, make that same connection between a certain classical work and you know, what its audience is going through right now.

Combat Limiting Beliefs and Imposter Syndrome

29:12 Emily: That sounds like, based on what we were kind of talking about earlier, you help people identify the limiting beliefs they have, the mindsets they have around their career, for example, and then coach them in how to combat that within themselves. I guess I just think about this as related to imposter syndrome, right? There’s nothing that we are trained for to do outside of academia. All we can do is teach. And if we can’t get that job, we’re like worthless, right? That’s a horrible thing to think about yourself. But I think it’s indoctrinated into so many of us who go through academia to have that imposter syndrome that “I’m not worthy of another kind of job. I’m not worthy of being able to start a business. I don’t have translatable skills into these other areas.” And so, once people see, “Okay, well this is what’s holding me back. I’m going to engage Brian,” you help them turn those mindsets around in a very practical way. Because you can say, “No, here is what you need to be telling yourself instead of what you have been thinking.” And then they do the work, right? To actually uproot those mindsets.

30:14 Brian: Yeah. And then once they get through there, once they realize what they want to do, then I coach them through step-by-step, “What can I do to actually make a viable business take off the ground.” And it’s not always necessarily too scary or confusing. Some people, you tell them you’re helping them grow a business, they want to see all these weird numbers and other things. And when you’re starting now just by yourself, you don’t have to do all that. It’s just a matter of figuring out what’s your actual service and who are the people you’re going to serve and then what kind of value exchange you’re going to be creating that you can reasonably get paid pretty well for from the right people in the right way. And it’s a matter of figuring out how you can package that and who you’d be serving.

Growing a Business is a Gradual Process

30:52 Emily: Yeah. I think some people when they hear like starting a business, they think about the startup world and where you have to have a highly refined business plan you’re pitching to investors and so forth. And it is really important to have this high degree of models and understanding of what you’re going to be doing in that world. But just to dip your toe into self-employment is much, much, less than that. You don’t have to do all that. You have to try out some things, see what people aren’t going to pay you for it, see what you like to do. It’s a lot of experimentation at the beginning and it’s not really high stakes.

31:21 Brian: Yeah, exactly. I love helping people, walk them through that and realize, “Oh, I can do this.” And yes, there’s actually a demand. One interesting exercise to really take people through is just called hot or not. What are some ideas that can work, and we talk them out. And then we also might contact some other people and see what they think about that if it’s a totally new thing that they hadn’t heard of before. And just a matter of, you need an opportunity to just test the waters and you openly be in a safe environment where you can express ideas without somebody thinking you’re stupid or whatever. There’s no stupid idea. There’s, you know, millions of ideas everywhere. And it’s a matter of figuring out how to piece together to create something viable as far as the business goes.

Origin of The Lucrative Artist

32:00 Emily: Mhm. Yeah, that gives me a good idea of what your services are. But I wanted to ask you about your name, The Lucrative Artist, which is very provocative. So, can you tell us a little bit how you came to that?

32:09 Brian: It’s fascinating. It’s a provocative word. It’s a word they say all the time on CNBC and all the other finance channel for other businesses. But for some reason we’re conditioned to think we have to starve as artists. And it’s not necessarily the case. So, I try and help people realize, “No, actually if you’re getting paid what you deserve and what you should be, you’re actually in a position to make even higher quality art and you’re serving people even better.” So, it’s actually an empowering mindset that better serves them later on.

32:39 Emily: Yeah, I love that. Oh my gosh. Well, where can people find you?

32:42 Brian: Well, my website, thelucrativeartist.com, the lucrative artist, three words there, .com or there’s facebook.com/thelucrativeartist where I’m active on a Facebook page. I also have a Twitter and an Instagram where I try to be accessible to as many people as possible through all those platforms, wherever the world’s taken me. There’s a Self-Employment in the Arts conference taking place in Chicago in February that I’ll be presenting at. And also some universities here and there. I’ll be doing some presentations and masterclasses and so forth. So, I try to be all-around.

Best Advice for an Early-Career PhD

33:13 Emily: Sounds awesome. So, final question. This is a standard one that I ask all my guests, which is what is your best advice for another early-career PhD or another early-career doctor? And this could be something related to what we’ve talked about today or it could be completely other.

33:30 Brian: Yeah, I think as far as the best advice, always keep a mind open to creating new sources of income and having multiple sources of income coming in. And think of ways you could create some passive income for yourself as well as the active income. And then, when you’re in your PhD, look and see what everybody else is doing and then think, “What is everybody not doing they should be doing?” And realize that might be a gold mine of a business opportunity just waiting to happen. So, just to open your mind up to that possibility and not being afraid to go for it.

34:03 Emily: Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you so much for the interview. I’ve learned a lot. I hope the audience has as well.

34:07 Brian: I really appreciate it.

Outtro

34:07 Emily: Listeners, thank you for joining me for this episode. Pfforphds.com/podcast is the hub for the Personal Finance for PhDs podcast. There, you can find links to all the episode show notes and a form to volunteer to be interviewed. I’d love for you to check it out and get more involved. If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, here are four ways you can help it grow. One, subscribe to the podcast and rate and review it on Apple podcast, Stitcher, or whatever platform you use. Two, share an episode you found particularly valuable on social media or with your PhD peers. Three, recommend me as a speaker to your university or association. My seminars cover the personal finance topics PhDs are most interested in like investing, debt repayment, and taxes. Four, subscribe to my mailing list at pfforphds.com/subscribe. Through that list, you’ll keep up with all the new content and special opportunities for Personal Finance for PhDs. See you in the next episode. And remember, you don’t have to have PhD to succeed with personal finance, but it helps. The music is Stages of Awakening by Podington Bear from the free music archive, and is shared under CC by NC. Podcast editing and show notes creation by Meryem Ok.

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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Further Reading:

Teaser

Introduction

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

Kelsey’s NSF GFRP Workshop Updates

Major Decision Points for NSF GRFP Recipients

When To Start Receiving the Stipend

Consider Timing (and Adequate Payment) for TAships

Check with Your Advisor About Research Grant Cycles

Are You Listed as a Dependent on Your Parents’ Tax Return?

25% TAships Possible During GRFP

Financial and Career Opportunities for GRFP Recipients

Get the Snowball Rolling, Start Early

Internship and International Travel Opportunities

Even Without the GRFP, Talk to Your PI About Collaborations

Timing of Internship Programs During Fellowship

Design a Custom Internship

Commercial

Financial Advice for Fellowship Recipients

File Estimated Quarterly Taxes (NOT Yearly)

Personal Finance for PhDs Tax Center

Start Saving Immediately

Stipend Negotiations and Bonuses for Fellowship Recipients

Details on Kelsey’s NSF GRFP Course

Focus on Broader Impacts, Know Your Audience

Best Financial Advice for Early-Career PhDs

Outtro

Links Mentioned in this Episode

Teaser

Intro

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

Transitioning from Undergrad Into Grad School

Personal History with Biking and Driving

Commuting to/from Campus in Grad School

Bikeability of Newark, Delaware

Comparison to Dedicated Bike Lanes in Seattle, WA

When Driving is a Necessity

#1 Grocery Shopping

#2 Visiting Family

Community Reliance When Car-Free

Portability of Folding Bikes

Commercial

Benefits to Living Car-Free

Downsides to Biking Commitment: Weather and Community Reliance

Peer Perceptions About Not Owning a Car

Additional Bike Benefit: Sustainability

FIRE: Financial Independence and Early Retirement

More Details About the FIRE Movement

Personal Finance Subreddit and Mr. Money Mustache

Best Finance Advice for an Early-Career PhD

Outtro

Links Mentioned in the Episode

Teaser

Intro

Will You Please Introduce Yourself Further?

Grad School Stipend at the University of Kansas

Balanced Money Formula: Necessary Expenses = 50% of Pay

Side Hustles and Financial Situation Often Kept Quiet

Primary Side Hustles: House and Pet Sitting

Secondary Side Hustles: Online Teaching and Waiting Tables

Side Hustling Apps

Credit Card Churning Fundamentals

Disclaimer: Use Credit Card Churning Wisely

Credit Card Churning: Timing is Everything

Credit Card Points for Gift Cards and Air Miles

Credit Card Churning: Spreadsheets Are Your Friends

Commercial

Let’s Talk More About Travel Hacking

STA Travel and Hostelworld

Budget Airlines, Driving, and Incognito Browsing

For the Bold and the Brave: Motel Pricing Negotiation

Inviting (non-PhD) Friends to Conferences

Prefixes: To Doctor, or Not To Doctor

Why Start a Roth IRA in Graduate School?

Know Yourself to Choose Which IRA Works For You

Best Financial Advice for Early-Career PhDs

Outtro

Links Mentioned in This Episode