Making my stipend work: how I budget as a PhD student 

I'm glad you found it helpful! Best of luck with starting your program!

Yes it is quite cheap, same with my rent! I’m taking advantage of it as much as I can to save and invest now. I know this kind of budget is literally impossible for most grad students.

I'm happy to help!

That is so awesome that health insurance is included! I’m not sure what I’ll do when I get kicked off of my parents’…. I set up my Roth IRA using Vanguard which is also what I use for mutual funds and ETFs currently!

Excellent question! I was actually just throwing together an Excel sheet to track expenses when I took a break and saw your comment! Initially, I had no real intention of altering my budget, but I will be moving and cutting my rent expense in half due to not being able to renew my current lease. This will also lower my wifi bill but could increase my power bill in the winter. Other than that, I will just be more cautious about my spending (which is why I'm making the Excel sheet). I also am working to be much more aggressive in my investments which might be counter intuitive, but I know currently I have the excess income, so I am going to use it for investing. I will *never* spend more than I make, unless there is an emergency, which is why I have an emergency fund of 3-6 months of living expenses. I have a couple other videos about personal finances tied to grad school, this one might also be helpful! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-alSAYbtXdVM.html

@@MaddieMettler Thanks again. Finances and budgeting can be a bit daunting especially when you are moving to another country but this really helps!

Congratulations on the award! That is awesome that health insurance is included! I also imagine that should be enough, especially if you are okay with having roommates. I'm glad you found this helpful! I am working on getting an updated version together to account for my different stipend and inflated grocery costs.

@@MaddieMettler thank you. Can you please do a video about getting a student apartment process? I’m currently looking and submitting applications for student apartments in the area of my university but I don’t want to do a guarantor since my stipend will easily cover my rent price of a student apartment.

@@jordanwilliams1546 I actually don’t have any experience in student apartments unfortunately. I haven’t had to have a guarantor since my sophomore year of undergraduate. Your university probably has a student help/success center where they could offer advice for your area!

@@MaddieMettler thank you for the advice.

I am not a TA this semester, but I am what is called a "graduate research assistant" aka a GRA. Most if not all research-based graduate programs have stipends associated with them. The stipend can either come from funding from an outside source (mine comes from NASA) where students are GRAs or students can be TAs to get their stipend. Like I said, this is the case for most research-based grad programs so that includes pretty much all STEM programs (master's or PhD) as well as many PhD programs, even if they are non-STEM. It varies a decent bit between universities and programs.

Hi! I would say if you live on campus in graduate/family housing, you do not need a car. There is a grocery store about 10 minutes walk from there. It will be cold and difficult in the winter though! Also, in order to get around town well and explore the area a bit more (especially outdoor hobbies) a car will be a big plus. The bus system is not sufficient for easy travel wherever you want to go in town. It is quite restricted. I would say you can always try going without a car for a bit and then see if you want one. It entirely depends on where you live in town and your lifestyle/hobbies/level of freedom you want.

Congrats on the offer! If UK is anything like MSU, you should get on the waitlist for grad housing on campus ASAP! The housing on campus here is about half the price (if not less) than anything off campus and the waitlists are usually quite long. That can be a great way to save money! Otherwise, I would recommend living as if you had that level of income and expenses so you can adjust to the feeling.

Ohh nice so on campus housing is cheap compared to off campus I didn't knew that Thank you letting me know maddie

It is for sure in Bozeman! Definitely worth taking a look at the housing at UK and Lexington to find out for sure. Also, give yourself lots of time to find housing! It is not the easiest thing to do in any college town@@30-sakash-che87

Alright got it 👍

Alright got it 👍

For the majority of my program I have been a W2 employee of MSU, so the taxes are automatically deducted like for any other job. One academic year (fall 2022-spring 2023) I was paid through a fellowship which was 2 lump payments (one at the start of each semester) without taxes taken out. So I did the 1040 estimated taxes form from the IRS and paid quarterly taxes in fall 2022. When I did my full tax return for tax year 2022, I listed the fact that I had non-W2 income but had already paid some taxes. I ended up getting a refund that year and decided not to pay quarterly taxes for spring 2023. So when I did my tax return for tax year 2023, I just listed my non-W2 income and knew I would be paying taxes rather than getting a refund--so I just knew to keep a few hundred dollars available for the tax bill. I hope this helps!

I don’t know anything about the field of economics so I can’t make any suggestions. I’d suggest Google, sorry!

Technically with my contract through the university I am also only on a part-time 19.5 hour per week contract. If I actually worked 19.5 hours I would be making $31 an hour, but I work more like 40-50 hours a week which is more like $15.5 per hour (if a 40 hour work week). It's definitely tough to make ends meet no matter what in a graduate program, but I do feel for the international students who (depending on their visa) cannot go out and get a side job for extra cash.