Evolving Personal Finance » grad school
Dreaming of Financial Incentives for Grad Students
Last night I literally dreamed about how my progress through my PhD might have been different if there were financial incentives in place. In the last few weeks I’ve been reflecting on what I wish I had done differently during grad school; I’m in that super-jaded place that a lot of people get to around the time that they defend. I have found myself wishing that there had been clearer expectations set out by my advisor, … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school
Funemployment Report: Goals for August 2014
My funemployment officially starts in September because I am still employed full-time as a graduate student through August. However, now that I am post-defense, I have the time to set myself up well to transition into funemployment. I’m going to attempt to document my funemployment through a series of goal posts. Just after the start of each month, I will report how I did on my goals for the month that just ended and set out … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, career, funemployment, goals, grad school
It’s Dr. EPF, Thankyouverymuch!
I successfully defended my PhD on Wednesday. Grad school is over (almost). It’s only barely starting to sink in that the event that I’ve been working toward for six years has finally occurred and that I’m FREE! The defense itself went well, I think. I prepared HARD for my presentation and it was pretty good by the time I gave it (given the material, of course). My committee didn’t grill me or anything and everyone was very collegial. I … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school
Celebratory Spending
The main reason I’ve been absent from EPF and the blogosphere generally is that Kyle defended his PhD last week! You may now address him as Dr. Kyle. (Not that kind of doctor.) (Just kidding. We can all call him Kyle after just this one post.) Dr. Kyle has been working toward this moment for nearly seven years. It’s just staggering all that went into this accomplishment. I can’t even tell you. I’m so proud of … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school, spending
Grad School vs. Blogging vs. Career vs. Money
It’s finally time to give you all a life update! As I’ve hinted a few times recently, there have been some big changes in our plans. Grad School Last week, my advisor made the official announcement that he is moving to another university at the end of the summer. He first alerted us to the possibility back in January, so I’ve had a few months to assimilate the news. At that time, he and I discussed it … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, career, grad school, income, savings
Why Harvey Mudd College Tops the Payscale ROI Rankings
… and why prospective college students should ignore the rankings. Payscale.com comes out with a yearly ranked list of the colleges that produce the highest-paid graduates. My and Kyle’s alma mater, Harvey Mudd College, has topped the list (some permutations of it, anyway) for the past few years. And while I love that Mudd gets nationwide press coverage every time the new rankings come out, I don’t recommend that prospective college students use them to choose … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, college, grad school, income
How to Enter 1099-MISC Fellowship Income into TaxACT
This post is the second in this series on how to convince tax software to accept grad student fellowship income – last week was TurboTax, this week is TaxACT. I’ll refer you to sections of that post so I don’t have to repeat the information but you also don’t miss it. Please read two words of caution regarding my qualifications (none) and the wisdom of using tax software to begin with. Also, please again ignore the … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school, taxes
How to Enter 1099-MISC Fellowship Income into TurboTax
Update February 2017: I have updated and expanded this post into an entire section of Grad Student Finances. Read the entire 2016 grad student tax guide, jump to the step-by-step instructions for entering grad student income of various types into TurboTax, or go directly to the equivalent of this post on entering 1099-MISC fellowship income into TurboTax. This post is a step-by-step guide to show you how you can enter 1099-MISC box 3 income and withholdings that … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school, taxes
Why Don’t More People Do Their Own Taxes?
First, I need to get this out of the way: I don’t consider using tax software to be “doing your own taxes.” I hear that kind of language all the time, but I disagree with it. When you use tax software, you are not using your brain and you don’t gain any understanding of how income taxes are calculated or why. I have observed that very few people I know prepare their own tax returns, despite … Read entire article »
Filed under: grad school, taxes
Internships and Other ‘Experiences’
It’s no secret that we’re in a slowly improving but still tough job market right now. Those of you with PhDs (in progress) are probably being constantly inundated with doom and gloom about how there are virtually no academic jobs opening up and PhDs have difficulty being hired to do anything else, either – so our fancy degrees don’t exempt us from the troubles of the national economy. There is a rising awareness of how valuable … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, grad school
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