Grad Student Finances Has Launched!

I just wanted to tell you guys that we now have Grad Student Finances online! If you remember, this project was supposed to be my passion project from last fall before I got absorbed in creating my comprehensive personal finance for grad students seminar.

My concept for Grad Student Finances was for it to be a timeless resource for graduate students to help them with learn about how to maximize their money. For that reason, I did not want to use a typical blog format where posts quickly become buried in the archives and it is difficult to navigate within a single visit. Instead, in advance of the launch I wrote a few tens of articles that form the core content of the site and set up the home page to (I hope) encourage browsing by topic instead of by chronology.

I have about 100% more articles planned than what I have up there now. I also want to expand the content on the existing articles. This will be one of my priorities for the summer. But I wanted to start somewhere with this new site and not wait until I thought it was perfect (it would never go up!).

The articles on GSF are more informational and in a more objective voice in comparison to what I write on EPF. This also was an intentional choice because I want people to be able to rely on the information on it, so I didn’t want to inject too much of my own values and opinions. My idea is to add personal vignettes on every article to illustrate how the information plays out in the lives of real grad students. Right now I have three vignettes of mine up but no one else’s!

Would you please help me with this new site? There are many ways you can contribute (some of which are mutually beneficial):

1) ANYONE: If, as you are reading the site, you come across an article that needs to be updated or expanded and you have an idea for how to do so, please email me at emily at gradstudentfinances dot org. I know there are many articles that are pretty scant as of now!

BLOGGERS: If you are a blogger and have a written a post in the past that relates to the topic covered in an article, please send me the URL and I will consider linking to it. I want to drive traffic from this site to other great personal finance resources for the general public. The section of the site that needs the most expansion is the frugality portion and that is the one in which I want to most heavily link to other blogs. If you have written any post ever on a frugal tactic, I would (most likely) like to add the tactic to the section and link to your post on it to help a reader who wants to pursue the topic.

2) (FORMER) GRAD STUDENTS: would you please consider writing a vignette on a money story from your grad school years? (For example, the one found in this article on short-term savings. Click ‘Read More’ in the yellow box.) This is the key aspect of the site that I want to get off the ground and I would love to signal to the readers that they have something to offer the community. Would you help me lead by example in this way? Email me what you would like yours to be about at emily at gradstudentfinances dot org. (You can find even more ways to contribute content at Share Your Story.)

3) ANYONE: If you are particularly interested in this site, please sign up for the mailing list to hear updates. I am planning to add some blog-style elements (that is, periodic fresh content) that supplements the core static ckneptent of the site to help build the community. I will ask for input on these elements from the subscribers to the mailing list.

Thanks for participating, guys! I know the site still needs a lot of work but I’m happy to have it online and look forward to adding to it over time. (By the way, this accomplishes my fellowship-funemployment goal 4!)

What do you think of GSF (constructive criticism, please)? What have you been up to this spring?