======= Date Modified 13 38 2010 07:38:32 =======
Hi all:

I am a second year Phd student-now working fulltime to pay for my phd.

I was a graduate assistant while studied for my Master. The college stipend (9 USD per hours/20 hours per week) did not enough to pay for my housing and food. I had to work two jobs to pay for living expenses. I lived in Washington DC-quite expensive city.

I don't have any student loans or debts, but always in a tight budget. I could not afford travelling or doing fun stuff with my peers.

I am expected to graduate around age of 28. I will have no savings. I always compare myself to my friends-they are working/saving for family/having fun with their boyfriends. However, I cannot afford to do anything. I want to have family and children in the future. However, I cannot see that road yet.

I enjoy enrolling in the Phd, but just stress finacially. Do you have the same problems? Any words of encouragement ^_^

Sorry English is my second language.

I think that this road is always going to be majorly tough financially - I'm in a different situation to you in that I didn't start uni til I was 34 - by that time I had a family (3 kids) but never got to do the fun stuff - I worked, then I married, had children, always had major financial issues, never had two pennies to rub together even though we both worked - the kids and mortgage took care of that.... I'll be 41 this year, I HAVE to submit by 43, I'll still have 3 kids, a house, etc etc lol and STILL no money :-)
what I'd say to you is that this will be behind you so much younger that you'll have time for all that later on - I've spent so much of my life wishing it away and now I find myself this age ;-) Enjoy your time, when the time is right then you'll get what you want, you're young enough for it not to be too late :-)
Being in my position if anything its tougher - I have soooo much guilt - I can't afford anything fun for me or my family lol and they need providing for. I just hope that it will be worth it in the end and they are so supportive - the hilarious thing (or maybe I'm ending up slightly hysterical) is that at the point I leave uni my kids will be starting it - my son will go there next year when I'm beginning completion!!! Hence another pressure on me to get a move on so that i can help fund him lol, my daughter will go the year after that at the point I have to finally submit or else ;-)

Hey Jun480! I understand some of what you are going through I think. I am also a second year PhD student but I am lucky enough to be fully funded and have also had financial help from my parents when I have needed so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to manage without that sort of help. However I will graduate at age 30 and I do compare myself to my friends. I had a bit of a late start and have had to have breaks due to ill-health, so I have lost a few years along the way- and yes I do look at my friends and compare myself to them. Some are married, some have kids, most have good jobs, a house etc, and money- all things that I would like eventually but don't have yet. But out of all of my friends, I think I am at least as happy/content as they are, if not more so. There are a lot of things I don't have yet that I would like but I love what I do with the PhD and if I can make a career out of research I will be one of the happiest people alive, whereas lots of my friends hate what they do, but desperately need the money for the mortgage and the kids etc. I suppose what I am saying is that the grass is always greener on the other side- we have our own worries and wish we have what some of our friends have, but I suspect that they also look at us and envy some of what we have too! Whether that's passion for what we do, freedom, whatever! So try to enjoy your PhD- the other things will come in time and when they are meant to happen! Chin up! KB

I don't think you're in too bad a situation. You have no student debts; I have about £22,000 (37,007 and 91 cents). Graduating at the age of 28 is nothing - you're a whipper snapper. I'll be 31, I reckon. And, as has already been posted, you'll have all of the life stuff when you graduate - it's just on hold at the moment. Plus like me and most of everyone else on this forum, you're used to penury. And the chances are, you'll never be rich being a researcher - what you don't have, you'll never miss and all that.
To actual prepare for my retirement, I've actually started to play the National Lottery - Lotto, in the UK. And I've discovered a way of dramatically increasing my odds of winning. I used to buy one ticket a week, meaning that I had a 1 in 14.9 million chance of winning. Now I buy 3 a week, and by the power of mathematics, I have a much better chance of winning: 1 in 4.97 million. Didn't need a mathematics professor on the run from the secret services for crimes against probability sending me spam e-mails to tell me that one.
More seriously though, we're all in the same boat. In the UK, we can sometimes take part time jobs, or a bit of paid teaching to supplement our incomes.
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Another side of it that's very easy to forget is that this isn't a choice between being a student in poverty or being a worker not in poverty. I've been working for the last fifteen years, and through a variety of things, mainly being that I go for work I'm interested in rather than work that pays well or progresses my career, I'm actually no worse off being a PhD student on a bursary than I was when I was working. Unless you have great skills or really want to play the career game, life in the workforce with 'just' an ordinary degree does not guarantee being any better off - and at least this way we're actually trying to follow our dreams, rather than just trying to go for a 'sensible' option (which, in a recession, I'm convinced doesn't really exist anyway!) Yes, it's tough being a poor student for years, and particularly so if you don't have funding to back you up, but the grass always looks greener! In other words, in my experience, work sucks harder!!

I agree - I worked for ten years before enrolling and didn't have much money then either! The people I know who are really rich are all the ones that left school after GCSEs /A levels and bought property or they married money. None of my uni friends have much financially!