Happy March everyone! I’m already doing a horrible job at keeping up with the content creation part of my 2021 goals, but a girl’s been busy. This brings me to the topic I want to discuss today: how I pay my bills and live my life as a PhD student in one of the most expensive cities in the United States.
After I’d committed to my PhD program back in May 2020, one of the next concerns I had was the economic impact of pursuing more grad school for 4+ years. I was by no means making a lot of money pre-PhD (non-profits are typically not the place to be if you’re looking to make it rich), but I did alright. I paid my bills, had money saved, and had discretionary spending.
Of the people I spoke to who had done a PhD program, only a handful of them said they also worked full-time. Side note: almost all of them were women, but it could’ve just been my sampling. Most folks I spoke to told me that I wouldn’t have time to work full-time and do a program, but I was determined to find a way to make it all work. For me, as I imagine with many others in this capitalist society, being financially stable greatly improved my feeling of autonomy. And it also really helped me when I started to compare myself with where my friends were and question if I’d made the right financial decision by pursuing two years of AmeriCorps post-college. Most of them did not actively make me feel bad. It was just my own internal inclination to question and ponder.
I write this post purely for informative purposes. While I tried to land a full time job during the Summer before my program started, most places (understandably) did not want to hire me when they learned I was about to start a PhD program. I knew that my stipend would not be enough money for me to maintain the same financial stability I’d previously enjoyed, and that this added stress would significantly impact my ability to enjoy my program and my life in general. I’ve been in a shaky financial place before and I never want to be there again.
With a more traditional, full-time job off the table I had to think about my other options. I decided to continue working part-time at the restaurant, but I knew I’d need more than that. I’d heard of contract, consulting, and freelance work before, but it never seemed like something attainable for me. But then, my networks came through for me. I found two contracting jobs and that helped solidify my financial situation and add work experience that felt meaningful to me (and also helped my resume). So, without further ado, here is a list of my income streams:
Income Streams
I’m defining income as money from jobs worked (aka not passive income), but there are many types of wealth and assets that are not income.
- Brandeis University Stipend
I receive my stipend bi-weekly. Something else that is not a direct income stream, but definitely benefits my financial situation is that part of my funding includes the cost of tuition & fees for classes as well as health insurance. None of this impacts my stipend amount directly. Another note to make is that my stipend is only available 9 months out of the year.
Average time: I don’t really track this because it’s so constant and not really hourly work. - Contracting Job #1: Project Coordinator Consultant
This is one of the jobs I got through my network. I help manage the programmatic aspects of a federal grant.
Average time: 10 hours/week - Contracting Job #2: Recruitment Coordinator
One of my former supervisors tapped me to see if I wanted to help out with some of their recruitment work. I still have friends who work at the organization and had already done some recruitment work with them last year, so I was more than happy to say yes.
Average time: 10 hours/week - Restaurant Work
As you may already know, I work at a restaurant 2 days a week. I also receive my dental and vision insurance through this job.
Average time: 11 hours/week - Research Work
I’m part of a research project at the Institute for Economic and Racial Equity at my university. I get paid hourly for any project work I do (on top of my stipend, which is really nice).
Average time: 5 hours/week - Miscellaneous
This is a category I hope to continue fleshing out. This serves as a catch-all for random money I receive. Most recently, I received an honorarium for a workshop I did (yay!) so that would fall under this category. My roommate also graciously offered to pay me to watch her pet for a bit, so I include that here too. As I continue in my program, I hope that I can continue to build this out more.
Average time: varies
Pros of Having a Bunch of Part-Time Jobs
- Nothing is my full-time job and so no one expects me to be fully committed to any one thing. I cannot say this will be the case for all part-time jobs because I feel like this is also dependent on your supervisor. But I feel very fortunate that all my supervisors understand that I have a lot going on.
- Variety. I like doing a lot of different things because it allows me to diversify how I spent my time. I really enjoy using different parts of my brain, and having multiple part-time jobs allows me to do this. Nothing is my entire world, and it helps me not attach all my emotional energy or self-worth to one thing.
- Diverse networks and communities. I feel like this has helped me develop friends and communities in so many different parts of my life. It’s also helped bring me opportunities.
- Financial freedom. I do not feel as though I am a “broke grad student.” Will I be buying a house anytime soon? Probably not (also I’m not sure if this is even a goal of mine). But I also do not feel as though I am “behind” my friends who did not decide to continue with school. And that personally helps me feel a lot better about my decision, especially when that comparison monster pops up.
Cons of Having a Bunch of Part-Time Jobs
- Balancing everything can be tricky. I am often juggling different industries, projects, people, and goals. Staying organized is key for this one. And even though I would consider myself pretty organized, it can still be a lot to jump from class to a research meeting to a recruitment call and finish with some project coordinator work.
- Deadlines can compound. And they won’t necessarily care that you have an assignment due or another work assignment.
- Most of the time rates will be higher, but you (likely) won’t get benefits. I’m lucky to have health insurance through my funding and serving job, but this feels like a rare phenomenon. My other jobs don’t really come with benefits other than income.
You Know Yourself Best
At the end of the day, you know what will work for you. I’m the type of person who lowkey thrives when I have a lot of stuff going on. Though there is a balance I’m trying to work on because I can definitely be a workaholic. If you don’t thrive when you have a lot going on, don’t do this if you don’t have to. I never want to glamorize hustle culture or burnout.
Something that helps me with this is that I feel like I have a decent amount of control over my jobs. If I need to cut back on hours one week in any of them, I can usually find a way. That might include communicating with my supervisors that I have less time one week or being strict with agreeing to more meetings and new assignments. This week I gave up one of my shifts at the restaurant because I have an assignment due Sunday night and there’s a lot of reading I have to do before then. So it’s really all about awareness and recognizing when something needs to give.
I hope that this helped provide more insight into how I support myself during grad school. I’m not married and do not have someone who could have picked up the financial difference. Even if I was, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with this. So while I’m definitely busy, it’s a choice that I felt needed to be made.
Do you have a side hustle (or side-hustles)? What are your thoughts on contracting or consulting work?
If you have feedback on anything I said, or the way I said it, please let me know. I am still learning and growing. I know that even if I had no intention of being hurtful or harmful in my writing, the impact might be different.
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