January 2007 Net Worth

2007-01-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is my Net Worth as of January 2007:

Assets	January 2007
Cash	0.00
Checking	200.86
Savings	5034.71
Brokerage	2140.73
Total Assets	7376.30
Debt
Credit Card	894.57
Total Debt	894.57
Net Worth	6481.73

The net worth figures I post are a snapshot of my net worth at the time of posting. So while I'll almost always list a substantial credit card debt, that's just the balance as of the first of the month, not the balance I carry from month to month (as a well trained personal finance blogger, I pay off my credit cards each month, barring an emergency). This was the status as of January 1, 2007, check back in a few days to see how things have changed this month.

Not too shabby for a poor grad student, eh? I mean, I'm not exactly rolling in it, but I'm clearly far from the poor house. If, as we're always told, the average American has negative savings and is jsut an inch away from having their SUV and McMansion taken away by the repo man, I'm in good shape.

How did I amass this treasure trove? Much of it comes from working a real job during the summer, which paid me in three months almost half my annual stipend. Well, it was a consulting gig, but that's pretty close to a real job. Three months of real job money combined with grad student spending habits means money in the bank. The rest comes from following a budget, which I'll post about tomorrow, or more likely whenever I get around to it.

Now you'll note that I don't include any household items in this listing. There's been quite a bit of controversy on other personal finance blogs as to how to count possessions like stereos, furniture, jewelry, etc. Like many grad students, I get around all thing by not owning anything of any value. The hand-me-down bedroom furniture from my parents? The bookcase make of cinder blocks and plywood? The TV set I paid five dollars for at a garage sale three years ago? (and it still works!) I don't really consider these financial assets as much as shit-that-keeps-me-from-having-to-go-shopping. The one exception is my laptop, which is probably worth $500 on eBay, but which will be parted from me when you pry it from my cold, dead hands (I mean, come on, it has all my data on it).

Some might point to my "budget discipline" and "lack of household assets" call me cheap. I prefer to think of it as not investing in depreciating assets. My girlfriend would probably agree with the former.

How Poor Are Grad Students? (And How Poor is The Poor Grad Student?)

2007-01-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

Howdy! Welcome to this chronicle of the financial tribulations of a 24 year-old grad student at a major American university. This personal finance blog will catalogue how I scrape by financially while devoting myself to the life of the mind. And avoiding the real world. I prefer to think of it as the former, but you can take your guess. But first, you might ask, why "Poor grad student?" Are grad students really that poor?

The cliche, of course, is that grad students are really stupid smart people who go to grad school to avoid the real world and pay for it by being desperately poor and lonely for the rest of their lives. As with most things in modern American society, The Simpsons provide a vivid illustration:

Got that? Grad students are so poor they live on crumbs, but only when their professorial overlords allow them. Yikes! But it gets worse.

$600 a year? Even Bart can see that's a lousy way to live.

Of course the reality isn't so bad. It is true that most grad students are smart capable people who could be making a lot more money trading bonds or creating ads or working for Microsoft, so from a financial perspective they probably did make a "terrible life choice." Of course, knowledge is its own reward, blah, blah, blah, and other platitudes that make the Ramen taste better.

That was a joke. I actually haven't eaten Ramen since freshman year of undergrad. I buy normal food at a normal grocery store.

And while grad students make less money then they probably could, not all are poor. For one thing, many spent a few years in more lucrative careers and then came to grad school. For another, there's a wide range in grad student stipends, so that while some are encouraged to apply for food stamps , many live on a reasonably comfortably on a salary that palces them in the lower-middle class. Unless they have kids. Then it's hello crushing student debt to support your family.

Thankfully, I'm in the later category. I earn enough to put myself around the 25th percentile for household income, not bad for a 24-year old when my household consists of just me. So while I don't own a car or live in a big apartment, I can afford to have a beer out at the end of a long day and to not eat Ramen. Which I hate. Having to eat Ramen would definitely be a deal-breaker for me. Being somewhat financially literate, I even save some and have some money in the market.

So that's the overview of grad students and money. Over the next few days I'll set out in more detail just how poor I am (my networth) and how I deal with it (my budget) and what I want to do with what money I do have (my financial goals).