Challenge

Every graduate program and every funding opportunity and their associated grants/proposals I’ve encountered has guidelines in place for mentorship, professional development, and/or requirements for educational frameworks. Policies are in place which are intended to ensure that students, employees, and trainees are provided with a substantial amount of indoctrination as to how the academic system functions and how to successfully navigate it. There are also specific policies regarding mental health and wellbeing, respecting cultural differences, sexual orientation and gender expression. These are all well intended and beneficial policies. However, one of the significant blind spots that exist within this regime (and, admittedly, is a bit beyond it, traditionally speaking) is providing guidance and education related to the financial health and wellbeing of junior lab members, in particular graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. I believe that a properly implemented low stakes, low effort, low cost (read: free, or nearly so) change in policy by academic advisers and departments can effect a positive, if only a small, improvement on their students’ and trainee’ financial, and hence future, outcomes.

Catalytic points

  • It would be far from a unique statement for me to say that these individuals are underpaid, but that is just one of the points motivating me to write this post.

  • A second motivator is the potential lack of financial literacy and/or interest in financial systems. The World Economic Forum has found that the financial literacy in adults is approximately 50% in the United States. Very few people go into science for their financial benefit; most of us are motivated by the pursuit of knowledge. I think that this is commendable, but, when combined with poor pay and funding instability (more on that later), individuals become more vulnerable.

  • Furthermore, a huge proportion of the academic community in America are not native-born Americans. Implementing a long term perspective of personal finances and navigating a complex financial environment can be difficult enough. I can only assume that this becomes even more challenging while doing so in a foreign environment and in a language that is not likely to be your first (or second, or third).

  • Young people in the US are becoming more and more unhealthy. In a 2022 report prepared for the DoD [PDP warning] it was found that 77% of Americans age 17-24 could not qualify for military service due to obesity, chronic disease, or mental conditions. While this data does not perfectly reflect the body of individuals comprising the graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in American institutions, I believe it’s reasonable to state that there are parallels that are worth considering. Chronic diseases can impose substantial costs, and with some guidance, the burden can be lightened.

  • The most powerful tool in securing future financial health is TIME. The S&P 500, over the long term, has a historical return of 10% per year, and the earlier ANYONE, not just graduate students, start the process of saving for the future, the more secure their later-life financial future becomes.

  • My last motivating point is one that many of us are seeing in real time right now in an exaggerated/exacerbated fashion: the risk of funding uncertainty. With the change in the presidential administration, the actions of DOGE, and top-down restructuring of funding priorities, many federally funded programs and their constituent projects are being severely pared back or outright cancelled. While not as extreme, shifts in focus, regarding research topics, have been historically demonstrated, particularly when new public health or environmental risks are identified. Being that most graduate students are (financially) beholden to the grant they operate under and most post-docs are employed under yearly contracts, they are greatly vulnerable to funding uncertainty risks.

One approach to a solution

If you’ve made it this far, (1) thank-you, and (2) I hope that I’ve established a reasonable founding for the financial risk that many young scientists take upon themselves in their pursuit of knowledge.

Now how do we help them?!

More substantial stipends isn’t the (complete) answer, that minefield is for someone wiser and with more experience than I to address.

Instead, I believe that resources should be made available to young scientists as part of their onboarding process. These initial resources should outline:

  • How to make and maintain a budget.
  • How federal, state, and local taxes are implemented.
  • An explanation of, in plain language, the healthcare plans that are available to them, to include how and WHY Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) work.
  • Any retirement accounts that they may be eligible for, and what the benefits may be.

Universities and research institutions already require multiple training modules as part of the onboarding process, including sometimes dozens of lab safety training modules. This means that the infrastructure and capability to carry out this effort is already in place and only requires the will to implement it. If the will at the highest level is lacking, that does not mean that individual colleges, or departments, or even advisers, cannot implement such policies. Providing information, well intended and useful, is not (or at least should not be) a violation of institutional policies.

If you are reading the above and consider this information/background to be elementary, I implore you to reread my justifications above. This information is not self-evident and our financial system is not easy to negotiate.

Conclusion

I’ve had the good fortune of working with many intelligent undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-docs, and I’ve trained under and collaborated with many well educated and supportive PI’s and Professors. I believe that academia is well-intentioned, and while not necessarily efficient, it does a great job of addressing it’s implicit goals. That said, young scientists are exposed to risks that are not considered or even remotely addressed in the current training framework. I contend that we can improve student outcomes by making simple changes in the information we provide to these individuals. As the saying goes, “you’ve got to know the rules if you’re going to play the game.”