None of the following is financial advice. I don’t have the required training or licensing; it is unsuitable for me to give specific advice.

In my my previous post I shared my thoughts on how academia can better prepare young scientists for their future in a financial sense. I limited the post to my proposal to remain focused on the immediate topic at hand. In this post, I would like to follow up and provide some resources that a reader may find useful.

Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey is one of the OGs of personal finance media. He’s published multiple books and runs a show/podcast available on YouTube where he addresses specific questions by people who call into his show. He has distilled his philosophy down to what he calls “baby steps”. He has a strong philosophy of avoiding debt at all costs and maintaining an adequate emergency fund. Not all of his steps are attainable on a graduate student salary or time frame, but it does provide a reasonable starting list of long term financial goals.

Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps

  1. Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund
  2. Pay off all debt (except the house) using the debt snowball
  3. Save 3–6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund
  4. Invest 15% of your household income in retirement
  5. Save for your children’s college fund
  6. Pay off your home early
  7. Build wealth and give

The Money Guy Show

These gentlemen take a little more modern view on financial planning. They discuss general concepts as well as addressing specific questions from viewers on their YouTube channel. They stress their “Financial Order of Operations”, which targets efficient use of one’s income to minimize interest payments made on existing debt and the taxes you pay while preparing for “future you’s” needs. I think they do an excellent job of covering the intricacies of IRA’s and Roth IRA’s as well.

Money Guy Financial Order of Operations

  1. Deductibles Covered
  2. Employer Match
  3. High-Interest Debt
  4. Emergency Reserves
  5. Roth (IRA) & HSA
  6. Max-Out Retirement
  7. Hyper-Accumulation
  8. Prepaid Future Expenses
  9. Low-Interest Debt

You’ll see that, while the order of some goals are switched, the proceeding lists exhibit a lot of overlap. Finding a synthesis of those two philosophies may be reasonable.

Jarrad Marrow

The costs of healthcare was one of the motivations for my previous post. Jarrad Morrow provides an excellent treatment of Health Savings Accounts (HSA) on his YouTube channel. He covers how to fund them, the tax benefits of using them, the savings that are possible, and even how to invest those funds for the long term. He also covers a number of personal finance and investing topics, but I think his videos that focus on HSAs are absolutely wonderful.

Financial Advisor? Fiduciary or bust

The last point that I’d like to share is that if you make the decision to work with a financial adviser you should make every effort to work with one who has fiduciary duties. A fiduciary financial adviser is one who is legally required to act in your best interests. Not all financial advisers are cut from the same cloth, and some may propose that you invest in funds or financial vehicles that have high fees, ones which they receive a commission for, or which don’t fit your (as a client) risk tolerance or goals. A fiduciary has an obligation to think of the clients interests first and foremost.

Conclusion

I have benefited from not only an educational and professional background (my first job was as an actuary) that gave me a leg up on these topics, but also from having parents who saw the value in talking with their kids about these subjects. Discussing money and finances are often taboo in our culture. I think this is a shame and something that we can correct with open and caring discussions.

I hope that this dialog motivates some of you to think a little more deeply on your financial goals and how you are actively working to address them. As a father I want the best for my children, as a scientist I want the best for young scientists, and as an American I want the best for our America’s youth. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.