How is your financial health?

[Jon Miller]

Well, honestly the ammount I owe since I graduated undergrad arises from me wanting to have a good time in graduate school. I mean, I do get payed crap.. my peers who didn't go on to graduate school are making 2-4 times what I make.

If I had went to a state university, instead of a private liberal arts college, I would not have ended up owing anything for my undergraduate degree. Of course, my parents are poor, if they had been more wealthy (and considering how few scholarships I applied for (3?)) I would have definitely owed a good bit more.

Jon Miller

[Starchild]

How are graduate schools done in the USA? I'm looking at doing a PhD at the moment and wouldn't mind comparing systems. From what my Canadian friends have told me about their system, I think I get a much better deal in terms of funding and support in the UK.

[Japher]

I'm a dwarf

I owe, I owe

it's the American way!

Actually, I'm about even. Which means I'm up!

[Pekka]

Starchild, at least in here, you don't pay for that either. But you have to be accepted of course to do those studies.

[RGBVideo]

< $5k as reserves, no investments whatsoever. Not in debt, though. So IMHO my financial health is very healthy and I'm pretty much broke. What do I vote?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Starchild
How are graduate schools done in the USA? I'm looking at doing a PhD at the moment and wouldn't mind comparing systems. From what my Canadian friends have told me about their system, I think I get a much better deal in terms of funding and support in the UK.

We have a TA/RA that pays ~20k a year. I spend more than that.. at times much more than that. We don't have to pay tuition either (so I am actually not spending anything on Graduate school, but books and stuff).

JM

[Jon Miller]

Note, a lot of my freinds get by fine. They just live cheaply. It is only me and my freinds who like to go out/do fun things (Paintball was expensive, for example)/have nice thingis who aren't making enough.

JM

[Pekka]

Also 0 in debt. So in that sense, I'm healthy.

[Dis]

depends on what you call very healthy. Based on my lifestyle and spending habits, I'd say it's very healthy. But another person at my income level might be struggling (especially if they had to support a family).

[Zoid]

My economy died a while back and it´s now starting to smell pretty bad. I´m in debt over my ears and if I don´t get a job by the new year I´m really up **** creek without a paddle. The new government will slash the unemployment benefits while thripling, or in some cases quadrupling, the fees to the unemployment funds and the union.

[Eli]

Very healthy. Mostly thanks to the fact that beyond payment for dormitories and basic food my expenses approach zero from the left.

[ajbera]

More than medium, but less than Very Healthy. Let's say "Healthy." Wifey makes enough money for me to be a stay-at-home husband right now, our house back on Long Island is 1/2 paid off (we're renting in California now), we own one of our cars, credit card and student debt isn't outrageous (maybe $30k total), and we have a nice chunk of money in stocks and mutual funds (inheritance from wifey's Mom.)

And if everything ever goes to hell with wifey's job, her brother & his wife are both well-paid directors of Long Island libraries, and they would take care of us until we get back on our feet.

I can't complain
but sometimes I still do.
Life's been good to me so far.

[Zkribbler]

Okay...not great.

I'm beginning to poke around with the idea of early retirement. As a govenrment worker, I'm not elible for Social Security (even tho I paid into it for years) , but I have a pension, an IRA, a chunk in savings and a small investment account...so I think I might be okay once I wade through all the figures and do the math.

I wish I'd been able to buy a house when the market was low. I didn't have much saved at the time, and later, the more I saved, the faster the R.E. market took off. I felt like Alice & the Red Queen in Alice Through the Lookinglass.

[OzzyKP]

I'm right around the poverty line.

[MichaeltheGreat]

The last year sucked - being a professional gimp doesn't pay enough to live on. Consulting business is picking up, once I finally got released to return to work, and I have a really good regular job starting in a couple of weeks.