Author: financeswithcarolina

Welcome to February, the month of relationships! Valentine’s Day got me thinking about what is the basis of a healthy relationship. One of the most important relationships we foster outside of families and partners’ is our relationship with money. Sometimes we inherit such a relationship from our family, whether that is an abundance or scarcity depends a lot on our socioeconomic status at the time. Whether you got a full ride scholarship or if you attended a private university with a large tuition bill, these two situations can heavily impact how secure you feel about money and the future.

First, I want to be clear that working on your finances is not going to fix an unlivable wage. Lots of workers are underpaid for various reasons, and I am not going to preach that budgeting is going to solve everybody’s financial troubles. Having said that, there are ways for low and high income earners to work on their money mindset. A scarcity money mindset can look different for you and the next person. Some examples include: yo-yo budgeting, constantly thinking of being behind others and NEED to catch up, not allowing one to dream, or having difficulty with being generous. Changing a scarcity money mindset starts with challenging these beliefs. Something I have learned from cognitive behavior therapy is that challenging our “unhelpful” thoughts can change the way we feel about certain situations. 

With this post, I want to advocate that our relationship with money is not fixed. Like any other relationship, it can change, but more importantly it can grow and flourish. For my household, finances have been a topic that we have grown so much over the last 5 years. We are both immigrants to the US and our parents believed that education was a main goal, meritocracy is fair, and that debt is evil. However, there were differences in our money mindsets which became apparent when we started living together. I know it’s cliché, but communication was the key to our progress. Some examples include: budgeting, car loans, bulk buying, and our favorite toothpaste. Needless to say we both needed to give in a little. Today, I can say that working on being in the best financial shape possible has strengthened our relationship and also the relationship with our parents. 
If any of these topics resonated with you please feel free to review this FREE presentation on working towards a healthy relationship with money. Please consider joining this newsletter or the one-on-one coaching program. You can also recommend my seminars to your graduate program/fellowship office, or send my website to your graduate program chat/slack/email list. Looking forward to connecting with many of you 🥰

For me, January is a time for personal assessment and setting up realistic resolutions for my personal or professional life. I also do this exercise with my household’s financial health. My husband and I start by reflecting on how did 2022 go? What were our 2022 wins? What did not work for us in 2022? Most importantly, what can our 2023 look like? 

As a scientist, I love data. I like to collect it, analyze it, graph it, and show it to others. Thanks to the podcast “Personal Finance for PhDs,” I started exploring personal finance as a scientist during graduate school a couple of months before the pandemic started. Today, my household is super interested in finances and we have money talks every other week over Saturday breakfast. But it didn’t look like this from the beginning, and most likely it won’t look like that for you. One of my favorite phrases is that personal finance is personal. Maybe you have never had a money date with yourself, and that is okay! My goal is to provide the necessary tools that money dates can happen over a bottle of wine, be fun, and re-framed as positive experiences, instead of stressful conversations.

The year 2022 was a year full of firsts for my household. I earned a PhD and transitioned to industry, resulting in a salary increase of $55,000. For the first time in my 10 years of working in a lab, I have access to a retirement match program (8%). I started this business, in which I provide financial coaching for graduate students for free. Two graduate students signed up for this financial coaching (see their reviews here). I made the very website you are reading this! 

My household opened a new credit card, which is VERY exciting for us. We earned $870 in credit card rewards and used a lot of it for our holiday gifts for our loved ones. Our top spending categories after housing were groceries, eating out, and our dog (Zuko). My top spending category for eating out were coffee shops, which I visited 60 times. My husband seemed to love Subway for lunch when he went in person to the office. My dog was the recipient of 10 amazon packages that included treats and many fluff and tuff toys. 

My goal for 2023 is to grow “Finances with Carolina LLC” clientele. Thus, I am going to use this newsletter as an accountability partner. Please consider joining this newsletter, the one-on-one coaching program, or recommending my seminars to your graduate program. Looking forward to connecting this 2023 🙂