Personal Finances

[Fruit Plant]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Question for current MD/PhD students: How much do you pay for rent+utilities and what % of your stipend goes toward those required expenses (rent, utilities, taxes, etc)? Just trying to get an idea of what finances for MD/PhD students are like!

 

[HamiltonPineapples]

This is an impossible question to answer in any kind of meaningful way. All of those things vary immensely with where you attend school and, for things like rent and food, will vary based on personal standards (buy vs rent, dump vs nice area, single vs multiple roommates, good and bad diets, dietary restrictions, organic food only, etc). In general, most stipends I have heard of are enough to live off of as long as you don't expect to be living in luxury and are reasonably competent with budgeting.

My advice, look up the stipends of schools you're interested in and the cost of living in that area. If anyone else responds it will be a lot of anecdotes that may or may not be relevant to you.

 

[HopefulMSTP]

On this note, does anyone know how MSTP stipends are taxed? I know that "educational expenses" can be deducted, but that the portion of the stipend used for everything else (living expenses, etc.) is taxed. Is this portion considered to be earned income where we have to pay social security?

 

[amuseddoughnut]

Question for current MD/PhD students: How much do you pay for rent+utilities and what % of your stipend goes toward those required expenses (rent, utilities, taxes, etc)? Just trying to get an idea of what finances for MD/PhD students are like!

Not a MD/PhD, but did a PhD with a similar stipend set up. You can generally count on a stipend of ~30k. This varies by school and cost of living in the area of the school. Schools in more expensive areas tend to give higher stipends. You can find the stipend amounts for the schools you apply to pretty easily. Most people try to live frugally. My stipend was about $2500 a month and I spent 1000 on rent and the rest on living costs. It wasn't difficult to live on that money.

Taxes may or may not be taken out of your stipend. Depends on the school. However, they are taxable income by law, so if they aren't taken out, save some money for tax season.

 

[moggat]

On this note, does anyone know how MSTP stipends are taxed? I know that "educational expenses" can be deducted, but that the portion of the stipend used for everything else (living expenses, etc.) is taxed. Is this portion considered to be earned income where we have to pay social security?

Typically taxed as "taxable grants"--aka you need to pay income tax but not necessarily payroll taxes (social security and medicare). "Educational expenses" are things like tuition and textbooks and things which you probably won't actually pay for. (Also they're not straight deductions, they're calculated as a fraction, etc, etc, it's complicated; you'll almost certainly take the standard deduction instead) I get a W2 from my program but conceivably you could get a 1099G as well--depends on whether payroll classifies you as an employee or something else.

Most MSTP programs will withhold taxes for you and then when you fill out your return, well exactly a year from now, you'll figure out if it was too high (most likely) or too low (unlikely), so you can ask your program approximately how much they withhold per month to get an idea of your after tax income.

The one thing you will get to deduct straight off is moving expenses if you move >100mi so keep all your receipts if you hire a mover! Also if you'll have to file taxes in two states (moving from a job to MSTP) make sure you prepare for that.

As you may be able to tell, I just did my taxes lol, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

 

[HopefulMSTP]

Typically taxed as "taxable grants"--aka you need to pay income tax but not necessarily payroll taxes (social security and medicare). "Educational expenses" are things like tuition and textbooks and things which you probably won't actually pay for. (Also they're not straight deductions, they're calculated as a fraction, etc, etc, it's complicated; you'll almost certainly take the standard deduction instead) I get a W2 from my program but conceivably you could get a 1099G as well--depends on whether payroll classifies you as an employee or something else.

Most MSTP programs will withhold taxes for you and then when you fill out your return, well exactly a year from now, you'll figure out if it was too high (most likely) or too low (unlikely), so you can ask your program approximately how much they withhold per month to get an idea of your after tax income.

The one thing you will get to deduct straight off is moving expenses if you move >100mi so keep all your receipts if you hire a mover! Also if you'll have to file taxes in two states (moving from a job to MSTP) make sure you prepare for that.

As you may be able to tell, I just did my taxes lol, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Awesome, thanks for the info!

 

[Microbug]

Typically taxed as "taxable grants"--aka you need to pay income tax but not necessarily payroll taxes (social security and medicare). "Educational expenses" are things like tuition and textbooks and things which you probably won't actually pay for. (Also they're not straight deductions, they're calculated as a fraction, etc, etc, it's complicated; you'll almost certainly take the standard deduction instead) I get a W2 from my program but conceivably you could get a 1099G as well--depends on whether payroll classifies you as an employee or something else.

Most MSTP programs will withhold taxes for you and then when you fill out your return, well exactly a year from now, you'll figure out if it was too high (most likely) or too low (unlikely), so you can ask your program approximately how much they withhold per month to get an idea of your after tax income.

The one thing you will get to deduct straight off is moving expenses if you move >100mi so keep all your receipts if you hire a mover! Also if you'll have to file taxes in two states (moving from a job to MSTP) make sure you prepare for that.

As you may be able to tell, I just did my taxes lol, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Do you use TurboTax?

 

[shadow522]

Do you use TurboTax?

i use turbo tax. it definitely streamlines everything

 

[Microbug]

i use turbo tax. it definitely streamlines everything

Do you think it’s worth it to pay for some of the extras like file for state and I have 1099s

 

[moggat]

Do you use TurboTax?

I used HR Block! I like it better than turbotax but I have no empirical proof for it lol

As far as paying extra to file states--google your state's comptroller office. A lot of them have an option to file with them directly online. I used HR block to figure out like, which numbers to put in which lines for my state taxes and then just filed it online instead. Also if you're poor enough to file federal free, some states (I know NY does) will let you file with third party software for free as well.

 

[shadow522]

Do you think it’s worth it to pay for some of the extras like file for state and I have 1099s

i've gotten a few hundred when i filed for state (sent it in snail mail) and thought that was worth it.