Dave's Data

As you may have guessed from my recent post analyzing the TCO of my former automobile , and my post on finances for CS Ph.D. students , I've been thinking about finance a bit lately.  After a thought-provoking discussion with a senior colleague in another department, I've come to the conclusion my financial satisfaction graph looked something like this -- and I bet it's similar for many other no-kids-at-completion academics who end up enfamilied (can I make up that word?). (In case I seem too negative about kids, don't get me wrong.  As the absolutely awesome book All Joy and No Fun notes, being honest about the myriad costs of having a child isn't at odds with also being very glad that the little wriggling worm is in your life.  Great book.  If you haven't read it and you do or may have kids, read it.) The Taulbee survey suggests that the median assistant professor in Computer Science has a 9mo salary of about $96,055.  Assuming you pay your summers, that...

This post is based upon a few recent conversations I've had with my own Ph.D. students.  Its intended audience is Ph.D. students at mid-to-upper-end computer science programs in the United States, who are either US citizens/permanent residents, or plan to remain and retire  in the U.S. In graduate school, you too can dress better than a professor! Welcome to graduate school in computer science, where not only do we not charge you tuition, but we shower you with so much money that you can afford to eat, have a house over your head, and wear shirts that have fewer than five holes in them! In fact, you can probably do better than that, and get a nice boost to being financially independent.  But it takes some advance planning. Why Bother? Mostly, because flexibility -- or, more crassly, "FU Money."  (You can google that in case the meaning isn't obvious.)  Getting started early on the path to financial independence lets you  be in charge of you...

I've been having fun publishing spreadsheets - they give people the ability to stick their own numbers in when they disagree with my assumptions.  With the emergence of Google Fi, I wanted to explore for myself the new(ish) breed of prepaid cell phone plans that have become the logical plan choice for, well, just about anyone.  I guess that's not true if your employer covers your plan, but for the rest of it, it's pretty much a no-brainer both financially and from having the freedom to change carriers.  I figured I'd share the results.  (Note:  This is not intended to be comprehensive -- the idea is that you can adapt the spreadsheet pretty easily to compare any other providers I left out.  That's why it's a public spreadsheet.  Just copy it and go.) (Most recently updated October 2017) So, below is a little interactive chart that compares four carriers: Google Fi  - Google's "pay us and we will get your phone on the best possible network" p...

This afternoon, I sold my car.  It was a great car - a 2002 Subaru WRX with 36,700 miles.  It did 0-60 in 5.9 seconds (and I'd tested it out enough times to appreciate that).  Super fun.  Carried groceries and anything I needed.  Good for city.  Good for climbing and camping trips.  Worked well.  Nothing wrong with it. Good riddance. I'm an abnormal car owner, for sure, but one of the points I raise below (better uses of the capital expense of the car) applies pretty broadly.  Over the life of the car, I paid more than $4 per mile traveled.   Even if all  of my travel was one-mile trips, Uber ($2 base fee + $1.25 per mile in Pittsburgh) would have been far cheaper.  You can substitute Lyft or Yellow Cab for Uber in that equation, of course, assuming you could actually get a cab in Pittsburgh to pick you up when you needed. I paid about $18,400 for it in 2005.  I drove about 9200 miles.  It takes pr...