How do people do PHDs and survive as normal?

[balloonpop]

I haven’t really looked into this much so bear with me!…

I’m strongly considering doing a PHD, but I currently earn £33k in my job and am paying rent and bills as a single occupier in a flat.
I don’t feel like I can afford to lower this salary much more, I want to do a full time phd but I don’t feel like I’d be able to afford to live.

Has anyone here done a PHD? Is it possible?

I did it through getting a scholarship, but now (with hindsight, many years later), I don’t think it was worth it - I quit my job, which was pretty well paid, didn’t pay into my pension because I couldn’t afford to, and now I’m potentially stuck in a stressful job for many more years than I could have been.

For me, the big question is do you really need to do a PhD for your career? I didn’t, I only did it because I fancied it at the time and loved academia, but in retrospect I’d now have been further on in my career and also with a bigger pension pot of I hadn’t.

Sorry to be a middle aged voice of doom!

My question would be: why do you want to do a PhD?

Personally, I wouldn’t advise anyone to do one without a proper funding (fees, stipend and costs). Even then, it’s stressful and insecure and the odds of ending up in an academic job are against you.

The minimum stipend is about £17.5k now & is tax free so although lower than your current salary its not as bad as it first seems.

Some PhD students pick up additional paid work at their universities, when I was an undergraduate we often had lab facilitators who were PhD students for example, or by working around their PhD in unrelated work.

You aren't seen as working by the government though, so no access to tax free childcare or funded hours, which is why I've had to shelve the idea myself for now.

My DS is currently doing a PhD and between stipend and company sponsorship is paid about £24k tax free, so £2000 net/ month.

I did my PhD part time, while working as a teacher in a school. Also had 2 babies / maternity leaves during it so that gave me a bit more time and head space. It is brutal but doable.

When my DH did his PhD he was on 22k I think but tax free. It couldn’t be taken into consideration for our mortgage though.

When I did my PhD it was fully funded, so I received a stipend around 17k at the time. I also earnt £15 an hour teaching and marking undergrads and also doing "outreach".

Also totally doable. I had 4 kids by the end of my PhD. It really isn't quite the impossible feet people make out.

I did one straight after my masters. This was 2007 ish. It was sponsored by a company and had European Council funding. I took home £1845 a month net. But I wasn’t paying my student loan back or paying NI. Felt like I had loads of money as I was early 20s (and was many years ago!!). The qualification has done nothing for my career, but the networking I did really helped, also the rigorous data analysis has helped me now. Not sure I’d do it again as people younger than me with less experience are earning more than me. One took my job when I was on Mat leave and was further promoted straight after!!

My dc does it overseas and feta oaid a salary of £30k

I'm studying for my doctorate part time alongside work.
Government Doctoral loan covers the tuition fees and about £500 a term

I'm doing a part-time PhD and work part time (and single parenting part time). I get 50% of the stipend for double the number of years a full-time student would (and fees paid throughout). I don't have the flexibilty to pick up any teaching, which is what the full-time students do, but otoh it means that I'm still eligible for whatever support a working person on my wage would normally be rather than being officially economically inactive. I can only do part time because I'd have to move house to do full time (there is a often a residency requirement for full time students which there isn't for part time) and would lose family support in helping with childcare etc.

Part time is hard and you have to really love your subject, as well as be very disciplined about time and resources, but it's doable. Also, I enjoy my job and like the balance of doing both.