About this episode

Mrunal Zambre shares her money management strategies as a 4th-year international PhD student, focusing on low expenses, investing, and travel.

In this episode, Emily interviews Mrunal Zambre, a 4th-year international PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. Mrunal details her money management system, from her checking and savings accounts to credit cards, and how she and her grad student partner split expenses. She focuses on travel credit cards and the Bilt card to reduce the cost of international travel. Thanks to her stipend—recently increased to over $40k—and low fixed expenses, Mrunal maxes out her Roth IRA annually and invests in a taxable brokerage account, even though she's not sure if she'll live in the US long-term.

People in this episode

Host: Emily Roberts

Guest: Mrunal Zambre

Topics covered

• money management
• graduate student finance
• credit cards
• investing
• travel

Keywords

• PhD student
• money management
• credit cards
• Roth IRA
• travel

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Pittsburgh

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• Financial Chaos Exacerbates a Low Graduate Student Stipend · April 6, 2026 · 50 min
• Teaching Personal Finance Illuminates the Opportunity Cost of a PhD · March 23, 2026 · 49 min
• Tax-Advantaged Retirement Account Options in Higher Ed and K-12 · February 23, 2026 · 40 min
• This Grad Student Bought a Home at the Start of His Doctoral Program · February 9, 2026 · 37 min

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