How a Microbiology Lab Tech Who Enjoys Saving and Hates Spending Does Money

Sarah (not her real name) is a 38-year-old microbiology lab tech in Eugene, Oregon.

ND: So, Sarah, tell us a little bit about your finances.

Sarah: I’m doing pretty well, all things considered. I just turned 38 and I’ve owned my own home for two years, which seems like an accomplishment to me. I make about $50K a year as a microbiology lab tech and I feel like I’m ready for most emergencies. At the same time, I’m always panicked that I’m one exploded water heater away from ruin and I’ll never be able to recoup my investment.

Where are you living?

Eugene, Ore. It’s a great college town. Expenses are fairly low here.

Oh, I know Eugene! It is a great place. Did you end up there by choice, or by chance?

Very much by chance! Very short version: I was in a small midwestern city that I hated, finishing up training for this field. I was dumped in an amazing way and had to get out of the town. My little sister had just finished up an internship after becoming a real-live veterinarian and she said “I’m moving to Oregon,” and I invited myself and my stuff into her U-Haul.

Amazingly, I got a job within a month of moving here. That was almost four years ago now.

I read somewhere that it’s a rite of passage now for “kids these days” to move to another city because of relationships (or move away from a city because relationships end). I’ve certainly been there. [ED: I meant this article at The Cut, which called it a “modern relationship milestone.”]

So what does a microbiology lab tech do, and do you plan to stay in that career for a while?

I LOVE my job. It’s a little embarrassing how gushy I get about it. Hopefully I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life; I wish I’d discovered it when I did my undergrad, or before (you can make a living wage with only an Associate’s in this field).

When you have a UTI or a nasty infection on your arm, your doctor has you pee in a cup or she swabs the infection. The doc sends that specimen to my lab. I figure out 1) what bacteria is growing inside your body and 2) what antibiotics kill it.

To me, every patient is like a 5-minute to 1-hour puzzle.

That sounds fascinating.

It is, to some people. I had a failed attempt at grad school years ago and I discovered that I am a task person, not a project person. This is a career for task people.

Was your grad school experience like our Doing Money interviewee Alison’s, where you decided grad school wasn’t for you but still got stuck with the student loans?

No student loans in my field. I spent years after my undergrad (outdoorsy biology degree, aka Ecology Ethology Evolution) being a temporary avian field tech for grad students. I banded birds, caught birds in nets, took blood samples, put radio transmitters on them and tracked them, super fun stuff. Eventually it seemed like it was time for me to be the grad student, not the tech.

Grad school was really informative. I ended up at a small Mountain West university in Wyoming. In my field (in most of the hard sciences?) we get paid a small stipend to go to grad school. I spent three semesters doing it, but it didn’t work out for me. I learned that I’m a pretty good teacher, though.

So both you and another previous Doing Money interviewee, Anna, have mentioned the idea of earning enough. Like, you said above that you can make a living wage with an Associate’s degree. Are you at all motivated by earning more? Or is enough enough?

I think about the promotion/money thing a lot. I have opportunities, and the money would be nice. But I have to weigh the stress. Fact: if you’re a boss, people will sometimes dislike you just because you’re the boss.

Very true. Unless you’re Mike Dang, who is universally beloved.

A coworker yesterday asked if I was throwing my hat in the ring for the latest promotion. I said “No, because I want to be happy.”

I do look at other job listings constantly, with the fantasy that one of these days I’ll take a posting in to my boss and demand she pay me more or I’ll bail.

So you are happy now, then? This feels like a very strange question to ask. It breaks the expectation that we’re all supposed to be a little unsatisfied.

Happy enough, I guess. Sorry, I feel like this is a super-boring money interview. No drama. But yeah, rationally, I have what I need, while still panicking periodically that I’ll never have enough money.

THIS IS AMAZING. Come on. How many people are happy with their money? YOU. Just you.

I’m not rich! I want to stress that.

So let’s talk specifics. About how much of your paycheck goes to overhead (bills, mortgage, debt, food, whatever)?

I am on Mint.com daily. Here’s how it says my monthly budget goes:

$575 mortgage (I bought a run-down shack and I have a great credit score)

$250 groceries

$250 home improvement (or $5k if it’s a month when I’m replacing a roof, painting the exterior, getting all the trees trimmed, or all the floors need to be replaced and I have termites)

$239 student loan (for the Associates’ degree that I got after I paid off the BS and the free half-MS)

$180 property tax

$200 utilities

$75 doggy (he gets a dog walker on days when I work overtime; when I come home, he has lipstick smooches on his head)

$100 random shopping

$50 Roth IRA

$45 hair

$40 gas (I should bike, since it’s a 6-minute drive in my car)

That’s the overview. I max out my 403(b) at work. It looks like there’s about $350 total going into it per month. Retirement is a scary idea.

Do you have a savings account/emergency fund?

I have about 1/2 year’s salary in my checking account. I know I’m supposed to have an “emergency fund”, but I have it lumped in with all the dough.

What about “fun money?”

I don’t really spend much on “fun,” but I also don’t stress out if I do spend some on going out here and there. I know I can handle it.

It’s funny to see myself writing that I don’t stress. Because I’m constantly stressing about not having enough money — which is why I have enough, I think.

I think it’s a combination of watching your money after you have it AND earning enough that you have money to watch in the first place. You’ve been tracking your money since you were a little girl, right?

Oh yeah. When I was maybe eight or nine, I had a small allowance, maybe two bucks a week. I would give it back to my mom to put into my savings account at her credit union. When the statements came in the mail, I’d tape them to my closet door, so I could see my 72 dollars turn into 80 dollars. It seemed like so much money! My mom warned me that I shouldn’t let other people see my bank statements, though, because “boys might want to date you just for your money.” Which is hilarious — my family does not have that kind of money. At the time she said that, her coworkers were anonymously leaving bags of used clothing in the back of her pickup truck at work because she was their charity case!

That is a great story and I love your mom’s rationale. Did she offer any other advice about money and dating?

Great advice about money: pay off your credit card in full every month, no exceptions. Do not ever depend on anybody else financially. Live well below your means.

Advice about dating: you don’t have to kiss anybody on the lips if you don’t want to.

That sounds like excellent advice for life, on both counts. Do you have any advice of your own for Billfold readers?

It’s funny, because I don’t think my way of doing money works well as advice. I got lucky: I somehow ended up with a personality that enjoys saving and hates spending. So if I were to give advice, it’s almost silly, because I don’t know how other peoples’ money brains work. I love reading how everybody else does money, though.

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