26-year-old earns $27,000 a year and lives in a 240-square-foot apartment: ‘I feel very grateful that I’m making that much’

This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

Chi Baik has never earned as little income as she does today — or had higher living expenses.

The 26-year-old recently halved her $60,000 salary as a teacher outside Washington, D.C., to move to Seattle for a Ph.D. program, where she lives on a roughly $27,000 in yearly income. She used to pay $800 to split a townhouse with friends, but now spends $1,157 for 240-square-foot micro-studio.

“I didn’t even know they made apartments this tiny,” Baik tells CNBC Make It.

Money is tighter than it used to be, yet Baik says she’s happy with her decision to move and be on her own for the first time. “It feels like I’m starting a new chapter in my life, and I’m really excited for it,” she says.

Baik is getting her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in special education and expects to get about $24,000 for nine months of funding during the academic year. She also picked up an extra job as a grader and will earn about $3,000 for 11 weeks of work (at 10 hours per week) this spring.

Baik knows most people will think $27,000 is “so little money,” but says “I feel very grateful that I’m making that much, that I have a home to live in, especially in Seattle. The unhoused population is really large, and that makes me even more grateful for the money that I am making.”

Here’s what spurred Baik’s “big lifestyle change” and how she’s making it work.

Baik was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved with her family to Silver Spring, Maryland, when she was 4.

She spent her life on the East Coast and enrolled as a business major at the University of Maryland because she thought it would lead to a solid job after college. But by sophomore year, Baik realized, “I wasn’t happy in my classes. I didn’t like any of the networking things and I was just sad.”

She enjoyed volunteering with kids in the past and gave teaching a try. Her first student teaching experience involved working in a self-contained classroom with 3- to 5-year-old students with moderate to severe disabilities. She loved it.

“It sounds cliche, but it really did feel right,” she says.

She went on to earn a dual bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and early childhood special education, and worked full-time as a teacher while earning her master’s in special education at Johns Hopkins University.

Baik’s four years of teaching includes one and a half during Covid lockdowns. She decided to pursue her doctorate earlier than she planned as a sort of break from the demanding work of teaching special ed during the pandemic era.

Here’s how Baik spent her money in January 2023.

• Housing: $1,267 for rent on her 240-square-foot micro-studio, plus utilities
• Food: $812 for weekly HelloFresh deliveries, additional groceries and dining out
• Discretionary: $739 on shopping, entertainment and pet supplies for her dog, Bear
• Transportation: $439 for Ubers and car rentals
• Insurance: $8 for renters insurance
• Subscriptions: $6 for Spotify

Baik also had a few big unexpected expenses for the month, including $1,737 on a vet bill for her dog, Bear, $326 for contact lenses and $104 to pay off a traffic ticket on her parents’ behalf.

She covered these bills using her credit card and carried a balance for the first time, but is actively working to pay off that debt as soon as possible.

Baik considers herself responsible with her money, but “a little bit irresponsible with my extra money” after her bills are paid.

“I definitely believe in treating yourself,” Baik says. “I think that life is short and we should enjoy it.”

For her, that means splurging on makeup, skincare, nails and the occasional designer perfume. One recent purchase: a bottle of Baccarat Rouge 450 for about $325.

Baik doesn’t currently have any money left over at the end of the month to regularly put into savings, but she does have about $3,700 already stashed away.

She also has nearly $70,000 saved across two retirement accounts from her teaching days, thanks to an aggressive savings strategy. Her brother recommended putting 30% of her paycheck toward retirement, which “wasn’t too hard” since she was coming straight out of college.

“It was more income than I was used to, so I didn’t feel like I was like missing out on that 30%,” Baik says. Additionally, she was able save more in those early years while she lived at home rent-free before moving out during the pandemic.

Baik says she learned to enjoy the money she has as a result of seeing how her parents managed their finances. Money was tight growing up: Baik’s dad works as a jeweler and her mom stayed at home.

“My family definitely didn’t grow up wealthy, but we did always have food on the table. The bills were paid stressfully, but they were paid,” she says.

In a way, Baik feels like she’s making up for lost time: She didn’t get everything she wanted when she was a kid (which is a good thing, she says) but “when I got older, I definitely was like: I’m earning this money, I deserve to buy myself nice things. And that kind of shaped how I view money.”

Baik is close with her parents in a “traditionally Asian” way, she says. Her parents “were always very supportive of me, but I think a little hard on me as well.” She talks with her mom every day and helps her parents with things like paying bills and calling utility providers because their English proficiency isn’t the best.

Baik is similarly close with her brother, who’s two years older. He works in business and lives outside Philadelphia, and she asks him for work and money advice. He was the one who encouraged her to move to Seattle to get her Ph.D. and loaned her money for college.

Baik doesn’t have any traditional student loans: She got scholarships and financial aid for undergrad, then had part of her master’s program covered by school. For the rest, she borrowed about $15,000 from her brother in an informal agreement, which she’ll pay back when she’s done with school.

“Culturally and the way we grew up, it was always kind of known [that] you help each other out,” Baik says.

Baik has three years left in her doctoral program and expects to earn about $27,000 every year until she graduates.

She’s “up in the air” about what she wants to do when she finishes her program, but is certain she wants to continue working with people, which could mean becoming a director of a school system. She eventually sees herself doing academic research in her field.

“I’m really passionate about working with families, so a big research goal for me is to improve quality of life for families of children with severe disabilities,” Baik says. “I think it’s something that’s really overlooked and something that is kind of urgent in the field.”

Financially, her big-picture money goals include getting a “decently paying job” to pay her brother back and start saving again.

She’ll eventually get into investing, she says, but adds that “if I’m being honest, I do not have a lot of interest in [it].” As she sees it, “I’m not interested in getting the most money as fast as possible,” and would rather spend her time living within her means.

Baik feels good about her finances even though she knows not everyone will agree. “No one’s going to agree perfectly with how I spend my money,” she says. “My brother, for example, thinks I spend way too much on little things. But it makes me happy. And life is short.”

What’s your budget breakdown? Share your story with us for a chance to be featured in a future installment.

DON’T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life? Sign up for our new newsletter!

Take this survey and tell us how you want to take your money and career to the next level.

Check out: 26-year-old coffee CEO lives on $25,000 a year outside of NYC: ‘I learned that you don’t need much to survive’