For what it's worth, you don't have to do a PhD where you making starvation wages. There are plenty of well paying PhD programs in Scandinavian countries, The N

For what it's worth, you don't have to do a PhD where you making starvation wages. There are plenty of well paying PhD programs in Scandinavian countries, The Netherlands, etc. During my PhD in Norway I made approx. 55k USD before taxes. This paid for a flat by myself, traveling on holidays to my home country, etc.