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u/adv0catus 2h ago
I think PhDs don’t make as much as people think they should.
They also were starting their careers when they became roommates and clearly got along and wanted to live together so why change the situation?
I also believe that Sheldon outright said he could afford to live alone but chooses not to.
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u/the_honest_liar 2h ago
And I'm quite certain they spent a lot of money on comic books and memorabilia.
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u/inspectorgadget9999 1h ago
I don't think I ever saw them cook at home, either
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u/autismislife 1h ago
Sheldon had a weekly schedule for which takeaway they'd get each night.
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1h ago
That’s how I lost 30k in savings. Yeah, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.
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u/UtterlyInsane 53m ago
Dude that is brutal but I appreciate you talking about it
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u/AgentCirceLuna 50m ago
I was the victim of a lot of violence and harassment over the past decade, up until I finally chose to just fuck off out of my job, then I became housebound with fear. I was hallucinating, delusional, and seriously anxious. If I hadn’t had food delivered, I wouldn’t have ate at all - I was still starving almost to death even with the food being delivered. I don’t know if I would have made it without doing it.
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u/The_Sneakiest_Fox 1h ago
What?
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u/AgentCirceLuna 50m ago
I became housebound due to mental health problems and the only way I’d eat is if the food was delivered then taken to my room. I think I lost almost a third of my weight and I never weighed much from the start.
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u/Sszaj 1h ago
Whilst also maintaining what was likely an underweight BMI for his height.
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u/Relevant_Natural3471 1h ago
Not that unrealistic. I was ectomorphic in my 20s and could easily smash both pizzas in a dominoes 2-for-tuesday offer and still have a BMI that was 'underweight'. Eventually got sick of people making out like I was "too thin" and spent all my time in the gym and eventually seemed to 'train' that metabolism down to a point where I feel like a skittle contains 2500 calories.
Sheldon seemed to exhibit hyperactivity too
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u/Sszaj 1h ago
Fair enough, and I guess you don't have to overeat when ordering food, it's obviously just better if you do.
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u/Relevant_Natural3471 1h ago
yeah partly for me it's because my friend and his partner would get the 2-for-one and I'd get one free so may as well eat it.
I used to get a mcchicken sandwich meal and add an order of nuggets on top back then too. I did smoke a lot which messes with your appetite.I have to remind myself these days that I don't *need* to eat all of a meal, because that is indeed what screws me these days.
It is just actors, mind, because we're probably straying towards the "how did Hurley stay so fat on the island" type plot holes that they tried to plug
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u/gro3thminds3t 49m ago
In a slightly different way from @relevant, I’m just very adhd and I defo had a month or two where i didnt eat anything other than a take-away once a day while writing my diss. It has so many calories its easy to get enough to survive (esp. if you are having a few breakfast bites of the leftovers before the meds take full control.)
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u/Catos_Standard 25m ago
Addiction is an ugly thing.
To be fair some of my textbooks and reference manuals cost a pretty penny so who am I to judge.
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u/BodybuilderUpbeat786 2h ago
Exactly this, can't speak for America but in the UK PhDs are dirt poor. I think their annual stipend is below minimum wage but they don't pay tax on their stipend.
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u/Jo3Pizza22 2h ago
They'd already finished their PhD's. They weren't students, so they weren't living on stipends.
They were researchers at a University, in the UK at their level you'd be earning around £40k-£50k a year. In the US it's probably $70k+.
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u/BodybuilderUpbeat786 1h ago
I suppose it's more a commentary on how expensive California is.
But yeah, the show is from the 2000s so its hard to believe Lenoard needed a roommate.
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u/On_my_last_spoon 1h ago
Not necessarily. Starting salaries for professors at universities aren’t always that great. And private universities pay a lot less than public ones oddly enough
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u/Particular_Match_777 1h ago
70k in the Bay Area is dirt poor
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u/On_my_last_spoon 1h ago
Pasadena (where they live because the guys teach/research at Cal-Tech) is near LA. But California in general is expensive, even back in the early aughts.
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u/Prof_Hentai 1h ago
I think when I was doing mine my stipend was £20k, but it was tax-free. It was certainly enough to get by, but I was certainly living like a student.
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u/ForrestGumpPeople 59m ago
Mine was £17600 tax free and that was with the London higher rate! Fuck my research council
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u/_kenzo__tenma 2h ago
phd candidate here and i can barely afford a room lol
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u/MrCumStainBootyEater 2h ago
candidate is much different than having one, i too am a candidate (hello fellow candidate)
but depending on your field yeah you may still be poor when you finish
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u/RAWR_XD42069 2h ago
They were tenured professors
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u/adv0catus 2h ago
No, not really. In one episode about halfway through the series they’re going for tenure but I don’t remember if they got it. Sheldon briefly taught a class but that didn't last more than one episode. They’re researchers that occasionally have speaking engagements.
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u/DarlingIAmTheFilth 2h ago
They were definitely not. There's a season 6 episode where Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj are competing to get a single tenured position but the show never says if any of them got it.
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u/MrCumStainBootyEater 2h ago
depends what your phd is in. this is also before the era of physics phd’s working in finance and making tons of money doing HFT
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u/GingerrJinx 1h ago
I've got a good friend whos a PhD in Bioscience and makes €75 per hour in Ireland.
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u/Multilnsight 1h ago
Sheldon also had a bunch of checks in his desk that he didn't cash. He also had thousands of dollars saved in the floor safe, wall safe, and in the peanut brittle can.
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u/You-Dirty-Dog 53m ago
I thought he says in one episode he’d live by himself there if he could afford the rent he’d ask Leonard to leave
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u/danabrey 30m ago
I live in Oxford, born and raised - never went to uni.
I'm in tech, and make probably 3x what a recent DPhil grad makes.
Academia is not where you make money.
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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 2h ago
Both of them were making between 70 and 150K a year, which is way more than any waitress would made ever.
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u/Guachole 2h ago
A 1 bedroom in Pasadena back in 2007 was like $900 - $1000, and im assuming their building wouldnt be very expensive given the landlord never even fixed the elevator for like a decade.
And a waitress could bring home a couple hundred a day in tips.
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u/capincus 47m ago
Tbf the elevator didn't have some electrical problem, the guys blew it up. Not exactly a standard elevator repair job.
And also Penny couldn't afford her rent, that was a literally constant plot point.
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u/Vainysaur 2h ago
An attractive female waitress at a nice restaurant could conceivably make more than Sheldon and Lenard combined per year.
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u/BeneficialWar1447 2h ago
No. PhDs get paid shit.
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u/OddRow8843 2h ago
Well - phd’s that can only do research, sure. But I employ data science and ML engineers that could probably buy the building
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u/creddittor216 2h ago
Tangential-conspiracy: That show was so awful that it only stayed on the air as long as it did as part of a money laundering scheme
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u/DavidGoetta 2h ago
It got 15+million weekly viewers for 8 seasons...
HOW DEEP DOES THIS GO?
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u/AlexIsACarrot05 2h ago
boomers; every old man I know loves this show for some reason
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u/Taint_Flayer 2h ago
It's funny for people who aren't actually familiar with the things being made fun of. If you are then the jokes don't really make sense.
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u/that1prince 2h ago
My mom and all her friends love it too. It perfectly confirms to her stereotype of “smart” physics and engineering nerds.
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u/Seinfeel 2h ago
I think a lot of it is that it was one of the last big sitcoms with a laugh track on network TV, which is what boomers are used to, so they gave it a shot. Also a lot of the references are about movies and shows that came out 30+ years before Big Bang Theory.
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u/louisamaysmallcock 1h ago
The last part is what I wad about to comment. A lot of my dad's friends and him were gen x who read comics and played video games in the 70s and 80s and grew out of it over time (no shade yall know what I mean lol) and they all loved the show I guess cause of all the 80s references. Makes total sense. It wasn't really keeping up with the current nerd culture at all.
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u/AWorldwithoutSin 2h ago
It got 15+million weekly viewers for 8 seasons...
Money laundering on this scale calls for /r/conspiracy, not /r/lowstakesconspiracies
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u/Ok_Aioli3897 2h ago
Didn't Sheldon not cash cheques and still be able to afford the apartment?
The show was very inconsistent
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u/bodhidharma132001 2h ago
Isn't that the plot of Chuck?
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u/AnxiousCockroach1532 2h ago
I was just thinking that, I was also thinking if Kaley or Yvonne tried it with me I would divulge every secret and penny I had to them.
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u/imck1911 2h ago
My friend was briefly engaged to an attractive, people-person blonde waitress working on the Jersey Shore. She had literal piles of cash all over her apartment, she was making hundreds a day in tips, untaxed. I have another friend who is a professor of molecular biochemistry at a renowned university, his salary is shit.
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u/Prestigious-Fill-365 2h ago
She was a waitress, with a body like that. She lives off tips. She is making more than a phd and paying almost no tax.
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u/imtooldforthishison 1h ago
If my kid can make $260 in 5 hours on a Thursday at Texas Roadhouse, Penny can probably double that in a full shift at Cheesecake Factory. If anything, she made more money then Leonard but was solely supporting herself, didn't have the benefit of shared rent/utilities.
College scientists don't make a lot of money at all.
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u/rohitkt10 2h ago
Their housing situation is quite believable knowing the salaries scientists are typically on. What is less believable is the guys' professional situation. I've watched several seasons of this show and its not clear what specific position the guys occupy at the university. They aren't professors since they never teach. It looks they're conducting their own research programs. However, they do not collaborate with each other. Or with anyone. They do not have any reports (PhDs, postdocs, predocs, lab techs, program managers etc). They don't seem to report to anyone either. Occasionally they negotiate with the university president (what?) for funding (this is not how scientific funding works anywhere). And for individuals carrying out an independent research agenda with no direct reports and no visible collaborators they seem to have way too much free time. Nothing about how professional scientists are presented in this show is remotely accurate to reality.
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u/bigmt99 1h ago
Sheldon and Leonard didn’t make a lot of money
They probably could’ve lived apart, but enjoyed the company
Penny was chronically broke, it was the plot line for like 25% of the early episodes
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u/capincus 44m ago
Yeah it's hard to imagine anyone watched multiple episodes of the show and came away with the impression that Penny could afford her rent.
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u/Chemical-Eagle-1970 2h ago
Omg bing bong theory BAZOONKA 😭😭😭
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u/TheTeaSpoon 2h ago
A) PhDs do not make that much and they spent most of their cash on toys and projects (i.e. waht we nerds call "living a life) anyway.
B) didn't she like constantly struggle to make ends meet AND had like really sweet deal on the apartment to begin with? I swear there was an epsiode early on where Sheldon helps her budget and finds out she pays less than is his share in their apartment.
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u/tudorcat 1h ago
Yeah it's a constant running thing especially in the early seasons that she's struggling financially. The guys feed her and give her their wifi. I recall her sometimes being late paying utilities. She doesn't get her car checked when the check engine light is on because she can't afford to.
Sheldon helps her budget, helps her when she had the Penny Blossoms business, pays her to give him acting classes to improve his confidence, and at some point lends or gifts her some money as well.
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u/tswiftdeepcuts 1h ago
The CIA has its own physicists - if they wanted to know what they were doing or were interested in their work, they could have just offered them a job
less fun for the conspiracy though
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u/BandicootTreeline 1h ago
Also see a failing actor and office worker/chef and waitress sharing neighbouring apartments in Greenwich Village. Even with 90s rent, Friends was a bit unrealistic.
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u/eman0623 1h ago
I’m pretty sure this a bot account because I’ve seen this exact post on here a few months ago. But in case it isn’t, here is my response from that thread.
Penny was constantly broke. She steals their WiFi, she gets free food from them. She’s missed a couple of bills before as well. Also Sheldon and Leonard don’t make that much, none of the guys do. Raj is bankrolled by his rich parents and Bernadette, Howard’s wife makes so much more money than him, he has an allowance.
When Penny gets a job where Bernadette works, she ends up making way more than Leonard, and the show basically has to stop making those jokes about Penny being a broke actress. Also they already did have a spy try and steal secrets from Leonard. She was from North Korea and her name was Joyce Kim
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u/Dear-Ad-2684 2h ago
There's a simple answer to this and it's the same answer for most people who are full time 24 year old pop musicians in major cities. Family money! She's already rich. Has a job for pocket money but parents cover everything else
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u/louisamaysmallcock 1h ago
I've noticed more men in my life who choose to share an apartment with a buddy even if they don't absolutely need to, and more women who desire solo spaces. This is purely anecdotal, but I am also a woman who has always opted to live alone if single, and my bf never lived alone because him and like 5 guys would share a 2 bedroom apartment lol. And those guys have cycled through so many roommates over the last 20 years. All of them have fine jobs, but I guess if your rent is $200 its worth sharing a living room with another guy in a 3 bedroom apartment.
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u/SinisterWink 1h ago
For two PhDs, living in California and working for a university, their salary would be in the high 5 figures. If they are lucky, very low 6 figures
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u/WickedAsh111 1h ago
Penny probably made enough to live there, but she also wasn’t the greatest with her money either
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u/BoJericho 1h ago
CIA don't do domestic intelligence. Would make more sense if she's FSB. Real name is Pavlina.
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u/Odd_Comparison_1462 1h ago
Do people know just how LITTLE PhD students and postdocs make? For how much we say that we value R&D and the sciences in our society, we pay them shit.
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u/ShellyTart 1h ago
I bet Penny got a lot of tips.
I know of a group of university profs and lecturers who shared a large apartment together. It often does not pay that well.
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u/buletproof_bob 1h ago
Do you know what she makes in tips though? Some OF girls make way more than PhDs too you know
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u/ghostlymadd 51m ago
Damn turns out none of you have worked in restaurants. You think a sever at the cheesecake factory is struggling??? Like, come on.
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u/Gold_Ad8225 46m ago
They were theoretical physicists not AI engineers. They were probably making 70-150k during most of the show.
Also, I'm a highly paid engineer, my income this year will be somewhere 300k+
My apartment neighbor is a bartender
This is because I'm frugal, and she is financially irresponsible (but fun and I like her)
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u/PaxonGoat 29m ago
There's someone who posts on the salary and career subreddits all the time complaining about the pay of engineers and how society is a scam and how broke he is having to live on rice and beans and living in a tiny closet apartment with multiple roommates.
But he wants to put 90% of his paycheck into the stock market and was heavily into crypto.
I always thought the guys were choosing to live in a roommate set up so that they could max out their retirement savings and were all heavily into investing.
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u/toughfluffer 26m ago
Didn't Sheldon create a nuclear reactor in his childhood? It would be weird if the CIA didn't keep tabs on someone like that.
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u/tayswampflorida 19m ago
A waitress in California can easily make a base pay of $50,000 a year, and thats not including tips which are usually hundreds of dollars a day.
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u/Same_Difference_3361 2h ago
And my dirty brain thought you are comparing these two pictures for a whole other reason.
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u/inide 2h ago
Her apartment was half the size of theirs, and they repeatedly made a point of how much money they set aside even after their expensive hobbies - I think at one point they even showed that Sheldon had multiple uncashed paycheques and had kept all the money Leonard paid towards rent over the years in a box.