When I was starting out as a teacher, the district had a couple of guys younger than me selling 403b accounts. I knew I needed to do something, but I wasn't sure about those guys. Later, my wife was swayed by one of these young, good-looking financial people. She opened an account that had more fees than income, and by the time we converted it into a Rothe IRA, it was only worth what she'd put into it. With teachers unions weakening, state pension funds defaulting, and a trend towards voucher schools, you may not end up with that fat retirement you've been promised. You might wonder where you should turn, and the answer is right in front of you.
There are a lot of folks in the financial industry who make a lot of money off teachers. Educators are smart people who don't think they have time to worry about their financial planning. The answer for most teachers, however, is to learn enough about the subject and do it themselves. Think about it. Do you wait for your school district and principal to come into your classroom and offer you advice on how to educate the kids? You've seen some of their ideas, and you know better than to leave it up to them. You do it yourself. It's always been that way with teachers.
Even if you want to hire someone to do the actual investing for you, every person who wants to retire should have an idea where that money is going. With my wife's 403b, we were forced to stay invested in the programs her hot money guy wanted for us. Then he left so that another young guy could take over. Then another. And another. Once or twice a year, her account was shifted to some new college graduate who wanted to make a name for himself somewhere else. He got his fees, as did his parent company, and the investment grew at a snail's pace.
If you are looking to use your skills in order to make good decisions, just as you teach your students to do, then you need to learn more about the trends in investing. No, you don't need to take a class with a $20,000 investment school. You don't need to learn to wheel and deal in a Trump University kind of setting. You don't need to invest in your cousin's latest invention on a social funding website. You just need some advice that can help you navigate the world of your investments.
I recommend Fundamental Trends. There are other websites that can provide similar guidance, but FT is my favorite. As a writer and educator, I appreciate the content on Fundamental Trends. I like reading it, and I even understand most of it. I can make more informed decisions on my own. I can use my learning skills in order to do the research that my own financial planners never bothered to do for me. Do it for yourself.
