2 teachers, stacking 10's, 1 day at a time.
So how do a couple of small town teachers start their own personal finance blog?
Well, it’s been quite a process. It started a couple of years ago at age 42 when I, The Professor, realized my finances weren’t good. I had just checked out Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. We contributed to my wife’s 401(k) and my 403(b). I had my teacher pension growing in size. BUT, I was always worried about bills. We had hardly and money in savings outside of these retirement accounts. Any time an unexpected bill would arise, on the credit card it would go. We were like most typical Americans living paycheck to paycheck and constantly making minimum payments to loans and credit cards. The credit card debts just never seemed to get any smaller.
I realized that other than our retirement accounts, we had accumulated very few assets. Get a little extra money in, “Oh, we need a new kitchen floor!” Done. “Oh, our range is old and inefficient. Let’s replace it!” Done! And on and on… I knew very little of real personal finance.
After that book, I became a finance sponge. I’ve read books, articles, magazines, forums, websites… and I mentioned all of these things to one of my colleagues and assistant coaches, The T.A. (teacher’s assistant). Being only 26, he was impressionable and relished the idea of learning all this information. Since that time, we have bounced investment information, websites, articles, and ideas back and forth about the best way to financial independence as a teacher. He also decided that we needed to take all of this information to the people through this blog.
At first I was hesitant. I am fairly computer-savvy, but this whole blog thing is a huge step. The T.A., on the other hand, knows technology. He’s already got his own science teaching blog, and he convinced me that we could do it, so here we are.
The Professor
The Professor graduated from college in 1998 with a degree in education and athletic coaching and not a speck of knowledge of personal finance. He has spent the last 20+ years teaching middle school kids how to become critical readers and about the history of the great state of Minnesota. During his teaching career, he has spent time coaching football, track, and basketball. He currently coaches football along with The T.A.
The professor has made many poor financial decisions during his years of teaching. He realized that there were no lessons in personal finance during his college years. In his conversations with teaching colleagues, The Professor recognized an incredible lack of knowledge in money issues that deeply troubled him. With the help of The T.A., he began researching, learning, reading, and listening in hopes of helping other teachers to avoid the same pitfalls that plagued his early career.
The Professor has been married to his beautiful wife since 2001. They have two teenage daughters who will soon be going off to college.
The T.A.
The T.A. is a high school science teacher who's about to enter his 30's. He started diving into the financial side of the world in his 3rd year of teaching by opening up a Roth IRA. Since then he has taken an interest in many things finance in particular the idea of financial freedom. Today he continues to work on saving more than he earns, investing in index funds and building up a side hustle. He's hoping to work towards financial freedom.
GET STACKIN!