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Welcome to Personal Finance for Educators — a project dedicated to helping educators by empowering them to make money decisions with clarity and confidence.

The goal is simple: provide practical, educator-specific guidance on topics like retirement planning, benefits, budgeting, and long-term financial stability, all within the context of the teaching profession.

Whether you're an early-career teacher navigating your first benefits package, a mid-career educator reassessing retirement options, or someone thinking more intentionally about the teaching lifestyle, these resources are designed to meet you where you are.

Use the links below to explore blog posts, listen to the podcast, and join ongoing conversations about money, work, and life in education.

Substack: Personal Finance for Educators

Blog: Personal Finance for Educators (no longer updated as of May 2026)

Podcast

Facebook Page: Personal Finance for Educators

Bluesky: Personal Finance for Educators

LinkedIn: Josh Hertel

Instagram: personalfinanceforeducators



Popular posts from this blog

Pension at 55: A Starting Point

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In a previous post,  The Pension Path , I shared an overview of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and how it works. In this post, I’m taking the next step: exploring a scenario along this path. My goal is to help folks understand how to estimate a pension benefit and how it might fit into a broader financial strategy. I’m a mathematics educator, not a financial advisor, and this post is meant for educational purposes only—like everything else on this site. If your financial journey includes traveling the pension path, then I think you should, at a minimum, understand what this path looks like. If you are part of the WRS and have never looked at  WRS Retirement Benefit Page , consider this a homework assignment. If you are part of another pension system and reading this blog, you are likewise charged to explore your benefits. Although waiting to understand how a system works the last few years of employment might work out fine, I think it very likely you will have missed o...
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A Podcast is Born!

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Hello Readers!  Since we are nearing a year since I started this blog, it seemed an appropriate time for me to celebrate with an extension of the Personal Finance for Educators Project. At the outset, I envisioned Personal Finance for Educators to be more than just a blog and after a long build-up, I'm excited to announce the first episode of my  Personal Finance for Educators podcast !  My hope this that the blog + podcast structure will provide a greater reach and potential to help more educators on their personal finance journey. I'm not entirely sure how the two mediums will work together, how much time I'll spend on one versus the other, etc. but I'm confident I'll sort out a process given time. In addition to reaching a greater audience, think the podcast format also allows for more nuanced discussions of personal finance, guests, and audience feedback. I encourage you to have a listen and let me know what you think! First published: June 26, 2025
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The Pension Path

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Hi Readers! It has been a bit since I last posted. Just a result of the normal ebb and flow of the semester that comes with education and the logistics of break, holidays, etc. Now that we’re working into the second semester, I’m finding my thoughts returning to personal finance and trying to support educators out there looking for resources. I want to focus this post on a benefit of teaching that, at least for folks within Wisconsin, should be front and center in terms of how they think about their financial stability and wellness: The Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS).  This post is part of my path series. If you want to learn about the series, check out my post  Charting Paths to Financial Stability and Freedom . My goal is to describe paths that: Are accessible to most folks in public education in Wisconsin. Do not require complicated financial structures. Do not require complicated behavior. Provide flexibility to adjust direction as life circumstances change. The Pension...
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