Personal Finance for Educators

As I continue experimenting with the Personal Finance for Educators Project , I’m trying different approaches to the content—sometimes diving into a specific financial tool, other times reflecting more broadly on the teaching lifestyle. My hope is that the blog and podcast together provide spaces for expanding on ideas, sharing resources, and connecting the dots between topics. The goal is to offer both quick takeaways and deeper reflections that help educators make more confident financial choices. PFE Episode 4 In Episode 4 of the Personal Finance for Educators Podcast , I took a different approach and created a screencast that walks through an employee handbook. My aim was to demonstrate how reviewing a handbook can help you identify useful resources. When you start a new teaching job, chances are someone gives you a link to an employee handbook during orientation. Many of us file it away because we’re focused on the task at hand (e.g., classroom prep, curriculum...

With the school year approaching, I wanted to make a post for folks who might be starting a new teaching job and feeling overwhelmed with everything. First, congratulations! You’ve joined a wonderful profession! Thank you for the time, dedication, and heart that you've already committed. When it comes to personal finance, my experience has been that new teachers often get minimal guidance related to benefits. Unless you are someone who enjoys digging through pdfs, reading spreadsheets, and examining fine print*, you likely won't have much engagement with specifics apart from surface-level comments at an orientation meeting. This is problematic because the benefit decisions you make now can have significant short-term and long-term financial consequence. Moreover, as I mentioned in  Focus Less on Numbers,  the first few years in the teaching profession can be overwhelming as you learn the trade (e.g., lesson planning, assessment, classroom management) and navigate big life chan...

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