Announcing My New Podcast: Teaching You To Fisch

I’m trying something new. Since I’ve retired from teaching I’ve tried various ways to help people (mostly educators) understand their finances better. I started with this blog and with helping individuals better understand their own finances. I then wrote a book for Colorado educators, which eventually turned into writing books for (almost) all of the teacher pension plans in the United States. I then started teaching a Personal Financial Literacy for Colorado Educators class. (This was well received, so I’ve recruited two other teachers to teach the class as well to help with the demand; too many people were on the waitlist). I also helped several teachers in other states set up a similar class (basically identical except for the specifics of their state pension plan). And I’ve even presented to groups of teachers at some school districts around Colorado.

Each of these ideas has been an attempt to reach more people in various different ways, and now I’m going to try one more: a podcast (both video and audio).

The title of the podcast series is a (hopefully) punny play on the proverb, “Give a [person] a fish, and you feed [them] for a day. Teach a [person] to fish, and you feed [them] for a lifetime.” Hopefully the pun outweighs the narcissism, but you can decide. If it makes you feel any better, my other idea was to name it, I Will Teach You to Be Fisch, but I thought Ramit Sethi might not find it funny 🙂

The podcast is basically a mashup of the blog, the books, and the class. Because it includes some visuals and some spreadsheets that we work through, it’s probably best to watch the video version of it. It will be available on both Spotify and YouTube as a video version, and Spotify and Apple Podcasts as an audio-only version. I’m releasing it as an audio-only version in addition to the video because I know some folks like to listen to podcasts while doing other things, and this allows them to do that. The show notes for each episode will include a link to the slides, the transcript, and the video so that even if folks just listen to the episode, they can follow up later if they wish.

So far I’ve released the first three episodes, and new episodes will be released sporadically. I’m not committing to a specific schedule, but I have about 20 or so episodes sketched out at the moment. Here are the first three episodes:

• Episode 1: Intro, Purpose and Philosophy (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube)
• Episode 2: The Basic Equation of Personal Finance (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube)
• Episode 3: Spending and Saving Part 1 (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube)

The content is broadly applicable to everyone, but at times I will focus on topics that are more specific to public school educators. Each episode is designed to be short (usually between 10 and 20 minutes), digestible, and actionable, and I’m hoping the entire podcast series will “teach you how to fish”; by which I mean give you the knowledge and skills necessary to “feed yourself” financially for a lifetime. While a good financial advisor can definitely be helpful (emphasis on the “good” here), I think the majority of people don’t really need one. Having a (good) financial advisor is equivalent to giving a person a fish; becoming financially literate is learning how to fish for yourself.

It’s important to understand that this podcast will not have high production values or interesting guests; it’s just me talking into the camera and sharing my screen when we’re stepping through an exercise. I really don’t know whether it will be useful or not, but I’m hopeful there are at least a few people who will get something out of it. (Obligatory, “Well I made a difference to that [starfish]” reference.)

The podcast is free; I am not monetizing this. There are no subscriptions or ads (although the various hosting platforms may have their own advertisements that run alongside it, but that pays them, not me). I hope you find this series helpful.