Financial Education for Colorado Educators (and those they love). Absolutely Free.
Many school districts have a salary schedule for teachers where your pay increases based on a combination of the number of years you have taught in the district ("steps") and the educational level you attain ("lanes"). While steps are automatic (well, except for the occasional bad budget year where steps are frozen), lanes are dependent … Continue reading Salary Schedule Lanes: Your Million Dollar (or two or three) Decision
In the financial literacy class I teach for educators we frequently talk about the concept of "paying yourself first." Think of "yourself" (or your future self, if you prefer) as an expense that you have to budget for and, just like you set aside money for the mortgage and the electric bill, set aside money … Continue reading Invest Half Your Raises
You have probably noticed a plethora of stories lately about how young people today are not moving out of the house very quickly after high school/college. There are many, many reasons for this (financial, emotional, and other). The stories you read typically take one of two approaches, depending on the focus of the author. The … Continue reading The (Financial) Advantages of Living at Home
I've been doing some financial presentations for educators in various Colorado school districts. As part of the intro to my presentation I reference the fairly typical "90-minute New Employee Orientation" that school districts often provide for new teachers and that, while these are well-intentioned, they usually fall woefully short of what they could (and should) … Continue reading New Teacher (Financial) Orientation
In my financial literacy class for teachers we spend a lot of time discussing the balance between spending money now and saving in order to spend money in the future. And I want to be perfectly clear, this is an important balance to achieve. Some folks (myself included) may delay gratification too much, always saving … Continue reading Spend Now or Spend (More) Later
We originally installed solar panels on our roof in December of 2009 (activated and producing energy by the end of January 2010). We did it partially because it was the right thing to do (climate change, air pollution, safety of energy workers, environmental justice), but also because it was going to be a great financial … Continue reading Our New Secondary Solar Panel System (and Battery Backup)
Fisch Financial 