Colorado PERA, Substitute Teachers, and Independent Contractors

The Colorado Sun recently published an article on a lawsuit filed by several school districts as well as private contractors against Colorado PERA. While the article does a decent job of laying out the concerns from the school districts, it does not lay out PERA's reasoning. This is often the case in these situations because … Continue reading Colorado PERA, Substitute Teachers, and Independent Contractors →

Salary Schedule Lanes: Your Million Dollar (or two or three) Decision

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 →

Aurora Public Schools Single-Vendor 403b Plan: Is It The Best Choice?

I've written before about 401k, 403b, and 457b retirement plans and the similarities and differences between them. Unfortunately, many school districts offer some truly horrible 403b plans (listen to Learned by Being Burned for more info). But there has been a positive development lately in that some school districts, typically large ones, have now started … Continue reading Aurora Public Schools Single-Vendor 403b Plan: Is It The Best Choice? →

New Teacher (Financial) Orientation

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 →

Reading, Interpreting, and Understanding PERA’s Highest Average Salary (HAS) Tables

Colorado PERA is the pension system for public employees in Colorado. Like most public pension systems, the benefits members receive have changed over time, with newer members receiving less generous pension benefits when compared to more veteran members who have an earlier membership date. Many pensions refer to these different levels of benefits as tiers, … Continue reading Reading, Interpreting, and Understanding PERA’s Highest Average Salary (HAS) Tables →

Our Current Portfolio and Recent Returns

Last April I shared our portfolio and some of the different ways we look at it. I thought it might be nice to update it each January. That previous post has a bit more descriptive verbiage, so refer back to it if you need to. Asset Location Like many people, by necessity we have our … Continue reading Our Current Portfolio and Recent Returns →