Financial Education for Colorado Educators (and those they love). Absolutely Free.
Last week Congress passed - and the President signed - the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (pdf). This is the huge omnibus spending bill that funds the government, but also includes many changes to retirement accounts that were originally knows as the Secure Act 2.0. Jeffrey Levine does his usual wonderful, incredibly in-depth job of … Continue reading Some Notable Retirement Account Changes
I’ve written before about purchasing service credit, but I wanted to dive in a bit more here. Note that the following is specific to Colorado PERA and uses Littleton Public Schools’ 2021-22 salary schedule for reference. Having said that, the same logic will generally apply to almost all pension systems, although the details will be … Continue reading More on Purchasing Service Credit
The Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is well-named. (Technically, the 'A' actually stands for "arrangement", not account, but everyone just says account.) It describes really well what the account is for (although the details around it can still be confusing), and people quickly grasp the concept. The same can't be said, unfortunately, about employer-sponsored retirement plans. … Continue reading 401ks and 403bs and 457bs, Oh My!
A while back I read How I Invest My Money, a fairly short book that is comprised of 25 financial "experts" describing how they invest their money. It was interesting to see the different perspectives and rationales, so I thought it might be helpful (to somebody?) if I shared my1 portfolio. I look at our … Continue reading What’s In My Portfolio?
This is going to be very long (first rationale, then step-by-step instructions). I think it's going to be worth it, but we'll see. Ask just about any math teacher and they'll tell you that humans don't have a very good intuitive sense of exponential growth (e.g., see the response to the pandemic). Humans are pretty … Continue reading Spending Matters: Calculating How Many Days Earlier You Can Retire
One of the most helpful innovations in both investing and retirement planning has been the Target Date Fund. If you're not a familiar, a Target Date Fund is one investment that allows you to pick the date at which you anticipate needing your money (typically when you expect to retire), and the fund is setup … Continue reading Are Target Date Funds The Best Choice for Educators?
Fisch Financial 