Hi all,
Since I am a retired teacher from Los Angeles Unified School District, some of you know who I am and why I write this blog, and that you might have heard me present at the investment workshops at UTLA (union headquarters). I thought that would be a good time to re-introduce myself because I was recently interviewed by Tim Ranzetta, the founder of Next Generation Personal Finance.
Tim has a website to-die-for, especially for teachers. He offers free professional development and materials for public school teachers across the country to begin teaching the impossible–personal finance to students! Personal finance is a subject dear to my heart, and our students will appreciate knowing a little about finances when they become adults.
MMM — Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.
As a youngster, I learned about stocks and investing from my 8th-grade educated mother who worked at Minnesota Minning and Manufacturing Co for 25 years and she bought their stocks. By discovering how to invest and manage my money, I learned so much about living a less stressful life by rejecting material things, thinking long-term, delaying gratification, so I can save and invest a little for the future, and living a simple life.
What My Mother Never Knew! Her Modeling for a Simple and frugal life, with investing acumen was a HUGE PAYOFF for me!
Knowing about personal finance opened up a whole new world for me during my entire adult life but especially in the last 25 years. At that time, I begin this journey to educate my teacher colleagues not to get ripped off by the annuity sales that are everywhere on our PreK-12 public school campuses, but there is much more too that can be found on Tim’s podcast and my free downloadable PDF books (see below for more information about my books).
While Tim is on a different mission from me, our target audience–1. public classroom teachers–and our subject matter–2. personal finance–are identical. Tim and I have a lot in common. We should all be grateful for Tim’s passion for students and teachers.
Steve’s message to my colleagues–Teachers
My message since the early 1990s was to educate my colleagues on their own personal finance? Why? Especially when so little interest is expressed by my colleagues. Tim helped answer that question in the podcast interview. And while you are on Tim’s website, take advantage of Tim’s free offer to train you in personal finance so you can integrate his ready-made materials into your teaching program whether its math, science or English. Students love the real-world applications of the subject matter. Time has it all covered!
Tim wrote: Ten years into his retirement, former LAUSD elementary school teacher, and author Steve Schullo is still fighting the good fight for teacher retirement plans. This go-getter shares the insights from his teaching career and his passion to fix the current 403(b) mess. As the author of Late Bloomer Millionaire, (complimentary download) you will learn how Steve’s savings and investing plan helped him achieve a healthy nest egg. Listeners will also learn why he wrote Fighting Powerful Interests (another complimentary download) and the changes he would like to see to the current retirement plans for teachers. The topic of these retirement contribution plans is near and dear to his heart, and that’s evident from his personal anecdotes and the advice he offers to teachers. Be prepared to be inspired!
Details:
- 0:00–1:03 Introduction
- 1:04–2:27 Retirement hasn’t slowed him down
- 2:28–5:45 Back in his teaching days…
- 5:46–13:00 Annoying annuities and other dilemmas
- 13:01–15:03 The decentralized decision-making process of dealing with 403(b)s
- 15:04–17:35 Unintended consequences of LAUSD’s defined contribution plan
- 17:36–19:45 403(b) versus 457(b)
- 19:46–20:12 A word from NGPF
- 20:13–24:42 Steve’s advice to teachers: be prepared to get involved
- 24:43–25:53 No fiduciary would dare sell fixed annuities, but it’s happening
- 25:54–29:11 Steve discusses Fighting Powerful Interests
- 29:12–30:54 How to become more knowledgeable & start advocating
- 30:55–34:33 His take on target date funds
- 34:34–37:27 It’s your money
- 37:28–39:15 Conclusion
Here is the podcast, hope you enjoy it:
https://www.ngpf.org/blog/podcasts/ngpf-podcast-tim-talks-to-403b-crusader-steve-schullo/
Don’t forget to download my free books. Both are true stories about how a couple of Los Angeles educators went from nothing to multimillionaires on educator’s salaries, after surviving two of the biggest stock market crashes in history and still retiring early with a healthy nest egg. But don’t believe me, here are what readers said about each book.
Fighting Powerful Interests: Educators Challenge Tax-sheltered Annuities and WIN! Click here for free download so you can begin reading immediately!
What readers have said about Fighting Powerful Interests:
Late Bloomer Millionaires: A Financial Story and Investment Guide for Late Starters. Over 11,300 readers have taken advantage of the free ebook download from Amazon Click here to download this book for free right here in my blog and begin reading immediately!
What 6/93 readers have said about Late Bloomer Millionaires:
* I have given away over 11,300 eBooks and a couple hundred paperbacks. I have earned about $3000.00 from selling about 900 books from Amazon, both paperback and eBooks. I am nowhere near making a profit as it is very expensive self-publishing books. By the time I paid for a professional editor, hired a designer, creating this blog and all of the advertising, I have spent over $20,000.00 over the last 5.5 years since I published Late Bloomer Millionaires in early 2013 (An professional editor alone cost $4000.00). But it was never my purpose to make a profit as I have enough money and want to have my work available to anybody who is interested. Thank you to all of you who did purchase, or borrow (via Amazon’s loan program) my books.