Late Bloomer Wealth

Late Bloomer Wealth

Dedicated to Helping K12 Teachers with their 403(b) & 457(b) plans.

Steve Schullo, PhD

San Diego’s World Class Desserts!

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Attending the Playing with FIRE documentary premiere was the primary reason Georgiana and I went to San Diego (Click here for the story of the Premiere). Here is the back story of the entire three-day weekend visiting San Diego, nearby La Jolla, and beautiful San Clemente beach.  Silly me, I am reminded that San Diego is a beautiful city. Now you may be wondering why it took me decades to realize the obvious. If you have a sweet tooth as I do, you will be pleasantly surprised what Georgiana and I discovered. 

Documentary Premiere: “Playing with FIRE” (Financial Independence Retire Early)

Leave a Comment / Baby Boomer Investors, Frugal Habits / By

If you think the baby boomer generation fundamentally changed retirement life, read this post and you might be wondering. Of course, my boomer generation changed retirement living at the traditional age of retirement at 65. Instead of reading the newspaper with our coffee each day, we are active and enjoying activities that we had not had a chance during our working years. Some have started businesses or decided to live abroad, and others have done the traditional retirement stuff, traveled, visited relatives, or stayed on the job because they loved what they do. I opted to write two books and a blog about retirement planning and volunteer for three organizations that matched my values. I also have taken private flying lessons, ballroom dancing classes, started a side hustle by renting my 2nd car to tourists and took lessons in Buddhism. I also experienced a terrible loss of my spouse, Dan of 40 years, and my older brother, sister, and friends. I went through grief and therapy to heal. Retirement life is also just life both the positive and not so positive. This post is about a group of young adults who want to do what we are doing only decades sooner than 65! I love them and share why I became an Associate Producer of this documentary, Playing with FIRE.

Book Review: “Playing with FIRE” (Financial Independence Retire Early)

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If you love stories about personal finance success, read this book! It’s an easy and captivating read for beginning investors. This young couple wades through and makes difficult significant life-changing decisions. For anybody to do what Scott, the author, and his wife Taylor did to change their life in only two and a half years was terrific. Just think about this: Transitioning from the hideous, unhealthy and dominant consumeristic American culture to one with more life meaning is not for wimps.

Open Letter to California’s Newly Elected Insurance Commissioner

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The voters of California elected a new insurance commissioner! A new and young promising politician is what voters need in the 21 century. As with all politicians, it is what they promised to do IF elected that counts.
Mr. Lara was elected–I am happy!
In this blog, I posted an open letter to Mr. Lara to begin a discussion on a topic largely ignored. My fellow advocates and I are anxiously waiting for our challenge and his promise to take care of California consumers.
On his campaign website he wrote:
“Stand With Ricardo
Together, we can make a difference.
As California’s Insurance Commissioner, I’ll work tirelessly to represent the great people of California, not the corporations, the billionaire class, the pharmaceutical or the INSURANCE COMPANIES (emphasis mine). I plan to work with anybody who is willing to come to the table, but my allegiance will always be first and foremost to the consumers, the patients, our working families, and our most vulnerable communities in our Golden State.”
There are hundreds of thousands of public school teachers and their beneficiaries who need protection from the 403(b)/TSA annuity sales force.
We are confident that he or a member of his staff will begin a discussion with us on this wholly neglected topic: reforming insurance code 770.3 and the 403(b) retirement plans sold to teachers.

Jack Bogle Died

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Do you have a personal hero? I have had several over my life, and grateful for every one of them. Personal heroes are a real treasure that many of us give to ourselves to emulate so we can become better people. There is always a need to improve my life!  All of my heroes have the same deep ethical behaviors that I wish to emulate: humility, commitment, thriftiness, courage, and kindness. The minute I discovered Jack Bogle 25 years ago and read a little about his investing philosophy, I knew right then and there he was my hero.

Retirement Living: All the Facts and Stats You Will Ever Need to Know

7 Comments / Annual and per quarter returns / By

Happy Belated New Year!
There are hundreds of articles and blog posts from young people who either want to retire in their 30s or 40s, or have already quit their day job. They are not shy about sharing what they do: travel, live abroad, created blog posts and share how to cut spending to be financially independent at a much younger age than my older Boomer Generation. This youthful community is growing rapidly and call themselves (Financially Independence, FI and Financial Independence/Retire Early, FIRE). The love of my life Georgiana and I attended a FI conference. I love what they do so much that I donated $10,000 to be an Associate Producer of a documentary called “Playing with FIRE.”
However, it is rare for seniors who have retired in their traditional senior years to report what we do.
LOOK NO MORE! This report is from a 71-year-old retired elementary teacher. What exactly does a retired senior do after celebrating ten years after the classroom, and how do I fund my support of good causes, traveling and my free books? LOOK NO MORE. I also share my financial portfolio and how it performed in 2018.
This post is long because I have a ton of pictures. Instead of just reporting how my portfolio performed in 2018, I posted my annual holiday letter which I write every year to my family in Wisconsin. The end of the year is a time for reflection, connection and sharing pictures. What fun!
Three developments happened in 2018. The best of all, the love of my life, Georgiana, and I have been dating for all of 2018, this is the first year since 2008 that my portfolio declined in value, and for the first time I had to take money out of my tax-deferred accounts, known as the Required Minimum Distributions (RMD). Hope you enjoy it and be inspired to live a full and happy retirement life.
Happy New Year!

Book Review: “TEACH and Retire RICH”

1 Comment / Annuities, Book Reviews, Financial Education/Literacy, LAUSD Employees, PreK-12 Educators / By

Teachers. Are you wary of the bureaucratic and top-down interference with no end in sight? If you are like me, I did a good job for my students for 24 years, but I was FINISHED at 61 years old. I wanted to get out of Los Angeles, live in a retirement community and do the usual and unusual activities that most retirees do: travel, volunteer, donate to worthy causes and write financial books and this review. It’s not that I retired from life and work, it’s that at 61 I was financially independent with only 49% of my salary covered by my teachers’ pension. I opted to do something else. That’s what Daniel Otter’s wonderful book is all about with his title TEACH and Retire RICH.
The word RETIREMENT is beginning to get phased out of the English language. I have not taught for ten years but I am super busy doing what I want to do right here with my blog, writing informational posts on three investment forums, my two books, all to help you become financially independent too. That’s the new buzzword, FI means financial independence.
Daniel Otter is a good friend and my review of his book is bias, but the financial information he provides in his book TEACH and Retire RICH is not. The objective information he provides rarely makes it to our colleagues, the hard-working teachers in the classrooms across America. Why? The volunteer retirement world (403(b) and 457(b)) with public K-12 school districts is mysteriously secretive and very strange world. It is a long and sometimes sad story of why the potentially powerful benefit plan is hardly ever discussed publicly within the education profession. Dan’s book is full of objective information that begins to make this secretive world transparent and will work for you as it worked for me.

Can a Financial Adviser also be your friend?

Leave a Comment / Annuities, LAUSD Employees, Laymen to Laymen Financial Information, PreK-12 Educators / By

NO! This is no surprise–Jordan’s story shows just how complicated and disastrous to your retirement nest egg having your financial adviser as a friend.
When he learned I write this blog, Jordon was eager to tell his incredible and lengthy financial story so that other teachers (and all investors) will learn how to protect their money. As a retired Los Angeles Unified School District English and theater arts teacher, he knows how difficult our colleagues experience with people we trust to provide objective financial information.
He goes into excoriating detail. At times it seems complex and uninteresting. But it reflects our retirement planning system—the 403(b) is a mess by itself but having a financial adviser as a friend makes the deplorable situation worse. In addition to Jordan being sold horrible 403(b) annuities, he and his friend/financial adviser got caught up in the real estate mania just before 2008. It is possible for an ordinary investor to get caught up in investment manias, but the crucial lessons are that Jordan’s financial adviser got caught up in the mania too. YES! Professional financial advisers make huge mistakes too! When people trust a financial adviser, people are blinded to the risks as Jordon’s story will show.
Jordan’s story covers two crises, one is the 2008 stock market crash and Jordon’s serious heart attack. Jordon made a lot of serious mistakes, buying too much real estate with borrowed money (because his financial adviser friend invested in the same real estate complex in Florida!) just before one of the most serious real estate and stock market collapses in history, 2008. But read this story about Jordon’s adviser’s additional recommendations! Learned how Jordan finally said NO.
I am adding on a third tale and the purpose of this blog post: Financial advisers are astute, interesting and social, but never, NEVER, have as a friend. Like other professionals you hire, keep the relationship professional. Better yet, learn to manage your money without an adviser. Jordan manages his money without an adviser.

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