Good morning, K12 Colleagues!
The “Stop Selling Annuities to Teachers” t-shirt I wore during the filming of the Frontline Documentary “The Retirement Gamble” in 2013.
After creating that t-shirt, I thought of a few more slogans, but then I decided to hold a slogan contest. However, this time, I wanted to add humor to help our colleagues avoid the costly trap of the Tax Sheltered Annuity (TSA), which is no laughing matter. Still, I intend to help teachers protect themselves from the TSA sales force that is everywhere on school campuses.
Teachers from all over the country submitted their slogans. I love them all. What creative colleagues we have. Of course, we are teachers.
I love the winner’s slogan!
🏆 Contest Winners
-
“403(B) Insurance Company Annuities: They Get The Goldmine — Teachers Get The Shaft!” – NJ Teacher
- “Give me an annuity or give me death. I’ll choose death.” – Greenwich Teacher
- “Help! I bought an ANNUITY and I can’t get OUT!”
🔥 Anti-Annuity / Teacher Advocacy Slogans
- Tax Sheltered Annuities: Insurance agents get the goldmine — Teachers get the shaft!
- HELP! I bought an ANNUITY and I can’t get OUT!
- Annuities JUST DON’T DO IT!
- “Never in the history of retirement planning has so much been spent on costly annuities sold by so few to millions of teachers for so little return.”
- Friends don’t let friends buy annuities.
- Caring teachers don’t let colleagues buy annuities.
- Annuities are for babies!
- The 55-year relationship of PreK-12 teachers and annuities needs a DIVORCE!
- The 55-year relationship of teachers’ unions and annuities needs a DIVORCE!
- “This teacher doesn’t let colleagues buy shitty annuities.”
- “Why is that guy/gal in the nice suit with the TSA brochures smiling from ear to ear?”
- If you think education is expensive, try a tax-sheltered annuity.
💸 Accountability & Sales Critiques
- 403(B) Insurance Companies: Certified #1 Pickpockets of the Education Profession.
- “Who do you trust — your local lounge lizard (TSA salesman) or yourself?”
- NICE yacht, Mr. Stockbroker… where’s mine?
- If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re broke, thank your stockbroker!
- My broker lost my shirt.
- My index annuity salesperson lost my shirt.
- New job creators? Annuity salespeople “employed” by teachers!
- Mixing investments and insurance is like pouring water into acid — it spits!
- “4 score and 7 years ago, I opened an annuity. I’m finally past the surrender charge.”
⚠️ Warning Label / Teacher Lounge Comedy
- WARNING: 403b Annuity Poison Being Served in Teacher’s Lounge
- 403(B) Insurance Products — DEFINITELY A “BULL” MARKET!
🗽 Famous-Quote Parodies
- “Ask NOT what your annuity salesperson can do for you — ask for a fee-only fiduciary.”
- “Read my lips — no more annuities!”
- “Yesterday, January 1, 1958, a date which will live in infamy: the 403b was passed by Congress and proceeded to be monopolized by the insurance industry.”
- “The only thing to fear is the tax-sheltered annuity.”
- “Just say NO to tax-sheltered annuities!”
- “Give me an annuity or give me death — I’ll take death.”
- “Never in the history of retirement planning has so much been spent by so many to so few for so little in returns!”
💡 Indexed Investing Slogans
- (Front) I am average — I invest in index funds.
(Back) I will beat 95% of you. - Successful investing ≠ beating the market. AVERAGE is the new normal!
- Fee-only fiduciary adviser = Higher retirement nest egg.
🆕 New Slogan Ideas (Created for You)
- Got surrender charges? Didn’t think so. Choose index funds.
- My 403(b) isn’t your retirement yacht fund.
- Commission-Free = Drama-Free
- “You wouldn’t buy milk from the gas station—so why buy investments from your insurance agent?”
- Keep calm and check the expense ratio.
- I don’t buy annuities. I like my money.
Steve’s Bio
Stephen A. Schullo, Ph.D. (UCLA ’96) taught elementary students and educational technology to teachers and students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 24 years, and UCLA Extension taught educational technology to student teachers. Due to his negative experiences with annuity agents, unions, and his school district’s benefits personnel regarding the most horrific tax-deferred plan in history, the 403(b), Steve wrote investment articles for the United Teachers-Los Angeles (UTLA) newspaper for 13 years.
So, he became a 403(b) activist and spoke to anyone who would listen about reforming this flawed plan. He simply wanted to inform his colleagues that districts and the insurance industry are looking out for their best interests, not teachers. The media began listening for the first time in the entire history of the 403(b) plan, commonly known as the TSA, in 1998. From 1961 to 1998, no one in or out of education ever discussed this terrible 403(b) specifically with K-12 school districts. I kid you not!
Consequently, he thrice featured as a retirement plan advocate for reformed 403(b) plans for public K-12 colleagues in the Los Angeles Times and U.S. News and World Report. He co-founded an investor self-help group (403bAware with a colleague, Sandy Keaton) for teacher colleagues. He also wrote 7,000 helpful posts in three online investment forums since 1997. Frequently quoted by the media, testified at California State legislative hearings and was honored with the “Unsung Hero” award by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) for his retirement planning advocacy.
For the last 19 years, he continues to serve on LAUSD’s Retirement Investment Advisory Committee (RIAC) as a “Member-at-Large” and former co-chair. The committee monitors the district’s 457b/403b of 55,000 former and current LAUSD employees, worth $3.2 billion in total assets. Lastly, Steve and his late husband, Dan, were featured participants in the award-winning PBS Frontline documentary “The Retirement Gamble,” which aired on April 23, 2013.
Steve is the author of two books, “Fighting Powerful Interests: Educators Challenge Tax-sheltered Annuities and WIN!“, a story of how a handful of LAUSD educators struggled for years to improve the 403(b) to no avail. But we never quit! We were instrumental in LAUSD’s implementation of the new 457(b) plan and earned a very rare “Plan Design” award.
Steve is the co-author with his late husband, Dan, of a book on learning the investment process from the ground up, Late Bloomer Millionaires. It’s a heartfelt story about two ordinary chaps and how they discovered investing and money management without a professional financial adviser. They list all of their successes and massive mistakes, and they still retired earlier than most Americans.
For a copy of both books, email Steve at steve.schullo@latebloomerwealth.com, and he will happily email you both books, FREE, with no obligation except to read them and get informed, in a pdf file format.
