Confession and a question

Confession:

I'm entering my 6th year teaching and I haven't paid anything extra into my retirement, except the 3% for TRS (which I now have to transfer to NYS-TRS) The real reason is I didn't fully understand what my options were and financially I didn't think we could swing it as we were saving for our wedding @ the time...

I didn't want to move anything until I received my tenure in Long Island, which will go into effect this month


Now that I am tenured I want to start paying into something. I hear that its pre taxed so I should be bringing home the same amount- is this true? Also I don't want to "gamble" my money so-to-speak. lastly, what is the account called? An IRA? Mutual Fund?

Sorry for all the ?'s

Does anyone have any recommendations?

TIA

Re: Confession and a question

no, you won't be bringing home the same amount. teachers have 403Bs---roughly equivalent to 401Ks for business people.

you put in a set amount in pre tax dollars every week. let's say you have $100 taken out pre tax, you'll see only about $60 (this is my rough estimate) taken out even though $100 is going to your 403B.

you need to decide how aggressive you want to be. you could lose everything when the market goes down. i lost a ton of money in mine and i'm moderately aggressive, but that's the economy right now. you could also be less aggressive but keep in mind that that money won't "grow" the way it could and should--that's why i do moderate, which is in the middle.

there's tons of companies that open them. i use TSA Equitable because that's who my former district used. it really makes no difference who you use, ask teachers at your school who their rep is.

Re: Confession and a question

I don't have advice just because I'm right there with you. This will be my 9th year teaching and I just filled out the paper work for a 403B. Many teachers in my union work with the same financial advisor so I called him and had a meeting. I felt so clueless sitting in that meeting. I didn't understand the jargon he used and he eventually had to draw a chart (I'm a visual learner lol!)


Everyone was getting on my case to start up a 403B but I never realized you are taking a chance when you do this. My guy explained that it makes sense to diversify so that you put a little here, a little there so that if one goes down, the others might stay or go up etc. (not to put all eggs in one basket). Anyway, I set it up so that $200 will be taken out of each paycheck. I'm looking forward to the other responses on this thread because I can learn too!

Re: Confession and a question

Hi! This all can be very confusing, but definitely see if you can meet up with an advisor that one of your colleagues has used. I did this. I felt pretty clueless at first, but when I met with him, I basically told him to talk to me like I was a 5 year old and it worked out pretty well.

I also told him what I want to happen long term and asked how I could get there. Good luck.

Re: Confession and a question

Thanks everyone!

Re: Confession and a question

just be sure you look into the companies that are approved by your district for the 403b...that way it will be automatically deposited from your check into your 403b account. once it's set up you don't have to do a darn thing!