About Personal Finance for Educators
Welcome to your teacher’s lounge for personal finance. My name is Josh. Glad you’re here!
What this is
Personal Finance for Educators is a Substack, podcast, and growing collection of free tools focused on a simple goal: provide practical, educator-specific guidance on topics like retirement planning, benefits, budgeting, and long-term financial stability — all within the context of the teaching lifestyle.
I started this project in the summer of 2024 after years of noticing how my preservice teacher students and education colleagues — smart, capable, dedicated people — were making important financial decisions without adequate information. Not because they weren’t trying, but because the resources that exist are either too generic, too focused on selling something, or simply not designed with educators in mind.
This project is my attempt to fill that gap.
What you’ll find here
Blog posts and podcast episodes exploring personal finance topics specific to educators — pensions, benefits, salary, retirement tools, and the financial dimensions of career decisions
Free browser-based tools built specifically for Wisconsin educators, including a salary analyzer, a WRS retirement estimator, and a handbook analyzer
The Path Series — a set of posts working through concrete, accessible financial strategies for educators at different stages of their careers
Everything here is free. Nothing is behind a paywall. There are no financial products to sell and no conflicts of interest.
Who is this for?
I think of educators broadly, including classroom teachers, assistants, staff, administrators. Anyone working within a school around the mission of teaching and learning.
My most specific audience is early- and mid-career K–12 educators in Wisconsin, particularly those navigating the Wisconsin Retirement System and trying to understand what financial stability in this profession actually looks like. But the ideas here are relevant to educators in similar retirement systems, in other states, and at other career stages.
If you’re a teacher wondering whether you can afford to stay in this profession — or whether there’s a viable financial future in it — this project is for you.
Who I am?
I’m Josh Hertel, a mathematics educator based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I’m not a financial advisor. I’m a knowledgeable other on a similar journey — probably farther down the road in some ways, on a different path in others.
A few things this project is not
A lot of personal finance “advice” is focused on selling stuff. You won’t find anyone trying to sell you anything here. I have no sponsors, no conflicts of interest, and no monetization plans. It’s just me, a mathematics educator and personal finance nerd, sharing what he’s learned, with the goal of helping colleagues make more confident financial decisions.
Get in touch.
You can find the full blog archive at personalfinanceeducators.com and the free tools at herteljt.github.io/educator-finance-tools.
If you have questions, topic ideas, or just want to connect, please reach out at josh@personalfinanceforeducators.com. I'd love to connect with you, your colleagues, or anyone in your district who's interested.
