This post is adapted from “A Blog Is Born,” published on the Personal Finance for Educators blog on June 28, 2024.
A Project Reborn
Hello friends,
Two years ago, I wrote the first post for what I hoped would be an interesting project focused on helping educators on their path to financial stability. At the time, I had a bare-bones website, a newly purchased domain name, and a podcast that existed mostly as an idea. So I guess that was something? I’m now reworking my old content for Substack and bringing it to what I hope will become a larger audience.
Project Origins
Although my interest in helping others with personal finance might have seemed to take off suddenly in the months before I started, there’s a bit more to the story than that. Rather than a sudden start, I think it is an example of compounding in real life. Things start slowly: you learn about topics, you find resources, you make connections, and it all builds on itself. Eventually those isolated ideas start to connect and intersect with each other, and you start to recognize this thing had been brewing on the back burner.
In that first post, I said I wasn’t planning to let the project grow exponentially. I thought linear growth might be manageable, and I’ve kept to that goal. Maybe even exceeded it in some cases. In addition to short-form content, I’ve dabbled with a podcast, built some free browser-based tools, and done a variety of presentations. I’m now shifting to Phase 2 of the project, which I call Compounding With Interest, where I hope to do more one-on-one handbook chats with teachers, give presentations to Western Wisconsin districts, and complete a research study on Wisconsin teachers’ financial literacy and well-being.
What I Spend Time On
Making useful content
Celebrating teachers, teaching, and education
Holding space for other educators, their experiences, and their stories
That list hasn’t changed.
What are the aims of this project?
Build relationships and foster a supportive community for educators.
Identify and discuss resources and tools useful for personal finance.
Think through strategies and approaches for different financial topics.
Share my perspective on education, teaching, and learning.
Two principles have become more explicit over time:
This project is informational, not prescriptive. There are many reasonable financial paths for educators, and my goal is to help you understand your options, not to tell you which one to pick.
My goal is conflict-free personal finance education, not personal financial gain. I’m not interested in selling books or charging for subscriptions.
What do I mean by “educator”?
I think of educators as all the different folks working in schools: classroom teachers, aides, staff, and administrators. We have different roles, but we’re all focused on the shared mission of teaching and learning.
Who is this for, and what do I assume?
When I work through examples, I have to make some assumptions about the finances of the people in them. Those choices are guided by the core audience: early- and mid-career educators working in K–12 schools in Wisconsin. In my examples, I typically assume:
Age: 24–44
Salary: $45–60K
Student loans: $35K
Monthly expenses: $3–4K
Educators in higher education, people in similar retirement systems, couples, folks with more debt, and folks with kids can also benefit from the ideas here, even when the numbers don’t match exactly.
What topics will I focus on?
Personal finance weaves in and out of so many things. Sure, there’s math, but there’s also psychology, philosophy, and humanity. It connects to beliefs about who we are, how we want to live, and how we work in relationship with others. The topic list has grown since that first post, and I still welcome suggestions.
What about the timeline?
When I started in June 2024, I planned to review the project after one year and decide whether to keep going or set it down. I kept going. The work helped me learn more, and conversations with educators kept confirming the need. The financial climate of the last two years has only strengthened my dedication to this project. New writing, podcast episodes, and tools now live here on Substack. The original blog posts remain available at personalfinanceeducators.com, and I’m reworking the foundational ones for this space.
Just who are you?
You can read more about me on the About page. I’d describe myself as a knowledgeable other inside the education space. If you’re an educator, I’m on a similar journey to yours, but it’s probably different. Maybe I’m farther down the road (maybe not). Maybe I’m taking a different path, using a different vehicle, with different companions. We’re all on a personal finance journey, and our choice is to either turn inward and walk alone or turn outward and help each other. I’m extending a hand, hoping it can help you.
~Josh
New here? The New Here page has a short reading list to help you get oriented.
This post is for educational purposes only and is not individual financial advice. If you have questions or topic ideas, reach out at josh@personalfinanceforeducators.com.