Financially Independent Teachers

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You had questions, Justin and Jeff had answers! In what might be a few of our best episodes yet, we are blessed to have a special TWO part Q&A episode with Justin Garritt and Jeff Venables. Both are former educators who are now helping others in the financial industry. 

FIT fans submitted their fan questions, and they have answered! 

Section 1: Getting Started & Building Financial Confidence

Section 2: Investing Priorities During Your Career

Section 3: Career & Pension Decisions

Section 4: Retirement Saving & Roth Strategies

Section 5: Education Planning & Family Goals

Plenty more! 

https://garrittfinancialsolutions.com/

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Brad is a Long Island music teacher who is passionate about helping fellow teachers with their finances. Brad grew up being somewhat interested in saving money, but never saw himself being a personal finance coach. 

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The Durham All-Star team is here to discuss health benefits. Retired NC teacher and coach, David Norman, and former principal and classroom teacher, Greg Mitchell, have over 55 years of combined experience in NC.  

Open enrollment is coming! Whether you live and teach in NC or another state, open enrollment can be a head scratcher. My cafeteria benefits book last year was around 60 pages. 

Disability insurance, cancer plan, universal life, term life, accident insurance....what do I need? In this episode, we discuss TWO main things....

1. The NC state health plan open enrollment and big upcoming changes.   

2, How to navigate your cafeteria benefits options.

Open Enrollment for 2027 (NC) benefits takes place from October 12 to October 30, 2026. You can review your choices and make updates through the NC State Health Plan and NC Office of Human Resources NCFlex portals.

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Did you know you can make over 100k in a foreign country and NOT pay any US income taxes? What a way to STILL make a living, but take advantage of Roth conversions to move money from pretax accounts to tax free Roth. George did just that as this NC teacher had three stints teaching in Africa. While in Africa, he rented out his home and let others pay off his mortgage. 

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Debbie grew up in Northern NJ, at the age of 12, her mom and dad split up. This was devastating to the family and she had to pick up 3 jobs to help mom make ends meet. As an adult, she moved to Washington state with her husband who was an engineer...after 7 children together and homeschooling her children, Debbie realized "I was the only married person in the home". At 37, she had to start all over again, raising the children and going back to school to become a teacher. 

Her first teacher salary was 41k per year, and she had to do many side jobs to help pay the bills and keep a roof over her head. Debbie earned her masters and national board teacher certification in a low wealth district that paid nice supplements for each as she climbed her way to the top of the pay scale. Now 67, Debbie is a multimillionaire, recently retired after 26 years in the classroom, and is a key member of Washington's Financial Education Public-Private Partnership. 

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Samuel lives in Fresno California and is the founder of The Academy of Financial Education. Samuel didn't start in the world of finance, but after seeing a family host a local car wash to raise funds for the funeral of a lost loved one, he became a financial advisor within a year. After five years, he knew he had a higher calling and started his non profit. In this episode we discuss how to build credit, how to raise your credit score, and the concept of financial therapy. 

The Academy of Financial Education 

https://taofe.org/

How to Repair Your Credit DYI

https://taofe.org/diy-credit-repair

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Jermaine is a NC teacher assistant and football coach who moonlights as a real estate agent, DoorDasher, professional photographer, and student. When he started this financial journey in January, he had less than $500 to his name, no investments and was renting. 

What is Jermaine up to now? Did he reach his summer goals? Listen in as Jermaine tells all in Part II of his story. 

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Todd is getting ready to start his 27th year teaching as a California Personal Finance educator. Growing up in a lower middle class family, he ended up marrying his college sweetheart from Arizona State University. As a teen, his wife spent some time being homeless. Together, they decided they would NEVER live the way they grew up and wanted more for themselves. Teaching has taken Todd from AZ to TX and now California. 

Todd's took some risks in life and they have paid off, for the most part. He believes his job as a teacher enables him to take risks that others cannot because he has the pension and so much time off to study deals and make moves. 

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Megan is a New Bern elementary PE teacher who is "Dave-ish" when it comes to Mr. Ramsey's plan. Their family uses the Every Dollar app, and keeps track of every dollar that comes in. 

The dollars that Megan brings in is where it gets interesting. A NC Unicorn with masters and nationally board pay, Megan also drives the school bus, making an extra 10k+ each school year. In addition, she runs summer camps for her local parks and rec. She even helped one of her kids get a gig helping a local catering business. Guess what? Megan decided to get on board, too! 

Through all the extra hard work and debt payoff, she made a commitment that when she had kids, she would always take a two week vacation with them each year. Even though she could have been debt free by now, she is balancing travel, family, extra work and the debt. 

Be a guest on the show:
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Brian is a father, husband, educator & coach in small town Nebraska. He enjoys travel, the outdoors, camping & sports. As a high school science teacher, Brian coached four sports & mowed lawns in the summer to stay ahead between athletics, travel & kids' activities. Like many young educators, his family was living paycheck to paycheck, blindly putting money into various "investments" & hoping someday they'd have money for retirement. He had no formal financial education, little understanding of account types or investing vehicles, & no goals or investing strategy. One thing he had going for himself was being debt-averse...but they still always had debt. Somewhere in the messy middle, Brian started learning about finance & his missteps. Over time he read & listened to dozens of finance books, consumed thousands of hours of podcasts & YouTube, & used & created several tools to streamline & automate our finances. What started as a dream of F.I.R.E. (financial independence retire early) eventually evolved into a business model around financial planning for educators. Now his goal is to help others on their financial journey. After 18 years in the classroom, Brian is now full blown in the finance world. 

Brian's Website

https://youreverydayroi.com/

Be a guest on the show:
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https://www.financiallyindependentteachers.com/

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