Shannon Mattern ‘s marketing course, Angela Watson’s website, Money Nerds, Eleanor Oliphant and the Millionaire Next Door. What do they all have in common? They are some of my favorite things.
This is a different kind of post for me. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while, but just kept putting it off. However, there are some sources that have impacted (and continue to impact) my attitudes and mindsets that I wanted to share with you. Even more important, during rough times – and let’s face it, these are some rough times, especially for teachers! – a book, podcast, blog or course can get you out of a rut or keep your mind on more positive things.
These recommendations touch on a lot of different areas because I have a ton of things that interest me. But each one is a high-quality source of info and/or inspiration. Even though they won’t all be for you, if you find even one that radically changes your mind set or makes your day brighter, this may be one of the most important blog series I’ve given you yet. Buckle up, and let’s go.
Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase via an affiliate link, I will get a small commission at no cost to you. But most of them are not affiliate links; they are just things that I love and think could benefit you, my reader. Rest assured, whether it is an affiliate link or not, these are items that I 100% endorse and that have really made my own life better in some way.
It’s for you if: you want to build a business online
Cost: $000000 (Yes! It’s free!)
You’ll see a lot about Shannon Mattern in my “Favorite things” posts. Shannon Mattern’s 5 Day Website Challenge is how I build my first WordPress website. And how she earned me as an eternal fan. When she started offering “How to Market Yourself Online” I noticed that a lot of her information was WAY better than what I got in courses I had paid an arm and a leg for.
Beside giving her info away for free – she makes her money from affiliate marketing and some other paid courses – Shannon doesn’t talk down to you but still breaks everything down so it is super easy to understand. When I started using her courses almost 3 years ago, she was marketing herself as your “Wordpress BFF.” She has since updated her marketing, but I still think of her as my online BFF, She totally knows her stuff and is just so DARN genuine, real, and personable.
It’s for you if: You want to learn more about money, but think it’s going to be boring
She had me at “money nerd.” Whitney totally embraces her nerdy side, and I love it. She reports on side hustles she has tried, interviews cool people who are building a business they love, and just dishes about how she sees the world, especially money. On Monday and Friday, her bite-sized Mondays with Me and Five Tip Friday give you a little lift and a glimpse into her life. Despite the title, Whitney is like that totally cool girl who is even cooler because she celebrates the nerdy in herself – and in all of us! Trust me, if her interview with Megan Bryant – they talk about how investing is like sex and dating – doesn’t get you interested in retirement planning, NOTHING will!
It’s for you if: You are a Rockstar teacher (or want to be a Rockstar teacher) who also needs a reality check and some sanity in life
Angela gets it. She has high standards, wants every kid to succeed, and is a go-getter who makes things happen. (Sound familiar, teachers?) But she also knows how to protect her own mental health and draw boundaries. AND she helps teach us to do the same. I am totally amazed at how timely her posts are and how they speak to my heart. Soon after schools went online when we were in shock and despair about how hard virtual teaching could be, she wrote about some of the ways that teaching online was better. It was a great mindset shift and spirit-lifter. One of her most recent posts is about how to create lesson plans that will work for in-person, remote, and hybrid instruction. That’s something we could all use, now isn’t it?
It’s for you if: You think you’ll never be rich because you’re a teacher
This is one of the first books I ever read on wealth. Based on years of research on millionaire and deca-millionaire (net worth of over $10 million), it highlights the habits of the everyday millionaire. The big thing here is that the stereotype of the “millionaire” is totally wrong. Most of the time, you’d never guess that the millionaire is one because their lifestyle is so “normal.” A special bonus for teachers is a chapter that highlights how teachers are the exception to one of the rules they discovered (which makes us MORE likely to amass wealth than the average person in other careers!) and why it matters for building wealth. If you only ever read one book about personal finance, this is the one I would recommend.
It’s for you if: You haven’t read it, but love good fiction.
Admittedly, I don’t have much time for fiction reading at the moment. However, I made time for this lovely little novel and was so glad I did. It was both endearing and cunningly clever as in both its characterization and its plot. It deals with the issues of childhood abuse and narcissism, but – amazingly – is more of an upper than a downer. Here is a quick clip of the author talking about her inspiration for the book.
To my niece, Madeline Roberts, and every first year teacher ever, but especially this year
Dear First Year Teacher,
First of all, let me say how proud of you we are. You have completed your studies, field experiences, and student teaching. But more importantly, you have chosen a career that has the betterment of society and humankind as its primary goal. Whether you are teaching pre-K or college, in the North America, in Africa, South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, or Antarctica, it is our shared task as educators to formally pass on the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of humankind.
That’s a heck of a job for seasoned teachers in “normal” times. It’s going to be a herculean task for a first year teacher during a global pandemic. So I wanted to share a few thoughts with you that you might be able to pull out during the discouraging moments and know that you are far from alone.
You are NOT alone.
From Socrates to Mary McLeod Bethune, from Jaime Escalante to Lao-Tzu, from your very own favorite teachers to your new colleagues down the hall, throughout human history teachers have sought to uplift, encourage, challenge, and enlighten their students. It is not an easy task. But you are joining a proud profession. If you are teaching virtually, you may feel more alone than most teachers have in recent memory. You are not. Hundreds of thousands of current and former teachers are praying for you, holding you in the light, cheering you on, or however you prefer to think of it.
You will fail, sometimes miserably.
There will be days when you wonder if you have made the right choice. (Um, those may be the good days.) There will be others when you are absolutely certain you have not. You will lose your temper, forget something essential, have lessons that flop. We all do. The hallmark of a ‘good’ teacher – whatever that is – is to acknowledge that you are also learning, that you are human, and that you will keep trying.
Then get up, dust yourself off, and give it your best again the next day. Please believe me when I say, only the rotten teachers never question themselves. Reflection is necessary, but often painful because it forces us to recognize where we fall short of our ideals. It is also the only path to improvement. Hang in there.
Do not expect to be every kid’s favorite teacher.
When I started teaching, I wanted to be that ‘one’ teacher that every kid went to, related to, and looked forward to each day. And then I realized how insanely arrogant that was.
My teaching style didn’t suit every kid, and neither did the styles of my colleagues. Just as there is no one best way to be a friend or a parent or a sibling, there is certainly no one best way to be a teacher. Some of the students loved Tim, my fun and freewheeling colleague. But some felt more comfortable in my structured and more predictable class. While some kids are going to relate to you, others will relate better to other teachers. That’s cool.
The important thing is that every child has someone in their corner and knows it. Some kids are going to love your class, and honestly, some will probably hate it – no matter what do you. It is our job to work to maximize that first group, and minimize the second. It is also our job to care about and do our best for every child no matter which group they fall into. And no matter how many times they tell you they are in that second group, which they will. Just don’t make the same mistake that I did and get your feelings hurt when you aren’t the favorite teacher of every. single. kid. Remember, it takes a whole village, and while we are each a part of that village, we are only one part of it.
But do expect yourself to try to make every kid feel like they are YOUR favorite. Yes. Every kid.
One night in high school, we were all reminiscing about our elementary teacher, Mrs. Olmsted. Then someone commented, “I always felt just a little bit bad because I was her favorite.” Immediately, there was a chorus of protest, “No way, I was her favorite!” “You’ve got to be kidding me, I was definitely her favorite.” (This from a kid who the rest of us were sure had NEVER been any teacher’s favorite!)
We realized that every single one of us literally thought we were her favorite student, including me – and I had only been in her class for about a week before she was switched to a different class. When I thought back on what made me honestly believe that she liked me better than the other students, it was the fact that she listened first, and tried to understand.
Case in point: I was a flakey kid and no matter how hard I tried, I was always forgetting my homework or losing it or something. When she asked for us to get out the first assignment of the year, I realized that I had forgotten to do it – AGAIN! – and resolved into tears.
She got the other kids started on some seat work, then gently led me to the hallway. In between gasping sobs (which some teachers would have had no patience for since she still didn’t even know why I was crying) I explained that I had wanted to do better this year (third grade, I think, but maybe fourth) and I was already messing up again. And instead of telling me how important it was that I complete my work, she told me how proud she was that I wanted to do well. And other stuff. I don’t remember, honestly.
I do remember that she made a special deal with me and that we formulated a plan and that she promised me that we would figure it out together. And she made me feel like I was the most important student in the class, just like she did for all the others.
Now, Mrs. Olmsted was a pro, no question about it. And I think I have already mentioned that you will fail a fair bit this year, so there are probably going to be lots of times when you feel like you screw this up. But I imagine that Mrs. Olmstead had days when she felt like she screwed it up, as well. The important thing is that you try. And keep on trying day after day. Listen, care, teach, repeat.
Take care of your future.
Okay, I AM a personal finance blogger, so you knew this was coming, and here it is.
Put something aside from Every. Single. Paycheck. Ideally, you would create an emergency fund and then max out your IRA. But don’t let the ideal stop you from the realistic. If all you can afford is $5, $10, or $20 buck, do that, but do it automatically and every single week. (If you want a great resource for financial planning that is specific to teachers, check out One Million Apples, one of my favorite podcasts.)
Now let me explain why this is so important for teachers. I have spent the last month reading posts from people who are pregnant, living with someone at high risk of COVID-19, or at high risk of COVID-19 themselves. In some cases, their districts are either unwilling or unable to provide them with a safe environment. If they have no savings, they have to make the impossible choice of whether to quit work and let their bills go unpaid, or go back and put lives at risk.
But even in situations that are not life or death, you want to be able to make your decisions based on what is right, without having to worry about whether you are putting yourself financially at risk. At one school where I taught, a teacher was accused of bullying by several reliable students. He was very popular with the administration, the newly hired ‘golden boy’,but no one knew him very well. Unfortunately, a number of students related specific instances of him belittling them for asking valid questions and generally making fun of them, among other things.
I reported the students’ claims to the administration and became pretty unpopular. It wasn’t a fun time, but at least I didn’t have to worry about finances. I knew 100% that if the situation took too much of a toll on my mental health, I could walk and still pay my bills with no problem. It never came to that, but the bottom line is that just KNOWING I had the option to leave made it bearable to stay.
So while the philosophical tips in 1-4 are important, don’t forget the practical advice in #5.
As anyone who has ever taken my class can attest, I could go on and on. There are a million and one things you will learn as a first year teacher. It will be like the best movie you’ve ever seen. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll come back again and again. Find yourself some amazing, positive colleagues (who have your back when you need it), make yourself some popcorn, and enjoy! This one is going to be a doosy.
Did you ever have an appointment that you were really looking forward to, and then, when it actually happened…it was SO MUCH better than you even thought it could be? That’s how my interview about teaching pods with Jennifer Goodine of Cape Cottage Tutoring went today.
Originally, I contacted her because she is starting ‘teaching pods’ this fall. She will be supervising the virtual education of several different groups of children, allowing their parents to work from home or help their other children with online work. Since this is an idea that many of you have considered, I wanted to give you the info from someone who is actually putting it together. She definitely gave us some incredible insights.
To give you an idea of her story, Jennifer switched teaching jobs a year ago to allow herself to be able to help care for her father, who was suffering from dementia. She is thankful to have been with her parents during that journey, but took a $25,000 pay cut when she switched schools. After the recent passing of her father and another family member, she realized that returning to the classroom wasn’t the right choice for her right now and made a social media post offering teaching pods to parents in her area. She will start the year moderating several different groups of students or ‘teaching pods’ as they complete their virtual studies, and is looking at options for when students return to school.
But besides the great advice she gave on teaching pods, she is just super fun to talk with. If you enjoy reading the interview half as much as I enjoyed doing it, this will definitely be worth your time! To listen to the interview, watch this space, I am currently trying to put it together as the very first Classroom to Home podcast, and I’ll let you know when it’s ready.
Let’s dig into our interview with Jennifer Goodline of Cape Cottage Tutoring. The content of the interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Classroom to Home: I’m so excited to hear about [teaching pods]!
Jennifer Goodine: I’m excited to tell about it.
Classroom to Home: I’ve been telling people, ‘Guys like, take initiatives. Do what you’ve got to do [to stay safe].’ And you’re the first person I’ve heard about that’s actually making this go.
Jennifer Goodine: How funny! Really? I just don’t think it’s an innovative idea.
You’re not the only one who has contacted me. I did an interview with ABC news. It hasn’t aired. My father passed away that weekend. They wanted to come do some footage, and so much has changed with my dad’s passing that I just haven’t had time. And I’ve been asked for an interview with CBS. And I had my little Cocktail hour the other night [with the parent of my teaching pod students]. And here I am with you.
But I don’t think it is innovative. It makes sense.
Classroom to Home: It makes sense. We have a skill. They need it. And a lot of teachers are really having a hard time because they are pregnant or they have elderly parents that they aren’t going to be able to see for literally months at a time. And school corporations, some are doing their best, and some just are not.
What do you teach and how many years have you taught?
Jennifer Goodine: My goodness! Have been teaching since 2000, but I have a very strange history of teaching. I’m ex military and I was a Spanish linguist in the army before I ever was a teacher.
So I came in back door in everything. My degree is in media studies, which is why my post ended up going viral. I had like 6500 views on my post in a couple of days, but I knew where to post it, too.
I started out as a linguist in the military. Then I got divorced. And there was this job I saw in the paper, and it said, “Teach in South America.” And I was like, “If I don’t apply for this job, I’m just going to wonder about it forever.” And the next thing you know I was interviewing in this brownstone in Boston with like 10 people around a table. And the next thing you know, I was getting us a visa, getting everything in line.
And we went down and taught in Colombia for a year. I was a 5th grade teacher down there. And from there, because I wasn’t certified, I was applying everywhere. Because I knew I was coming home. And the only place that was interested was a boarding school for kids that had been through rehab and that hadn’t worked or they had been to experiential outdoor schools and that hadn’t worked. So they sent them to this school, which was a character education high school. So I taught there for two years and was teaching there in this funky, awesome barn, that I loved.
I did a year of public school as a long term sub and then I taught K-8th grade Spanish. And so I had all this background in ESL, 5th grade, Spanish. I’ve been teaching Spanish since 2003. But I also teach adult ed. English as a second language.
This past year I left my public school position and I took a $25,000 pay cut because I was commuting 2 hours and 15 minutes everyday round trip and dad needed me, so I moved in with my parents for almost a year to help see him through that journey. And it was great because even though I took that big pay cut I would shoot home during my free period and visit with my dad.
And then the only way I could support myself because of taking the pay cut was I started a small business, which is pet sitting. So the pet sitting sort of eased the gap. And I’m doing a ton of that now because I just found out this morning that the schools will be pushing their start date a week out.
So I’m thinking about putting another weird post out. Maybe something like, ‘Hey parents, you weren’t expecting this, and neither was I. Can I take your kids to the beach and give them a Spanish lesson?’ We have a farm in another town, so [maybe] I can take them to go garden. Because parents need to work.
Classroom to Home: How did you start? You said you had posted something and it went viral. Did the parents contact you from that?
Jennifer Goodine: Yes. I didn’t even put a phone number. My daughter was making a website for me, and then everything sort of fell apart in my family. We had a previous death like three weeks before my father died.
Classroom to Home: Wow! This has just been a heck of a time!
Jennifer Goodine: Yeah, but you know what I’m learning out of this? When you hit bottom there is no where to go but up, and I feel like I have these little guardian angels and they’re sort of guiding me back.
So I made this post and I just slapped a little meme on there with The Wizard of Oz. And it says “Homeshooling: Imagined” and it has the princess or the queen or whatever she was. And then “Homeschooling: Reality” with the Wicked Witch. Then I said, “It wasn’t what you imagined, was it?” Cause I saw so many memes [about that]. And I thought, “There’s a market here.”
So what I’m offering is, I’m going to teach Spanish classes to each of my little cohort groups and then I’ll do all the things the parents didn’t want to do, because I’m certified K-12. So I will just guide the kids through that.
Classroom to Home: So give us the basic details [on your teaching pods]. How many kids? What are the ages? What are the times?
Jennifer Goodine: So my kids down the street here I’m going to do from 8 until 10:30 or 11. We haven’t locked a time in yet. I initially set it up that way because I thought I was going to go home and take care of dad during that time. And that group they just kind of ended up securing me. So I had one parent that just went and talked to every 2nd grade parent in the neighborhood. So I’m going to have 2 cohort groups there. I’m going to be teaching in their great room. And then they have this massive patio. They are going to get me an event tent so I can teach outside.
And they asked me about doing gym, so I was like, “Yeah! I’ll do Spanish yoga.”
I had initially wanted to do a multi-age thing. My great aunt was a teacher in a 1-room school house, and so I was kind of envisioning something very “Little House on the Prairie”. But in any event, the group of 2nd grade parents [wanted me]. And that will be easier for me because I’ll just contact the teacher and all the kids will have the same assignments.
Classroom to Home: And how many kids will you have [in your teaching pods]?
Jennifer Goodine: We’re doing 3 on one day and 4 on the other.
And they also told me I was charging too little. THEY told me. Because, you know, as a teacher you devalue yourself. And I’m thinking so many hours and I’ll have a certain amount of kids and that will make up that pay. I was going to charge $125 per kid per child, but the kids would only be meeting 2 mornings a week. But they said, “No. That’s too little. You need to charge at least $200.” So we’re going $225. So I’m making up all the money that I lost last year when I took that pay cut.
And then at noon I’m going over to [another community]. Initially I was going to teach in my house. But I just didn’t have time with two deaths in the family. And I felt like when I was teaching on zoom last year, “I need to get out of my house.”
It’s a different crew. And I think it is going to be really good. I’m charging less in the afternoon, by the way because I’m making what I need in the morning. I don’t want to be cost prohibitive. I actually asked them to think about what they could afford because that one family has three kids.
Classroom to Home: And as teachers, bottom line, we have to support ourselves, but we’re also in it for the kids. If it was about the money we wouldn’t be doing this. That’s for sure.
So are you leaving your teaching position to do [teaching pods] full time?
Jennifer Goodine: I am. I am leaving my teaching position. I’m starting to look into insurance. I’m nervous about that, but I can’t stay where I was. I just can’t do it. I would cry at home sometimes.
Classroom to Home: Are you considering this as a temporary side hustle or something you’d like to turn into a long-term business or continue to supplement what you do?
Jennifer Goodine: Well, I have a lot of ideas. I’m feeling like what I am doing currently has a certain lack of longevity because eventually everyone is going to be back in school. But what I’m thinking about is trying to contract with preschools or doing my ESL. I have a lot of connections in Colombia who can get me to people who want to learn English. And then I’ve thought a lot about doing some cool summer camp thing. We have a farm. And I thought about what if I hired a retired carpenter and taught kids to do drywall and basic stuff. My sister is very artistic and she could teach quilting. It could be like farm camp. And I definitely want to keep it going. It’s just going to morph and change according to what is going on.
Classroom to Home: A lot of teachers have considered this, but they are really hesitant. What would be your best advice to someone who is terrified to go back into the classroom, but their corporation isn’t working with them. And they think, “I’ve got to get out, but I’ve got to have a way to make money”?
Jennifer Goodine: Well, I have a side hustle already. More than one, actually. And if you have multiple streams of money coming in from different sources, that might patch the gap. I’m hoping it will for me. And if it won’t, I’ll find a way or I just won’t spend any money. I mean, I’ll do what I have to.
I do pet sitting. (Note: if you’d like to learn more about pet sitting, check out my blog post High dollar side job: Pet sitting and pet care.) That completely died in March. I had all these people going on these 3-week European trips, and that died. One month, I lost $1,915 dollars that I had planned on having. But weirdly, after my brother-in-law passed, I started getting all these pet sitting jobs again. And now, I’m all booked up. I’m doing 3 or 4 every day – cat-sitting jobs, which is so easy.
I’m just taking whatever side gigs I can find. Another friend had watched my posts about what I was doing with my dad this last year. Because we did everything. Hospice came one hour a day to bathe my dad, and then they would leave. We did everything else. So I would post about it because that was my life. After my dad passed, another friend forwarded my name to someone who was looking for private elder care, so I’m doing that in the evenings now 4-8.
I also teach adult ed, which that won’t start until September and that’s going to be via zoom. I’ve been doing that for years. So that’s another way I have money coming in. And I thought about doing care.com, nannying or whatever.
Then my families in [one pod] – because I told them about my concern [since we’ll be starting school a week later] at our little cocktail party and they said, “We can start a week earlier. That would be great. You could get to know the kids.” So I know they are very invested. They are trying to lock me down because a lot of families here, parents who are staying home are bouncing kids around. I think it’s nice. I’m like the little Jane Eyre.
Classroom to Home:What do you think was the most attractive part of your offer? Was it just “You will not have to do the homework with your kids for 2 ½ hours”? Was it the Spanish? Was it the whole thing?
Jennifer Goodine: I think it was both. When I was listening to them the other night, a stay-at-home mom was saying, “Really? You’re telling us we can drop our kids off? You are going to handle this for 2 ½ or 3 hours?” I said, “Yeah. This will be my 21st year teaching, so yeah. Just like at school. I’ll call you if there is an emergency.” So for her, I think she wanted to get the kids out of the house. But her husband was like, “I love the Spanish. The Spanish is so important.”
Classroom to Home:I just really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. It sounds like your roster is full. How long would you say it took to get that full roster of how many kids as you would need or want?
Jennifer Gooline: Well, I think that a lot of it was everybody just waiting for the districts to tell them. Everybody is up in the air. But now I have a lot of inquiries, and “Keep me in the loop. Keep me in the loop,” but not biting the bullet because they don’t know what the plan is from the districts.
Hm. How long did it take? I think it did take a little while but a lot of that was me. I put a post up after my dad passed [saying] “I’m not answering messages for a few days.” So I guess maybe a couple of weeks. But I’m still getting inquiries.
Classroom to Home:I appreciate this so much. If I can be of any help, please let me know. I would love to be a part of your journey because I think you are going to have so much fun. I have just had a wonderful time. Thank you so much!
There you go! A real story from a teacher who took the leap into teaching pods. If you have experience with teaching pods, comment below so we can share our knowledge. Also, if you are worried about returning to school during the pandemic, check out the Classroom to Home Facebook Group to find support, information, and posting for remote jobs. Also, you’ll want to read “How the $&*# do I replace a teacher’s salary?” Whether it’s teaching pods or something else, I believe in you. You’ve got this.
Update: Since our interview, three more students have signed up for Jennifer’s teaching pods and she has closed enrollment to further students.
We all know about the FIRE movement – Financial independence, Retire Early. One of the big criticisms is that it really isn’t realistic for the average person, just white tech guys who earn 100K+ a year. Furthermore, a lot of people don’t even WANT to retire that early. They have ideas and passions they want to continue putting out into the world and for some, a job or business is a great way to do that. But financial independence, temporary retirement? Now THAT is something most of us can really get into.
As I write this, teachers and parents throughout the US are panicking about returning to schools with a COVID-19 pandemic raging out of control. My heart breaks as I read about teachers who are pregnant, have newborns or immune-compromised kids, or have personal health challenges. With little guidance from the government or their administrators, they don’t know what they are facing or how they will manage to keep themselves and their students safe. Some have stated “I will not go back to school in this situation.” But others say, “I have no choice. I’ve got bills to pay.”
For me, financial independence was mid-range; we planned for 2 years without income. But you don’t have to have enough money to survive 2 years for it to make a major difference in your life. So many teachers would benefit right now from being able to take a semester off, or even an extra 9 weeks of maternity leave without pay. Don’t get me wrong, this would still be a tough choice. But it would at least be a CHOICE. (If you are interested in seeing how your finances would play out if you left teaching for a while, you can sign up to receive my free spreadsheet here.)
My FITR Journey
My husband and I had been planning to move to Norway for almost 2 years when I resigned from my teaching job and started telling my co-workers about our weird and outlandish plan – move to Norway without jobs. He would study at the University of Stavanger, and I would – well, I wasn’t sure what I would do – but we had enough money put away to live on for 2 years without any income.
I didn’t even realize that our plans were a version of FIRE until one of my personal finance buddies at school said, “So you’re really doing it, huh? After all our talks, you’re doing FIRE and headed to Norway.” I started to protest, “Nah. It’s not FIRE. We’re only doing it for 2 years.”
And then I stopped.
Yeah. We were doing it. Moving to a place we chose, a place where we wanted to live and raise our kids, at least for a few years. We were doing it on money we had saved, and without touching our retirement savings or the equity from our house.
Hell, yeah. We were really doing it!
And who cares if it wasn’t forever? It was what we wanted and needed as a family. And so when I saw a FIRE blogger mention his version – FIOR for ‘Financial Independence, Optional Retirement’ – I felt seen. But I knew it wasn’t exactly what we had done, and started calling our path Financial Independence, Temporary Retirement. (OK, so originally, I was calling it Financial Independence, Retire Temporarily. Then I realized that FIRT sounded WAY too much like ‘fart’ for a mom of three to say out loud without a chorus of uncontrollable giggles. So there’s that.)
The first few months of FITR in Norway
July
After arriving in Norway in July 2019, we spent that first month on the fun and not-as-fun that comes with a new adventure. We enjoyed family trips to the beach, helping the kids learn to ride their bikes (an essential here in Stavanger), discovering the 1001 nearby playgrounds, picnicking by the fjord, and basically drinking in the wonder of a new culture. We also spent time on more mundane tasks like making immigration appointments, finding the best grocery store, enrolling the kids in school, and managing new country-induced meltdowns (both on the part of the kids and the part of mom).
August
When school started in August (intensive Norwegian instruction for the kids, Master’s program for my husband) I blogged, cooked, shopped, and basically kept everything running. In case you have never moved overseas with a family of 5, doing even the simple things can take a tremendous amount of time, because you have to learn to do them in a new way. For example, in Norway kids go out for recess no matter WHAT. There is also no school lunch nor any water fountains in most schools. Consequently, to get them to school, they had to have rain boots, rain pants, rain jackets, a packed lunch, morning snack, and water bottle, as well as all the things needed for a normal school day like homework or signed forms.
I don’t know how we would have done it if I hadn’t been able to be a mom/family manager 24-7 during those first months. It was essential. But I am not really cut out to be a homemaker. I was managing, but started getting antsy, especially when I saw posts from my former colleagues about going back to school and prepping their classrooms. (#pikeproud). We were also doing OK money wise. But I am super conservative and I did NOT like the feeling of having money go out, but not come in. Just made me nervous.
September
So when I saw a posting in September for a job at a local international school, I put my best CV forward. Nothing.
Crickets.
More crickets.
Blogging to the sound of crickets.
Oh, well we would survive.
And then a call.
Them: “Can you come in for an interview?”
Them: “Do you want the job? Part-time 3 1/2 days a week.”
Me: “Yes, PLEASE!”
And it was true. I really WANTED the job. Not just the paycheck, but the job. I missed getting out of the house, talking to adults, and the feeling of learning and meeting new challenges. But our FITR strategy gave me the time to be home when I needed it. Plus, it kept me from freaking out when I applied and heard crickets.
Previous FITR
And while this is the most unusual of my flirtations with FIRE, it is definitely not the only one. During the 1996-97 school year, I lived in Caen, France and studied at the university there. In 2010, I stayed home for a year on maternity leave. A few years later, I left teaching for 2 years to build a micro-business and spend more time with my kids.
Every time I have left teaching, I come back renewed and even more in love with the profession. And every time I have returned to teaching, I have been, like, on fire (No, not the financial kind, just the excited-to-be-back kind.) Let’s face it, teaching is great, but it can eat your soul. (Seriously!) Especially when you are teaching in a high-needs position or a high-needs school.
This model works for me. I would be a basket case working for 30 years straight. Old, bitter, and cynical – all by age 35. But I would be a basket case if I stopped teaching forever, too. How exactly is it that something that can eat your soul (seriously!) also feeds your soul in a way nothing else does?
When I see people dreaming of leaving paid work forever, it just doesn’t resonate with me. I’ve tried it. Four times. Each time I prepared myself for the possibility that I would not be able to re-enter the teaching job market. Each time I went back to a job I loved even more than the previous one.
Don’t hate me
Ok, I can hear some of you gagging in the background. “Must be nice. What I wouldn’t give to be able to just pop in and out of jobs like that.”
I am lucky in a lot of ways, I’ll admit. We lived on my husband’s salary during 3 of the 4 times I was not teaching, and that made all the difference. But there were reasons that we were able to live on his salary. (Full disclosure: Yes. He is a lawyer. But he worked for the state government as a consumer advocate, so he didn’t make ‘lawyer’ salary. He made a little over half of what one would expect for someone of his experience – and never touched 100K.) We bought used (sometimes VERY used) cars, paid off his student loan debt the year after we got married, and never carried a balance on our credit cards. And our big eating out splurge was take out pizza every week or so; other than that, I cooked from scratch.
Your FITR Journey
But this is the important thing about this whole post. When you stop thinking about FIRE as all-or-nothing, it gives you SO MUCH more hope. The term FU money is used a lot to mean the amount of money you need in investments to be able to live indefinitely without a job or other assistance and pay for your lifestyle, and a lot of people say that having 25 times your expenses should do it.
But for most of us, that’s a crap-load of money. If your yearly expenses are $36K ($3000/month), which is really low, you would need to have $900,000 in investments to achieve FIRE. (This is a super-simplification. Do NOT rely on my calculations because there are a lot of variables, but it gives you an idea of what we’re talking about.) That is a really big amount of money for most people to even contemplate.
But when you think of your life as a series of FITR chapters, AND/OR only one of you is interested in leaving full-time work, the numbers change a lot. The other part of this is that even if you can’t walk away from work forever, having a plan in place to being able to take one school year off – or even 3 months off – can make a tremendous difference in your life.
For example, let’s use that same $3000/month base line again. Missing 9 weeks of school would be about 3 months worth of income. That means a teacher would need to have $9,000 to draw on IF they were the sole income earner in the family. Don’t get me wrong, $9,000 is still a LOT of money to have sitting in a bank account ready to access. But returning to the COVID-19 situation, it’s a LOT less than a stay in ICU would cost.
So maybe you are on board, but you feel like any kind of financial independence is so far away you don’t even know where to start. Don’t worry, I’m not going to leave you hanging. Check out my blog posts on The Snowball Method or Saving an emergency fund.
Or better yet, if you want to see where you stand TODAY and how long you could go without your teaching income, check out my Money Master Spreadsheet.
It’s a lot of information. And it’s not going to happen overnight. But when you think about the peace of mind that FITR provides, it starts to look like the only choice. Being able to take a leave of absence when others are trying to force you back into an unsafe classroom. Choices about where to live and whether to move. Knowing that you have enough money to cover an extended illness. We’re not talking about saving up money just so you can have a new car or countertops. We’re talking about decisions that affect the things we value most in life. There are going to be a lot of times when it seems impossible. But with commitment and persistence, you’ve got this.
