A Blog is Born

Say hello to our little dog Murphy :D 

Testing 1, 2, 3... yep, it's on.

Hello friends, 

This is the first entry in what I hope will be an interesting project focused on helping educators on their path to financial stability. I've put together a bare bones website, purchased a domain name, and I'm in the processing of getting a podcast together. So I guess that's something?

My journey to help others with personal finance has seemed to suddenly increase the last few months. It might seem like it came out of nowhere, but I think it is just an example of compounding in real life. Things start slowly, you learn about topics, you connect with resources, start to make connections, and it all builds on itself. Unlike compounding in finance, I'm not planning to allow this project to grow exponentially as I still have a job to do during the academic year, a young family, and a variety of other commitments. However, I think linear growth might be something I can manage (shout-out to my math peeps thinking about geometric and arithmetic series right now).

Things I'm going to spend time on with this project: 

  • making useful content
  • celebrating teachers, teaching, and education
  • holding space for other educators, their experiences, and their stories
Things I'll probably neglect:
  • Adhering to rigid timelines, word counts, length, etc. I'm not viewing it as an X thousand word thing or an X minute podcast. I imagine 500-1000 words will be typical. Maybe 10-15 minutes in podcast length if I can get it going.
  • Formatting, editing, formal structures, etc.  I'll do my best to tell a story and keep things in line with typical expectations, but to be honest I spend a lot of time in my academic world doing this kind of writing/rewriting/editing/etc. and I'm not looking for a repeat performance.
For the rest of this post I'm going to share the aims and assumptions of this project. These are a good start, but probably a work in progress. I'll update things on the Aims and Assumptions page if/when they evolve.

What are the aims of this blog?
At the outset, I have the following goals:
  • Build relationships and foster a supportive community for educators.
  • Identify and discuss resources, tools, etc. useful for personal finance.
  • Think through strategies and approaches for different financial education topics.
  • Share my perspective on education, teaching, and learning.

What do I mean by "educator"?
I think of educators as all the different folks working within schools from classroom teachers, to aides, to staff, to administrators. Although it is true we all have different roles within education, we are all focused around the singular mission of teaching and learning.

What are the assumptions of this blog?
When talking about ideas, strategies, or approaches, I'll likely need to think through examples and make some assumptions about the finances of people in those examples. These choices will be guided by who I perceive to by the target audience for this blog. Who is the target audience for this blog? Right now, if I had to pick the most narrow audience it would be early or mid-career educators who are working within K-12 schools in Wisconsin. In terms of numbers, I assume:
  • Age 24-44
  • Salary: $45-60K 
  • Student loans: $35K
  • Monthly expenses: $3-4k
In addition to this target audience, I think educators in higher education, those within similar retirement systems, couples, folks with more debt, folks with kids, etc. can also benefit from the ideas discussed. 

What is the timeline for this project?
I would like to publish one or two blog posts (500 - 1500 words) twice a month. I'd like to then record audio of these posts for a podcast. I'm starting this project at the end of June 2024 and will review progress in one year to decide if I should keep going or set it down.

What topics will I focus on?
Personal finance weaves in and out of so many things. Sure there's math, but there also a lot of psychology, philosophy, and humanity. It connects to beliefs about who we are, how we want to live our lives, how we work in relationship with others, etc. As of this writing, I have list of about ten topics I plan to talk about and I'm sure more will come. I also welcome suggestions!

Just who are you?
You can read about me on the About Me 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 you 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, etc. 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 that it can help you.


First published June 28, 2024

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