Texas State Senator Paul Bettencourt, (R-Houston) poked the bear when he filed Senate Bills 1750 and 1751, which would allow the Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS) and Employee Retirement System of Texas (ERS) to study, and possibly implement, changes in their public pensions. Change would mean moving – in an as-yet unspecified way – […]

A funny email note went out yesterday from the National Tax-Deferred Savings Association (NTSA) about my article on the terrible retirement product teachers generally get, from an organization funded by the people selling those terrible products. By their note I gather they support the selling of shit-sandwich annuities to retirees, stuffing unsophisticated people’s retirement accounts […]

A majority of people struggle to prepare financially for their retirement, but public school teachers and employees face a particularly difficult set of circumstances. I’m enough of a fiscally hard-assed finance guy to think that every public school teacher should self-fund his or her retirement to supplement their pension plan, which for people in my […]

I had a weird thing happen to me recently that prompted thoughts on real estate investing, “eminent domain,” and BIG GUBMINT. I (re-)learned that what you don’t know might hurt you, and also what you think you know about your constitutional rights might not be true. Through a series of unfortunate events, I became a […]

With a little time to go before tax day, you’ve still got time to fully fund – up to $5,500 or $6,500 if you’re at least 50 years old – your Individual Retirement Account (IRA). As a certain former Governor of California used to say in the movies: Do it. Today’s lesson is a departure […]