Teacher Finances with Terri Bennett
Teacher Finances with Terri Bennett
Welcome to another show that was recorded pre-COVID-19 quarantine times. This show idea came from a listener who asked if I could do an episode about teacher finances and how we can help teachers. As the ex-wife of a high school teacher, I thought this was a great idea. Joining me today is Terri Bennett, a financial trainer at the Gym but also a former adjunct professor who’s passionate about helping teachers from elementary to higher education master their finances.
I think many of us with children at home are developing an even greater love and appreciation for our teachers and I hope this episode is a benefit to them all.
What are we drinking?
Terri - Mimosa (champagne with a splash of orange juice)
Shannon - Black Cherry Schweppes with Vodka
Podcast Notes
Before working for The Financial Gym, Terri worked as a teacher. Training and nurturing kids to be whatever it is they want to be is so important.
The transformative element of education is something that is important to Terri. Her mom was 16 when she was born, and Terri grew up poor.
Terri’s mom took her to the library all the time, and homework was really important in her house. Terri was raised in the ‘80s and the only time she was able to stay inside when it was sunny out is when she was reading. She read constantly.
Terri grew up in a small town and there weren’t a lot of people or jobs. Through reading and education, the scope of what she could do in her life was big.
As she moved up the ladder, from high school to college to academia to her PhD program, Terri felt like her sense and understanding of education, power, and personal agency were so intertwined. It made her want to have a role in other people’s lives, like her teachers and mentors had in hers.
Teachers and mentors usually have some strong influences along the way and they really want to give back to provide that for other people.
Terri is passionate about helping people understand the resources that are available to them financially and what they are going to encounter. She wants to give people the tools they need to make the situation the best possible.
Shannon was married to a high school physics teacher for 13 years, so she had a very intimate experience with teacher finances.
Shannon has a number of clients who have accumulated $80,000 to $200,000 in student loan debt in order to teach. There is not a lot of education around these loans, and many of these clients are taking jobs that are not going to pay them what they need to make to pay off these loans. You need to have an education to educate.
If you want to understand the impact that student loans are having on our country as a whole, work at The Financial Gym for a week. You will have no doubt that this is a problem that is affecting everyone either directly or indirectly.
After the first four years of schooling, many advisors will tell you to take a couple years off to work, usually low paid jobs, and then go back to graduate school.
If you go back for your PhD, you are there for four to six years. It will take until you are in your early- to mid-30’s by the time you are done with school. This means you have missed out on an entire decade of earning and saving for retirement. In addition, you have taken on student loans to fund your education and, a lot of times, your life.
It is not uncommon to have $170,000 of debt, even though the starting salary is usually around $60,000 to $80,000. This doesn’t include personal loans or credit card debt.
Once you graduate, the job prospects are really tough. Terri was an adjunct professor, and this is a really common road for people to take to be in a PhD program. They get some teaching experience as a graduate student and they are required to teach as a student. You are not considered an employee and you don’t get benefits.
Adjuncting is really difficult. Only about 25 percent of positions on college campuses are full-time, tenured positions. The vast majority of people are going to be adjunct.
This means that they are paid per class, and that could be anywhere from $2,500 for a class at a community college to $6,500 for typical classes. There are some highly specialized classes that will pay up to $9,000, but this is not typical.
These are contracted positions that are hired every August and January. Technically, you don’t have a full-time job, even if you are teaching six or seven classes a semester and working 70 hours a week.
Adjunct professors don’t get offered health insurance, retirement savings, or even the opportunity for tuition reimbursement for taking classes at that college.
One thing this really complicates is public student loan forgiveness. Terri has friends who are working at five different schools. A full-time load at any given school is two classes per semester. If you are teaching at two schools, you are making about $24,000 at each school ($6,000 per class). However, neither of the schools you work for consider you full time, so it is difficult to get certified.
Some aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) consider one hour in the classroom as 2.25 hours for the purposes of quantifying hours for health care. You can use this as leverage to get public student loan forgiveness.
For public student loan forgiveness, make sure you are paying your payment every month. If you have a federal loan, income-based repayment plans are available.
As an adjunct, you need to do a lot of advocacy for yourself. Sometimes, there is an opportunity to pay into a retirement system at the school, even if there isn’t a match. Make sure you know all that is accessible to you.
A lot of people think they are making qualifying payments for student loan forgiveness. There is something called the temporary expanded public service loan opportunity. This program helps people who accidentally made non-qualifying repayments. They can retroactively go back and fix certain things.
The best thing to do is to refinance and get the interest rate as low as possible. However, if you have more than $40,000 or $50,000 of student loan debt, Gym Trainers look at different avenues than refinancing. Debt is a multi-step process.
Don’t let student loan debt stress you out. Take a deep breath. It is fixable. Being in student loan debt doesn’t say anything about your value as a human being. It isn’t a morality issue, it is a numbers issue and you just need a plan. Don’t hyper focus on the debt.
Teri has a lot of clients who are teachers. Most of the people she works with in New York City make between $60,000 and $80,000. New York State varies more than that with a range of $35,000 to $120,000. In lower cost of living areas, it is anywhere from $29,000 to a median of $40,000.
If you can get to a place where you are saving more, there are a lot of good retirement tools that exist for teachers. This varies from state to state and district to district. Contact your HR department and schedule a time to talk to your benefits administrator.
Retirement benefits can include a 403(b) and some have pensions. In some cases, 457(b) plans are available and they are a great tool because they are tax deferred, but you can access them before age 59 1/2 without a penalty.
When accepting a teaching job, weigh the salary with the long-term benefits. If you have the option of health insurance in retirement with an employer, it will be more meaningful to stay in that role. Maximize your benefits early.
One of the benefits of a teacher lifestyle is the schedule. You have the opportunity to work a second job in the summer to earn more income and there are a lot of ways to side hustle.
Some opportunities include tutoring and specialized child care. Terri knows of people who have taken sabbaticals to teach English at schools internationally. She has never talked to anyone who regretted it. Get creative about your side hustles. The teacher skillset is in demand.
There are big public conversations going on right now about the difficulties of living on a teacher’s salary. There is something called TEACH grants, which stands for Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher education. It is a grant that amounts to about $4,000 a year for undergraduate students who are going into high-needs fields, like math, science, and special needs, especially in schools that serve high-need families.
It usually requires an agreement to serve in those schools for about four years. If you don’t meet your agreement to serve, it turns into a loan. This grant can have a big impact on your debt, if you are going to a state school that is less expensive.
There is a broader teacher loan forgiveness program that has a five-year commitment to serve. Your school has to be listed in a particular directory of low-income schools that qualify you. Up to $17,500 can be forgiven, if you are in one of the high-needs fields. If you are teaching outside of those fields, $5,000 can be forgiven.
Don’t let finances hang over your head when you are standing in front of a room teaching. There are so many fixes available for you.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is that, despite the fact that a teacher salary may not be robust, frequently there are other benefits and resources teachers can take advantage of to improve their financial lives.
Random Three Questions
What is a bucket list destination for you?
What are your top three favorite podcasts?
This is your last night on earth. What is your final meal?
Connect with Terri
Website: financialgym.com
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or If you’d like to get in the financially naked hotseat, I encourage you to email me to Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money facebook group, and let me know what you want to hear.
If you’d like to talk to my team at the Financial Gym to help you drop your money anxieties and recession proof your finances, we’re offering a number of great deals while you are quarantined from home. Our team is more than happy to help you make your plan and not only survive these times but thrive during them. So head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.