Many of us teachers are nearing retirement. In addition to getting the obvious financial advice, how can we best prepare ourselves for the next chapter in our lives?
Avoid 鈥楥ounting Down the Days鈥�
Jen Mott, Ed.D., is an administrator at one of the largest middle schools in Ohio. She has also written to inspire future, current, and former educators and does keynote speaking and performing at schools across the country using her passion for education and her skills as a professional juggler, balloon artist, and fire performer:
For teachers considering retirement soon, CONGRATS! This means you have persevered in one of the most challenging (yet rewarding!) professions to exist.
The Finish Line
Professionally
You need to sustain your energy for the sake of your students and colleagues instead of just counting down the days.
- Pass off any leadership roles a year or two early to:
1) Give yourself the energy you need to finish strong.
2) Help motivate and encourage the ones who take on your leadership role and help mentor them before you go.
- Mentor a new teacher.
- Work with your administration to leave a legacy by helping them identify ways they can improve and leave the school better.
Financially
As you consider retirement, it is important to have a few priorities for financial planning:
- Connect with your state retirement system (public) and/or wherever you have been working with on your retirement planning (private).
Note: Reach out to every company or entity to ensure everyone is on the same page with your retirement age and money balance and monthly income after retirement.
- Maximize all contributions in your final years: HSA, Roth IRA (if you are nearing a true retirement age, you can put even more in than younger folks as 鈥渃atch-up鈥� contributions), 403b, and/or anything else you have. Check contribution limits when you are within 3-5 years of retirement to maximize all savings.
- Know your monthly income and make plans to live within your means with that new monthly income and/or consider ways to supplement it during retirement.
Now What?
Congrats! You have now retired and experienced the thrill of all the 鈥渓asts鈥� the school year has to offer. Once the celebrations simmer and your friends and colleagues go back to school in August without you, then what?
- Travel!
Plan a trip for the start of the school year. While your friends and students are going back to school, you are going anywhere in the world you鈥檝e always wanted to visit!
- Visit friends and family!
Now is the time in your life where you can visit those kids, grandkids, your friends who have moved away 鈥� whenever you want. Plan those trips to see people you haven鈥檛 otherwise been able to see.
- Volunteer!
What organizations and causes are you most passionate about? Retirement is a great moment to finally help them and make friends.
- Play Pickleball!
鈥� or anything. There are lots of community groups that offer various sports during the day, and now that you鈥檙e free during the day, what better time to start?!
- Find a retirement job doing anything you want!
You may find yourself wanting to supplement your monthly income, and that is OK! The best part is you get to choose the terms.
If you want to stay in the education field, consider helping as a paraprofessional or teacher鈥檚 aide, bus driver, custodian, or child nutrition worker if you are looking for something daily.
You could also consider signing up as a substitute teacher in the districts around you. The best part? You can say 鈥渘o鈥� to a call and still be asked to work the next day!
Think of the stores you like to shop at or visit or the coffee shops or the 鈥溾�� in your community. Ask them if they are hiring or if you could help out on your own terms. They might appreciate this offer!
Reach out to your friends and/or family who own small businesses. They could hire you to help them. You get to see what your friends/family do all day and get paid to help them!
- Start a Business!
What do McDonald鈥檚, Home Depot, and KFC all have in common? They were started by people over 50! At typical retirement age, you are to start and run a business.
- Relax!
You retired. You helped thousands of students and teachers over your career. Be proud of the work you have done and rest knowing the legacy exists, regardless of how you spend retirement.
鈥榃hat Happens to All My Stuff?鈥�
Jennifer Orr is in her third decade of teaching elementary school students in the suburbs of Washington. She is a national-board-certified teacher, mom to two teenagers, and an obsessive reader of books of all kinds. She is also the author of Demystifying Discussion: How to Teach and Assess Academic Conversation Skills, K-5 and the co-author, with Matthew Kay, of We鈥檙e Gonna Keep on Talking: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Elementary Classroom:
This is me. This is my 27th year of elementary school classroom teaching, and I鈥檓 looking at what happens next. The closer I get, the more I realize I need to think about retirement, and it is more than a bit overwhelming. I stand in my classroom, look around, and wonder what happens to all my stuff? (Not a major question when it comes to the big picture but one that exhausts me to consider as a part of this journey.)
As I think about that journey from this moment forward, the piece that directly impacts me right now is continuing to offer my students the best of me as an educator. That鈥檚 no small thing after a quarter of a century of teaching and half a century of living.
I鈥檓 tired and I can definitely tell it is having an impact. Last year, I found myself fighting (mostly with myself, to be honest) to carve out time for fun activities with my students. In the final weeks of the year, as my students decorated and programed Finch robots as different ocean animals, I promised myself I鈥檇 make more of that happen this year. I have enough experience to know that I can let some things, some lessons, slide to make room in our days and weeks for other things, other ways to get at our learning together. I don鈥檛 have to do what my teammates are doing every day, all the time. Giving myself permission to bring in my interests and passions and those of my students keeps me excited and energized.
Looking ahead to what happens next, what I do when I don鈥檛 have a full-time job, is also a bit overwhelming for me. I鈥檝e got a lot of fabulous and interesting models in my life to help me begin to imagine, though. My parents, upon retirement, sold their home and bought an RV. They鈥檝e been traveling the United States for a decade now (at last count, the RV had been in 45 states).
Travel is high on my retirement list as well, although likely not in quite that way. Former colleagues of mine have retired and worked part time in schools, subbing when they wished, filling in for more extended periods, or working as specialized tutors. That option also holds some appeal as it would allow a more gradual exit from the profession while also bringing in some income.
The free time to follow some personal interests is also intriguing. I could volunteer at my local library and spend time surrounded by books. I could sign up to usher for shows at any of thetheaters in my area and be surrounded by music and acting. I think, as I look forward, that my goal is to spend more time considering the positives and the possible excitement rather than what I鈥檒l be losing when I leave full-time teaching.
These years of working with young students have been absolutely amazing, full of learning and laughing. Nothing will take that away from me as I move on from it, and I鈥檒l hold on to some of the notes and gifts and photos from those years. I鈥檒l also, with anticipation, step into something new, something else that will likely be filled with learning and laughing.
鈥楲egacy Teachers鈥�
Carol Pelletier Radford, Ed.D, is a retired teacher and the founder of Mentoring in Action. You can find more information about the Legacy Teacher Network on her :
John Dewey once said, 鈥淭he saddest thing about U.S. education is that we lose the wisdom of our most successful teachers when they retire.鈥� If you are close to retirement or recently retired, you are one of the most successful teachers in our profession. You stayed in teaching, navigated its many ups and downs, and learned from your mistakes. Now you may be asking yourself, what鈥檚 next?
As a former teacher, I have noticed teachers near to retirement fall into two groups. One group can鈥檛 wait to stop teaching, and the other group is more hesitant to leave the profession. This second group of teachers would like to continue in education but they鈥檙e not sure what they could do.
When I formally retired, I chose to explore an option unrelated to education. I had a great teaching career and loved it, but I decided to use my skills in another way. So I enrolled in a yoga teacher-training program to become a yoga instructor. During that 200-hour experience, I discovered that teachers needed the skills I was learning and I found myself wanting to work in education again.
I decided to integrate the mindfulness principles from yoga into my own mentoring program for educators. I founded Mentoring in Action and recruited other retired teachers to collaborate with me to bring well-being into mentoring programs.
John Dewey鈥檚 quote inspired me to also think about the developmental continuum for educators. We begin our careers in preservice education programs learning how to teach and we learn more about teaching through district in-service professional development. But the profession doesn鈥檛 offer educators a clear way to share all we have learned. I suggest we extend the developmental continuum to add Continuing Service and call these teachers 鈥渓egacy teachers.鈥�
Here are three ways legacy teachers can share their wisdom.
MENTOR ~ Volunteer in your district. Contact the mentoring coordinator and offer to support teachers in their 3rd or 4th years of teaching. This is when beginners falter and make decisions to leave. You have the practices that can help beginners be successful and stay in teaching.
TEACH ~ Reach out to your local university education department. Apply to teach a methods course that helps practicum students understand the realities of teaching. Offer to co-teach with a professor who has been out of the classroom for a while so you can share practical strategies. Consider being a guest speaker in a student-teaching seminar or apply to supervise student-teachers.
SHARE ~ Create ways to share your practical wisdom with others. Share your successful classroom ideas and offer in-service teachers ways to thrive, not just survive. Write a blog. Start a podcast. Be a podcast guest. Found your own company! Write a book to share your wisdom or just informally share your positive ideas with beginning teachers.
There are endless ways legacy teachers can continue their service to this noble profession. I hope you will consider a path that aligns with your heart and soul. But the first thing you need to do is to CELEBRATE this milestone accomplishment in your career. You truly have served, and this may be enough for you. However, retirement does not have to be the end. It can be a fulfilling new beginning.
Thanks to Jen, Jennifer, and Carol for contributing their thoughts!
Today鈥檚 post answered this question:
What is your best advice for teachers near retirement 鈥� how can they best sustain energy in the classroom, how should they plan financially, and what should they think about doing after they leave (including ways they can stay connected to education)?
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
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