About

Welcome one and all! Around these parts I go by Mr. D. This is a place where teachers (or anyone) find answers to questions and explore ideas in the world of personal finance as well as the world of teaching.

About Mr. D.

I live out in Western Massachusetts with my loving wife and wonderful little son.

I’ve been teaching upper elementary school for 12 years, but last year it got the best of me (temporarily…I hope).

Originally, I think I believed I would just work as an elementary teacher for 30 years, hang up my key card (retire), and collect a great pension.

Recently though, I started wondering how sustainable that would be. Or, more specifically, at what cost it would come…

I was looking down the road I was taking and seeing mountains of stress and deteriorating health.

I wasn’t finding the balance I needed. Not even close. So, I took a year off to try to recapture it. And honestly, it’s made a world of difference and I’m very thankful to have had that option.

But even requesting the leave was very difficult for me. Feelings of failure arose. I felt like I was abandoning my students and coworkers. My identity of being an elementary teacher came into question. I questioned my privilege to be able to take this year and much more…

Nevertheless, I knew it had to be done. The road I was going down would not end well. So, with the unwavering support of my wife, co-workers, friends and family, I just went for it.

Along the way, I decided to document it with the hopes that others might find it helpful in there own lives.

And here I am.

And to get here, I would also be incredibly remiss if I did not mention how personal finance has played a HUGE part of my story as well.

Personal Finance

Essentially, I was able to afford this year because of some the financial decisions I made in the past. But, even more interestingly, shortly after I had given my notice for this year of leave, I stumbled upon a world that opened my eyes to even more ideas in the field of personal finance.

I felt like I have been living under a rock having not heard about Financial Independence. Essentially the concept is that if you are wise with your money, and invest it well, once you reach a certain net total, you can stop working WAY earlier than the traditional retirement age of 65.

The best part is that it’s easy to do and the investing is anything but complicated.

Naturally, given the burnt out state that I found myself in, this appealed to me very much. I went down a deep rabbit hole and found A LOT of information that I want to share with you.

Another huge side benefit was that it gave me hope. Hope that I COULD pull this off. Now, instead of staring at 18 years until retirement, I was probably looking at 5 – 9. This felt a lot more manageable. Part of my goal is to give others that very same hope as well…

Before I go further however, it should be stated that I am NOT a financial expert of any kind. I’m just a teacher that came from a family interested in investing. Whatever ideas I put forth are what I plan to do with my money because it’s what I think is best. Whatever you decide to do with your money is your choice and I’ll never push you one way or another.

Meanwhile, back at school, after doing my extensive research, I started talking to my coworkers about the ideas of financial independence. None of them had ever heard of it either.

That’s when when the idea to start writing originally formed. I truly believe that this can be life-changing for so many people. By making a few adjustments, and knowing a few minor strategies, you can make life altering changes to your financial portfolio with very little sacrifice.

So, those are two of the forces at work and why I am writing. Burnout and personal finance. The third one, that I’ll get to in a moment is teacher empowerment.

I plan to present ideas for your consideration, question a few practices in the state of education, and document my own progress all along the way.

If that sounds appealing to you, then you have come to the right place.

Teacher Empowerment

I am a huge fan of teachers. I think, by in large, teachers are an amazing group of people. They are selfless, incredibly hard-working, durable, kind, life-changing people. In my opinion, teachers are some of the most important people we have in our society.

But I also think they are taken advantage of.

Personally, I believe that teachers are overextended. Too much is put on a teacher’s plate on any given day. They are juggling so many balls, and putting in long, unpaid hours sometimes just to stay afloat. Oh, and there’s that little thing called the “personal life” as well.

Ultimately, one of the things I would like to accomplish with this site is teacher empowerment. There is a different dynamic that comes into play when a teacher reaches financial independence and realizes that they don’t have to teach to make ends meet.

Suddenly, you have options. And, because I think your work is so important, I certainly hope you choose to continue teaching. But having the option can give you leverage.

It can also give you peace of mind and the freedom to decide your own path.

Money/finances can be such a huge source of stress in our lives. The job of the teacher is stressful enough without having to pile money concerns on top of it.

Hopefully, this site will help you tackle the money part of it so you can take something off your already overloaded plates. This will give you that little extra bandwidth/energy for the important work you are doing.

In essence, I think teachers are an amazing group and I want to help them any way I can. If there is a question you have in this seemingly convoluted world of personal finance that you want answered, let me know, and I’ll do a deep dive for you.

A Quick Nod to the Environment

This is more of a tangential benefit, but I also believe that getting on the road to financial independence is better for the environment as well. This is something I’ve always cared about and it helped me assimilate rather quickly into the world of financial independence.

One way it’s helpful is if you are financially independent you are buying less unnecessary stuff. I won’t go into all of the statistics here, but an inordinate amount of stuff that we buy ends up in a landfill within the first year.

If we don’t buy it, then they don’t make it. Simple as that. Buying less creates less demand, less resources and less junk in the world.

Financial independence may also lead a person to make decisions that positively impact the environment in other ways. Someone might buy a car that gets better mileage to save money on gas. They may start using less electricity to save money on utilities. All of these decisions save money AND reduce carbon emissions. That’s a win-win in my book.

There are a number of other benefits as well that I hope to get into, but for now, you get the general idea. Taking the path to financial independence benefits your bottom line as well as the environment.

This is another reason that it may appeal to you. It’s certainly part of the equation for me.

FAQ’s

There are a few questions people have been lobbing my way so I though it might be helpful to get the answers out in the open.

Question #1 – Where did the name Teacher Double come from?

Basically, there are two reasons for this name (double-entendre?). Reason 1. I love the concept of doubling your money. Here’s a post I made on the sheer power of doubling your money.

The second reason is that I’ve never felt like a true, purebred teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty good at it! But, it wasn’t until my mid 20’s that I even considered it as a career. And it wasn’t until my late 20’s that I got my first gig in Italy of all places. So, to me, all that added up to a double agent.

Combine it all and I got “Teacher Double”.

This leads well into the next question.

Question 2: What have you got going on with that logo?

I was aiming for an homage to the ultimate double-agent, 007. On the outside are some dollar signs and instead of a gun, I’m holding a red pen.

I know, I know. We are not supposed to use a red pen on a student’s work. But if I use it to mark up a few educational policies I’d like to see changed, perhaps that’s acceptable?

And, naturally (to me at least), I’m wearing a flannel shirt because that’s pretty much all I ever wear.

What do you think? Did I hit the mark? Close at least?

Well, whatever your answer, maybe now that I’ve explained it, it works a little better…

Question 3: I don’t see any pictures of you. Are you trying to remain anonymous?

In a word, yes. I am trying to remain somewhat anonymous for a couple of reasons. 1. I’m a pretty private person and it’s not in my nature to put myself all over the place. I’ve never had Facebook or any other social media platforms for this reason as well. 2. Eventually I may have some rather “critical” things to say about the state of education. These could easily be misinterpreted by someone at my school and make things unnecessarily uncomfortable. I just assume avoid that if I can.

Realistically though, I’m no tech whiz so I’m sure someone could find out rather easily who I am (though I’d rather you didn’t!).

Question 4 – When do you hope to retire from teaching?

I like this one because I get to explain my motives a bit. Hopefully, I have a long career in teaching. But, if I get back to the place I got to before, then it would be unwise (and unhealthy) for me to continue.

Realistically, I hope to be able to retire in 5 years, BUT I hope to teach long past that time. In other words, I hope to have the means to retire, but I hope I don’t actually want to retire.

I also know, however, that if I do retire from teaching, I will find other ways to give back. That too is in my nature and I hope that comes out in my writing.

My General Plan

This is the general plan I hope to take in order to become financially independent.

Step 1: Save my money at a high rate – I’ve fallen into many spending pitfalls that I hope to avoid moving forward. I also hope that you can learn from my mistakes as well. Moving forward, however, I plan to avoid said pitfalls and start saving my money with the idea that I am buying time in increments of years.

Time is one of the most precious things we have. Having the freedom to decide how I spend my time is very high on my list of values.

If you are interested in upping your savings, this page has the resources you are looking for.

Step 2: Take advantage of tax-advantaged resources – 403b’s, 457’s, and HSA’s are a few of the myriad resources at a teachers disposal (but varies by districts as well). Essentially, this is money you can put towards retirement before it gets taxed. This can be thousands of extra dollars per year that you save for doing the same amount of work. When I go back, I plan to take full advantage of these resources.

Step 3: Build an Emergency fund – I have mine in place, but I wanted to mention it, so you could consider it as well. This is a stash of money you set aside for those significant, unexpected expenses. Should those expenses arise you can use your emergency fund rather than incurring costly credit card debt. Here’s a post on Emergency Fund Know-How, if you are interested in exploring this option for yourself.

Step 4: Invest my money wisely – There will be no stocks or day trading for me. That is way too stressful and feels a lot more like gambling. The approach I’ll take is what I’ve heard on podcasts and read in books and blogs. I’ll be investing in low-cost index funds.

Here is the very basic, easy to follow investing strategy that I use.

Traditionally, the market has returned, on average, 8% per year since it’s conception. I hope to take advantage of that trend. At that rate my money doubles every 9 years. It’s as low-risk as I can find for an investment and it’s very low maintenance. You just set it and forget it. That is my plan as well.

Step 5: Retire (or at least have the option to retire) – As I stated before, simply having the option to retire can be very empowering. Suddenly, you have options. Now, you are not beholden to a job just because you need the money.

You can explore other schools or different jobs that stimulate you, because you are no longer worried about “losing your tenure”. If you get fired at this new job (which is very unlikely but also a major reason teachers choose to stay put at a school) it’s no sweat because you didn’t need it anyways.

And usually, when you are not worried about placating or pleasing a boss, that’s when you are more likely to take “creative risks” as well. All those creative ideas you’ve been storing up over the years can come forth. This too, can be very liberating and invigorating.

I want to have the option to retire as a card I can play at any time. But I also hope I will want to continue teaching. I wish the same for you. You’re a good teacher and you do incredibly important work. I hope that you want to continue as well. But I also believe that giving you that option to retire can lift a load off your shoulders and make you better at whatever you choose to do, teaching or otherwise…

Here is the page where you can find information on early retirement.

In Summary

In summary, this is why I write. I’m no expert and will make plenty of mistakes along the way. But I fundamentally believe in everything I write and at my core, I want to be helpful. I think this information is incredibly helpful to anybody that reads it. I also fundamentally believe in you, the teacher. Naturally, I want to be helpful to my fellow teachers so they can continue doing the great work they are doing. I believe that knowing they are taken care of and have options later down the line will help ease their minds and make them all that much more effective at their jobs.

So, like I said before, if financial independence or teacher empowerment speak to you, then this may be the place for you.

The same is true if you find yourself burning out like I did. I plan to do an in-depth exploration into why I burnt out and try and find creative solutions so it doesn’t happen again.

Tangentially, if you want to more positively impact the environment, this is also a place that might suit your needs.

And if all of it speaks to you, then let’s get started!

To get started, I recommend that you scroll back up to the “My General Plan” section and choose a step that reflects where you are in your journey to financial independence.

You know what? Forget scrolling! I want to make this easy for you. You deserve that much and more! Here are the steps with links to get started below.

My General Plan (Again):

Step 1 – Improve My Savings Rate! – This brings you to a page where all of the money saving links are stored. Choose one that speaks to you and keep going!

Step 2 – Take advantage of Tax-Advantaged Resources – At the time of writing this page I do NOT have links built for this YET. But, if this speaks to you, go ahead and look up 403bs, 457s and/or HSA’s. These are all tax-free accounts that you can utilize to keep your hard-earned money to yourself and grow it for future use. This has MANY advantages that I will explore in the near future.

Step 3 – Build an Emergency Fund – Pretty self-explanatory, but this post will tell you everything you need to consider (as far as I could tell) when setting up your emergency fund. It’s a simpler step that I highly recommend…

Step 4 – Invest Wisely – This page will give you posts on the strategies I have decided to use for my own investments. They are simple and very easy to follow, which is just the way I like it. I just set it and forget it! These will NOT be my own ideas (Remember, I’m no expert!). I borrow ideas from investing giants like Warren Buffett and lesser known giants in personal finance community. In the end, I appreciate the logic behind these ideas and the simplicity it takes to enact them. As always, it’s your money, so you should do what you think is best for you.

Step 5 – Have the option to Retire Early – This page contains posts that will take you through the concept of retiring early and the steps you’ll need to take in order to realize it. This page, like many of the other pages, is always evolving and being added to.

That’s all for now everyone. As I stated before, I aim to be helpful and supportive. If you want to come along for the ride, subscribe to the site for free (in the sidebar or contact page) and I’ll deliver each new post to your inbox! If you have questions or you want me to look into something for you, feel free to comment below or contact me at any time.