Thanks so much for your response, it's very much appreciated! I will definitely tell him to look into the NEA retirement plan, since I know there is one.
I think BF was talking about a plan (and this could be very specific to our state) that allowed him to "buy in" to a retirement program after he taught in state for a certain number of years -- 10, I believe -- and after that the returns (or the amount the state matches to the contribution or whatever) increase on a yearly basis. If we move out of state on, say, year 15, we have to start from square one. That is, he has to teach 10 years to buy in to this new state's plan, and instead of getting a return rate he would have gotten at 25+ years of teaching, he'll get the same return rate as if he'd only been teaching for ten.
For as adamant as dear BF is about this situation, I feel like he may have been misled. He had an education professor awhile back who opened his first day of class by lecturing on how if he had known about this plan as a new teacher, he never would have moved out of state because he lost tons of money on retirement. The prof swore that this was the case for every educator that moves out of state. That said, I believe this guy was sort of the "crazy old professor" type that may or may not have current/relevant information.
Anyway, that was long winded, but thank you so much for the suggestions. This has been a source of some stress for us -- where I get accepted to complete my Ph.D (especially with how competitive my field is) may not be necessarily where I want to live for the rest of my life. I don't want to be stuck in Alaska forever! (no offense to Alaskans
) We will *definitely* follow up on those possibilities.
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