A question for all teachers.....

[AChiOhSnap]

Hey all,

My boyfriend and I are planning on getting married about a year after my graduation from college. He wants to be a history teacher, I want to go to graduate school that would most likely require me moving out of state initially, and then most likely moving for a year or so about 3 years into the program for a residency.

Here's my dilemma: my bf keeps yammering on about how it's imperative that we never move from the place he initially gets a teaching job. Due to the low acceptance rate of my field, I pretty much have to go where I'm accepted. Therefore, if I go to a school in Kansas, we stay in Kansas forever, etc.

BF says this is because of some retirement plan with the educator's association, something about that if you move out of stae, you lose the high return on your retirement contributions.

Can any teachers out there tell me more about this retirement thing? I have never heard any of my friends in the education program talk about how they're "stuck" in the state they get their first job over potentially losing some retirement money. It would be very much appreciated if anyone could clue me in.

[WLFEO]

Many states will let you buy years on a retirement plan so you don't have to lose years if you transfer. I guess what people do is cash in from one state and then invest in the plan in a different state. I'm sure you lose money when you do that, but certainly it is possible.

Actually I think teaching is a really flexible job (I guess it could depend on the exact field) because teachers are needed everywhere.

Also there could be some retirement plans in national teachers' associations if he chooses to become a member.

When I was a public school teacher, I bought an annuity to save towards retirement. Now that I'm not a public school teacher anymore, I can't add to it, but I know that if I taught in a different state I could keep adding to it.

One more thought.... many school distrcits let you retire if your age plus the number of years you've taught add up to a certain number, so that helps teachers who have not been in the same state (or even those who became teachers later in the game) their whole career.

Hope that helps!

[AChiOhSnap]

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.