In Your 20s: You have more time than anyone. Use it.

Honestly? I wish someone had sat me down in my 20s and walked me through this stuff. Not the boring version. The real version. The one that shows you exactly what waiting costs.

Nobody does this. Not your union rep. Not HR. Not the guy at the benefit fair who wants to sell you a variable annuity during your lunch break. So let's do it now.

The only thing that matters more than how much you save is when you start

This is not a motivational poster. It is math. Look at the chart below. The person who starts at 22 with $100 a month ends up with more money than the person who starts at 32 with $200 a month. They contributed less. They put in less effort. They just started earlier.

Time is the most powerful variable in investing and you have more of it than anyone. That is genuinely rare. Use it.

These numbers assume a 7% average annual return which is conservative by historical standards. Toggle between the scenarios. Notice that even at 5% the early starter wins. The math does not care how motivated you are. It only cares when you start.

Vanguard: The Importance of Saving Early → Fidelity: How to Start Investing →

Your 403(b) provider is not your friend

Every school district offers a 403(b) plan. Most of them are administered by a handful of vendors who compete aggressively for your business at benefit fairs. Some of those vendors charge fees of 1.5% or more annually on your balance.

That sounds small. It is not small. Over 30 years that fee drag costs you tens of thousands of dollars that should have been yours.

The fix is not complicated. Ask your HR department which 403(b) providers are on the approved vendor list. Look for one that offers low-cost index funds. Compare the expense ratios. This one decision made early in your career is worth more than most financial planning moves you will ever make.

We review 403(b) plans all the time and we will tell you straight whether what you have is fine or whether you are getting quietly picked clean.

Open a Roth IRA. Now. Seriously.

Your income is probably lower right now than it will be at any other point in your career. That is actually a gift in disguise. Lower income means lower tax rate, which means now is the single best time to put money into a Roth IRA.

Here is how a Roth works. You put in money you have already paid taxes on. It grows completely tax-free. When you take it out in retirement you pay zero taxes on the growth. Ever. The IRS never touches it again.

Compare that to a traditional IRA or 403(b) where you defer taxes now but pay them later on the full balance including all the growth. If your account grows from $50,000 to $300,000 you pay taxes on the whole $300,000 when you withdraw it.

The Roth wins when your tax rate today is lower than your tax rate in retirement. In your 20s as a new teacher that is almost certainly the case.

Understand your pension tier before someone has to explain it to you at 55

If you started teaching after January 1, 2013 you are under a different CalSTRS benefit formula than your older colleagues. Your final compensation will always be calculated as a three-year average regardless of how many years you work. Teachers hired before that date can use their single highest year after 25 years of service.

This does not mean you are getting a bad deal. It means you need to understand the actual deal you have so you can plan around it. We see people in their 50s who were operating on assumptions about their pension that were not accurate. The time to get clear on this is now when you have decades to adjust.

The earlier we talk the more options you have. That is true of almost every financial decision. The 20s version of this conversation is the easiest one we have.