I've been a teacher in TX for three years now and have been saving for retirement since I started my teaching job. However, I have no idea of what I'm doing. I have been living in the U.S. for very little and have no one trustworthy to give me financial advise, since all my family and friends live in Mexico. I was advised by some coworkers to open a 403(b) retirement plan since the retirement plan given to us is apparently not sufficient. I was lured by an insurance company to open one with them. I have done some digging and I found that this company doesn't have good reviews because of the shady fees they charge--my bad for not looking into it before. I'm trying to understand any of this but finances were never my thing and just want the best option. Please, help.
I'm (27/F) a teacher trying to find the best option for a 403(b) retirement plan
- Thread starter morris22
- Start date
cafeconleche
New member
@morris22 Texan, here! TRS is a pretty decent retirement system, and their pension folks wield the money well. Long as the Texas legislature can keep their greedy paws off of it. 
Re: 403(b)'s...ych. Yccccch! The fact that insurance/annuity salesmen would prey on teachers -- and they do, regularly -- makes me ill. I'm glad you figured it out this early, relatively speaking. 401(k)'s are governed by ERISA, which keeps them from getting too out of hand. 403(b)'s for governmental institutions (like, say, public schools) are not, which means no one's keeping the wolves out. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect...and you can bet the salescritters use that to their advantage.
Having said that, there are a few 403(b) providers that have decently low fees. TIAA-CREF, for starters, and Vanguard as well. Does your school offer either of those?
Having said that, realize that depending on how much you're contributing to retirement, you may not need a 403(b) at all yet. Depending on how high your household income is, you could contribute up to $6K per spouse annually to a Roth or Traditional IRA with Vanguard (or Fidelity or Schwab or whoever). The limit's higher for a 403(b), which is why it's technically nicer, but you can always fill up the IRA first and then go to the 403(b). How much did you want to contribute?
Re: 403(b)'s...ych. Yccccch! The fact that insurance/annuity salesmen would prey on teachers -- and they do, regularly -- makes me ill. I'm glad you figured it out this early, relatively speaking. 401(k)'s are governed by ERISA, which keeps them from getting too out of hand. 403(b)'s for governmental institutions (like, say, public schools) are not, which means no one's keeping the wolves out. Which is the opposite of what you'd expect...and you can bet the salescritters use that to their advantage.
Having said that, there are a few 403(b) providers that have decently low fees. TIAA-CREF, for starters, and Vanguard as well. Does your school offer either of those?
Having said that, realize that depending on how much you're contributing to retirement, you may not need a 403(b) at all yet. Depending on how high your household income is, you could contribute up to $6K per spouse annually to a Roth or Traditional IRA with Vanguard (or Fidelity or Schwab or whoever). The limit's higher for a 403(b), which is why it's technically nicer, but you can always fill up the IRA first and then go to the 403(b). How much did you want to contribute?