Today’s Episode with Dan Otter:

• Dan Otter is a father, husband, teacher, author, and executive director of 403bwise.org, along with being a doctor.
• 403bwise.org is a website designed to educate and empower teachers and school employees about their retirement options.
• In 2012, Money Magazine named him a “Money Hero” for his "extraordinary efforts to improve others' financial well-being." Dan has appeared on National Public Radio and the Bob Brinker Show. He is the author of several personal finance books: Teach and Retire Rich, Financial Literacy for the Young (and Young at Heart), and The 403(b) Wise Guide. He co-hosts the Teach and Retire Rich podcast with friend and CFP® Scott Dauenhauer.
• Dan was a first year elementary school teacher in 1993 when a woman popped into his classroom after school and asked “Do you care about your financial future?”
• She started mentioning all these things Dan had never heard of and said to get in touch with her if he was interested. Dan began educating himself on investing.
• He started to see the weakness of the 403b and wanted to educate other people on it and he started to meet other advocates for it.
• He then wrote the book Teach and Retire Rich so that teachers could learn to retire comfortably if they take advantage of certain penchants and plans.
• The New York Times did a series of articles on the 403(b) and connected Dan with Tim Ranzeta, an entrepreneur who started a nonprofit to make free personal finance curriculum available to teachers.
• Dan was an associate Dean at a University and quit his job to pursue working on 403bsmart.org full time.
• Dan started out college as a business major, hated it, switched to a journalism major with a political science minor and graduated and got a job at a magazine company.
• He started interviewing teachers and it interested him so much he got his credential and became a teacher himself.
• His first year he taught a 4th/5th grade combo class that got a new student every week, and he said it was the hardest thing he has ever done, but he loved it.
• While staying at home with his two-year old daughter, he launched the 403bsmart website.
• During the year when his late wife was suffering from breast cancer, developing his new website at home was an escape for him.
• One of Dan’s main message is for educators to look at their 403b and their vendors and start evaluating their options.
• Dan describes some of the different plans and what he advises of people depending on their options to save the most money and have the most comfortable retirement.
• Teachers should have a Roth IRA, a 403b with a great vendor, and a 457b with a great vendor. Teachers should have it all!
• Dan talks about the benefits of compound interest and why it is your best friend when you are an investor and your worst enemy when you are the debtor.

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