I consider myself very lucky. After earning a master's degree in percussion performance, I got exactly the job I wanted -- teaching middle school band.
I was hired in June 2008, and three months later, Lehman Brothers went down.
Now there are a lot of low income people in our school district. Many of our students are on free and reduced lunch. I've seen their parents lose jobs. A lot of kids need school instruments because they can't afford to rent their own.
I had a revelation after hearing all the bad news and decided to learn as much as I could about finance. Even though my teacher's contract already has a required 14.5% contribution to our state teacher's retirement pension, I upped my Roth IRA contributions to take advantage of low equity and mutual fund prices. I also found out about the first-time homebuyer tax credit.
I saved every penny I had. I lived without TV or internet, or even a personal computer just because I wanted to prioritize my spending on a bigger goal -- which was to get a house. I would go to the public library to use the computer. People thought I was crazy.
My savings, the tax credit, and a little help from my parents allowed me to buy my first home in July 2009. My interest rate for a 30-year loan was 5.375%. Later, the Fed's extreme buying of Treasuries allowed me to refinance to a 30-year loan at 3.85%.
After I bought my house, I set a goal to buy an investment property. Low real estate prices allowed me to buy a duplex split 50/50 with my Dad in May 2012.
I'm glad to have benefited from the recovery, but I do feel bad because there are so many other people still hurting.
When I listened to President Obama's speech, his comments on workers needing more skills in science, technology and math stuck out to me. While that's true, I worry that emphasizing science, technology and math is going to take away from other parts of the education world.
If you want more creativity, you need to allow more music, art and dance teachers to also teach their skills.
