For NYC public school teachers
Find out what each stop date costs: what your pension pays, and what covers your family's health. In one weekend.
Five tools with the numbers already worked out on my own plan. Fill in yours. No call needed.
The first page tells you if this kit is not for you.
Already bought it? Get a fresh link.
Most teachers have a last day picked for them. The pension picks it, the same way the school calendar picks the last day of school. I picked mine.
I taught in New York City public schools for 15 years. My last day was October 19, 2026. I was 41.
Since then, teachers message me every week. They want to know three things.
What will my pension pay if I stop early?
What covers my family's health until it starts?
Which second income fits the hours I have?
Those are the three answers this kit gives you, for your own numbers. I show you mine first, so you can see what a finished plan looks like.
I can't promise you an age, or an income. Nobody honest can. What I can show you is that stopping early can be planned, and what it costs.
The three answers you leave with
- 1
What your pension pays at every age you could stop. Tier IV or Tier VI, line by line, with a helper for your final average salary.
- 2
What covers your family's health, year by year, until the pension starts. COBRA, a New York State plan, then City cover. With the cost of each year, and any years you still have to solve.
- 3
Which second income fits your hours. Up to five side incomes, sorted by what each one pays per hour.
Here is each one on my own plan.
How did you do it?
Two paychecks. One was my teaching salary. The other was what I earned outside the classroom.
While I taught, it was basketball coaching and private tutoring. Then real estate investments, private money lending, a business and wealth coaching. Today our household income comes from what we built over the years, and that gives us the choice of work.
The second income page in the kit sorts your side incomes by what each one pays per hour, so you can see which ones fit your life.
Was the pension worth staying for?
Every teacher asks me this. Here is my answer, from the TRS rules.
Read it like a rubric. You can see every point it takes off, and why.
I'm Tier IV, with 15 years of service. I left at 41, so my pension can start at 55, cut to 73%. That is about 18% of my final average salary, for life.
If I had stayed to 55, it would have been somewhere from 42% to 58%. I made that trade on purpose, because of the income my family built outside the job. You might not. That is the point of your own table.
The pension tool in the kit fills in this table for you, for Tier IV and Tier VI.
Leave at 41, pension at 55
18.25%
Our plan. Cut to 73% for starting at 55.
Leave at 41, pension at 58
20.5%
Cut to 82%.
Leave at 41, pension at 60
22%
Cut to 88%.
Leave at 41, pension at 62
25%
No cut at 62.
Stay to 55, about 29 years
42.34% to 58%
The row I did not pick. 58% on the 55/27 plan, about 42% with the cut at 55.
Pension a year, as a share of final average salary. Dashed: 58% if on the 55/27 plan.
How about health insurance?
Health cover is the bill that stops most teachers. It does not have to stop you. It has to be planned.
Here is our plan, from my last day to 65.
Health cover
Income
Pension
Age
- COBRA41 to 44The same City plan, for 36 months, about $3,000 a month for the family.
- New York State plan44 to 5511 years. We pay for it ourselves, from about $2,000 a month for the family.
- City health cover55 to 65Starts with the pension check. It needs 15 years of service, and I have 15.
- Medicare65 onFrom 65.
- What we built: property, lending, businesses, coaching41 onThe income from our assets. It is why we are both work optional.
- TRS pension55 onAbout 18% of my final average salary, from 55, for life.
The bridge tool in the kit builds this same timeline from your own last day.
What is inside
Six parts: a first page, and five tools you fill in, each one next to my own plan, written out. Give it one weekend.
- 1
Who this is for, and what is not in the box
Is this kit right for me?
The first page. It tells you before you do any of the work.
Family plan: Read it together, and agree on the one question you want answered.
- 2
The Two Paychecks Timeline
What does my income look like, year by year?
Your salary and your outside income on one chart, next to mine.
Family plan: Put every paycheck in the household on the chart.
- 3
The Second Income Page
Which side income fits the hours I have?
Up to five options, sorted by what each pays per hour, and marked if they do not fit your time.
Family plan: Pick an option that fits the hours your family has.
- 4
Your Pension at Every Exit
What will my pension pay if I stop at each age?
Tier IV or Tier VI, with a helper for your final average salary. My own TRS table is worked out beside it.
Family plan: Run it for each of you who has a pension.
- 5
The Bridge Years
What covers my family's health until the pension starts?
Year by year, with what it costs and any years you still have to solve.
Family plan: Decide whose plan carries the family in each year.
- 6
The One-Income Test
What does one income do to our month?
Including the health cover cost that couples forget.
Family plan: Decide who could stop first, and in what order.
What $37 buys
Who it is for
- You teach in New York City, and you have asked yourself how long you have to stay.
- You are in the TRS pension, Tier IV or Tier VI. The pension tool is built on those rules.
- You want to know what your pension pays if you stop early, and what covers your family's health until it starts.
- You have a second income, or another income in your household, or you are ready to build one.
One honest note. The kit works best with a second income in play, yours or someone else's in your household. If you have neither and no time to build one, the numbers will show you that clearly, and the refund is there.
What is not in the box
- My household budget. This is not a budgeting course.
- Investment advice. It does not pick funds for you.
- A pension consultation. It gives you better questions to bring to one.
- A promise of any income, or any age to stop.
One more thing, for the curious
Some of our investing is funded with a securities-backed line of credit against our stock portfolio. It works for us, and it carries risk: if the market drops, a lender can force a repayment, or sell the stocks, at the worst time. It is not a recommendation. It is part of how our plan runs. Talk to a licensed professional before anything like it.
After the kit, if you want me to check your numbers with you, that is what my coaching is for. Two calls, two weeks apart. The kit is the step before that call, and you do not need the call to use it.
Not financial, tax or legal advice. Pension rules and health plan costs change. Check TRS and your plan documents for your own case. Your results depend on your own numbers and choices, and no income or stop age is promised.