Welcome from Ben Johnson!

 

Hi everyone and welcome to our group! We are happy to have you!

Since I have added so many people that I haven’t met, I thought this would be a good time to introduce myself.  I was born and raised here in Colorado. I grew up in Crestone, a small town near The Great Sand Dunes National Park. My graduating class in high school only had nine students! 

I attended CSU to become a woodworking teacher because I absolutely loved woodshop in high school.  I am in my 26th year of teaching! I spent my first five years at Preston JHS teaching technology education. During that time, I earned my master’s degree at CSU. My focus was on gender equity in technology education. I spent the next two years at CSU as a teacher on special assignment and helped teachers integrate technology into their curriculum.

From CSU, I went on to UNC and worked as an instructional technologist for three years. While at UNC, I earned my doctorate in technology education and minored in applied research and statistics.

In 2005, I returned to PSD and served as the instructional technology coordinator until 2013. After working at central office for eight years, I was ready to return to a school and became the media specialist at RMHS. This is my eighth year at Rocky and I really enjoy being back in a school. 

My wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary last summer.  We have a 12 year old daughter and a 14 year old son.  In my free time, I enjoy traveling and being outdoors. As a family, we have visited 40 national parks and will visit two more this summer (Voyageurs and Island Royale).  We have traveled to 14 countries and will visit 7 more next summer. Two summers ago we visited the Galapagos Islands and hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. 

I got serious about investing and money about five years ago when I realized my wife’s retirement had been fleeced by nearly every employer where she had worked. Over the past five years I have learned a lot about money and investing. Luckily, it’s actually very easy. I’m happy to report that the last few years we've made more money on our investments than we've made working the entire year! We plan to retire in 3 years at the age of 51 and 53.

The last seven years, I have watched insurance salesmen come into Rocky’s teacher’s lounge and sell teachers  403(b) variable annuity plans with high fees and early surrender penalties. Part of the reason I started this group is to raise awareness of the better retirement plans available in PSD and to advocate for better plans. Thank you for joining this group and please invite your teacher friends! Also, please ask any retirement/money questions that you have!  There is no dumb question. We look forward to learning together!

Cheers!

Ben