GAEL UnscriptED
GAEL UnscriptED, the podcast that goes beyond the headlines and handbooks to bring you unfiltered insights from Georgia’s top educational leaders, innovators, and changemakers. Hosted by Ben Wiggins, Executive Director of GAEL, this show dives deep into the challenges, opportunities, and unexpected twists that shape education today.
From leadership strategies to policy discussions—and everything in between—GAEL UnscriptED is your go-to source for candid conversations that make an impact. No scripts. No fluff. Just real talk from those leading the way in Georgia’s schools.
GAEL UnscriptED
GAEL UnscriptED S2:E2 | TRS Part #1: How Georgia's TRS Powers Educator Retirement Security
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A bus route to the boardroom isn’t a cliché here—it’s the real path two former superintendents took before stepping into leadership at Georgia’s Teacher Retirement System. We open with their unexpected journeys, the mentors who nudged them forward, and the idea that leadership is transferable when anchored in service, data, and relationships. From there, we get practical: how culture, strategic planning, and succession design can transform a solid agency into a standout one with sub–5 percent turnover and a staff that sees its work as a mission.
We also dig into what members care about most: access and security. You’ll hear the story behind TRS’s video counseling and the Macon office—human-centered changes that saved educators hours on the road and made retirement counseling more equitable statewide. Then we zoom out to the numbers: a roughly $125 billion fund, a funding ratio that ranks among the strongest, and a seasoned team managing most investments in-house. Governance matters too, from the investment committee’s discipline to joint management sessions that sharpen oversight.
If you’re a teacher, principal, or district leader wondering when to engage with TRS, we map out a clear timeline: learn early, revisit mid-career, and sit for pre-retirement counseling within five years of your target date. And on the perennial question—retire at year 30, 33, or keep going to 40—we frame the tradeoffs with both math and meaning. Love the work and see rising impact? Staying can lift your final average salary and multiplier. Ready for a second act? Drawing your pension while launching a new career can be a powerful combination.
Ready to plan smarter and lead with clarity? Follow the show, share this conversation with a colleague who’s weighing their next step, and leave a review with your top retirement question—we may feature it in a future episode.
Welcome to Gale Unscripted, where leadership meets learning and real conversations drive real impact. I'm Ben Wiggins, Executive Director of Gale. Join us as we go beyond the headlines with Georgia's top education leaders. Let's elevate the conversation. Welcome back, Gale family, to another exciting episode of Gale Unscripted. Today we have two fantastic guests joining us. We've got Dr. Buster Evans and Dr. Jason Branch. Most of our Gale members know both of you, know you extremely well. But with all of the turnover and leadership, we've got so many new assistant principals and principals. They may not know you as well as others. So why don't y'all take a chance here or a moment to introduce yourselves to our new members?
SPEAKER_00:Well, Ben, I'll be glad to thank you so very much for the opportunity to be a part of this. You know, we love Gail. And Jason and I have become very fond of doing podcasts. And um, we think it's a great medium today. Um, you know, my most recent leadership job was the executive director of the teachers' retirement system of Georgia. Did that job for nine and a half years after a career in public education, mostly in leadership. Most people will not realize that my two jobs leading me eventually to the superintendency, first of all, was a substitute school bus driver for Valenasta City Schools while I was working on my master's degree in uh at Val Nasta State University in 1979 and 1980. And so uh that was a short-lived experience, but I kept my CDL license for many years, but would not tell anybody because I was afraid that they would make me drive the school bus as a school superintendent to earn my key. But uh after about a 10-year career in the in um in the um private sector working for a corporation, I knew that my heart was in education. I had already begun to teach some at the college level, and I had an opportunity to kind of go into the back door that a lot of people don't realize. And I began my first real work as a TRS member, working as a consultant for the heart of Georgia RESA in uh in Eastman, Georgia, and basically learned the work and learned the value that our RESAs do all across the state of Georgia in supporting school systems of all sizes, but particularly the small sizes. That job led me to that opportunity to be assistant superintendent in Blakely County Schools, then was superintendent in Blakely County for 11 years, superintendent of Perside County for seven years. And at that point, I was then sentenced to prison, which was was one of the best opportunities in my life. And I'll fill in more about that later.
SPEAKER_02:That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Um, yeah, a little more traditional path for me. I graduated University of Georgia, had the opportunity to uh begin my career at Glen Academy, which is a public school, uh public high school down in Glenn County as an English teacher and basketball coach. Uh from there went to Cobb County as an assistant principal and athletic director at McKeetron High School. Uh, my first principal opportunity was in Douglas County at Chapel Hill High School, served there for a number of years, then had the good fortune to uh be hired by Dr. Evans in uh Forsythe County as principal of Southersythe. Finished my career uh in O'Conee County for the last 13 years as superintendent of O'Coney County Schools, and uh as you know now, I have the great honor and opportunity to serve as executive director uh for teachers retirement system of Georgia.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect. So both of your former superintendents. Uh what led you to want to be a superintendent? You know, Buster, you talked a little bit about your journey, but what was it about that job that you you were drawn to or that you wanted that challenge?
SPEAKER_00:I've been, it was one of those things that I don't know that I had this fixation that I was one day going to be a school superintendent. I began my work with Heart of Georgia Risa, and you know, I've said for a long time in my life, you become like two things, what you read and who you know. And so as I worked as with superintendents at Heart of Georgia Risa, began to work with student data, began to work with school leadership, um, there were people who I think believed in me and gave me opportunities, maybe that I didn't even know that I had. And I've long felt that leadership was transferable. You can be an effective principal and go there to do a lot of different kinds of things in leadership. Um, I had the opportunity to be in the business world for uh about nine or 10 years, and being in a leadership capacity there, even during my 20s, led me to the opportunities that I had in public education. So, but it there were there were some people that really opened the door for me who believed in me and gave me some opportunities to continue my leadership. And if I began to call names, I would leave some very important people out, but including first of all my my RESA director who came to me one day and said, Hey, you need I want you to really consider going back to school and get your doctrine. I did that. That opened another door or two. There were a couple of superintendents that I worked with doing their strategic planning facilitation, and that we just built great relationships with them, and that opened the door. And then once I then had that opportunity just to take whatever job that you have, do the very best that you can do with it, and uh and build relationships, and I believe it opened doors for us in the future. And I know that's very much that defines your career as well as Jason's as well.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. You know, I think uh what I tell educators and individuals uh that the span of my career is always looked at, you know, how do you have a larger impact? And so, you know, as a classroom teacher, certainly I was focused on the 30 individuals that were in my class each period and working and doing the best I could uh to impart knowledge and and help them gain and learn as I transitioned into each of the roles that I've transitioned into, you know, each time it was starting to look at, excuse me, starting to look at it and say, okay, well, you know, I've got these questions. I'm starting to think about it differently. And so as you begin to think about it differently, and you think about, you know, well, would I do that? Why is that done that way? You know, what are the questions, what are the thoughts? It it led me to other opportunities, much like Dr. Evans has shared, um people poured into me along the way, saw things in me that I maybe didn't see in myself at that particular point, Dr. Evans being one of those, Dr. Jody Barrow being one of those, um, saying, hey, you should think about this, you should think about this next. And so the the superintendency was something that that, you know, I I joke and say, you know, we were during the recessionary period, and so a job, I was a high school principal, a job would come up that might be a director's job, and I'd have uh an assistant superintendent say, you know, maybe maybe want to talk to you about that. And then they'd call back and say, Um, well, that job's been you know, been shelved for the time period and things of that nature. So it really kind of led to where where are the opportunities, and then um a mentor said I should look at O'Coney County schools, and and uh so I researched that, was in the SBDP program with Dr. Hardin at that time, and uh just had an opportunity to step forward, uh 37 years old at that point, so don't know that I knew completely what I was getting into, um, but certainly uh the ability to to look at educators, work with educators, work with the community, and and craft a vision is kind of led to the superintendency, and I think uh is is one of the most fulfilling things about the superintendency is um the the work that you can do that is long-lasting for kids in the community.
SPEAKER_02:That's great points made by both of you, uh talking about people that you worked for and under, how they had influence on you, and kind of gave you a push and a nudge. And that's what Dr. Branch did for me. I had no thought of ever working at a district office, much less a superintendent. But I think that's the important message maybe for superintendents out there or just leaders in general, is your words matter. And when you see something in someone and you you push them or you encourage them or you talk to them, uh it really is important. Uh and your your words have uh carry a lot of weight for those people that work under you. Well, Buster, you you worked as the executive director of TRES, I believe, for nine years. Am I saying that correctly?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just a little over nine years.
SPEAKER_02:So, in that nine year span, like what are some of the things you're you're most proud of uh in serving in that role?
SPEAKER_00:Um Ben, the reality of it is I probably never had on my radar to eventually be the executive director of the retirement system. Uh, very similar to Jason. I had had the opportunity back in 2006 to be appointed as a trustee for the retirement system and had an opportunity just to uh to do some neat things with that. Uh eventually ended up being um board chair, being on the investment committee, being on joint management committee, just doing things that you do when you get involved with an organization, you give your very best. And sometimes you get opportunities to do things. I had retired in 2014 from the superintendency and Fersythe County Schools to go do uh reform work in correctional education as a part of Governor Deal's um criminal justice reform, never thinking that going to the teacher's retirement system would be on my radar. But when I was given that opportunity and that conversation, it's like, why would I not do that? I believe in this system, I think it's a very important component of educational policy in this state. Um, I had several members of my family that were retired with TRS, including myself and including my wife, including my mother-in-law. And um, and they all told me very quick, like, you need not screw things up or you're gonna end up not having a place to go for Christmas. So uh so bottom line is um in going in, I've always felt like where the with the superintendency positions that I had in other things, I've had another saying that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. You walk into a situation and you may find things that the person before you did a good job in their own way, but they had biases, they had blind spots, they had things that maybe you were better at or that they were better at. And so coming into the teacher's retirement system, uh it was already a well-run organization, but there were some opportunities for improvement. First and foremost, there was the development of organizational culture. I had felt like that that was something that that I had been successful with in the past, building morale, building relationships with people, doing things like succession planning, doing things like uh strategic planning, those things that bring people together. And the reality of it was uh one of those was the area of leadership development. All those things were voids that were so easy. And it wasn't like you had to be really, really smart to do these types of things. But so but I'll point off to two or three things. First of all, in the area of organizational development, we we immediately embarked upon a strategic planning uh process where it brought us together, where the senior leadership team began to learn one another. They learned what my priorities were, and then we began to sell those things. We we felt like that as a part of succession planning, that leadership development was important. I never intended to stay there for nine and a half years. Um, but uh, but it was a part of as things just worked out, it worked that way. But we developed our first leadership development institute. We'd never had that that done before at the teachers' retirement system. Our people responded extremely well. We and we did things as a result of that to it to continue, have continued leadership development. Uh, that was so successful. We did another one. Another thing, a couple of things that we did along the way was try to build upon leveraging technology to make us more efficient. Uh, that was something that we began to do as we worked with our members through it was video counseling. COVID brought that on. Three months before COVID, one of our one of our team members had been working on a project. Um, and again, that was brought about by being around there and working with people. And what I would I'll talk about this later, but uh I would like to go down to our visitation center uh every morning whenever I would make my walk to the building, and I'd meet people and they would say, Oh, I'm from Moultrie, Georgia. And I'd say, Well, you know, Ben, I know Ben, your superintendent down there. And so, oh, don't tell him that I'm here for retirement counseling. What about Dr. Branch in O'Coney County? And so I would meet people and I said, Where did you drive in from? And they would say, Well, I came from Alabasta six hours by the time that I was in. That was just worn out. It would take them two days. And you know what? We begin to think about there's got there have to be other ways rather than people leaving and spending two days. And so we developed video counseling. That was right at the beginning of COVID. Well, at the same time, we were working on uh opening up the making office as a as the same thing. I would meet people who are from, you know, Camden County, Georgia. And again, they had driven all the way to Atlanta. I said, there's gotta be a better way. And so as a part of our strategic planning process, this just wasn't something that Buster came up with this idea on, but our leadership team came up with this idea. They embraced it, and so we opened up the Making Office. That was something that we did. Um, you know, one of the things that I that I will give as evidence of our organizational culture was our our success with the state charitable contribution program. Um and a quick story about that. I believe that great organizations are giving organizations. We give of ourselves, we give of our talent, and we give of our resources. Uh, the state has a charitable contribution program they do every year. And um, when I first got there, I found that I had been with the Department of Corrections and I had seen that they had been very successful, raising$10,000,$20,000,$30,000 with that. So I got there to TRS, and that previous year they had raised less than$300. I said, oh my gosh, this is terrible. I mean, it's just embarrassing. And so we set this goal and we went from$300 to$3,300. Boy, I'm, man, I said, that's 10 times better. I was feeling so bad. Well, long story short, we eventually were raising$50,000 to$60,000 a year by one of the smallest organizations in the state of Georgia and state government. And it began to be a part of our culture. And it began to sink into me that our people were responding to a series of small things, no one particular thing. As a result of that, our teachers' retirement system of Georgia, and I have no doubt that it's going to continue to be this way under Dr. Branchett's leadership. We have the lowest turnover rate of any state agency in this state of less than 5%. People come there, they enjoy working there, and I think there's a couple of reasons for that. Hopefully we've made the right culture. But two, they believe in the mission. And they believe the fact that they're being a part of something bigger than themselves, contributing to successful educational policy, and seeing happy people retire. And um, one of the favorite things I love to see people do when they would come into our center for face-to-face counseling, uh, they would stop outside of the TRS sign and they would take a selfie and they would be all smiles. And you know what? I think that's one of the images that sticks in my mind about, you know, after somebody has devoted 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 years, they're being able to go out and feel happy about what they accomplished in life was a very meaningful part of me. And that's probably a longer answer than what you wanted, but uh it's been a very positive experience, and I'm glad that I've had the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:That's great. Well, I know the virtual sessions have been very well received, and the people in South Georgia greatly appreciate the make an office. And um Buster and I both had the privilege of living in the uh one of the best places on earth, right, Buster? Multiple. Absolutely. And Buster shared with me a few years ago or a number of years ago, that his wife actually taught at Sunset Elementary, where I went to school. It was a small world. Uh, Jason, talk to us a little bit. You you served on the board. Uh so you know, I know a little bit like that with Gail. You know, I'm on the board. I think I know what uh the organization's about, uh, but then I become the executive director, and it's a little different. But how did that time on the board help you transition into your new role?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, as as superintendent, we serve on lots of boards. I think I counted one time and I was on 22 different boards, uh, but none as prestigious as TRS and and the honor of being appointed by the governor on that board. And and so uh much as as Dr. Evans has shared, the uh the staff, the culture, the understanding, I knew it was an outstanding organization, uh, but as you get the opportunity to be on the board, work with the individuals that that lead our seven operating divisions, the executive director, uh the staff, and you hear their expertise, you learn more about everything that they're doing. And then I had the honor of being able to be on the investment committee, so see how our our monies were invested and the and the professionalism and and uh expertise of the staff there. And then joint management committee is a is a committee that that actually takes teachers' retirement system and employees' retirement system, and we come together for several different topics and discussions, and so just being able to see uh the outstanding work that's taking place on a daily basis, the tenure, and we'll talk about this more later, but average tenure is almost 20 years of individuals that work there on a regular basis, hundreds of years of leadership experience. And so it it just when I had the opportunity to retire and take the opportunity to join the organization, it it really was was a tremendous opportunity because I knew so much about it. Obviously, you know more once you get in and you start working day to day, and you see the the opportunities and the challenges that may not be as prevalent as a board member, uh, but that that line. I tell people I knew it was a good benefit, but I didn't know what a great organization and outstanding people work there. And so I think that service on the board since since 2018 has really served me well to learn the inside out from both a board member standpoint. And then it's it's accelerated my maturation as executive director because I have a foundational knowledge. And it's interesting when we had this conversation, and the board expressed interest in me potentially coming on uh as a succession plan for Dr. Evans. Um, you know, someone shared a in a research paper about board members becoming CEOs of organizations, and it talked about a lot of the things that I've just communicated, just the knowledge that you gain, the uh importance and really the the the significance of understanding of the mission and the the love for what is taking place and and that you know ability to help so many people. I did not take a selfie. Perhaps I need to do that before too many years go by, so I can at least pretend maybe that was what I did when I came in. But I I love that story.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's great. Uh as you two were talking and the the number Jason and I were recently down at Southwest Risa in Camilla, and he was sharing with those superintendents the total amount of money currently in TRS. But I just thought about you two, and I thought, if we could get in a time machine and go back to Buster's third grade teacher and Jason's third grade teacher, what would those teachers say if you said this guy and this guy are gonna be in charge of the TRS? What's the current number? It's well over$120 billion. Uh do you think your teachers would be uh surprised or yeah, they they saw that coming?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I I don't know that anybody would see that coming on my side, uh, but you know, being you mentioned third grade teachers, I will say Miss Linda Woods is my third grade teacher, and she started serving as page uh uh representative. Um and so I had the honor of seeing her each year at Summergale, and and she would tell my wife and kids stories. Um, but I don't know that that uh those stories matched up with the path that I've taken, but uh certainly honored to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome. Buster, your third grade teacher saw it coming, no doubt, right?
SPEAKER_00:Ben, I have to say, just like Jason, I don't think that they would have seen that uh that coming at all. But it has been fun, as Jason talked about, uh being knowing maybe one of his previous teachers along the way, getting reintroduced to some of the teachers that I had, whether they were most of mine were but like high school teachers or college teachers or something like that. And that's been great. So uh yeah, that was not that was not on their radar from me, nor my radar for me.
SPEAKER_02:Well, talk to us a little bit. You know, we've got Gale members out there, they're getting close to retirement age. Let's say maybe they're 10 years away or five years or two years. Um, from your perspective, both personally and professionally, working for TRS and leading up to your own personal retirement, when would you advise Gale members or educators to start meeting with TRS uh in their journey toward retirement date?
SPEAKER_01:Um I'll go first on that. Um I think it's uh it's important to have knowledge along the way. And so one of the things that I think TRS has done an excellent job of, uh, and I think this goes to recruitment and retention. I know we're gonna talk about that a little later, but um, you know, we have new hire uh conversations, we have new hire opportunities. Uh many of us got into education because we wanted to to teach and then work with kids and and and all the things that come with that. And and if you weren't um from the family of an educator, I didn't know anything about the teacher retirement system of Georgia. So I think it's important that uh as soon as you can, you start to build that knowledge because as life decisions begin to happen, it helps your understanding of what you might be leaving behind if you leave the profession. Of course, once once you get uh kind of mid-career, we have mid-career opportunities uh for discussions there, and you can learn more about the benefits that you'll see coming and why those benefits are so important. And our folks do a wonderful job of not only talking about the TRS benefit, uh, but also financial planning in and of itself. And and then, you know, really right uh within five years, you you have the the opportunity to start attending pre-retirement counseling sessions, a meeting individually. Uh we just had a a pre-retirement session in Athens that I attended, and and uh much like uh Buster's mentioned, I started seeing a few folks and they were like, now no, I'm not trying to retire, I'm just trying to learn, and that it was great. But I sat in there even as a retiree and someone who honestly did not take advantage of that that opportunity, and I learned so much that I wish I had already known. So uh I think as soon as you um you know can you want to excuse me, you want to engage with the information on a website or podcast or different learning opportunities, and just a tremendous amount of knowledge there, uh, but certainly prior to making the decision, you want to work with the experts that are in place to look at the numerous options and work a plan that is perfect for you because everyone has a different situation. So I would encourage all of our members to engage early and often.
SPEAKER_00:You know, Jason's given a great answer. Uh good job. Uh I I I could almost say the same thing. Retirement planning begins at least on the day you become a TRS member. Uh I personally wanted to work in public education because I did know about the teacher's retirement system. My wife was a member. She was a very happy school teacher. And she knew that she could work a career down the road. I knew that in the corporate job that I had, uh, I neither had the job security that she had, nor did I have that retirement planning. So I think from day one, it really does begin. First of all, being a TRS member, but also recognizing that if I can participate in the fight in a defined contribution through my local school system, I have multiple, I will have multiple streams of income once I do retire, which are, by the way, elements of a happy retiree, having multiple streams of income. So I think that uh again, there's several dates that I've said are very important for a TRS member. Number one, the day that you you go to work, you become a TRS member. Number two, uh 10 years when you're vested. Uh, then uh number three, 25 years are when you hit the age of 60 that you can retire with a reduced benefit, and or then you meet the age of 30. So I think all along the way, and I don't think people should apologize. I think that they should take every opportunity to uh when they become a member, learning what they can. Mid-career, you know, I've used this illustration before. How many of us somewhere along our pathway as an educator became frustrated? You know, we got that superintendent from Hades, or the worst principal that we ever had. And, you know, he's I don't know, or they changed the testing, you know, so how many things, but we stuck with it. And the the retention value of the retirement system kept us there to some of our most productive years. So I think we shouldn't should not make any apology for it, but certainly by the age of, by the years of 20, 25 years, begin to look, okay, these are some things that I can do to make sure that I have maximized my retirement, that I have gotten my sick leave days and all those types of years. We typically tell people at TRS, you know, you need to uh about two years out and have that face-to-face counseling. But I think very clearly by the by about 25 years, if you're going for a full 30-year term, really be focusing on what those last few years need to look like. Are you ready? Will you be able to be one of those people who really, really is happy in retirement because you've got the money component of it figured out?
unknown:Yeah, great.
SPEAKER_02:And for our Gale members, just a reminder uh Summergale is a great time. You can meet with TRS. Uh TRS got representatives at Wintergale. Um, I took advantage of that. I think my last five years at Somergale, I would meet with TRS staff. Um, and some people go, why were you doing it every year? It was just, I don't know, it was peace of mind. It was just to get the latest numbers, but to have as much information as I could. So well, talk to us a little bit about uh we I mentioned how much money's in the TRS fund. Um why is that important and how does that speak to the health of the TRS retirement system?
SPEAKER_01:Um, you know, I get a report each morning of what is uh what our fund is each day. And so as I look this morning, uh our fund is at$125 billion. Uh so perhaps maybe uh just enough for me, you, and Buster uh at this particular juncture. But no, I I think it positions us well to um serve our 500,000 members, uh certainly our 156,000 retirees. Uh we have one of the uh highest performing pension systems in the nation. In the last two years, we had a 26.7 percent return on our investment. We have 55 investment professionals that do 80, 80 percent of those investments in-house. So um, you know, our our fund is very strong. The funding ratio is is extremely uh strong, 77.9 percent. So one of the strongest ratios um in the nation there. So as we look at at our funds, certainly the important piece of that is to understand that uh we have the obligation to make sure that the promises that we made to our members in retirement are available to fund those and uh fund our colas and uh give our members those opportunities. So certainly uh something we watch closely. Uh certainly within any market, there's going to be ups and downs, uh, but there's lots of work that is done to smooth that process out over the years uh for consistency purposes, and we are uh invested with that in mind, the long haul uh for our for our members. So uh the fund is strong, and uh we continue to uh to celebrate each time it gets stronger and stronger.
SPEAKER_02:And on behalf of retired educators, we thank you and appreciate you. We cannot put into words how much we appreciate you. You know, over my career, I used to get a lot of advice from um uh more mature educators that were either getting close to retirement or had recently retired. And and I would hear some different numbers. Some would say, hey, it's smarter to retire as soon as you hit year 30, some would say year 33 or 34, some say go to 40. And I I know you're probably gonna say it's a personal individual kind of decision, but is there any kind of um uh prevailing thought on a magical year that retirement's better?
SPEAKER_00:I I love that question. And uh and you're right, it is not a one size fits all. And I'm not gonna belabor the point, but there are two or three things to think about. You know, I think about first and foremost, is a person, once they hit retirement age, do they enjoy what they do? You know, or are they looking for something else? Two, um, do they have something else to do? Do they want to do something? They can begin to draw that retirement and maybe work another job, they can start another career. Uh, some just want to quit and go home. Um, so I think that's a wonderful thing about once you reach that year 30 or either 60 and invested, you have options about what you can do. Uh now, there certainly are pros about continuing to work behind that. You know, I have people who who have who have said over the years, maybe 34, 35, something like that. And and when you try to apply a little bit of math to it, it maybe that does work because you've got, you know, you're not going to be paying the 6% employee uh contribution component. You're not having to have the other expenses. And so you're basically able to make up most of your income. But the other side of that is if you retire, I know a couple of people who've done that, retired at the age with 30 years, and then they started another career. And um, and and they had some of their best years following that, while being able to draw their retirement pension. I was familiar with a story just the other day that there was a teacher from Oregon that I heard about. She um she stopped teaching to go to work in the corporate sector in the in the technology sales field. She quit teaching, making$75,000 a year. She now makes$300,000 a year. So I would say for somebody who's got something else that they may want to do post-career, that may mean 30 years or less makes sense for them. On the other hand, if I don't want to do anything else, I continue to think that I'm effective. If I can work all the way to the 40 years, I've known some outstanding people who continued to work. I've known a couple of college professors that I've actually talked to over the years because they were continuing to work after, you know, they were in their 80s, they had 40 years of service. And I can remember one of them very clearly says, I just love what I do and I love my students. You know what? If you've got that, I say you keep working. If you got something else that you want to do, uh, it is a very personal decision. But each one of those, for the for some of us, though, looking at such things as, you know, will I have where am I at in terms of have I gotten a recent salary increase that may be working another two or three or four years may help me to maximize my benefit, maybe something that they may want to look at. Secondly, you know, if you continue to stay, obviously with each year, you're going to get an additional 2% as a part of your multiplier formula, as well as maybe any salary increases that may come along. Um, so a lot of factors there, but but the great thing is you got that retirement benefit and it gives you an opportunity to make decisions. And uh, and of course, we're gonna talk about it later on. Working after retirement, uh, even in the even for your current educator, it has a great opportunity as well.
unknown:Yeah, perfect, perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this wraps up part one of our podcast with Buster Evans and Jason Branch of TRS. Uh, we want to thank you for joining us for part one. We can't wait to see the part two uh as we continue this conversation. So, thank both of you for coming on today's episode of GL Unscript.
