“I love teaching, I’m passionate about it and I believe that it is the most important job in the world.”

By: Kristi Trickey  
Highschool Language Arts Teacher, Southeastern, MI

As a first-year teacher in Michigan, I made roughly $32,000. When you factor in taxes and insurance benefits and union dues, my take home pay was roughly what I made biweekly while working at a David’s Bridal through college.

I’ve been teaching for 12 years now, and I consider myself lucky that I work at a school that pays its teachers relatively well compared to other districts, yet I am still living paycheck to paycheck. I work very hard to live within my means: I avoid credit cards and unnecessary debt, almost never vacation or travel, avoid impulse purchases, etc. yet I still find myself struggling to save for my family’s future. I am still years away from the top of my district’s pay scale, and even then, with the cost of living rising so steeply, I fear that reaching the top of the salary schedule will not feel like the financial success that it should be after spending nearly two decades in my career.

I love teaching, I’m passionate about it and I believe that it is the most important job in the world. Like many of my colleagues, I feel that I was called to teach, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’ve considered leaving the profession several times over the last 12 years in search of financial stability. I’ve even gone so far as making it to the second round of interviews before leaving the applicant pool because I was just not ready to leave teaching. I love this career path, but I also worry deeply about the financial future of my family.  I have a son who I worry I will not be able to help support through his own university experience, because I have been unable to save for his college education. I worry that I will never be able to retire, because the monthly savings that are collected from my paychecks will not be enough to live on when I reach retirement age, and I’m unable to take more from my paycheck. And again, I’m in one of the better paying districts in my community.

Keeping my story in mind, I understand why people are hesitant to join the teaching workforce, or feel compelled to leave, based on financial factors. I would have serious doubts about suggesting any of my students, or my own child, become a teacher unless they were fully aware and understood the financial struggles that come with this career.