Wealth management

By Evan Potash, TIAA Executive Wealth Management Advisor

The day I graduated college, all I could think about was the $250,000 in loans I’d taken out at age 17—and how I was going to pay it all back.

I grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My father was a self-employed podiatrist, and my mother stayed at home to raise my older brother and me. My father’s dedication to helping people was inspiring, but his attention to family finances was not. We didn’t struggle, but there also weren’t any savings earmarked for college. I really wanted to leave Pennsylvania for college, and loans were my only option to pay for it. Problem was that 17-year-old me didn’t understand the sacrifices I’d have to make as a result of borrowing a quarter of a million dollars.

In 2021, I made my final student loan payment—14 years after graduation. My experience with student debt profoundly influenced my choice of career and shaped my approach to both personal finance and client advising. The lessons I learned during this challenging period now inform every conversation I have with families facing similar struggles. Here are seven essential principles about money, debt, and financial planning that I learned the hard way—insights I share regularly with clients navigating their own financial challenges:

1. Balance debt repayment with savings. When your family is the priority, you can find ways to do both. Even though my wife didn’t work outside of the home, we hit my 401(k) contribution limits and did backdoor Roth IRA conversions every year.

2. Don’t expect quick progress without sacrifice. Granted, I was very lucky to be in a career that paid well, but it still meant 14 years of making meals at home and clearly separating wants from needs. It took sustained discipline. Had I made only minimum payments, I would have been paying off my student debt until my own children graduated from college.

3. You’re never too young to learn the basics of saving and investing. I wish I had learned the basics of money early in life, so I vowed to teach my daughters when they were under 10 what I didn’t know at 17. To make it fun and hands-on, my wife and I established stock accounts for our daughters, and we review their holdings quarterly so they understand the value of being owners and investors in a business rather than just consumers. This is just one way to engage kids.

Every child should take at least one financial literacy course before the end of high school. There are also many good free resources available for parents and kids, such as the FDIC’s Money Smart for Young People lessons for pre-K-12 students. Any curriculum should include budgeting, the importance of saving for college and other goals, good debt versus bad debt, and basic investment advice. Almost none of this is taught in school today, and many kids don’t get it at home either. I certainly didn’t.

I also educate large groups of employees at local hospitals and universities on financial literacy and planning.

4. Maximize tax-advantaged accounts whenever possible. One strategy that helped us manage multiple financial goals simultaneously was taking full advantage of every tax benefit available. We maximize tax-deferred contributions to our retirement plans and to a health savings account (HSA), which provides tax-deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses. We also contribute to a company-sponsored retirement health care account, which is earmarked for health care expenses in retirement and offers similar tax-free withdrawal benefits. This is a perk worth seeking in future employers.

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