Andrea Valmo

I attribute my success to parents that truly believe that education is priceless. They always said your first job is to get educated. When I said I wanted to go out and get work because all my friends had a job, they said no, your job is to do the education like you mean it. When I said I was already getting A's, my mom said no, no, no, no, then take a different class in the future, but keep learning. That's what I did. I got my master's when I was being a peace officer because it was the thing to do for me, that's all I knew, was how to keep education happening. So I did the night school kind of things, weekend kind of things, whatever it took to finish the degree. It took me years to get a master's, but I never stopped. I just took a few classes at a time. The programs allowed me to go ahead and take 3 classes a year sometimes. As long as I'm educated and continuing to educate, then I can do anything.

The best career advice I ever received was to pay into either an IRA of your own or if your job has another type of subsidiary retirement plan. I was told that the first month I was at my first county job as a peace officer. One of the officers talked to me and showed me her statement from her other retirement. I was amazed, I'd never seen so much money on a piece of paper. I was like, how did you get millions? And it's not a part of the traditional, your real retirement, it's yours, it's another one. She told me, you gotta give from day one, even if it's 10 bucks a paper. Give and give. Then when you can give more, you give more. And I did that from the moment she said so. By the time I did my time, I realized I can retire twice. I mean, technically, I'm like two people. So I get my pension, but I haven't cut into my other pension, my personal one. My other one is waiting for me to utilize, it's just gaining interest.