Your school district offers a 403(b).

Great.

You can now save for retirement through payroll deductions, get tax advantages, maybe collect an employer contribution, and build another bucket of money alongside your pension.

There’s just one tiny problem.

The 403(b) sitting on your benefits website may look like a simple retirement account.

It isn’t.

It’s more like an empty shopping cart.

The shopping cart itself isn’t good or bad.

What you put in it matters.

And this is where things get weird for teachers.

One school district might offer a low-cost lineup of mutual funds. Another might give employees a menu full of insurance-company annuities, fees, surrender charges and financial products that require a small PhD in fine print.

So when someone says, “Should I use my school’s 403(b)?”

That’s actually three questions:

Should you use a 403(b) at all?

Should you use your school’s particular 403(b) options?

And which investments should go inside it?

Those are very different questions.

Let’s unpack them.