My wife and I have been married since 1984. We have four children and seven grandchildren.
The first Straw was born on the North American continent on August 13, 1692.
You can see my ancestors against the backdrop of United States history
or computer history.
Faith
My Christian faith guides my life.
I am motivated to share Dr. Straw's Retirement Game and help others think about and plan for retirement because my Christian faith motivates me to help others.
I "do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10, NIV) and
"use whatever gift you have to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms" (1 Peter 4:10, NIV).
Developing and sharing Dr. Straw's Retirement Game is a good work that God has prepared for me and me for it, and it is one of the ways that I share God's grace with others.
Career
My primary career has been teaching at the college level, which I have been doing since 2002. My teaching currently focuses on data analytics.
I served in the U.S. Navy right after high school onboard the Trident class submarine, U.S.S Florida.
I started and eventually sold a manufacturing company with my father-in-law. And, I have worked in industry from entry-level to senior management.
Dr. Straw's Retirement Game
I use Dr. Straw's Retirement Game for my own retirement planning. I began with a very basic Excel workbook in November 2016.
Subsequent versions of this Excel workbook were more detailed and more capable of answering what-if retirement questions. Through August 2021, my retirement Excel workbook was
highly customized for me. It was not in a form that I could share with anyone.
Then in August 2021, two friends asked me several retirement questions that got me thinking about sharing my retirement Excel workbook.
I finished the first version of my generalized retirement Excel workbook, Dr. Straw's Retirement Game, in September 2021.