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My wife was talking to two of her co-workers yesterday. All three women work as Special Education Para-Professionals in the local School District and earn around $22k annually. The one lady will be turning 60 next year, as my wife will be, and had stopped by the Regional Union Office to pick-up a brochure describing how to calculate her pension and other steps necessary to retire. She had grabbed a few extra and asked my wife if she also wanted one.
My wife declined since she already has the information. The lady who had the booklets and who will be retiring soon stated that her pension will be around $3500 per year. My wife, who has 20+ years or roughly twice the first woman's seniority, stated that her knows her pension, with the smallest survivor option to keep me eligible for Health Insurance should she pass first, will be around $7500 annually.
The third woman, who is in her early 40's, was absolutely shocked by these low amounts! 'How can a person survive on such a low pension?" was her question. My wife's response was "That is why it is critical to have other investments, such as our payroll deduction 403(b), and save for years".
I asked my wife what did the other woman think her pension would be. Apparently this woman felt her retirement income, pension and SS, would be very similar to her working wages. Too many other people must feel the same way. That would sure explain the gross retirement savings shortage.
I asked my wife what did the other woman think her pension would be. Apparently this woman felt her retirement income, pension and SS, would be very similar to her working wages. Too many other people must feel the same way. That would sure explain the gross retirement savings shortage.
umm not sure I would agree totally. first most folks don't get a pension anymore so it's not something that would be on their radar.
I do have to ask why doesn't your wifes company hold exit interviews? they just hand out pamphlets? that seems a little cold.
anyhoo, when you give notice of retirement at my company the union and company hr immediately (within 7 days) sets up an exit interview. They go over every thing with a fine tooth comb. what your benefits will be, how it was calculated, what your health care would be (I'm one of the lucky ones in that I get retiree medical) and what your options are if you are under 62.
LOL, my dad, sister, brother in law and best friend are all retired NYC cops. believe me they know exactly how much they are getting AND they know exactly how to work those last couple of years to make sure they can get as much as humanely possible.
There are a whole lot of other reasons why folks aren't saving for retirement like they should, it's a complicated issue.
I also wonder if many people bother to find out about ss benefits? Now most of my friends are still under 60 so probably have not given it much thought and I think my dad simply filed when he hit FRA. But between a police pension, a military pension and his ss, he got more than his full salary.
Ill admit though I have not given it much thought outside of delaying it to 70
Last edited by eliza61nyc; 09-21-2018 at 05:29 AM..
umm not sure I would agree totally. first most folks don't get a pension anymore so it's not something that would be on their radar.
I do have to ask why doesn't your wifes company hold exit interviews? they just hand out pamphlets? that seems a little cold.
anyhoo, when you give notice of retirement at my company the union and company hr immediately (within 7 days) sets up an exit interview. They go over every thing with a fine tooth comb. what your benefits will be, how it was calculated, what your health care would be (I'm one of the lucky ones in that I get retiree medical) and what your options are if you are under 62.
LOL, my dad, sister, brother in law and best friend are all retired NYC cops. believe me they know exactly how much they are getting AND they know exactly how to work those last couple of years to make sure they can get as much as humanely possible.
There are a whole lot of other reasons why folks aren't saving for retirement like they should, it's a complicated issue.
I also wonder if many people bother to find out about ss benefits? Now most of my friends are still under 60 so probably have not given it much thought and I think my dad simply filed when he hit FRA. But between a police pension, a military pension and his ss, he got more than his full salary
How would an exit interview help other than to let the company know how miserably they'd failed in educating their employees in a timely manner? That's certainly too late for any corrective action!
The company should make that part of their onboarding process with info posted and updated continually on what every employee can expect to get based on salary and tenure. My (very large) company has seminars for retirees starting 10 years out from typical retiree age but info on pensions and 401k balances and savings advice is always available.
I don't know who was more surprised. Me because of how little effort my co-workers had put into educating themselves about retirement or my co-workers by what I and a couple of others were doing to prepare for it. The end result is that we have retired and in control of our lives and destiny and they are still working.
My wife was talking to two of her co-workers yesterday. All three women work as Special Education Para-Professionals in the local School District and earn around $22k annually. The one lady will be turning 60 next year, as my wife will be, and had stopped by the Regional Union Office to pick-up a brochure describing how to calculate her pension and other steps necessary to retire. She had grabbed a few extra and asked my wife if she also wanted one.
My wife declined since she already has the information. The lady who had the booklets and who will be retiring soon stated that her pension will be around $3500 per year. My wife, who has 20+ years or roughly twice the first woman's seniority, stated that her knows her pension, with the smallest survivor option to keep me eligible for Health Insurance should she pass first, will be around $7500 annually.
The third woman, who is in her early 40's, was absolutely shocked by these low amounts! 'How can a person survive on such a low pension?" was her question. My wife's response was "That is why it is critical to have other investments, such as our payroll deduction 403(b), and save for years".
I asked my wife what did the other woman think her pension would be. Apparently this woman felt her retirement income, pension and SS, would be very similar to her working wages. Too many other people must feel the same way. That would sure explain the gross retirement savings shortage.
Many companies don’t provide much information to their workers. My brother worked for a very large company that did give information to its people, which had a pension for him of half his salary (approximately, via some formula). His pension is $50,000/year. People in other jobs may hear about some of these and assume that their pension, if they have one, will be about half their salary. Mine is only $750/month, but I had inquired about ten years before I retired—also shocked at the low amount. However, I had other investments and wasn’t relying on it.
The company I worked for had to send out to the firm who administers its pensions for the calculation. My employer didn’t handle that itself and I had to sign a couple papers saying I understood this was just an estimate, etc. My employer let me know it was a huge pain in the patootie to do this and hoped I appreciated the big favor they did me (paraphrasing here, but that is the gist).
We get posts from time to time from people who do seem to think that those with pensions are set just because they have pensions and bemoaning the fact that they don’t. Some pensions are substantial, but many are not. A friend’s pension is $3,600/year. She doesn’t have a lot of formal education and trusted to her employer to take care of her. She “had a pension,” after all.
I do have to ask why doesn't your wifes company hold exit interviews? they just hand out pamphlets? that seems a little cold.
She works for a Public School system so all pension benefits are part of the State's Office of Retirement Services, and many Insurance Benefits are part of the Educator's Union.
Retirement Information Seminars are regularly held across the state by the Educator's Union for School Employees to attend. Regrettably too many wait till they are ready to retire before attending a seminar. The seminars are also classified as to time frame to retirement in an effort to keep questions relevant to all attendees. Again, people often attend the wrong seminar and one intended for those ten or more years away from retirement will be dominated by questions from one or two people who plan on submitting their retirement papers within the next month. Or they have already retired and have an axe to grind because they didn't do things properly before they retired!
We have attended 2 or 3 of these, have the pamphlets at home, and my wife regularly logs in to the ORS system to verify her credited service is accruing properly and run new estimates regarding retirement date.
How would an exit interview help other than to let the company know how miserably they'd failed in educating their employees in a timely manner? That's certainly too late for any corrective action!
The company should make that part of their onboarding process with info posted and updated continually on what every employee can expect to get based on salary and tenure. My (very large) company has seminars for retirees starting 10 years out from typical retiree age but info on pensions and 401k balances and savings advice is always available.
We do get an onboarding process but really, lol I remember nothing from it as it was 30 years ago. My point is as you said we have an excellent benefit team, all you have to do is ask.
And the exit interview is still beneficial as its done before the retirement papers are processed giving folks one last chance to change their minds if they get sticker shock
you would be surprised what they don't know or pay attention to.
I hang out with several retired teachers and teacher aides.
They do get briefing yearly. But just like they say their students don't pay attention, neither do they
One didn't know that they wouldn't be getting social security since they don't pay into that. I guess they don't even look at their payroll deductions.
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