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My husband has a pension, social security and 401K, I have a pension and social security. Our home will be paid for in retirement, though we will probably move and have a small mortgage. We are lucky our jobs offer pensions. We were never savers when we were young or prepared for retirement. I know we are very fortunate.
That isn't a absolutely true. As a public school teacher, I had to contribute 7.5% towards my pension and pay SS. Pensions aren't one-size-fits-all.
I also have an IRA, a Roth IRA, and 457.
A lot of my retirement monies came from my own pocket.
Very similar here. I'm a state government employee. I contribute almost 11% toward my pension and still pay into Social Security. I also contribute to a 403b and/or 457 -- there is no match, but it is tax-deferred.
Government is my second career. I worked in the private sector for the first 25 years. I've had various versions of 401Ks with various types of matches, profit sharing, cash balance plans, ESOP plans . . . I always contributed whatever it took to get the match, or more, and I have always rolled those over into an IRA at Vanguard when leaving an employer.
Finally, I have a Roth at Vanguard that I have funded as I could over the years.
I can only hope that what I have knit together will provide for a comfortable retirement.
We got our pension COLA's today. A very nice bump in the monthly income. Next on tap is the SS COLA in January. That's one of the great things about both a raise every six months if there is measurable inflation to give us one.
If you weren't a veteran, how do you overcome veteran's preference? From what I've seen, it's almost impossible for someone who was not a veteran to get a civilian fed job.
it depends a fair amount on the field. i think nightengale works for the VA? at any rate i did. in direct and even indirect healthcare jobs there are very few veterans, there just are not a lot of vet candidates. support staff, housekeeping, warehouse, etc is where you find more vets.
my department had ~140 employees, i can count on one hand the number of vets we had.
i am extremely lucky being a CSRS retiree. i get a tiny SS check but it's reduced by ~ 2/3 due to WEP but that's fine. i took it at 62. i have TSP (although i got no match) and have other accounts.
I wouldn't group 401k and pension together, since they are different. A 401k is not JUST from the employer; the employer contributes SOMETHING to it, but it is a joint employer-employee contribution investment retirement account.
A pension is 100% from the employer. It also isn't protected by law to the same extent as a 401k.
I had a 401k that I and my employer contributed to. I had a Roth IRA that only I contributed to. I get Social Security.
If a person doesn't have a 401k, that is a choice, isn't it? A lot of people don't consider retirement benefits, when choosing a job or employer. I've asked a time or two if someone's new job had a 401k or what, and they I just got a blank look. Young people don't care about that. I didn't either, when I was young.
Most big companies have 401k's or pension plans, though. Although the quality of them varies a lot, I'm sure.
People who work for the govt often have to give up Social Security in return for some sort of (smaller) govt benefit, or choose between one or the other, I've been told.
Many people must contribute a set percentage of their salary to their own pension, and their employer may contribute an additional percentage.
Yep, DH paid a lot into his pension, and now it's their turn!
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While perusing this forum I often get the impression that the majority here have (or will have) some kind of 401K and/or pension plan for retirement income although recent statistics have shown that less than 50% of Americans fall into that category. So I'm curious about how that breaks down here in the Retirement forum specifically.
For purposes of this poll I'm not asking about IRAs because those aren't employer-dependent; only about retirement income vehicles that originated with your employer(s.)
I'm in the third category which means my only source of income is my SS benefit plus RMDs from an IRA from less than 20 years of employment during the "IRA Era."
Many people have access to a 401K or 403B plan but fail to fund it. I have known plenty of employees here that do not invest even 6% of their income in our employer sponsored plan. That means that they are missing out on 3% of free money from the employer. Our employer gives us 2% of our income. My wife and I are working on maxing out our 403B. I think this years max is $19,000 a year for this year.
I started at 6% back in 1998 and have grown that to 15% now. My wife started her account in 2000 when she started working for the Hospital. We are both in large cap stocks.
For those that don't have a 401K or 403B IRA's or ROTH IRA's are still available. In fact if we ever do fully find our 403B I will then start funding an IRA.
That is certainly not true. We are required to contribute, by law, 5% of our gross.
I would guess what he meant is pensions are 100% employer dependent, if an employer doesn't offer a pension you won't have the chance to contribute to it...same with employer sponsored 401K's.
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