My wfie just received her first government pension check!

[TuborgP]

Originally Posted by Zarathu

My boss's husband worked the the Post office for 40 years. He gets a SS check and a government pension. Every day the check get deposited in his account and he holds up the slip and says,

"Look what I got today for doing .........nothing". He gets more income from the two of those together than he actually made when he was working. Aren't we supposed to downsize for retirement?

Z

The longer you work the greater your pension.

[BuffaloTransplant]

Originally Posted by nicet4

Yesterday we checked our bank statement finding to our delight my wife just received her first pension check from a state retirement system.

Luckily it is from a state that has one of the more sound pension programs where they actually set the money aside to be invested in things other than government.

It wasn't much, most of her life she was a stay at home mom raising the children, but it's sweet. It's enough to pay all of our utility bills, even in the dead of winter when they are high, or make payments on a new but modest car. Or a real nice dinner for two every week or even dinner for two or even three times a week (doing the calculations in my head) at a more modest Red Lobster or Olive Garden.

We've been saying for some time when we get the first check we were going out to dinner so last night we did... drum roll... to Applebee's! The food was excellent especially since it felt like someone else was paying.

Until yesterday I couldn't imagine how sweet retirement could be.

Suggestion: Take at least half of the check and bank it. My husband and I do that with our Soc. Sec. ... we live on the pension.

[nicet4]

Originally Posted by BuffaloTransplant

Suggestion: Take at least half of the check and bank it. My husband and I do that with our Soc. Sec. ... we live on the pension.

I plan to work to age 70 then retiring for the higher benefits IF they still exist.

With everything paid off the plan is to bank 75% of my income between the time my wife starts to collect her social security and I finish working. Basically meeting most of our needs between her small pension check (dinner money) and her social security. If we save between $3,000 and $4,000 a month we'll have some serious cash in six years. Then again the plan now is to collect SS at age 70 and to continue working as long as I can not because I would have to but because I love working. Ideally I hope to be healthy enough to work to at least age 80.

I am one of those guys who would rather work and pay someone to to mow grass, weed and power wash the house.

When I can bank 100% of my paycheck I'll count myself as retired.