Got a pension? What is it in comparison to your last paycheck? (move, payments)
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I just checked my pension record over 36+ years I contributed $130,000 to the plan and the government was to contribute also. Over the years the employer match was to be 100% to as low as 30%. As an estimate the employer contribution should have been around $80,000.
The plan had an average return of 8.85% over that time period.
During this same period I invested in a Deferred Compensation plan on my own. The totals I put into that plan was around $30k and the plan values are now $150,000 or 5 times my investment over 37 years.
Unless I earned a significantly higher ROI than the pension plan if my pension was treated as an 401k it would have a $1 million value which would be more than enough to fund my retirement in comparison to what my pension benefit would be.
I'm sure I've got all of you beat for the LOWEST pension. Defined benefit plan froze when I was age 51. Company converted to a defined contribution plan and 401k - total contribution 6% of salary. I worked there 26 years, til age 67-1/2.
People like me retired with about 10% of final pay between the two accounts, dropping to 5% (truth) at age 75 when defined benefit account was depleted. No medical whatsoever. My current pension doesn't cover groceries. Fortunately, I've always been pretty good with money - so have more to spend now than when I worked, but it's not thanks to any retirement benefit.
Gotta love the private sector. This was a 150-year old national firm, one of the largest and most prestigious in the country. Their view - employees cost money. They really screwed over the older worker and admitted they were doing so when I confronted them about it at the time.
I'm sure I've got all of you beat for the LOWEST pension. Defined benefit plan froze when I was age 51. Company converted to a defined contribution plan and 401k - total contribution 6% of salary. I worked there 26 years, til age 67-1/2.
People like me retired with about 10% of final pay between the two accounts, dropping to 5% (truth) at age 75 when defined benefit account was depleted. No medical whatsoever. My current pension doesn't cover groceries. Fortunately, I've always been pretty good with money - so have more to spend now than when I worked, but it's not thanks to any retirement benefit.
Gotta love the private sector. This was a 150-year old national firm, one of the largest and most prestigious in the country. Their view - employees cost money. They really screwed over the older worker and admitted they were doing so when I confronted them about it at the time.
That's terrible. I had a scare a few months ago with my pension...it's hard to plan when you hear about solid, traditional companies dumping their plans with people just a few years from retirement and little time to make up for it.
That's terrible. I had a scare a few months ago with my pension...it's hard to plan when you hear about solid, traditional companies dumping their plans with people just a few years from retirement and little time to make up for it.
Your comments reminded me of this page I read earlier today.
Some of Your Investment Success Will Be Left to Chance
What happens in the market during the 10 years before and after your retirement date can play a significant role in how well-funded your portfolio will be.
“It’s difficult to replace lost money during this period of time, either because of time constraints of the loss of earned income,†said Patrick Daniels, financial planning analyst at Precedent Asset Management in Indianapolis, Ind.
To decrease the potential for losses during what Daniels refers to as the high-risk window, he suggested investors “take a conservative approach with their investments†during that timeframe.
One thing that people are missing is that public pensions often come with a salary deduction to fund it.
Yup. But we still lived below our means.
With 27 years of service at age 65 - my monthly pension check will equal what my take home (after taxes) is now - $2600.
I've been saving @ 30% of my salary for the last 15 years and putting it toward my 401K (no employer contributions) and our Roth IRAs. Saved for both myself and my spouse who has never had a benefitted job in the last 25 years.
My SS will be about half of normal (employer does not pay into SS) but we will have a healthy portfolio thanks to our strict discipline of shoveling that 30%. My spouse's SS will be normal as he did have a full 40 credits.
The very first employer after I graduated from college had a defined benefit plan in 1994. It was a large Fortune 500 company and it was the longest period of time I stayed with one company - 5 years.
Just long enough to get vested in the plan which will pay me about $185 per month when I retire. (it will be 10-20 years)
By then it will probably be 1 or 2 weeks worth of groceries. But I hope I live to collect it, it just seems like I'm lucky to get any kind of pension after only 5 years. Today defined benefit plans have gone the way of the Dodo except for those grandfathered in.
I will retire in 7 years at the end of the month following my 67th birthday under the Federal Government 3 legged stool (pension, TSP/401K, social security) FERS retirement system with 23 years of service which followed 23 years of work in the private sector. My original plan was to retire at 65, but in taking a good look at my numbers, two additional years of work will add the amount needed to my TSP, pension, and liquid savings allowing me to defer taking my social security to 70 increasingly the ability to achieve my goal of low risk 75% income replacement to cover a 30 year retirement. I highly doubt I will live to age 97, but I would rather plan for a % of my money outliving me than visa versa.
Fortunately I like my job very much, live a very full life outside of it, so working two additional years as long as I continue with good health will not be burden for me. But I will admit sometimes I feel like the financial discipline it has taken expecially during this last leg of the race to retirement is like training for the Olympics. I am shooting for what I consider a personal gold medal win after what will be a total of 46 years of training/work, but if I end up with the silver or bronze I will still be very happy.
I love my job also but since I started before my 22nd birthday there is a point that I am working for nothing. While working I contribute 7.5% of my salary to the pension, 7% to healthcare, 7% or whatever it is to ss and medicare, about 1% to other minor taxes. I pay none of those when I retire.
I still am not sure I will retire at 62. I might if I can find another job that I think I would like.
If I continue working at this job past 62 my pension increases 1.8% each year plus social security increases. The alternative is I retire at 62 take my pension and social security and work part time or start a business. I am not going to stop working at 62.
I worked for 35+ years for what was formerly the world's largest company. Three years ago they discarded pensions for all salaried employees. If the plan had stayed intact, my pension would have been in the range of 35% of my final salary.
My wife works for the public schools. Her pension is calculated at 1.1%, times years of service, times average pay of her five highest earning years. And there is a pay-roll deduction component, I believe.
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5 years, $185 dollars a month!
