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I am retiring as a teacher after this school year and I will not have 30 years in. I was late to the field when I started teaching. I will get a pension and in my state I will get social security also. My husband just retired from the shipbuilding industry. He had well over 35 years in and was fortunate to be under their old pension system. His pension is better than mine. The best part of his retirement package is that we got to continue his health insurance. They had just got a new union contract that is good for 5 years. By that time we both will be over 65. However, the health insurance for both of us is only $338 a month with only a $40 increase in the next 3 years as per the contract. If I were to get the health insurance for my school system it would have cost me $900 a month just for me in retirement. I did have to pay 5% of my pay into my retirement over the years. And yes we got summers off work and I took my pay over 12 months. However, I will honestly say I never worked during the summer. I made sure it was my time off. We are fortunate that we have pensions because for most companies that is out the window now. We are also lucky that he was able to have a 401K and they matched it pretty well, although it wasn't like that until the last 12 or 15 years. I live in an area where there is a ton on military and lots of federal contracts. Those are definitely the jobs everyone wants. I had many family members retire from civil service jobs. The pay, leave time, pension and health insurance is a sweet package.
I am also in Virginia. This is my 30th year with my school district. At the end of this school year I will be qualified for full (unreduced) state retirement. We also have a supplemental pension that is provided by the district, but I would need to work 3 more years past this year to get that at an unreduced rate. Between the two I pay $880/month into the pensions, or just a little over 8.5% of my monthly pay. For various reasons I'm seriously considering stopping at the end of this year. I'll have to make that decision very soon.
I have a 403b that I started soon after I started teaching. That's for down the road. In retirement the healthcare premiums would go to $1,330/month for our current Kaiser plan, but my wife (also a school employee) is not able to retire quite yet so we'll stay under her plan no matter when I decide to retire over the next few years.
I'll continue to work doing something such as substitute teaching and/or something else part-time, but I don't see myself doing what I'm doing for 3 more years past this year. I have to ratchet it down.
I'm a federal employee - 39+ years counting my USAF time. If I retire before 62 I will get a Supplement of just about $800 in addition to my Annuity. 1% of my high 3 salary x # of years - If I stay until 62 it will by 1.1% of my high 3 salary x #years. I am trying to get one more promotion before retiring - I am 58 years 3 months old - If I do get one more promotion by 2023 I will stay in the position until 62 and retire then. If I don't - I will probably call it quits at the end of 2023.
I'm a federal employee - 39+ years counting my USAF time. If I retire before 62 I will get a Supplement of just about $800 in addition to my Annuity. 1% of my high 3 salary x # of years - If I stay until 62 it will by 1.1% of my high 3 salary x #years. I am trying to get one more promotion before retiring - I am 58 years 3 months old - If I do get one more promotion by 2023 I will stay in the position until 62 and retire then. If I don't - I will probably call it quits at the end of 2023.
That's certainly a big difference - stop working at the end of 2023....or wait at least 3 or 4 more years to retire.
To some people 3 or 4 more years doesn't seem long at all to them.
Turning 62 in October of the year, once the idea to retire was implanted, I couldn't wait to get on to retirement and was gone by December.
In what world is an MS from MIT, especially in engineering, worthless as he said. That just boggles my mind. That’s like saying a law degree from Harvard is uselesss.
Well, if you have an MS in engineering from MIT and live where there are no job openings for that skill and advanced degree, and adamantly refuse to relocate, it must be easier to feel that your education is worthless than to reconsider career options. If the priority is to remain in one community for life, then one should look at the job market there and prepare accordingly. Maybe being a shepherd or a carpenter or a schoolteacher would work.
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