To the OP question: I have a pension. Don't have to contribute anything. By the time I retire, will get between 42-44% of my highest paid year income, including bonus. The pension amount is fixed and does not go up with inflation.
I thought my pension was generous, but the town of Vallejo in N.Cal has (had) a better one for their fire and police officers. Upon retirement, they get 90% of their salary and it increases every year with inflation. You may have heard of Vallejo....the city filed for bankruptcy, part of the reason given by city officials (in addition to the down-turn in the housing market and thus city revenue) is because most of the city budget was going to police/fireman salaries and pension (typical salary for police is 120K, captains etc make 200K+). Now that's a pension! Coincidentally, some of the top police officers took early retirement just 2 days before the city annoucement of bankruptcy.
The link to the "Charleston Daily Mail - News - Teachers relieved at pension results*" above is interesting. A recent CNN Money article blasted the decision by the state to caving in to pressure by the teacher's union. The question the CNN Money article asked was: How many of us who's IRA/401K's are not doing well get to "do over" the last 15 years of the IRA/401K? No one....except those in a state-employee union.
Sorry to hijack the thread....Now back to our sponsors.
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