Your parents' pension; your pension

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Did your parents have a non-Social Security pension? Do you?

My father had a very small pension from local public service. My mother had none. I think that she was only part time at a couple of places that had pension plans. Where full time, I don't think there was a pension plan.

I have never worked anywhere with a pension plan, unless you count the single week I worked for the board of education before I quit, realizing I couldn't be a part of blowing tax money doing the job in the exceedingly in-efficient way they demanded. My husband is in a pension plan, again as a public employee. Both his parents had pensions: His father, like mine, from local public service. His mother, a secretary like my own mother, retired from a bank whose plan she participated in.

I see that there are many jobs that say they offer retirement plans, but jobs that almost no one is going to stick with over a lifetime--er, McDonald's, for example.

This is one of those questions for which I am interested in hearing from people whose parents live in countries other than the USA, too!

[disneysteve]

My father was an accountant. He and his brother had a family firm. No pension. My mother didn't work outside the home so no pension there either. I'm a physician in a private practice. No pension. My wife works for a local hospital system. She has a 401k but no pension.

[Spud]

My husband's company has a pension/profit sharing plan. As far as I'm aware, it works like an employer-contribution-only 401(k) where they invest the money on our behalf. We'll pay taxes upon withdrawal. They put in a random amount of money for him every year, depending on how they are doing. It's some, but not a lot of money. His 401(k) plan is 3x the value of the pension plan.


All these different retirement accounts put together will (hopefully, theoretically!) allow us a comfortable retirement. But any one of them by itself is not enough.

[sweeps]

I have a pension, but not a traditional one. It's a cash-balance plan. I kinda like it because I know exactly what I have in there, I have control over the investments, and there shouldn't be any problems rolling it over to an IRA when I leave.

ETA: My parents did not have pensions.

[Hot dog]

My mom had pensions from a couple places she died young and did not get the benefit and I along with my husband both have pensions. He works for the county and I work for the state

[LuxLiving]

My Dad has a VERY VERY SMALL pension from his 16 year job at a hospital. None from his professorship. Likely he never contributed to either of these himself in any fashion as I don't even believe that was an option then. His one check is so small that he says he's embarassed to take it to the bank, so he started getting it direct deposited. That's his story anyway. He does get SS and is still working at ranching and makes a very nice living at still, but his health is beginning to fail. He doesn't invest. His money is in the bank in savings and in CDs. His wife doesn't work, but was a State government employee so does have nice insurance coverage since she retired w/a disability and does get a disability check.

My Mom has a very very NICE pension from her years working as a state administrator in the health care system. She may have been able to pay into hers in more recent years. She complainingly told me the other day how much her and her second husband's retirement income was - I liked to of choked A COW, as it's about five times the income Hubster currently brings home and I stretch to provide necessities for four of us. There is just the two of them. Well, I should say she isn't hurting any too badly! She has always been very proactive w/money management whereas my Dad has always been a more haphazard steward. Not wasteful, just not as watchful. My stepdad also retired as an educator and has a good pension, but he augments it now as he is has a full-time pastorate.

I do not have one as I never worked long enough at any place that offered one. However, if I go back to work soon as planned, I am definitely looking at benefits before I agree to lock myself in the work dungeon!!

Hubster will have a medium sized one. Maybe enough to help pay the utilities and house taxes but not much else. Certainly not enough to live on. Also, for a number of years his employer contributed to a profit sharing program and when his company went bankrupt and he was laid off for a while before being hired back by the buy-out company we were able to roll the profit sharing program $$'s over into a Traditional IRA. That will provide some of our retirement income. It's all nicely invested in indexed accounts w/heavy proportion in bond index as he is fast approaching the golden watch age. (I would have it more in equities, but he is one of those staunch conservative risk averse investors.)

Hubster's father received a nice pension from working for an airline manufacturer. His mother never worked as she was a SAHM of five children.

[jIM_Ohio]

Father has a pension from Xerox, Mother has one from government (she was a librarian).

If you have a pension, these are often the cases where tax bracket in retirement is higher than when you were working- if you have other retirement assets kicking income to you as well, plan for it so the tax man does not get more than he needs to.

[Brokemofo]

My Father gets a pension from the City of San Jose even though he only worked there for a few years. He gets a check for life.

I have a pension at the bank layhing me off for about $5500. Not sure what happens to it when I leave the job soon. I think I can roll it into my 401k, or take it in a lump sum but paying penalties if I do it.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My mom has one from the state, retired at 55, but not my dad. She gets 70% of her income.

I get no pension and neither does DH.

[tripods68]

Yes they do.

I will get a state pension from CalPERS about 92% of my income at age 57.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Goodness, tripods68, that is one heck of a pension. Aside from inflation, you could be set for life, if your salary now is livable.

[safari]

My company offers a pension to employees who worked there for at least 5 years, and it gets bigger the longer you stay at the company. If I leave the company now, when I retire I will be getting about $1,000 a month pension, which isn't much, but better than no pension. If I work for the company for many years, the pension is going to be a lot more substantial.

[tripods68]

Originally Posted by Joan.of.the.Arch

Goodness, tripods68, that is one heck of a pension. Aside from inflation, you could be set for life, if your salary now is livable.

I'm certainly not complaining

This is one of the reason why I left the private sector because of its excellent retirement benefits which include 100% paid health and dental by that age. Of course, I hope to live at that age without any health issues or concern (knock on woods) and perhaps work a bit longer at maybe at 63 where I could achieve 100% of my pay. But that all depends on my kids college cost or wife.

We are allowed to buy back service. So I decided to buy 8 years worth of state service from private held jobs and military service which wasn't really that much cost wise. That why!

[Spud]

Originally Posted by Brokemofo

I have a pension at the bank layhing me off for about $5500. Not sure what happens to it when I leave the job soon. I think I can roll it into my 401k, or take it in a lump sum but paying penalties if I do it.

This is what happened when I left my job. I took the pension amount as a Traditional IRA rollover.

[Snave]

My mom has a pension from when she took an IBM buyout 15 years ago. She has been working in a school district the last 15 years and will also have one there. My father owns his company (plumber) and it is just him, so no pension.

I have one from a previous job that is about $1750 a month at 65 (32 more years), so it will be worth about $500-600 in today's dollars at that time I also work for a company now that has a pension. Currently it isn't much because I have been there for only a year, but will end up being about 25%of what my current salary is if I stay (adjusted for inflation).

[JBL]

My partner and I both have pension plans, he is municipal and I am state. Mine is not that great unless I stay with the state for a VERY long time. If I retire around age 70 I should get a pretty solid pension, about 80% of average of my three top earning years, with annual cost of living adjustment. The formula is incredibly complicated, incuding numerous variables, and I have no idea what my top earnings are likely to be when I am in my 60's. I am 29 now and 2 years in. The benefit drops steeply as you retire earlier. The old timers are in a much more generous plan. Most of my young colleages went for the 403b plan which the state matches generously. I think that employee contributes 5% of their earnings and the state matches with 7%. Not bad. My father had a chance to get into the state pension plan at the beginning of his career and opted out because he did not think he would stay very long. Well, turns out he worked there for 18 years, and would now have incredible pension with 100% health/dental for life if he had opted in. I also like that the state of Connecticut is on the hook for part of my retirement, so I dont need to shoulder all the risk of investing for my retirement. Here's hoping that I live long enough to enjoy it!

My parents do not have pensions, but a lot of my elderly neighbors do and I can appreciate the added peace of mind that guaranteed income stream gives them.

[Daylily]

My dad has a pension and is drawing on it now. My mom only worked intermitently, so no pension. Between the pension and drawing social security for both of them, I think they are at about 90-100% of pre-retirement income. At this point, he has not started withdrawing from his IRAs or thrift savings plan.

I had a pension at my last employer. I was able to convert it to a cash balance pension and roll it into an IRA when I left (or I should say, when the company went under).

My current employer offers a pension. I only need to be there five years and I will be vested.

[markusk]

Parents were self-employed, so no pension.

I have a pension that will replace about 50% of income. This is not adjusted for inflation. Like Sweeps, I also have a cash balance account in which deposts are made into an investment account which I control. I recently learned that our retirement plans are affectionately called "golden handcuffs."