I learned more about my pension...

[ScrimpAndSave]

I found out that they take our 7.5% of our income and I cannot change this percentage. Currently, there is about $9,500 in the pension account and it says the return is 4%. My income over the next few years is:

2008-2009: $50,296
2009-2010: $57,725
2010-2011: $67,232
2011-2012: $75,849
2012-2013 $84,894

After that - not sure, our contract changes and I will get a raise in percentage from year to year.

I plan on working for another 38 years (gulp).

Is it possible to ballpark what I will have in my pension account when I am done?

Thanks!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

What you will have put into your pension over the years of employment may be less important than what you get out of it. Besides the contributions of teachers like yourself, there is bound to be a contribution to the plan coming from your employer (State? City? School district?.) I think you can imagine that 4 % of you income saved and invested is unlikely top amount to enough to retire on. The contributions of the employer must be significant.

Look at current retirement options. Do they offer to pay something like 75-80 % of full salary upon retirement? Then do they guarantee a cost of living raise for the first 15 years of retirement or perhaps forever? Those are the kinds of numbers you need to look at, rather than just the bare number of dollars that you put into the system. People who must fund their retirements without a pension need to save more than than 4% of yearly salary.

Especially with some of the source of the pension being public money, you should be able to get regular reports on the management and status of the fund. This could be a fund that gets manipulated politically in ways that you might or might not like. If privately managed, you and your fellow teachers would do well to keep an eye on the management. If you are in a union, your union probably has a committee on retirement issues whose reports you can also keep up with.

By the way, those look like unusually big raises for a teacher.

May I ask what you teach? Do you specialize?

[ScrimpAndSave]

Well, everyone K-12 in my district gets paid the same thing no matter what they teach. I am certified to teack K-12 general, vocal and instrumental music. I currently teach grades K-4 general and vocal music.

I currently have a masters degree in educational administration and a principal's cert...but I don't know when I will dive into that.

The pay reflects moves on the payscale I will make by gaining graduate credits as well. The farthest I can go is Masters + 45 credits and then a doctorate.

So this year, I make $42,672 with a masters degree. The rest goes like this:

2008-2009: $50,296 Masters + 15
2009-2010: $57,725 Masters + 30
2010-2011: $67,232 Masters + 45
2011-2012: $75,849 Masters + 45
2012-2013 $84,894 Masters + 45

I also make an additional $2500 each year for my service in our accredtation process.

We just began a new contract and our union fought for our raises. We were one of the lowest paid districts in our state...and now we are finally getting a fraction of what we deserve. I've got about 800 students and it's a difficult job.

I know you said that teachers without pensions have to save more than 4% of their income...but the pension saves 7.5%...and the return is 4%. I will have to read more about it. I have a $3,500 annuity and a ROTH IRA as well...I hope that is enough with my pension...

[tripods68]

What you need is the formula. You need to talk someone that managed your pension retirement (usually a state agency). When you have this info, its very easily to plug in the numbers to get your future monthly retirement income (years of service x benefit factor x annual salary).