Do you have a pension?

Bruce Wayne · #1 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 08:55 AM

It seems pretty risky to me. I'm 28 so won't retire for another 40 years at least, and with life expectancy rising it will probably be longer than that. Who knows what changes will happen to society in that time? Can you really make investment decisions so far into the future?

anonymous_saver · #2 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 09:02 AM

Yes, I have a pension, and have been putting in it for about 1.5 years. I am currently 26 years old and plan on retiring when I am about 55. I desperately want OUT of my pension. That is one of the main reasons I am looking for a different position where I can choose what to do with my money instead of letting it sit and do virtually nothing for me. The only benefit of my pension would be if I wanted to stay at my position for 30 years or so, and that is NOT what I want to do! I believe pensions (for me) are good in theory, but not in practice.

I've always put 25%+ of my income towards retirement, and I feel like my pension is actually holding me back a bit. It's good for some people, just not me.

I'll get off of my soap box for now.

Ima saver · #3 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 09:07 AM

No, my dh has almost always been self employed. We will have to live off of our savings and social security.

rduell · #4 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 10:14 AM

DH has a pension through his company.

cooliemae · #5 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 11:02 AM

I'm 28 and have been putting about 15% of my pay towards retirement now for 4 years.

While I would agree that we cannot predict the future and what will exist for retirement in 40 years, I would disagree that the premise that we cannot make investment decisions.

We, being those of us with 30+ years to retirement, have to set a goal and develop a strategy to get there based on past performance and expected future happenings. Then as we get closer to our retirement date we reassess our goal and strategy and make corrections. Perhaps these reassessments will happen yearly as we get really close to retirement. That can only be decided as we approach retirement.

I work at a school where the instructors continually fight the attitude that because retirement is far off our students shouldn't do anything about it. I preach compounding, compounding, compounding. If you put a little bit in now then that will be worth more later than if you put in a whole bunch later.

And as far as the risk goes, you have decide how much risk your willing to take. In my retirement plan, I have the option to put my money in a fund that earns only about 3% a year, but is virtually risk free.

Do I do that, no. I have my money is a more riskier fund, due to the fact that I have 30+years until retirement and I would like to try and grow my money.

momof1in150 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 11:05 AM

DH has 2 pensions. He was in the Navy for 23 years so we collect that for the rest of his life. He works for the Federal Govt. so he has that pension as well when he retires.

sweetZ4me · #7 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 11:14 AM

I am a state employee (at a university) and have a pension plan. It is a defined benefit plan so regardless of the performance of the investment pool, I will get a defined amount upon my retirement. It is based on number of years of service and average of highest salary. You need 5 years to be vested (which I am, so even if I leave the state system, I will get this benefit upon retirement).

I feel secure with this as I do have other retirement funds as well (403b and Roth IRA) which are more agressive. My husband is also employed at the state university with me, but he opted for the optional retirement plan that was offered whereby the university contributes 10% to an investment of my husbands choosing. Quite honestly, I might have gone with the optional retirement plan myself but I have been employed with the state longer and at the time of my initial employment, there was no choice but the their teachers retirement system.

tripods68 · #8 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 11:52 AM

Interesting article: Charleston Daily Mail - News - Teachers relieved at pension results*

DW (32) and I (39) have both pension through our jobs. We are both confident on our pension system. In the past 15 years, the average return on my pension is little over 9%, which is 1% above minimum investment return required, or 13% for the last 5 years. I contribute 5% towards my pension and another 10% towards my 457 deferred comp, while DW does not make any contributions. DW also contribute 10% pretax with 6% ER match to 403(b).

As far leaving my job, I don't think I could or DW could as well since we are both heavily vested on our Retirement System. We also enjoy our jobs especially DW at 100K yearly salary. I could see myself working another 16 to 25 years which will give me close to 100% of my salary upon retirement say in year 2033. But we don't know what will the stock market brings in that time. It such a long time to even think about. We certainly will not even think about whether social security will exist.

disneysteve · #9 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 01:56 PM

No pension. No 401k. Nothing for me. I'm on my own. My wife has no pension at her job but does have a 401k.

LivingAlmostLarge · #10 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 03:31 PM

How will the teachers in that pension system fund it? Is 6% enough really?

tripods68 · #11 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 07:08 PM

It appears the 2/3 of the funding will come from investment return (i'm guessing of course

) and the rest comes Employer contributions towards individual pension account. Those are the usual key 'drivers' of pension system.

hakuna matata · #12 (**permalink**) 06-12-2008, 08:01 PM

Wife has a pension from her work, she has a minimum monthly amount to put in. Depending upon when she retires we get a certain percentage of the average of her three highest earning years. Our plan is to retire at 55 which would give us 40% of whatever that average is. There are other options like a full cash out, etc. But so far that seems to be the one that fits into the rest of our retirement plans such as 401k. Roth and my profit sharing plan at work.

humandraydel · #13 (**permalink**) 06-13-2008, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetZ4me

It is a defined benefit plan so regardless of the performance of the investment pool, I will get a defined amount upon my retirement.

While this is true in theory, it is not necessarily true in reality. Companies and even governments (usually only municipalities) can go bankrupt - or at least get in a financial mess to where they can't afford their pension liabilities - especially if the pension fund underperforms considerably. It is unlikely, but certainly not impossible.

I have a pension but I am not vested yet.

markusk · #14 (**permalink**) 06-13-2008, 05:41 PM

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.

Scanner · #15 (**permalink**) 06-13-2008, 06:34 PM

No pension. . .I am self-employed but my wife gets a small one.

This is one of the other reasons I oppose dissolving SSI. . .it is some comfort there is a "gov't pension" awaiting me, to supplement and create a "ground floor" of my retirement.

disneysteve · #16 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scanner

No pension. . .I am self-employed but my wife gets a small one.

This is one of the other reasons I oppose dissolving SSI. . .it is some comfort there is a "gov't pension" awaiting me, to supplement and create a "ground floor" of my retirement.

I don't think of SS as the "ground floor" of my retirement planning. I think of it more as the icing on the cake, or really the whipped cream on top of the icing. If it comes, it will make things a little sweeter, but if it doesn't, everything will still be just fine due to our own saving and planning along the way.

Snave · #17 (**permalink**) 06-14-2008, 06:01 PM

I have a pension, but don't even count it in my retirement calculations. I just pretend it is not there. My past employment also had one and I will collect about 18K a year from that at 65. I was there 9 years. My current employer pays a % of salary that increases every few years. Currently it is 4.25% of my salary and goes to 15% the longer you stay. This is in addition to the company match to their 401k plan.

Scanner · #18 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 07:39 AM

Quote:

I don't think of SS as the "ground floor" of my retirement planning. I think of it more as the icing on the cake, or really the whipped cream on top of the icing. If it comes, it will make things a little sweeter, but if it doesn't, everything will still be just fine due to our own saving and planning along the way.

While that is probably the best attitude to have during accumulation, I find it incorrect. I used the term "ground floor" but probably the cliche "safety net" is the best term.

You think you could never lose your retirement savings?

You sure about that?

What if a child of yours got a serious illness and you needed experimental treatment?

What if your child called and said, "Hey Dad, I'm in jail for. . ."

What if you were the victim of a frivolous lawsuit and got sued beyond policy limits?

What if a parent of yours had Alzheimer's for 10+ years like Ronald Reagan?

You think your retirement is 100% secure?

Think again.

That's why SSI is actually the "ground floor" or "saftey net" of your retirement. As much as this forum is full of "planners" there are always possibilties that can lay waste to the best plans laid.

disneysteve · #19 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 05:09 PM

Scanner, I totally agree with you. The best laid plans...

I do like the term "safety net" much better than "ground floor" though. The first implies SS is a back-up if my plans don't work out whereas the second sounds like I'm depending on SS as my basis and building from there. It is all semantics in the end. One just makes me feel like I'm more in control.

tripods68 · #20 (**permalink**) 06-15-2008, 05:43 PM

With the regard to the article, the state legislatures thought were going to do a lot better contribution in defined contribution (401(k). But that didn't happened as a result. Many teachers hardly had enough retirements saved up. Too many didn't contribute enough so the legislatures pressured to the union. But I also think, 401K is really not a good retirement alone for state or local government since public pay do not compensate well compared to private.