Do most of you have pensions????

[jillyjoey]

Both dh and I have pensions. (Both in public sector -- so pension makes up for lack of salary compared to private sector counterparts) We also have 401K. But will it still really be enough if prices keep going up? Who knows.

 

[BethR]

Well, we do have a pension, but I have no idea about the details of it. Dumb, huh.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We have no pension and really don't want one. I prefer to control my destiny not a company. They can cut your pension since they are in charge. We will be funding our retirement with 401K, IRA and extra savings.

 

[jedijill]

I work for Sprint and after the merger with Nextel, the company decided to end the pension program. I am vested in what I had earned up until the plan closing. I never counted on it for my retirement but it will be a few dollars extra someday.

Jill in KC

 

[takemetoo]

Dh has a pension (I'm a SAHM). He's a Catholic school teacher, so he doesn't make a lot of $ but has killer benefits. He can retire at 55 with 70% of his salary, plus $750/month for medical until age 63 or 65. We save to the match in his 403b, and are funding Roth IRAs this year, though if ss still exists, some on-line calculators tell me we don't need to save anything for retirement. Better safe than sorry, I figure.

 

[nowellsl]

I have 26 years in the FL retirement plan. I 've always hoped I could retire with 30 years (I'll be 50) but I doubt it now. I'll probably have to wait until I can collect Social Security as well (if there is any left).

 

[stemikger]

I never had a pension. I max out my 401k and when I turn 50 I will do the catch-up provision. I started late, so whatever will be there when I retire I will have to make due with.

This year I will start putting money into my small IRA as well. The company I currently work for puts in 4% of my salary into my 401K so I guess that is a small pension.

I didn't start saving until I was 30, I turn 42 this year but didn't max it out until recently. I'm hoping when it's my time to retire, social security will still be there for me. By then I will have no mortgage so I will get by. I don't see myself as a world traveler, so if I could take a couple of nice trips a year, I will be happy.

 

[Kramer]

We have no pension and really don't want one. I prefer to control my destiny not a company.

That might be true in the private sector, but I have a state pension and only contribute 8.5% of my salary to it each year and after 25 years I will retire with a pension equal to 65% of my salary. I would have to be saving WAY more than 8.5% to equal that return in a 401k. I'll happily settle for a pension.

 

[ducklite]

DH and I both worked for the same company for a bit over five years. (He was there before me and is still there.) They ahve a pension plan, and we are both in it. I stayed long enough to be eligible--which was about four years longer than I wanted to.

I can either leave my pension money with them and get a set amount monthly for my entire life afte a certain age, or I can withdraw it's current now, and provided it's rolled into an IRA not pay any penalties. I'm actually going to do that for a number of reasons. I did some math, and think in the long run it will be worth more monthly if it grows in an IRA rather than sits in the pension fund. Additionally the IRA has a right of survivorship, the pension doesn't.

DH has about double the time in that I do, and is hoping to retire from that company, so his pension should be fairly good when it comes. But we aren't planning on any pension or Social Security money, and we both have 401K's and IRA's that we fund and plan on using for our retirement needs. Anything else will be the gravy.

Anne

 

[mickeyfan2]

That might be true in the private sector, but I have a state pension and only contribute 8.5% of my salary to it each year and after 25 years I will retire with a pension equal to 65% of my salary. I would have to be saving WAY more than 8.5% to equal that return in a 401k. I'll happily settle for a pension.

Very true in the private sector and will be an issue soon in the public sector. My Aunt, who is a retired teacher in Il, told me the state just merged (not sure of all the details) the teachers pension plan (the the teachers funded) with the general state pension fund (which was underfunded) and they are now worried about the future. I know other states are looking at the state pensions as being too expensive, so they may start cutting them too. Only time will tell. I hope that all who have a pension will have it when they retire and for their entire retirement. I tend to like to control my destiny, so I chose a different path.

 

[shades]

I'm retired at 41 - with an Air Force pension. Smartest thing I ever did was to spend 20 years in the military and retire with 1/2 of my base pay. Dh works and probably will work for another 20yrs. He likes working, though

 

[ameraumi]

I will not have one as I am self employed. But DH will have one from the Army Reserves as well as from a auto parts plant he worked for. However, we just found out this plant has filed for Chapter 13 so I think he is going to look into getting it out now and rolling it over into an IRA.

 

[candykisses]

I have a defined pension plan and could retire now with full benefits, but with a 12 yr old, I don't think that will be happening any time soon. Another nice benefit I have is our health insurance will continue to be paid until I reach social security age.

I also have a Roth IRA and an unmatched 401K.

 

[pearlieq]

DH works for local government, and therefore gets a pension. However, I don't know if he'll stay there the full 8 years for vesting. He's been there 3 years already and that's the longest he's ever been at any job (he's in IT). We'll see. The stinker is that if he does leave before he's vested, all we get back are his contributions. I'm not even sure if we get some kind of interest rate on those.

We're mostly counting on Roth IRAs for our retirement funding. We fully fund one for each of us, and I put 15% into my company's 401k, for as long as I'll continue to work there.

 

[BethR]

Well, we do have a pension, but I have no idea about the details of it. Dumb, huh.

Well, at least this thread forced me to look into the details of our pension and here are the particulars as I understand them:

We contribute 1.5% of DH's pay to his pension. We have done this for 25 years that DH has worked there and will continue until he retires.
When DH retires, every month we will be paid (OK - take this slow) 1/12 of 2% of the total that he contributed while working - until his death or for a minimum of 60 payments if he should die before that.

I have no idea whether it is good or bad unless I would go back and see what 1.5% of his income has been each years and estimate what it will be until he retires, add everything up and then see what 1/2 of 2% of that will be.

 

[YachtClubWoman]

My husband and I both have pensions and 401Ks. We both work for pharmaceutical companies.

The pensions are fully funded by the companies and we cannot contribute. The 401Ks match up to 6%

 

[barbeml]

DH and I have no pensions.

I accept that and we are working hard to save for retirement, but I'm getting mighty sick of watching my taxes zoom up to pay for all those public employee pensions.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I accept that and we are working hard to save for retirement, but I'm getting mighty sick of watching my taxes zoom up to pay for all those public employee pensions.

And this is happening all over the US. The public pensions will be an issue in the future.

 

[texasthree]

DH has a pension through the Navy. The pension and health insurance is what keeps us from thinking about getting out. He can retire at 42 and have a whole 2nd career before retiring. The only other retirement we have right now is an ira. I am hoping by 30 we can open an educational ira and another account for us.

 

[tikilyn]

my dh will get a decent pension when he retires. He works for DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Theres a weird calculation on how they figure it. Something like he'll receive 1.7% for every year that hes worked. Plus he is buying back his Military time to add to the years worked. Then they take his three highest paid years and devide it by three and thats what well get. Its usually about 35 to 45000.00 a year. And if SS is still around he'll get that too.

Then we also have a TSP account. It's like a 401k. We are investing only 7% right now but the gov matches us 100% up to 4%. We will also get to keep our health care insurance and get it at a reduce amount.

I think we'll be ok hopefully.