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I thought I had escaped the worst. Last year there was a freeze placed on the pension benefits of about 2/3 of our Mega Corp's employees. I was above the cut line due a combination of age and years of service, so I continued earning pension benefits.
Ah, but think again! The company just announced that pension benefits are being frozen for everyone as of December 2007. In exchange we'll get an additional 2% matching on our 401ks. Running the figures, I found that I will be getting between $7,000 - $8,000 less each year due to this change.
Then the biggie. . . . Anyone under age 50 will no longer be eligible for subsidized retiree health benefits. We can join the company group medical plan but if we choose to do so we will be responsible for the full cost of the premiums and all increases (and you have to be age 55 or older and have 15 or more years of service).
I really suspected that I would miss out on the subsidized retiree benefits because of the changes both in our company as well as the other Mega Corps around us. Really, I had accepted that. So I'm surprised that I feel a pang of loss anyway. Perhaps a secretly harbored hope was still in there?
I guess I should be glad that I use very conservative estimates when running my FIRE projections so none of the above really affects my plans in any significant way. But dang! It still hurts to lose the 7-8K pension dollars and the approx. $100,000 worth of subsidized health benefits. Dang it !!
Thanks for letting me vent a bit. I'm sure I don't have to remind other not-so-Young Dreamers that what Mega Corp gives, Mega Corp can often easily take away . . . .
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