Poll: Do you have a pension?

[Love This Community]

“Small” is relative. We need another poll to define what is small...[emoji3]

To me, if monthly pension income is less than 10% of monthly expenses, that is small.

Once, my vesting period in my current MC is over, I will no longer fit in the “small” category based on my own definition. Time to label the next slab 10-20%

 

[Time2]

I'm surprised by the poll results - 60% have pensions (I'm in the other 40%). I expected that number to be a lot lower.

I think the group has a high percentage of government workers that seem to get large pensions.
Just one more reason for smaller government.

 

[Blue531]

No pension. 401ks from 4 different jobs, an IRA and an individual stock account. No SS yet, not old enough. I plan to take SS early and it should be enough to pay basic monthly bills.

 

[scrabbler1]

Yeah, it's a small one, though. About $1000/month.

They've written me letters offering to convert it to a lump sum, but I like the idea of a $1000/month check for the rest of my life. I also figure that if they're trying to convince me to take a lump sum, that's probably in their interest, not mine.

My frozen pension (the one I'll start getting in 7 years, when I turn 65) is about the same as yours. Do you see yours as a supplement, or offset, to the reduced SS benefits due to retiring early and adding all those years of zero wages to the SS benefit calculation?

 

[teetee]

No pension. 401ks from 4 different jobs, an IRA and an individual stock account. No SS yet, not old enough. I plan to take SS early and it should be enough to pay basic monthly bills.

Same here. Still 20+ yrs away from getting SS. I am not holding my breath for it though. Comparing to the 3-legged stool retirement model, mine has just my savings including tIRA, Roth IRA, 401k, Roth 401k, HSA, 529 and a few taxable index fund and ETF portfolios.

 

[KM]

Both DH and I have corporate pensions totaling about 75% of our expenses. Could have been more had we stayed past 55, but neither of us felt it was worth it. We started DH’s SS last year and now we have 100% of our annual spending covered. So now our investments are for….well…whatever we want them to be for. But we’ve never wanted much, so the kids will likely make out well someday We are very blessed.

I tip my hat to those who managed to retire early with no pension. Not an easy feat, especially if you have kids….

 

[Chuckanut]

My pension has a Capped COLA. Above a certain percentage increase in the cost of living increase, my lunch gets eaten by the inflation demon. Since I retired, the COL has always been below the cap. This year.... the demon may feast.

 

[6miths]

Nope.

 

[skyking1]

“Small” is relative. We need another poll to define what is small...[emoji3]

To me, if monthly pension income is less than 10% of monthly expenses, that is small.

Once, my vesting period in my current MC is over, I will no longer fit in the “small” category based on my own definition. Time to label the next slab 10-20%

the one I called small is a moving target, between 300 and 400 a month. That pension is in critical status and who knows what they will do to try and repair it. That one I cannot take early, it is 65-on.
The main pension is going to cover retiree medical, taxes, and about 70% of today's expenses. It will get a bump when DW gets to medicare and we can cut that medical cost to supplements, from ~1100 a month.
Being non-cola'd, it will have a diminishing role in our future.

 

[pacergal]

Local govt pension for both DH and I, 100% survivor, small COLA--max 2%. Pension alone covers our expenses.

Have 457B, taxable savings, and SS. We saved like crazy, even with the pension.

Feel blessed that we have what we have.
However, I have many other RN friends who make double per hour what I did in govt. work. I was tied to the golden handcuffs, as our pension is no longer offered to new employees.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My pension is cola’d and I get a 195/subsidy towards my HI which is 330/month. My pension is 40% of my salary.

 

[Chuckanut]

My pension is cola’d and I get a 195/subsidy towards my HI which is 330/month. My pension is 40% of my salary.

Mine is also about 40%. I also contributed quite a bit to my pension over the years. I estimate that 20% of each dollar I receive is from my contributions and the earnings of those contributions.

I remember having a pension in my first job, fully funded by my employer. I was too young to realize what a good deal I had. But, thanks to mergers that company was absorbed by another decades before I retired. So, what the pension would have been and how secure it would be is up in the air.

 

[mistermike40]

I have a non-COLA'd corporate pension that's over 40% of my final salary... it covers all of my retirement expenses and then some. MegaCorp also continues to provide a *very* nice health insurance subsidy.

When adjusted for additional taxes, mortgage, paying for children's college, etc. I will have more discretionary income next year (when I start collecting SS) than when I was working... and that's without touching my retirement savings.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

I only know a few people with a good pension. A few teachers and firefighter are all that come to mind. I also know a few with baby pensions as I call them(not enough to cover the basics).

 

[Car-Guy]

One of the better, or interesting, polls that I've seen here in a while.... IMO, SS is a pension... But that's me.... SS is also an inflation adjusted pension.... Well sort of...


Voted just SS for me.

 

[Huston55]

There have been several polls showing this over the years. It’s one of the factors that influences how people answer posts here, though we have no way of knowing which is which. Risk means different things to SIRE vs FIRE households…

Yes we can, for sure. But the relevance of people's answers is different.

For instance let's say in a discussion about investing, someone with a full pension and 500K in investments says, "I am very bullish. I am invested 100 percent in stocks", it is very different than a non-pension person living entirely off say $2M of investments saying the same thing.

Because the risks they are taking are very different. This is just one of numerous examples.

I have often thought it would be helpful if it were easier to know the financial context of people's comments.

Spot on Montecfo! As has been long established here in multiple previous threads/polls, whether one is FIRE, Semi-SIRE or SIRE makes a world of difference in one's approach to retirement. Perhaps we should all start using monikers (SIRE, Semi-SIRE or FIRE) when posting on the subjects of AA, risk tolerance, SWR, etc.

For the poll I answered Govt Pension because I have two smallish government pensions (one COLAd) with cover ~20% of current expenses.

 

[Alan]

Spot on Montecfo! As has been long established here in multiple previous threads/polls, whether one is FIRE, Semi-SIRE or SIRE makes a world of difference in one's approach to retirement. Perhaps we should all start using monikers (SIRE, Semi-SIRE or FIRE) when posting on the subjects of AA, risk tolerance, SWR, etc.

For the poll I answered Govt Pension because I have two smallish government pensions (one COLAd) with cover ~20% of current expenses.

I agree, which is why my signature has indicated my status for many years now. It used to say SIRE’d at 55 but I got too many puzzled PMs so changed it to be clearer.

 

[NavAir]

I'm surprised by the poll results - 60% have pensions (I'm in the other 40%). I expected that number to be a lot lower.

That could be because pensions were more common in the past when currently retired (even early) were employed. If you look at currently employed individuals who will retire in 5-20 years, the percentage will be much lower.

I have a Navy retirement pension for 22 years of service (12 of them in the Reserves), and a FERS pension for 20 years of service (I paid into it to transfer my Navy active duty time). So I am a double-dipper. About $65K per year in inflation-adjusted income, plus very little expenditure for healthcare (Medicare + BC/BS from civilian employment, Tricare).

I guess that time I spent in the Reserves was worth more than what I got paid for my 2 weeks of ACDUTRA.

 

[Winemaker]

I took my pension at 56, it provided 25% of my total salary when I retired but it was 92% of my take home pay due to payroll taxes and 401k contributions. Had I waited to 65, the pension would have about half of of my 2014 salary.

I don't regret retiring 7 years ago and collecting what I receive now; it will continue 'til both of us are room temperature.

 

[mickeyd]

Military pension not listed so I selected corporate since I have both (would not allow double selection), in addition to VA disability.

 

[JRon]

No pension here other than SS which we’re not old enough to start taking yet.

 

[scrabbler1]

I'm surprised by the poll results - 60% have pensions (I'm in the other 40%). I expected that number to be a lot lower.

Some of us, including me, have pensions but they were frozen when the company phased them out for new employees while keeping some of the pension program for others.

My frozen pension covered about 17% of my peak, FT salary. But because I twice reduced my weekly hours worked starting the year (2001) they froze my pension, by the time I ERed, that same pension eventually represented about 42% of my final, PT salary.

That cash-balance substitute (how many of you have that type of retirement program?) can pay, as a monthly benefit, about 6% of my PT salary.

 

[brett]

The real issue for those with pension income is the amount of the pension, whether or not it is has a cola adjustment, other DB pension benefits such as dental, eyecare, , and finally...how much of your retirement expenses are covered by pensions.

 

[LMR1229]

I have a government pension that covers around 65% of my final salary. It has a small COLA and a 75% survivorship option. I also had a 457b that I rolled over into a tIRA, of which I'm now starting to convert to a Roth. Haven't claimed SS yet at 64. We also consider ourselves extremely fortunate.

 

[Cobra9777]

I have a small non-COLA corporate pension. It's about 20% of my final base pay. It could have been a lot bigger but I quit at 52 and started collecting immediately. DW has a government pension from a municipality in Texas. It has a partial COLA (70% of CPI) and represents 65% of her final pay. The two pensions combined cover roughly 50-60% of our expenses.

We also both have retiree health insurance through our prior employers. The subsidy on those is equivalent to about half my pension.