Poll: Do you have a pension?

[qwerty3656]

Government Pension
Corporate Pension
Just savings & Social Security

 

[disneysteve]

Nope. No pension. Just whatever we save on our own. And SS.

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

just the money I've accumulated and whatever I get from SS.

 

[1242Vintage]

Government Pension
Corporate Pension
Just savings & Social Security

Both wife and I are drawing government pensions totaling $11.4K/mo plus a $1.9k stipend for healthcare. Also paid into and will get Social Security in a few years.

Haven’t touched a dime in various IRAs, 401(k) or 457 plans since retirement.

 

[Helen]

I have a small Federal (FERS) pension after 20 years of service ending with GS13-10. My spouse has a slightly larger state pension. Combined, the pensions are $42k after health care premiums are deducted from my Federal pension.

 

[Dash man]

I have a small pension of $1,384/month. Most of it goes toward withholding to lessen my quarterly estimated tax payments. DW rolled her pension into a lump sum into her 401k.

 

[Aerides]

updated the thread to add a poll with the OP's initial suggestions.

 

[steelyman]

Government (state university) pension.

 

[rhrihm]

I have a military retirement pension, a federal law enforcement pension, and receive a disability pension from the VA. I'm not going to apply for social security until, at a minimum of FRA. Combined pensions total $97,356.00 annually. My wife just started receiving her social security.

 

[Sue J]

DH has a state public employees pension from working at a county social service department. And I get a small Social Security benefit.

We are fortunate that our cost of living is only 83% of DHs pension, so we are able to SAVE 17% of his pension and 100% of my SS and part time job earnings.

I know our cost of living will only increase as we age but for now this is a great place to be, able to save while he is retired. Some months we're able to save 30% to 35% of our total combined income.

Spreadsheets make me SMILE

 

[MikeWillRetire]

My wife and I will have federal pensions when we retire sometime in the next year. They will total about 24% of our current salary.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

A small one from LA county because I left at 45.

 

[bclover]

Corporate pension

 

[Tom57]

Small $400 per month corporate pension I have been collecting since 2001 from a 7 year employment at a German company in the US. DW gets $210 per month since 2002 for a 30 year employment at a major US bank.

 

[38Chevy454]

Corp pension that is approx 15% of monthly budget.

 

[stepford]

What's interesting to me is how many of the respondents have a "small" pension (i.e. much less than their living expenses and a small fraction of their final salary). I'm in this boat as well with a corporate pension that pays around 22% of my final salary. I suspect only gov't and military retirees receive what could be regarded as a "full" pension anymore.

 

[scrabbler1]

I have a corporate pension waiting for me when I turn 65, 7 years from now. My old company froze my pension at the end of 2001 when I was still working there. I did not meet their criteria to get grandfathered into continuing to accumulate additional pension credits. Instead, further would-be pension benefits for the next 7 years I worked there became an accumulated cash-balance program (it's a hybrid between a DB and DC program). I continue to earn a small interest credit in the cash-balance program every year.

This is one of my "reinforcements" available to supplement my using only the taxable part of my portfolio for the last 13 years.

 

[jazz4cash]

I have a small corporate pension for a 36 yr career with the same company. It’s ~40% of my final pay. I only paid a tiny amount and megacorp paid the bulk of it.

Some of these tiny amounts after a significant period of employment makes you wonder why they bother to make payments instead of a lump sum. Sure makes the deferred comp alternative mor attractive.

I’d like to see how many have DB pension plus deferred comp match. (Like FERS + TSP).

 

[thod]

No.

Sort of earned a portion of one in the 90s, but division got sold, for those with a small amount, they just sort of paid us a bonus amount instead of keeping it.

I think this might have been a better question with a poll. Based on the lack of negative answers.

 

[pb4uski]

I have a small pension of $1,384/month. Most of it goes toward withholding to lessen my quarterly estimated tax payments. DW rolled her pension into a lump sum into her 401k.

+1 but mine is $1,500/month. I set my federal tax withholdings from this one pension to cover our annual federal income tax bill so I don't have to make estimated payments and the remainder goes into checking.

 

[Out_the_Door]

Corporate pension that kicks in in five years (retired in 2020). It has no COLA and will cover 50% of my current expenses and should hold be over until SS kicks in at FRA (in seven years). Living on savings until then.

 

[statsman]

I have a small corporate pension for a 36 yr career with the same company. It’s ~40% of my final pay.

If small is "40% of final pay", then I have very small at maybe 20% of final pay.

Corporate, non-COLA, but enough to cover my under-65 medical premiums and DW's Medicare, prescription drug plan, supplemental, and associated deductibles. Like a few others here on the thread, I have federal tax withholding from the pension to avoid having to pay estimated taxes.

 

[PandaBear]

Dh has a 75k per year, non Cola pension from a company that does a lot of government contracts (aerospace)

I am either retiring in June 2022 or June 2023 from public education. I work in a district that has good funding so salaries are good. My pension will either be about 86K or 96k depending on which year I retire. No cola, but a 2% increase each year but it’s based on your original pension amount, not cumulative.

 

[fvfire]

Nothing for me. Have several friends with pensions. Needless to say they don’t know what SORR means or the concept of SWR.

 

[Midpack]

Nothing here, and it’s been good for me. When MegaCorp eliminated pensions and everyone’s “accumulated value” was frozen when I was 40 (worth $200K at 55), it forced me to get really serious about retirement planning. Fortunately I’d saved a decent amount in taxable and 401k but I didn’t have a real plan. It’s worked out well. Though we’re 66/64, we’ll be more than comfortable on SS, RMDs and dividends from taxable from 72 on. Withdrawals will be mostly for fun…

I have a couple of friends with USPS pensions who are completely clueless about financial planning/investing. I hope their pensions outlive them…

I also have a few friends without pensions who’ve dramatically curtailed their spending in retirement, and they only retired in the last few years. They didn’t seriously plan either evidently, a couple have taken part time jobs.

Fingers crossed we’ve planned well enough.