Poll: Do you have a pension?

[friar1610]

I have a military pension for 28+ years of active duty. My wife and I both took SS at 62. We live fine on those income streams. In fact, most months we bank the SS and use it for non-routine expenses such as vacations.

 

[Alan]

I have 4 private pensions, 2 US and 2 UK, all but one is fixed and have been for 11years now so I am very grateful that inflation has been so low for so long. None are very large but combined

I now have my UK SS. By the end of the year DW will have her UK and US SS. I will start my US SS in 3.5 years.

 

[Sniggle]

I will have both....small military pension starting at 60, and a middling corporate pension at 62...combines about $60K

 

[tryan]

My pitance ($847/mo at 67) looked good until the govmnt started printing TRILLIONS.

I don't expect it will pay the grocery bill by the time I collect.

 

[ExPatKiwi]

Corporate DB pension worth $38k/yr today with 50% survivor or delay BCD to age 65 and it's worth $75k/yr.

 

[goingtotravel]

I suspect only gov't and military retirees receive what could be regarded as a "full" pension anymore.

What would be considered a full pension? FERS employees, folks who converted to FERS or started in the federal government around 1987 or later do not get anything like the previous federal pension plan which could be as high as 80% of final pay.

DH and I both were under FERS and our pensions (before survivors benefits,
a 10% reduction, or health insurance) are about 30-32% of our pay with no COLA increases until age 62. We do get a special supplement if we retire before 62 which is equal to only a portion of our SS payments at age 62. That adds another 13% or so. For DH and I from minimum retirement age to 62 we get about 40-43% of our final annual salary before survivor benefits and HI. After 62 we get less than 30% net of survivors benefits (29% for me after a 30+ year career).We also paid into SS and have investments plus DH is a disabled vet which makes pensions just a portion of our retirement income stream.

Maybe some state pensions are full pensions but certainly not federal employees any longer. (We are thankful to have any pension at all but it's nothing like my former co-workers who were under CSRS).

 

[CardsFan]

How is this for a small, micro mini pension. $105/month. Non-cola, not that it matters.

From job I had for 7 years in the1980's.

Funny part is, they found me.

Dinner out once a month.

 

[SecretlyFI]

2 corp pensions totaling $72k per year at age 65, non-cola. Will live on savings from ER until then. 2 SS will be about $54k per year, less any haircut put in place before then.

 

[brett]

Corporate DB Pension non cola w/survivor benefit

SS Pension

Gov't Old Age Security payment (not a pension)

Savings/investment income

 

[Dtail]

Small expected 60k lump sum pension in 4 years from a Wall Street banking firm.

 

[ER2B]

Me corporate pension 2000/month noncola 100% survivor. Wife corporate pension 1500/m cola 0% survivor. We tried to live off on just these 2 for a month just in case SHTF. We could and still left with some change. No debts and subsidized HI helped. A big expense like roof or new car wouldn't cut it.

 

[disneysteve]

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.

 

[skyking1]

Your poll is missing an option for Union pensions. I have not one, but two of those.
They do differ greatly from a corporate pension or government pension because any number of employers can pay into the same fund. On my small pension I worked for two different aerospace manufacturers in the Seattle area.
The much larger pension is with the Operating Engineers.
Dozens of different employers have paid into that over the last 30 years.

 

[deserat]

I will have a government pension and do have a small non COLA pension...poll doesn't cover my situation.

 

[irishgal]

No pension. Only what I saved and SS when I take it, years from now.

Not gonna lie, I have pension envy

 

[W2R]

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.

I am a federal FERS retiree, so I get a deposit in my checking account on the first of every month. That deposit is in the mid three figures ($516 after my BCBS Medicare supplement is deducted, $7xx gross) so I call it my "mini-pension". Like all FERS pensions it's not COLA'd but does has the infamous "diet COLA". Although it's very very welcome, it's much smaller than what federal retirees on the older CSRS system get. But fair is fair, and they don't get SS like I do. When you consider that, I suppose it's six of one half a dozen of the other. I sure appreciate having SS, which I started getting at age 70.

 

[Dtail]

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.

Poll would change if taken in 10 years, plus there are a decent number of members who were gov't employees.

 

[friar1610]

Your poll is missing an option for Union pensions. I have not one, but two of those.
They do differ greatly from a corporate pension or government pension because any number of employers can pay into the same fund. On my small pension I worked for two different aerospace manufacturers in the Seattle area.
The much larger pension is with the Operating Engineers.
Dozens of different employers have paid into that over the last 30 years.

When I was doing taxes earlier this year in the AARP Tax Aide program, I was surprised at the number of union pensions I saw. Some guys (it was mainly guys in the trades) had multiple pensions. One would be from the National Union and a smaller one would be from the Local Union for the same trade. Some guys were doing really well with those 2 pensions + SS.

 

[Golden sunsets]

We are blessed. One Federal CSRS pension. One VA disability pension. Two SS pensions. Total=$170,000/yr. All are cola'd. We received an email today from a federal retiree newsletter predicting a 3% increase for 2022.

 

[anethum]

No pension. I've sometimes felt that there should be parallel forums for folks w/pensions and those without. When you have no pension, you only get one chance to get it right. The other important thing is that most Americans with government pensions and some with corporate & union pensions, is that they usually get subsidized and guaranteed health insurance along with their pension. Those of us with no pension in the USA often had to deal with the ACA and the high premiums in the years before Medicare begins, as well as occasional nail-biting when there have been attempts to end the ACA. I'm thankful that the ACA began its existence when I wanted to ER.

I'm always amazed when I talk with government employees, at how many are completely clueless about the fact that pensions have largely ceased to exist in the private sector. And don't get me started and say "well why didn't you get a government job?". I had been working for a megacorp for over 10 years when I went into work one morning and found a memo stating that the pension plan and retiree healthcare were ending immediately, except for those employees who were already vested (25+ years IIRC). I got some piddling "cash value" for my 10+ years which I rolled over to my IRA. Folks who were within a year or two of being vested were really screwed.

I know of one retired GS-15 federal employee whose CSRS COLA'd pension began in the low 6 figures, and this person was genuinely worried about being able to live on that!

As for those federal employees with less insanely generous FERS pensions, that COLA'd pension is probably still far better than 98% of other Americans' retirement incomes, but they also will get Social Security, so they should be sitting pretty.

The lack of a pension is one of the reasons I'm waiting until age 70 to start collecting Social Security. I want to maximize the monthly amount.

 

[Midpack]

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.

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…

 

[Love This Community]

2 small Corporate pensions $1200 per month. I need two more years at the current company to be vested in pension plan (~$500 per month). All are non COLA’d and I am hoping they will be around when I am eligible to realize the benefits. I’m currently 42 years old.

 

[rodi]

I have two pensions.... But they are so small they hardly count.

One was frozen in 2000, isn't cola'd, and pays out $135/mo.
The other was frozen in 2007, isn't cola'd, and pays out $335/mo.

Hardly life changing or something to count on to survive.. but they pay the utility bills.

DH has no pension. He is collecting SS. I've got several years before I'll collect SS.

 

[iloveyoga]

We both have pensions from our jobs, me at a financial services company, and my DH at a utility company.

 

[stepford]

No pension. I've sometimes felt that there should be parallel forums for folks w/pensions and those without...

I think you put the dividing line in the wrong place. Early retirees with "mini-pensions" have most of the same concerns as those without. All the lessons about AA, SWR, SORR and all the other lovely investing acronyms we toss around here are equally relevant to these folks. The little bit of stable income certainly helps, but establishing, growing and spending from their nest eggs is a key component of their retirements too. Only those fully supported by pension income seem to be in a different category where these lessons don't really apply.