Pensions

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My Dad has been saying that the republicians are trying to eliminate pensions.

I think this is laughable. They expect people who can't pay their credit card bills and manage their money to manage an investment portfolio?

They're in the back pockets of Wall Street to make them rich and screw the public.

Anybody work for the gub'ment and have a pension?
 
Politicians are always trying to mess with people's pensions one way or another, sometimes it is republicans and other times it is democrats. I have a pension, or rather will in about 19 years when I retire. Once I work 25 years I can retire and I work in a high-risk job so I get more of a percentage than someone working a non-risky job, so to speak. That is if there is even a retirement in 19 years, who knows. :lol:
 
Seriously though, yes they want to get rid of pensions. They cost way more to a company/organization than a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan because the burden falls entirely on the company. With a pension, a company pays for it all and has all the risk. With a defined contribution plan, employees contribute, and many employees don't contribute at all because they are stupid. And many defined contribution plans don't even have employer matches any more; if they do, they don't cost as much to the employer as a pension. And with a 401(k), the money gets put mostly in the stock market, right where rich assholes want peons' money to go.

And no, they don't expect people who can't pay their credit card bills and manager their money to manage their investment portfolio. And that's just the way they like it for the reasons mentioned above. They want to keep the poor poor and working for the rest of their lives, and their Derpublican constituents are too stupid to realize this.

My company audits employee benefit plans of companies, schools, and nonprofits. Most of them, probably well over a dozen, are 401(k)s or 403(b)s. We have 1-2 healthcare plans we audit. And then ONE pension plan which has been closed by the employer since the last audit.
 
[quote name='Msut77']They want the states to go bankrupt so they can go after public employees pensions and benefits.[/QUOTE]

Let them take my pension, they can get lesser qualified people to "guard" the pretrial detainees that we house. :bomb:
 
[quote name='Msut77']They want the states to go bankrupt so they can go after public employees pensions and benefits.[/QUOTE]

There isn't any "want", it is already happening.
 
I had a pension as an option, but went for the higher ed version of a 401K instead.

1. Pension is useless unless I stay in this state university system permanently, and that's pretty unlikely. So I wanted something I could easily roll over if/when I move jobs/states.

2. I don't trust a state pension to not vanish by the 30+ years down the road that I retire.

Pensions are just a terrible idea in my opinion. Just silly for companies (or governments) to be paying people after they retire. 401K type retirement plans they contribute to while the person is working for them are much better to me--both for the employees and the employers.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']401K type retirement plans they contribute to while the person is working for them are much better to me--both for the employees and the employers.[/QUOTE]

Vesting, have you heard of it?

Most 401(k)s only let you keep the employer portion after you've worked there a certain number of years, on a prorated basis (ex 20% after 2 years, 40% after 3, etc).
 
Mine's not like that. As I said, it's not a 401k, just a similar type of mutual fund offered through TIAA/CREF in higher ed.

I've already rolled it over once from one university (where I had a faculty research position while finishing my Ph D) and kept 100% of it--both employer contributions and my contributions.

That's one of the perks of academic jobs, being state jobs the retirement benefits are usually pretty damn good. Currently my university contributes 9.7% of my paycheck and I contribute 5% (can't go up or down from that). No vesting etc., the money is 100% mine.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Mine's not like that. As I said, it's not a 401k, just a similar type of mutual fund offered through TIAA/CREF in higher ed.

I've already rolled it over once from one university (where I had a faculty research position while finishing my Ph D) and kept 100% of it--both employer contributions and my contributions.

That's one of the perks of academic jobs, being state jobs the retirement benefits are usually pretty damn good. Currently my university contributes 9.7% of my paycheck and I contribute 5% (can't go up or down from that). No vesting etc., the money is 100% mine.[/QUOTE]

Nothing is 100% until it's in your hands.
 
Well of course you have to hit retirement age etc. to withdraw without penalty etc.

Just saying I don't have to stay at my job any amount of time to keep all the money in the account etc. I can roll 100% of the balance over to other accounts when moving universities etc.

Unlike the pension option where you have to work for 20+ years to get any of it (30 years to get max payments--60% of final years salary per year) and can't roll it over anywhere if you want to leave the state.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Well of course you have to hit retirement age etc. to withdraw without penalty etc.

Just saying I don't have to stay at my job any amount of time to keep all the money in the account etc. I can roll 100% of the balance over to other accounts when moving universities etc.

Unlike the pension option where you have to work for 20+ years to get any of it (30 years to get max payments--60% of final years salary per year) and can't roll it over anywhere if you want to leave the state.[/QUOTE]

Yeah mine cannot be rolled into anything as far as I am aware. The only good part about it being high-risk is I get 75% of the highest five years of my earnings. I believe it is 75%, may be more I am not sure, I have 19 more years to worry about it, not now.
 
Many companies are opting out of pensions - they're just too much of a long term liability.
And yes, as the employee you're hoping/expecting that money and the company to be there, 20, 30, 40 years down the road.
My company stopped contributing to the pension about two years back. The good thing is, unlike at some companies, you kept any pension balance you had already earned, instead of it fizzling into thin air. They've upped the 401k match and gave everyone a certain dollar amount based on years of service to invest in the 401k [which has lots of diversity and manageability] in place of a pension.

Personally, I think it's laughable for anyone in government - legislative or executive, any party - to have any say in how citizens manage their money. Even apart from the constitutional/freedom of choice issues, this Congress has racked up brobdignagian expenditures and everyone has their hands on the firehose of money. At least the average citizen is only in hock for a house, car, some credit cards.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']They cost way more to a company/organization than a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan because the burden falls entirely on the company.[/quote]
Depends on how you look at it. If it is looked at as deferred compensation then the "burden" would be that the entity continues to pay its workers. I don't see how it's different than salary.
With a pension, a company pays for it all and has all the risk.
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Slow that train down, sister. As an employee accruing a pension, let me tell ya that I'm bearing significant risk here. I'm essentially an unsecured creditor to a "company" whose CEO is an elected politician. That's the definition of risk and I can't even hedge my position. How do you long short a governmental entity?

Just sayin.
 
[quote name='speedracer']]

Slow that train down, sister. As an employee accruing a pension, let me tell ya that I'm bearing significant risk here. I'm essentially an unsecured creditor to a "company" whose CEO is an elected politician. That's the definition of risk and I can't even hedge my position. How do you long short a governmental entity?

Just sayin.[/QUOTE]

I'm talking about the financial liability. The employer pays for 100% of a pension if it is paid out. 401(k)s require both employee and employer for the most part.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']I'm talking about the financial liability. The employer pays for 100% of a pension if it is paid out. 401(k)s require both employee and employer for the most part.[/QUOTE]

/me grabs a bowl of popcorn and enjoys the debate
 
[quote name='Jabrim']Yeah mine cannot be rolled into anything as far as I am aware. [/QUOTE]

Yeah, being able to rollover is key in academia if you have any ambition as moving up in this field requires being fairly nomadic. It's hard to land a top job out of grad school, so you usually start off at lower tier universities and have to work your way up.
 
goddamn this thread is like troll potential city i had to sit on my hands except to type out this (well not the quote part tee hee)

[quote name='Jabrim']Once I work 25 years I can retire and I work in a high-risk job so I get more of a percentage than someone working a non-risky job, so to speak.[/QUOTE]

what do you do
 
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[quote name='cochesecochese']goddamn this thread is like troll potential city i had to sit on my hands except to type out this (well not the quote part tee hee)



what do you do[/QUOTE]

Work at a jail as a corrections officer.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Just silly for companies (or governments) to be paying people after they retire. 401K type retirement plans they contribute to while the person is working for them are much better to me--both for the employees and the employers.[/QUOTE]
:applause: Exactly. Why should the government workers employers(the taxpayers) keep paying them to sit on their ass and knit or fish after they retire when all those taxpayers get is Social (In)Security and the piddily amount after Medi-Care and any 'supplemental' insurance plans take their unfair share.

This goes double for the 'career' politicians who simply choose to 'retire' once they're ousted in an election, typically drawing down five and six figure retirement benefits that their constituents would kill for.
 
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