Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[Frankenkubota]

No doubt some sweet deals are closed to new hires...

Several of the Unions have two tier plans... old and new depending on hire date.

The sweetest plan I know is my city police officers... retirement is tied to what the current rank pays which means there are some retired LEOs that have city pensions now paying 2.5 times higher than highest earning years.... the last of these under the old rules recently retired... plus lifetime medical incl vision...

My fil of 25 years was a retired fireman and got on that ride. The whole family worked for the govt, like a family business, without the risk! he made much more in retirement than while working. he worked in a small town and told me, he had only been to 2 real fires in his entire career. mostly inspections.

there is a zip code in NY city area that has a disproportionate number of retired cops and firemen. way outta wack. some reporter started sniffing around and found many, if not most, are on disability.

i don't know if it's true but i've read, a few times, cops and firefighters are the worst abusers of disability.

shrink the govt!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

No doubt some sweet deals are closed to new hires...

Several of the Unions have two tier plans... old and new depending on hire date.

The sweetest plan I know is my city police officers... retirement is tied to what the current rank pays which means there are some retired LEOs that have city pensions now paying 2.5 times higher than highest earning years.... the last of these under the old rules recently retired... plus lifetime medical incl vision...

If the unions were stronger, most people would have deals like that, plus better working conditions.

 

[dirttoys]

do you have any problem buying something on amazon?

that's complex also except amazon reaps a reward for making it so simple. govt, just the opposite, status quo, make it worse, more jobs.

your comment reenforces my recurring comment.....tell me 1 thing the govt does well.

it's to their advantage to keep it complex.

it is what it is

shrink the govt? not a chance

I think we have similar views, unless I missed the disagreement?

The government does a fair job of the few things it should do, I guess build a military would be my example. As inefficient as it is, still the best.

Best,

ed

Best,

ed

 

[Jstpssng]

i was going to make the point that we

never run out of money for hurricanes

we never run out of money for forest fires

we never run out of money for defense

we sure ain't never gonna run outta money for the federal pension employees and benefits program

we never run outta money for food stamps and the entire welfare culture

never run outta money for medicare/cade

But......my entire adult life i've heard....we are gonna run outtamoney for SS.

I still find it insulting that a federal program, SS, is run by a bunch of federal employees that get a special deal. They must be better than the rest of us.

At some point though our credit rating is bound to change, along with our standing in the international community. China is poised to become the new world leader and all of those debts we’ve run up are bound to come due. If I managed my finances the way the government does I would be in prison.

 

[goeduck]

i have 2 friends retired from post office and he told me they are on a completely different retirement plan than SS.

I will ask him.

I thought you were referencing federal House and Senate Members and that IS THE CASE with them. By keeping their golden parachutes in place they demonstrate that they think they are better than any if us.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

do you have any problem buying something on amazon?

that's complex also except amazon reaps a reward for making it so simple. govt, just the opposite, status quo, make it worse, more jobs.

your comment reenforces my recurring comment.....tell me 1 thing the govt does well.

it's to their advantage to keep it complex.

it is what it is

shrink the govt? not a chance

I thought government employment was rising slower than the population, and much slower than the economy.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/10/art3full.pdf

 

[RickB]

I thought you were referencing federal House and Senate Members and that IS THE CASE with them. By keeping their golden parachutes in place they demonstrate that they think they are better than any if us.

Their pensions are no different than a USPS employee hired the same day as your federal official of choice was sworn in. RickB

 

[dirttoys]

Their pensions are no different than a USPS employee hired the same day as your federal official of choice was sworn in. RickB

Congressional members are eligible for their own unique pension plans under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), though there are other retirement benefits available, ranging from Social Security and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).4 Currently, members of Congress are eligible for a pension dependent on the member's age at retirement, length of service, and salary.5 The pension value can be up to 80% of the member's final salary.6 Since 2009 Congressional pay has been $174,000 per year, which, at an 80% rate, equates to a lifelong pension benefit of $139,200.7 All benefits are taxpayer-funded.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Congressional members are eligible for their own unique pension plans under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), though there are other retirement benefits available, ranging from Social Security and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).4 Currently, members of Congress are eligible for a pension dependent on the member's age at retirement, length of service, and salary.5 The pension value can be up to 80% of the member's final salary.6 Since 2009 Congressional pay has been $174,000 per year, which, at an 80% rate, equates to a lifelong pension benefit of $139,200.7 All benefits are taxpayer-funded.

Looks like we get what we pay for...

 

[RickB]

Congressional members are eligible for their own unique pension plans under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), though there are other retirement benefits available, ranging from Social Security and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).4 Currently, members of Congress are eligible for a pension dependent on the member's age at retirement, length of service, and salary.5 The pension value can be up to 80% of the member's final salary.6 Since 2009 Congressional pay has been $174,000 per year, which, at an 80% rate, equates to a lifelong pension benefit of $139,200.7 All benefits are taxpayer-funded.

No Federal employee including members of Congress are eligible for both FERS and CSRS. FERS is nothing more than a defined benefit plan whose rules and formulae are consistent for all Federal Civilian employees hired or elected at the same time.

 

[dirttoys]

No Federal employee including members of Congress are eligible for both FERS and CSRS. FERS is nothing more than a defined benefit plan whose rules and formulae are consistent for all Federal Civilian employees hired or elected at the same time.

good grief, here is the wiki link, i would take their deal. take a look at the opt outs, interesting a couple of guys practice what they preach.

Congressional pension - Wikipedia

rp opt out

Ron Paul refuses to participate in "immoral" pension system

 

[RickB]

good grief, here is the wiki link, i would take their deal. take a look at the opt outs, interesting a couple of guys practice what they preach.

Congressional pension - Wikipedia

rp opt out

Ron Paul refuses to participate in "immoral" pension system

Funny, I don't see anything there that conflicts with my post.

 

[goeduck]

Looks like we get what we pay for...

Looks like THEY get what we pay for...

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Looks like THEY get what we pay for...

I stand corrected.

 

[dirttoys]

Funny, I don't see anything there that conflicts with my post.

Because of the uncertain tenure of congressional service, FERS was originally designed, as CSRS had been, to provide a larger benefit for each year of service to Members of Congress and congressional staff than to most other federal employees.

some of the advantages were leveled in 2012 (maybe that is your point?).

 

[Frankenkubota]

At some point though our credit rating is bound to change, along with our standing in the international community. China is poised to become the new world leader and all of those debts we’ve run up are bound to come due. If I managed my finances the way the government does I would be in prison.

i can't imagin how the debt, theirs or ours, will ever "come due". I just wonder how long everyone can keep rolling the old debt into new debt. that's an industry onto itself.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

i can't imagin how the debt, theirs or ours, will ever "come due". I just wonder how long everyone can keep rolling the old debt into new debt. that's an industry onto itself.

Governments inflate their way out of debt. The Roman Empire recalled their coinage three times, melted it down, mixed it with dross metal, and re-issued the coinage. After the third time, there was almost no gold or silver left in the coins. The US has already done that with our coinage. Even the copper penny is zinc with a copper wash.

The dollar has already lost 90% of its value in the last century. Do that again and public debt will look pretty manageable. The trick is to do it slow enough that the frog doesn't jump out of the pot.

 

[Doofy]

Samuel L Clemens would be impressed with your frog analogy. Very apt.

 

[newbury]

I thought government employment was rising slower than the population, and much slower than the economy.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/10/art3full.pdf

That link is dated 1981.
Back about that time the management started a push into contracting everything. By about 1990 the started contracting out research big time.
I worked my 37 years in an Army Research lab.
By 1995 we had our lab "seats" filled with contractors. By 2000 most of what was being done was contracted out. Often to contractors that made promises but not results.
But "government management" success was often judged by the size of the program, not the results.
To truly judge government employment one should include ALL contractors.

 

[California]

At some point though our credit rating is bound to change, along with our standing in the international community. China is poised to become the new world leader and all of those debts we’ve run up are bound to come due.

No argument with that but China also has problems related to debt.

China Evergrande onshore bond trading suspended after downgrade

China Evergrande Group's (3333.HK) main unit, Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd, applied on Thursday to suspend trading of its onshore corporate bonds following a downgrade, as the country's No.2 property developer wrestles with a liquidity crisis.

www.reuters.com

I've followed this story for a couple of days. In summary Evergrande is a huge conglomerate invested in construction, EV's, phones, and a lot of other big categories. At the moment they have $300B in bond debt and will default on the quarterly interest payment to the bondholders because their 1200 active construction projects aren't yet finished and earning rental revenue - to oversimplify a little.

Individual bondholders were picketing in front of their HQ which made the news, but the professional bond traders are where the real anxiety is. Some bonds have a provision to come due immediately if an interest payment is missed. Their bonds are trading a quarter or less compared to recent prices, with fear that a liquidation of the debt wouldn't recover more than that, eventually, for the creditors. My speculation is their trade creditors - plumbers, trucking, steel, glass etc for the buildings won't get paid either so the fallout will be a lot larger than just bond buyers. And the EV, phone, etc companies where they own part of that subsidiary may fail for lack of a deep-pockets investor as those companies atempt to grow.

Speculation is the government of China won't bail them out to save the economy as was done here in 2008 so this could be a hard crash that affects China's economy in general and also affects other nations.

China's economy will continue to grow compared to the US but it won't be a smooth continuous upward trend.