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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Jun 26, 2017 14:43:42 GMT -5
Looking at that list I have to wonder what job, at what salary, a Cook County employee (actually many employees) had that qualified them for $250,000 pensions.
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Post by fauxmaha on Jun 26, 2017 14:52:25 GMT -5
Looking at that list I have to wonder what job, at what salary, a Cook County employee (actually many employees) had that qualified them for $250,000 pensions. Hopefully, a lot of people are asking the same question right now.
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Post by fauxmaha on Jun 26, 2017 15:08:53 GMT -5
Yeah, that's sweet. I looked up some people I know. He's a retired Jr High PE teacher. Never coached after school stuff. Did his Continuing Ed bonuses. Never went into administration. Punched the clock. Was home every day by 4:00 pm. Did his daily 3 mile run. He get's $80k. His wife went back into teaching grade school when their kids got out of elementary school. She pulls in $60k. They retired before age 60 and travel the world, taking 4 or 5 trips a year. He actually retired at age 55. Been on the dole for the last 17 years. He smiles a lot. Six or so years ago, I had a "guest editorial" published in our local paper. I made the point that, if you took the retirement cash stream that certain Omaha Police Department retirees were getting and projected it back into the equivalent lump sum that someone would have to have in their 401k to generate the same amount of income (assuming reasonable investment performance), it worked out to well over $1,000,000. Which is to say, we had guys not yet 50 years old who we had made into millionaires. These weren't leadership position type cops (Captains, etc). They were rank and file officers. Pissed off a lot of my cop friends with that one. Got a lot of positive comments from everyone else. Even our pediatrician made a point of mentioning it to me. Of course, that guy named his Mercedes after me, so he should kiss my butt a little. I think most people are more than happy to see that public employees have comfortable retirement programs, but when it gets to where it's gotten, both here and in Illinois, people start looking at things and realizing that something is very wrong.
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Post by Doug on Jun 26, 2017 15:10:37 GMT -5
Looking at that list I have to wonder what job, at what salary, a Cook County employee (actually many employees) had that qualified them for $250,000 pensions. President of the US $203,700 per year.
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Post by Marshall on Jun 26, 2017 21:59:21 GMT -5
What exacerbated the problem in IL is that State funded pensions are based on the last 5 years of salaries. So every school board would bump all the soon-to-be-retired teachers and administrators salaries up demonstratively the last couple of years. It was a short hit to their budget. But the individual school boards are not on the hook for the government portion of the pension benefit. They pay only the yearly salaries. So they all played the game and left the state with the steaming turd to eat. And of course our legislatures didn't fund the necessary $$$ or push back on the school boards for their irresponsible practises to the taxpayer. Therefore those low paying government jobs turned into some pretty handsome salaries. (Like $93k/year for a jr high PE teacher). And then when you guarantee 75% of your last salary for the rest of your life, it gets way out of whack.
They used to get free health insurance for life too. But that was found to be outside of the constitutional pension law. . . . , That's right. The pension plan is written into the state constitution. You need to hold a Constitutional Convention to change the law.
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Post by millring on Jun 27, 2017 3:16:41 GMT -5
so, what's the problem with collective bargaining with state employees?
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Post by fauxmaha on Jun 27, 2017 7:17:00 GMT -5
so, what's the problem with collective bargaining with state employees? Math, apparently.
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Post by jdd2 on Jun 27, 2017 7:57:38 GMT -5
... GRS believes the 8.00% return rate is within the reasonable range for this valuation as of July 1, 2016, but cautions... I use 5% in my planning. 8% would be a gift from god. (And I could buy everyone here a guitar or two.)
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Post by epaul on Jun 27, 2017 10:11:19 GMT -5
I just need to avoid a divorce.
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Jun 27, 2017 12:45:32 GMT -5
I just need to avoid a divorce. Is that in question?
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Post by epaul on Jun 27, 2017 14:32:20 GMT -5
No. I am a lucky guy. She likes me.
I was making a funny. But, it is a funny grounded on good sense. Da Wife is ten years younger than I am and her good salary is a key pillar of my retirement plan.
(just as my kids getting full scholarships was a key part of my "planning for college expenses" savings plan.)
So far, I would have to say my life is an embodiment of the "Better to be Lucky than Good" principle.
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