"You pay into both? But you will only collect one, right? That dampens the return pretty substantially.
In my state, state workers don’t pay FICA. How did you guys wind up in that situation?"
That would be completely unfair if they had to pay into FICA and not collect it. I hope they get SS also.
H was offered more for several private jobs but declined–better work/life balance, he was satisfied with benefits and pay, and he liked his job a lot, including most of his coworkers. He’s not contributed to SS and won’t get any, only his pension.
If you are a teacher in eastern MA and spend your career here, you will end up with a pension of $80K+. All it takes is getting to $100K for your last three years, and with 35-40 years of seniority + accelerators for advanced degrees it’s not that hard.
I think teachers here make a lot compared to many if not most other places, though. The average state pension is in the $30-ish, although I don’t think that number includes the health insurance that the state provides. I can’t think of any of the state/local workers I know that worked to anything close to FRA, although admittedly my sample size is not that large.
The maximum SS you can get at age 67, which is my FRA, is $30K. That’s if you made the FICA max your entire career.
Worry not. Most folks in this thread are not a normal cross section of American. Many of us here are fortunate and have enough retirement funds that we need to make decisions of how to make best use of it. However I think the more typical situation is that couples expect SS (w/o savings) will be enough … and sometimes it is, if their expenses are low enough.
I can collect both ss and my pension since I pay into both.
As per health insurance all retirees go on medicare at 65 so the State picks up the gap insurance not the full hc cost at that point
As per DStarks post I agree 100%. My family and friends in the private sector have much better compensation packages than those in the public sector. My nieces and nephews in the 25-30 age group that work in the private sector are already making 2 to 2.5 times the income of those of us in the public sector who have worked over 35 years.
My situation is unique as all my family and friends are doing well both in the public and private work force.
DH is a current fed employee under FERS, which is the current plan available. He will get a pension (will be about 30% of high-three average pay, based on 30 years of service). He contributes a small amount towards that (one percent, I believe). If he kicks the bucket before I do, I’d get 50% of his pension, reduced for the actuarial cost of a Joint and Survivor annuity. If I go first, I think he can opt for a single life with XX number of years guaranteed, which would give some benefit to our beneficiaries if DH did not survived the guaranteed benefit period. He didn’t contribute anything towards retirement until he joined the gov’t at age 37, so he has been trying to catch up. Had to pay student loans, day care and save for a house payment before that.
He also puts $$ into his 401(k), a portion of which gets a matching contribution. He also pays into SS. My understanding is that fed employees who were on board prior to 1984 (IIRC) are under CSRS, which was a more generous pension, but no Social Security.
If he were to go to the private sector, he’d significantly increase his salary, as he is a pretty influential policymaker in his corner of the universe. Instead, he stays in the gov’t because he loves what he does, feels he’s making a real difference, and works 60-70 hours/week (plus 2 hr daily commute).
I have an IRA with all of my previous plan benefits rolled into it. I think I will take SS at 62 because the odds are not with me for longevity. DH would probably wait til 70.
" I think I will take SS at 62 because the odds are not with me for longevity."
I truly hope you are wrong about that. 
Thanks to those who share this matter with me again.
anxiousmom, If I remember it correctly, you sent either one or two of your kids to to private colleges (including one to grad school as well.) Your family has handled your financial matters well in my book. Prop to you!
IxnayBob, Thanks for explaining this phrase, “Prop to you”, to me. I actually first learned this song “Respect” from my S’s band - I think he was a sophomore at that time and had switched to his new instrument (his choice, not mine) for about 3 years. Just for the fun of it, I share their recording back in their early college years - It was not a very good recording (I heard it was recorded by a young kid who did it spontaneously.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1gMccxBZQ
(I remember it just because, whenever I miss my now young adult son, I would often look up some of his old recordings mostly in his early college years, on the Internet.)
All these band members are now in their new chapters of lives: One is in the music career now – in a band called Pentatonics (Texas, our home state, represents!) which got their band off the ground because of the “sing-off” show. He is not that singer in the above video. The singer in the above link is working for some charity serving the poor - homeless included. (She actually forfeited a lucrative $$$ career in law firms in NYC, as I believe.)
Sorry about the tangent here because this is supposedly a more serious thread.
“Sorry about the tangent here because this is supposedly a more serious thread.”
Not necessarily. There are plenty of tangents, and plenty of ridiculous on here. If you can’t enjoy yourself, what’s the point, anyways! 
Busdriver, I hope so, too!
Yea, my docs have given up trying to predict my future health. It was very bleak 15 years ago but their gloomy predictions didn’t come true (despite the confirmed diagnosis if serious progressive chronic health condition), so they don’t know if I may have a very long life, as my folks are pretty healthy and great uncle died at 107. I’m trying to live in the moment while saving for a potentially very long life. Fortunately, H has a pension that will last his life and drop to 55% if I survive him. That will help significantly.
@mcat2, small world, Pentatonics is one of my kids’ favorite bands.
@rockvillemom, I just saw your post about living off of SS when you retire. Especially since you and your H are 6 yers apart, the “file and suspend”, then take the spousal benefit seems like an ideal approach for you. If you’re not familiar with it, check it out.
You know Kevin Olusola??? He is freakishly talented.
Pentatonix is one of my favorite bands.
very jealous
First off, I want to commend the people on this thread who are thinking and planning for retirement. No need to get discouraged (sending an encouraging message to you @rockvillemom !), because you can improve your retirement situation by the things you do between now and then. Being able to adapt to the changing paradigm can help make the small and larger decisions that can make a difference in quality of life as you age.
There are many things that happen to all of us along the way that will impact our ability to retire or our retirement years - medical, having secured the right kind of insurance when able and available, paradigm changes with things out of our control like pension structure, company benefit changes, union changes, company sold and changes, etc. Instead of dwelling on what could have been, what others have, etc, look at what you can do today and moving forward to improve your situation.
Some on this thread are seeing retirees from some years ago doing better with their pension package, guaranteed low cost health insurance, etc. A HS classmate (now 59) was able to retire at age 50 with auto union benefits; she has since picked up doing PT work explaining union benefits to assist them in the process (and this works because they can trust her more than someone that was not in their shoes) - she has the personality, enjoys helping people, enjoys being productive (you can only golf so much) - lives in two states as snow bird.
H and my financial security will be best with H working until we both qualify for medicare (our birthdays are only a few months apart, which helps with that plan). So these last few years before retirement will pay off our home. We plan to downsize as we may want to live two places, near family at both.
H’s job security was key during my cancer treatment days - which began when I was 53 and kids were in 8th and 10th grades; we were limited with paying deductible and max family out of pocket costs for 4 years - which each year was less than one round of my chemo or IV treatment. In addition to multiple surgeries, I had 30 separate IV treatments which crossed 3 calendar years (16 chemo combinations - always had two drugs; additional 14 Herceptin which is a biologic drug which works great for her-2 positive breast cancer patients like me). Being declared cancer free after being in stage III disease was all we could hope for, and feel blessed - now to continue cancer free; made if 5 years and looking forward to 10+.
Everyone on this thread can do things to continue to stay healthy or do things to be healthier. It doesn’t guarantee longevity, but may reduce health care costs and improve quality of life.
Having enough money for living well enough. Some see moving to a area where their retirement dollars will stretch farther and perhaps better climate. Some of the best things are ‘free’ like having a positive attitude.
Some can and want to help their children/grandchildren in the ways they want and can.
H and I are just finishing up the financial areas (told H we need to set up a fund for each DD to use as they want - for wedding if and when that time comes, or however they want to use - since he only has brothers he failed to think about that $$ pot!) Our fund will no where be the wedding average (over $31,000 according to Time The Answers Issue July6 and 13 double issue). Looking to put that fund in place after we sell our primary residence - and maybe fund over 2 years to avoid gift tax. Loved the CC thread where the engagement party became the wedding party!
Less than 6 months and counting
Way to go, DocT! Hopefully the time will fly right by.
Texas teachers will be contributing more and retiring later:
Since the GPO/WEP provisions passed by the federal government about 8-10 years ago, we gradually lose any SS we may have been entitled to on our own record or as spouses as we work more years under the teacher retirement system. I think this is fair, it’s just something else to factor in.
Also changed this year - retirees under 62 can no longer elect the higher tier health plans.
I believe DS likely hang out with KO quite frequently in college. (somehow his friends called him KO as I heard.) This is likely due to the fact that they happen to have a lot of overlaps in their chosen activities. Just on top of my head: the same religious group, two of the same clubs, sharing a similar interest, the same class year, and lived in the same residential college. They went out of town performing music as a group for some charity purposes several times a year as far as I now. (At one time maybe even over a long weekend, several hundreds of miles away.)
I once saw a video showing a group of them (4?) were performing in a street corner (somehow, as I heard, they believe musicians should have some experience being “street musicians/artists” performing in a corner of a busy street. Not sure whether they asked for “donation” from people - If yes, it would be funny because at least two of them (including KO) have physicians as parents and none of them are really starving musicians/artists. (But KO seems to be closest to that drummer in their band.)
Totally unrelated to “money issues” here!
I agree with what you posted. Thanks for sharing your perspective. H and I are about 4 years behind you and your H in age and the economic landscape facing new physicians is much different today than from when H came out. Interestingly, among H’s large group, very few children of his colleagues are prospective doctors. As it was on my mind when D was applying to colleges last fall, we noted that just one young woman among all the children who have finished college is a physician and she is doing a surgical residency. So, that’s very interesting. The rest of the children, many of whom I’ve known since they were babies or in preschool (!), along with our D, are pursuing different interests and careers.
The good thing also is that, for many years now, women physicians (including most who are in my H’s group) are able to practice part time in order to balance their family obligations if they so choose.