H’s employer had both a pension & a 6% 401k match. When they froze the pension, they cut out the match. Employees stayed with this company for their entire career because of the benefits. They often could have been paid better elsewhere, but benefits were a big draw. Today, employees at the company don’t stay for 40+ years the way they used to.
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FERS TSP match is 100% of the first three % in employee contributions, then 50% match for the next 2% in employee contributions. There’s also a 1% agency contribution made, regardless of participation in the TSP.
My employer matched 50% of the first three % of my contributions, then made a top-heavy contribution of another 3%, which participants got whether or not they contributed to the 401k. (The top-heavy contrib applies when owners who own more than 5% of the company hold more than 60% of plan assets.) I’m getting into the geeky weeds here, so I’ll stop at this point. 
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It depends upon what you negotiate. My company gave us a pension (that was supposed to be 50% of our salary, but was capped many years ago before pay increased). They matched only a measly $500, but also contributed 9% of our salaries to our retirement B fund, that we invested just like our 401Ks.
I’m guessing that if a company is successful enough to still offer a pension, they might easily do a 401K match also.
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I worked for one of the largest US insurance/financial services companies between 1988 and 2000. They had a 401K plan, with a company match though I don’t remember the amount, and an Employee Savings Plan. The ESP automatically invested after-tax dollars. I participated in both. When I left the company the ESP was rolled over into a Roth IRA and the 401K into a traditional IRA.
I will be 65 in a few months and just got a letter from the company advising me that my pension will begin in the month after I turn 65. I’m not sure I ever knew it existed but I certainly had no idea 23 years later. It’s not a huge amount but will cover both H and my Medicare expenses with some leftover. I am very lucky.
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And I just got a letter from one of my accounts telling me I might have to take RMD in 2024. My financial planner and I think we already have the full RMD covered with the withdrawals I’m currently getting…from other accounts…but we will need to review this when we see him next.
Both H and I retired from state jobs after 33 years and we get about 60% previous salary, are eligible for social security and can continue our state health plan insurance until 65 when it becomes supplemental to medicare. Feeling fortunate after years of feeling underpaid. No 401k match. Mandatory % paid into system so for about 5 years we’re getting our own money back. System changed in 2012 so we are among the last to get these benefits.
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I have a sibling who worked for different county governments for close to 40 years by the time she retired. I know she gets pensions from a couple of systems plus social security. She gets close to her full salary but she could have made much more in salary in the private sector. From one of the jobs she gets a great supplement plan but it isn’t inexpensive.
Those look like pretty great retirement benefits.
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Pretty decent, but the value of the pension is declining, since they don’t adjust for inflation. It was a great deal when people’s salaries were lower, but now it only ends up being about 1/3 of our ending salary, not 50%. We were fortunate to be with one of the only airlines who still offered pensions, but now some of the other airlines are offering a much better company contribution in lieu of pension. So in the end, I guess you never know how it will work out, but unionized work sure does pay better benefits than many jobs.
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Solidarity forever!
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Yup. The union members at H’s company did lose a little when salaried lost a lot, but not nearly as much as the union members. My friend was an executive, and she married a union guy. When they retired, his benefits were a lot better than hers.
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My BIL retired from the same company me and my husband worked for. The company decided to freeze all pensions for non-union employees. He is now getting a little over 2K per month, as opposed to the 7K that he’d expected. My group was the only unionized group, and our pensions were untouched. These companies all want to get rid of their pensions as fast as they can. I get it, it’s very expensive to keep paying people who aren’t on the payroll any more, but as an employee, it’s such a valuable benefit to have.
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And with ours, $2000 a month is considered a good pension amount. Not many make $7,000 at a full salary at retirement after 30 years
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My wife and I still have a ways to go before retirement, so reading this thread has been very helpful for our own planning. My wife is a teacher in a state that does not pay into SS, but using the retirement calculators, she will draw about 95% of her current salary (probably closer to 75% of her final salary after selecting 100% joint survivorship pension option). But her 2 pensions have yearly inflation adjustments which may be their most important feature.
Our home will be paid off in our early 50’s so we will be able to completely max out my 401K contributions for the 1st time (currently have about 4X my salary saved with the hope of getting to at least 15X my final salary saved by 65). I also have a small pension that was frozen early in my career (about 10% of my current salary) and I am showing that SS will replace about 35% of my current salary.
We are planning on using high yield savings accounts/HSA interest and investment earnings to pay for future medical expenses hopefully without ever touching our retirement income so we are currently working hard to grow those accounts. We have just started thinking about getting long term care insurance, but I have been hesitant with so much guaranteed income from pensions and SS coming in.
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This is a very interesting interview with Mike Piper who’s an expert on social security and developed a free calculator for the best time to claim. It clearly explains a lot of things that are often misunderstood.
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I finally got through this just now. Really good. Thanks for posting!
IMHO long term health insurance is expensive with very limited benefits - and honestly, you have the resources to ‘self insure’ for the most part. We do pay for our LTC insurance, but those policies were obtained many years ago, and we now pay for benefits less than what we originally had in order to keep the premiums low.
If you can start slowly converting funds over to Roth IRAs, that don’t bump you up in tax categories - that way you (or your heirs) will not be taxed on those funds and their growth.
We did convert some funds from 401k to Roth, and yearly now are also doing so to go with the RMDs we will be facing in the future years (we are both 67).
Most of our retirement assets are in 401k and annuities (annuities are pre-tax, paid for out of 401k rollover funds).
Key in retirement is how well the nest egg is doing, and how well one is doing health wise. With the nest egg, being in the type of investments one is comfortable with - risk/return. Sometimes some investments have more risk w/o the benefit of return matched with the risk.
So many things to take care of and think about.
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FWIW when we met w:financial advisor he suggested no long-term care insurance - thought it made more sense to self-insure.
And our retirement accounts are not huge! Have smallish pensions too.
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Thank you so much for sharing your own thoughts. I have been pretty comfortable with self insuring for years, but recently found out how much is currently spent on my wife’s Grandmother and it shocked me. It made me take a look at long care insurance. But her Grandmother has enough to self insure and believe we will be able to as well.
I have been very aggressive with my retirement funds and have averaged around 9% historically, but do my calculations at 7% just to be safe. I am very lucky that my company has a Roth 401K option that I have been putting money since its inception a few years ago and hope to have about a 60/40 split between pre-tax and post-tax 401K savings by retirement. We may also delay pulling out of my 401K until I reach RMD age, but not at the expense of not enjoying our retirement years.
I believe that health is the true X-factor, something that has factors out of our total control, so my wife and I have made a concerted effort to control the things we can control. I was diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure last March and have changed my lifestyle and eating habits to compensate. I have lost 75 lbs so far and just found out that I am no longer diabetic and my blood pressure has stabilized to where I am down to 1 pill a day. I still have about 25-30 lbs to lose, but I believe my diet and lifestyle changes are permanent.
We still have a ways to go to reach retirement (hopefully, 17 years for me and 10 years for my wife,) so it is great to hear from you and anyone who is already living the dream…
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Congratualtions on changing the game with your health! 
Join us on the fitness thread, where we all are just trying to improve our lives like you have.
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