You MUST Sign 😉

[Dr. Huk-N-Duck]

I think you would find the historical documentary of the contractor situation more interesting than my own personal account.

To the best of my memory, the reason they had some leverage in getting people to sign was because they claimed that the operations contractor was changing, which is true, and therefore our years of service would no longer continue to add towards our pension accrual. What that effectively meant was that with somebody who only had 16-17 years of service as in my case (and my future years of employment with a new contractor would not add to those numbers) the small pension that would be paid out, would not be as effective as the money in hand at the moment. I didn’t do any kind of numbers crunch to verify the validity of that.

The lump sum is almost always grabbed by employees. People can’t resist the thought of that new sports car or kitchen remodel or not having their kid take out college loans. They look at what looks like a paltry monthly pension and then compare with the immediate cash and it’s too much to resist. However, it’s the absolute worst decision to take the fast cash instead of the small pension. The one exception would be if the employee has a health condition which would preclude the necessity of the long term pension.

 

[abcaines]

Cool, care to share?

While I was in my late twenties/early thirties, I was talked into signing up for two different IRAs. One was a company 401k, the other was a private one. I ended up contributing to the 401k just enough to be fairly well vested; maybe 60-80%... Can't remember. The other I kept getting statements but it floundered for several years losing more than it was making. I acquired another 401k along the way... I wanted to roll my accounts over but fees, etc were prohibitive. Not long after Mrs. abcaines and I got married, I met a financial advisor at a gun show who had a different fee structure that while more up front, those would be the only fees. I said what the heck and rolled everything over. This was at the bottom of the market after the 2008 crash. I rolled less than 10k. That first year after the rollover, my account gained something like 40%! That even counted the initial fee. My advisor then talked me into rolling $1500 from my 401k into a Roth, pay the taxes on that amount then start a monthly deduction of just $50 into that Roth. I said, "sure." A year later, he asked me if I missed that $50/month and I said I didn't. He said, "Good, now bump it up a bit." I did. I then rolled more into the Roth each year expecting to pay taxes on it but more often than not, because of my tax bracket, it didn't affect my tax liability. Long story short, by the end of 2021, my holdings were well over $60k. That even took into consideration the market tanking in 2020. Sadly, 2022 was a rough year, thank you Joe... I've recovered about half of my losses over 2023 but last I looked, things were going back down.

Mrs. abcaines is hanging up her apron in May. She's going to start social security at 62. I plan to keep working till I'm eligible for Medicare in six years. We're in the process of establishing a post retirement budget so we can live on my income and her social security. We don't want to touch her 401k Even though it's quite a bit bigger than mine. We want to try to make it on our incomes then after we're both retired, use our savings as "fun money". The house is paid off and we're putting money into home improvements up until she retires. When I retire from the school district, I'll have a small state pension. I work in Idaho and the state pension is a very well managed one... so far.

 

[Dr. Huk-N-Duck]

This might help clarify some questions as well: https://www.upcounsel.com/at-will-employment-states

 

[ALAYMAN]

While I was in my late twenties/early thirties, I was talked into signing up for two different IRAs. One was a company 401k, the other was a private one. I ended up contributing to the 401k just enough to be fairly well vested; maybe 60-80%... Can't remember. The other I kept getting statements but it floundered for several years losing more than it was making. I acquired another 401k along the way... I wanted to roll my accounts over but fees, etc were prohibitive. Not long after Mrs. abcaines and I got married, I met a financial advisor at a gun show who had a different fee structure that while more up front, those would be the only fees. I said what the heck and rolled everything over. This was at the bottom of the market after the 2008 crash. I rolled less than 10k. That first year after the rollover, my account gained something like 40%! That even counted the initial fee. My advisor then talked me into rolling $1500 from my 401k into a Roth, pay the taxes on that amount then start a monthly deduction of just $50 into that Roth. I said, "sure." A year later, he asked me if I missed that $50/month and I said I didn't. He said, "Good, now bump it up a bit." I did. I then rolled more into the Roth each year expecting to pay taxes on it but more often than not, because of my tax bracket, it didn't affect my tax liability. Long story short, by the end of 2021, my holdings were well over $60k. That even took into consideration the market tanking in 2020. Sadly, 2022 was a rough year, thank you Joe... I've recovered about half of my losses over 2023 but last I looked, things were going back down.

Mrs. abcaines is hanging up her apron in May. She's going to start social security at 62. I plan to keep working till I'm eligible for Medicare in six years. We're in the process of establishing a post retirement budget so we can live on my income and her social security. We don't want to touch her 401k Even though it's quite a bit bigger than mine. We want to try to make it on our incomes then after we're both retired, use our savings as "fun money". The house is paid off and we're putting money into home improvements up until she retires. When I retire from the school district, I'll have a small state pension. I work in Idaho and the state pension is a very well managed one... so far.

Hey, for nearly 40 years, I’ve heard numerous people talk about politics and frame their conversation purely in economic terms, “Read my lips…. No new taxes.” and stuff like that. I’ve always voted on social and moral terms first, economic secondary. In all of those years I’ve never personally seen more economic difficulty than I have under Joe Biden. For three years straight it’s been nothing but losses in my 401(k), and I am a conservative investor. Bidenomics, reminds me of that other old political and economics saying, that one about a giant sucking sound.

Glad to hear though that you have a good plan for your retirement brother.

 

[ALAYMAN]

The lump sum is almost always grabbed by employees. People can’t resist the thought of that new sports car or kitchen remodel or not having their kid take out college loans. They look at what looks like a paltry monthly pension and then compare with the immediate cash and it’s too much to resist. However, it’s the absolute worst decision to take the fast cash instead of the small pension. The one exception would be if the employee has a health condition which would preclude the necessity of the long term pension.

Yeah, the irony there is that I’ve never been one to get sidetracked by economic decisions of an impetuous sort, and that kind of thinking did not factor in my decision in this case. I just simply didn’t take into consideration the severe impact that rising costs of medical insurance would have on my ability to retire.

 

[Ekklesian]

The lump sum is almost always grabbed by employees. People can’t resist the thought of that new sports car or kitchen remodel or not having their kid take out college loans. They look at what looks like a paltry monthly pension and then compare with the immediate cash and it’s too much to resist. However, it’s the absolute worst decision to take the fast cash instead of the small pension. The one exception would be if the employee has a health condition which would preclude the necessity of the long term pension.

I cashed out my 401K when Obama was elected, and haven't had an account since. Thought I'd made a huge mistake, when Trump was elected. But, seeing what was done during covid, and the 2020 election, and now with the astronomical debt and the spectre of another world war, I think it was the right one. This debt is going to wipe everyone out eventually.