does your company have a pension plan?

[brianmanahan]

just curious, mine does but i wondered if its very common anymore

if i stay there for 25 years i can get more than social security from the penion... hmmm...

 

[Jumpem]

Mine does, but they stopped it for new hires about five years ago.

 

[uli2000]

Yes. Im in a self funded county entity (county hospital) but we get state pension benefits.

 

[Engineer]

Current company does not. First "real" job out of college had both a pension and 401k plan. The pension was froze in 2008 and was cancelled for all new hires at the same time. Unless I'm mistaken, I should get about 25% of what I was making at the time (2008) when I retire at age 62.

 

[FallenHero]

Yes, however I'm a police officer, so its not exactly a "company."

 

[Bignate603]

Kind of. They call it a pension but really its just a lump of money. When I leave the company I can chose to roll it into an annuity or take it all as a lump. The amount of the lump of money equals 5% of my average salary over the last 5 years times the number of years I worked there.

 

[Jeff7]

Nope. One of these years, we might even see another pay raise, too. :\

There is a 401k plan available though, with 50% matching of up to 4% of salary or wage (though the expense rates on the various fund options are 1.4 - 1.9%, so the company managing the plan is doing rather well), and they've been good on keeping the out-of-pocket heath insurance costs low.

 

[arcenite]

Yes

 

[Rage187]

50% match on the first 6% in my 401k

Wife works for state though so she gets both a pension and a 401k although they pay her shit.

 

[Slew Foot]

Self employed so I get absolutely squat in return.

 

[MovingTarget]

Nope. We have several 401(k) options but no pension. I can only dream about having a pension like my parents and grandparents. I know that 401(k) can have a higher rate of return, but I would rather have stability instead.

 

[Balt]

For now, yes.

In the future, probably not.

 

[Engineer]

Nope. One of these years, we might even see another pay raise, too. :\

There is a 401k plan available though, with 50% matching of up to 4% of salary or wage (though the expense rates on the various fund options are 1.4 - 1.9%, so the company managing the plan is doing rather well), and they've been good on keeping the out-of-pocket heath insurance costs low.

I have just become eligible for the Simple IRA (small company) at work and the fund choices charge between 4.5 and 5.5%. The "financial adviser" said these funds are better than the no-load funds that I can get myself. He then went on to say that I could not put money into a work plan and an IRA at the same time (bullshit: you may be phased out but it's based on AGI, not whether you have a work plan or not).

I may just put in the 3% to get the 3% match and then fully fund my and my wife's IRA's. Would be about the same amount of money overall with ZERO sales fees on the $10,000 in the IRA's (vs $500 average fees in the Simple IRA).

 

[boomhower]

Yes. Work for a city govt but get my pension through the state. We also have a pretty much unbeatable 401k deal, they pay 5%. Not a match, they just pay it. It's actually state law for my position. Other depts got pretty pissy when they found that out when the city was talking about cutting out 401k matches.

 

[vi edit]

They axed it a year ago. It wasn't much. But it was something. My wife would have got something like $1200 a month in addition to her 401k benefits.

They dumped it for new hires and stopped contributions for existing employees, but we still get something. Now it's like $400 for me a month if we stay till retirement and like $800 a month for my wife.

But since they killed it, they really beefed up the 401k plan. We used to get 50% match up to 6% (so 3% total) in addition to our contributions. Now it's 100% up to 5% and they do a service year bonus that starts at $1000 a year and goes up to $7000 a year in addition. I'm at the first tier of the bonus at 33 years old and 5 years of service. Like every ten years of combined services gets you an additional $1000 up to $7,000. Decent perk.

 

[brianmanahan]

ive heard remours of it getting dropped where i work. but if that meant the 401k match went up a decent amount... i might be in favor. right now they cap at 3%.

 

[FoBoT]

i'll go with no as i don't consider a 401k , even with some matching $ as a pension plan

 

[brianmanahan]

im surprised at how many people have pensions, i didnt think it was a common thing in this modern age

 

[SparkyJJO]

I have a simple IRA through work that is 100% matching up to 3% of my paycheck.

I want (need) to put away more for retirement, but this is at least a start. I'm not planning on SS being around by the time I retire, I just see all the money I'm paying into it as stolen from me and lost forever.

 

[Spacehead]

No pension plan.
They just did away with the 401K also because there were only 2 of us contributing to it out of ~20 employees.

 

[TheSiege]

401k. Matches 100% up to 5% and they gives you 4% no matter what. So I get 14% total for paying 5%. Best ROI I've ever seen. People with no 401K contribution get 4% just for being employed

 

[vshah]

my dad just retired and is still pulling in ~70% of his last year's salary...the good old days.

my current company axed pensions long before I joined. they do 4% match + 4% fixed deposit regardless of match, which isn't bad.

 

[edro]

I don't understand pensions. Aren't they just old school 401k?
Are/were most self funded with an employer match, just like 401k?
I assume they were prorated based on time served.

 

[midwestfisherman]

My company offers a pension plan that matches 2 for 1 up to 5% of your gross. We also have full medical, dental, and optical insurance. At my current seniority I also accrue 21.33 hours per month of PTO time to be used as I see fit. That equates to 6.4 weeks per year.

 

[Vic Vega]

I don't understand pensions. Aren't they just old school 401k?
Are/were most self funded with an employer match, just like 401k?
I assume they were prorated based on time served.

There are different types but the most common are group pensions.

You have a group of employees paying in a portion of their salary each year. When you retire, you start drawing, based on your years with the company.