Posted on 03/01/2015 8:24:16 AM PST by TurboZamboni
Marlene Nelson loved teaching, but after 35 years she was ready to retire the first chance she got. When she became eligible for her pension at age 55 because of an early-retirement incentive known as the Rule of 90, she and her husband sold their home in Glenwood, Minn., and moved someplace warm. "I really would've liked to have taught a little longer, but I just wanted to go out liking my job," Nelson said. She and her husband have spent the past four years living modestly off their two pensions in Arizona. This kind of Utopian early retirement is becoming increasingly rare. More Minnesota public employees are staying on the job longer -- a result of the struggling economy and a change in the rules for public workers who have long enjoyed incentives to leave the workforce in their late 50s. Last year, about 60 percent of new retirees from Minnesota's public workforce -- not including public safety workers -- waited until they were 62 or older to retire. Just seven years ago, that figure was 40 percent, according to data from Minnesota's three statewide public pension plans. This trend is expected to accelerate sharply. Within the next decade, there won't be any Minnesota public employees eligible for a full pension when their age and years of service add up to 90 -- known as the Rule of 90. And changes by this year's Legislature, taking effect in 2014 and 2015, will make other early-retirement options less attractive. Top that off with other problems facing nearly every soon-to-be retiree in both the public and private sectors -- declining access to employer-paid retiree health care, rising health care costs, deflated home prices and investment losses from the recent recession
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Truly the most upsetting and devastating thing I’ve read in my entire life. I’m heartsick over this.
That looks like Ron Howard’s brother. The one who had that TV series about a bear as a pet.
Just wait till the yutes of Minnersoda Merka figure out that they’re paying for Marlene Nelson’s 30-year retirement party, while they’re making a buck-298 paying off their 6-figure student loan debt as a coffee-puller at the local Starbucks...
Exactly my reaction.
"MSRS Executive Director Dave Bergstrom said one of the biggest factors causing state of Minnesota workers to delay retirement is that the post-retirement health insurance premium is $503 per month for someone under 65."
As retirement will be an unknown concept for me and millions of others who work in the real world, I have a really hard time giving a flying leap about this.
IMPOSSIBLE!
the MNSURE (Obamacares exchange) solved all this
the MNSURE (Obamacares exchange) solved all this
I know. "Free healthcare for every American," right? "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."
And some of us left Arizona because it was nauseating having to take low end jobs serving these slugs while they vegetated in the desert.
Always thought the midwest was some sort of miraculous place because the dumbest people on the planet showed up in AZ with loads of cash demanding to have their toes massaged.
It was all borrowing and massive taxation, huh?
As Thatcher said...eventually you run outta other peoples money
welcome to the real world suckholes... 
where’d you go to?
(I want to find a place where I’m not working for the state until June every year)
Politicians in DC must be the most loyal and dedicated employees in the nation. They hardly ever retire and often leave their jobs in the stiff, horizontal position. What humble, diligent public service and benefit they provide for us all. BARF......
I, personally immigrated to Texas from Los Angeles.
I worked for the State of California (which I left because I was overworked) and now many of friends from there have retired i the last few years or will shortly.
Most at 55.
My pension from there will make a nice retirement supplement but I wasn’t there that long.
California, but that was because the job was better, even though I had probably one of the best jobs in AZ when I left.
Recriminations and all that...
Seriously, Arizona is a good place to retire. Just avoid the “above ground morgues” as my father used to call them: Sun City, East Mesa.
And you want to be up and out of the Phoenix basin where it’s hot and crowded.
Anthem - North of Phoenix - is great. So is the relatively undiscovered Prescott. If you don’t mind some cold, the White Mountains in ShowLow and Pinetop are the places that lots of people in Arizona move to.
And the foothills of Tucson are still great, regardless that Tucson proper is rapidly Mexicanizing. The air base and Raytheon keep the town still American. But jobs are thin there...like I said.
I can’t say much about the East. Been to Florida a lot, not my scene...humidity, thunderstorms, speed traps. But no state income tax...
Washington State has no income tax. Lots of people retire to the Redoubt (Spokane, Liberty Lake) or to the coast: southwest of Seattle or on the Peninsula. A good gig is to live in Vancouver or Camas and shop in Portland across the bridge: no income tax on the WA side, no sales tax on the OR side. But it’s gray there all winter...
And Northern Idaho if you don’t mind it cold, but not like Montana and Wyoming. The area around Couer D’Alene is beautiful but Idaho is not a tax haven, it’s about average.
Popular in the Bay Area: move to Carson City/Reno or Incline Village. No income tax, beautiful area, next to Lake Tahoe, winters not bad. BUT, since Musk is putting the Gigafactory there, housing prices have climbed rapidly. Still can find deals in Carson City/Minden, but not like it useta be.
Those are my inputs! Lots of choices, but the West is Mexicanizing which means corrupt politicians, ridiculous taxes, crime and squalor. If you have hyper cash you can avoid it by buying in the coastal gated communities but even that can be a problem - the neighbors do like having their peon class to wipe their yings, and they want you to pay for it.
I have kin in Mesa and Prescott and used to in Tucson.
I like Prescott.
They now have to work until they are 59 instead of just 55?
Here in NJ many teachers are staying on because they make a ton of money for little work; it is forcing those intent on taking those jobs to find something productive to do while they wait (if they can). Individual districts are encouraging the dead wood to retire by offering them a last chance at platinum retirement benefits (and the offer expires if they stay on). When the dead wood retires two new teachers can be paid from that salary.
Younger teachers are furious that they are being forced to contribute to their pensions and being held accountable for their miserable end results; still, none of them are leaving the scam, er, field...
Oh, the horror.
If someone retires at 55 and gets around $100,000 per year retirement plus health benefits for retirement with an inflation kicker, that is the same as a $3 million dollar annuity. So they won the lottery. There is no way they earned this. They did not put in anywhere near $3 million dollars in their retirement. Nor were they particularly accomplished if they were a teacher, since they went their whole life without a single promotion. Maybe they are the greatest teacher in the world. And maybe they are the worst. But whether the worst or the greatest they get their $3 million dollars.
Some will say that they should get it because rich people have $3 million dollars. So, why shouldn’t this teacher? But I say that just about every private worker does not get it. So, she is getting more than almost everyone who is not a public worker. Public workers are about 25% of the work force. Take them out and the 1%(wealthy). So, 74% make less than public workers in retirement.
We have created four classes here. The wealthy, the public workers, all other workers, those who don’t work. I equate it to the pigs in Animal Farm. We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.
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