Posted on 01/21/2011 8:11:20 AM PST by SmithL
Whenever I'm driving around with the kids and we happen to pass a firefighter washing his prized engine, which looks like it was washed the day before, outside the station, I tend to slow down or even pull over and have the kids marvel at this heroic public servant for a minute.
"Kids,"I say, "that guy probably became a firefighter at 22 and by the time he's 52, he's going to collect a pension of about $80K per year for the next 35 years."
"Wow," the kids say, and I like to think they're being sincere.
"Timmy (not his real name), at a five percent return, how much money do you have to have saved to get $80K per year sent to you in the mail if you don't become a government employee?"
"About $1.6 mil, dad. Can I play Angry Birds on your cell phone?"
But if Timmy is a little bored because I do quiz him about this all the time, it doesn't upset me because I know that I've done my job for the day as a tireless Pension Papa. We are a very small group of parents so impressed by all these great public employee retirement deals that we read about in the papers that we want our kids to be able to hop on this gravy train, which no matter how much people are angered by it, probably isn't going away any time soon.
We sure hope not. With retirement plans in the private sector having fallen off a cliff, suddenly we're green with envy and dreaming big-government-worker dreams for the kids.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Keep dreaming there, Papa. With a Moonbeam in charge of you moonbats, how long do you think it will be before those governmental agencies are broke and bankrupt with no $$$ to pay those pensions?
Like that dysfunctional town in GA that just stopped sending pension checks to its retirees a couple years back. I’m afraid State and Municipal retirees are going to find out their pensions are going to be FIRST on the chopping block rather than last when the money runs out.
Indeed, that article that got all that publicity may encourage the cutting-off of public retirees. In that town, they all suffered and died in silence rather than lynching the mayor and town council.
Not that long ...
I’m afraid State and Municipal retirees are going to find out their pensions are going to be FIRST on the chopping block rather than last when the money runs out.
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Another FReeper mentioned that due to their greed, the pension money will run out, and the government workers will work till death, if they didn’t save anything.
They’ll get SOMETHING.
If/when the ax falls on state/county/city pensions, it will be ugly. I have 11 vested years of state service and I left that money there where it still grows at a tiny bit. If I pull it out and get another state job, I will be starting out all over again in terms of service/retirement.
In my state it seems, they want social workers, mental health people, and nurses.
I guess we can rule out "financial advisor" as a possible career path for Timmy. Sure, if you stuff $1.6 million in a mattress, you can take out $80k/year for 20 years. Stuff significantly less than that in a conservative financial instrument and you could stretch things much further.
And I am NOT defending these outrageous public pensions. But every time an economically illiterate "journalist" posits crap like this, it makes everyone dumber.
Doesn't that give you ~$80K a year for life with 1.6 million?
So, what annual rate of return are YOU guaranteeing and how do9 I know you’ll be there with the monthly check??
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