[LRoggy]

Let me give you an example of how pensions work in the real world - my own personal case. I have a private pension from a large organization I worked for, and SS, of course. I get statements from both. A few months ago I was doing filing and came across my last year's statement from each. I was shocked to see that the private pension was now worth several hundred dollars LESS a month - I think it was $900 less a month in benefits projected for my retirement - than it was the year before.

I'm sorry, I'm not letting this one go by. I am a professional investor and your numbers are either total nonsense or you have the misfortune of incompetence in the way your company directed its plan. Comparing a private pension plan (Defined Benefit Plan in corporate parlance) to a Personal Account (Defined Contribution Plan) is apples and oranges.

What are the facts you are leaving out? Did your company pension solely invest in company stock? If so, shame on the company's executives for allowing this. If the investments are diversified, you are either misreading your statement (after all, the markets rose last year) or you are purposely misleading everyone here to further your agenda. Prove me wrong by posting your statements from 2003 and 2004, along with the investment report of the plan.

To have a $10,800 reduction in annual projected benefits is pretty much impossible financially unless you are Enron. That would require a reduction of at least $150,000 in your account balance (assuming an imputed rate of return of 7% on the actuarial assumptions of your plan). Which means that before this loss, you would have received a heck of a lot more on the plan than Social Security would pay.