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Originally Posted by Billy Bob
Great point and as we now know no longer accurate. Those pensions caused GM to have to restructure. the medical coverage on retirees was killing them financially. Verizon and most other companies now do 401k programs rather then retirements . 20 years ago the average life expectancy after retirement was something like 5 years todays its substantially longer , more in the 20 year range . Companies and Governments simply cant afford to have people retiring at 50 and collecting for 30 years
retirement early is a result of good investing not being carried by your employer
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Very true, Billy Bob. I was able to take an early retirement from Verizon because I met their criterion of my age & service adding up to 75 ( I was 51 and had 25 years of service). I took my pension as a lump sum and rolled it into an IRA with my 401K funds as I could see that the company was serious about downsizing. Of course, I took a part time job for several years till I was close to 59. Boy am I glad I left when I did! About 18 months after the offer, the company eliminated pensions and transferred employees pension accruals into their 401K accounts (most employees lost money in that deal)! For older retirees like my Dad who didn't have the choice of a lump sum, Verizon sold their pensions to Prudential, so now they get annuities which are not protected by federal pension laws. Nice way to treat people with 35+ years of service! That is another reason I took the money and ran, I don't trust the companies any more to protect their retirees. They also got us with the health benefits. After 5 years of retirement, they reneged on the promised amount they would subsidized and froze it at 2008 levels. My health benefit costs have more than quadrupled since then. In the meantime, the big shots get multi-million dollar salaries and golden parachutes.