Do you get or will you get a pension?
- Thread starter ZZman
- Start date
Yep, looking to retire at the end of this year.
Mike B
Mike B
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Packaged out of a Fortune 50 company with what we call a defined benefit plan, a pension. Too young to retire, found another career, basically double dipping. The pension plan was moved to a defined contribution plan. Which means you're on you're own to save for your future. Union jobs, not all, and government jobs may be the only ones in the future with a pension plan for retirees.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
Yes, can take pension, lump sum, or combination …
I'm a UPS Teamster with 22 years of service and will retire at 57 with a full pension.
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- Aug 18, 2025
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I am 66 and fully Retired at 60 with 3 pensions one I started collecting at 51 and it goes up 3% a year, another small one at 52 that never increases and the last at 60 also goes up 3% a year. I also started taking my ss at 62. I started paying in when I was 12 yoa. I was lucky I had an honest employer who didn’t take advantage of a 12 year old. The person who helped me at the ss office said he had never seen that before.
Yes, I worked for a company over 30 years but was given a lump some option I took the option and moved the money to my 401k so I could manage the growth. I believe that was my best option.
I will have 3 private pensions , they are quite small each (under 300 USD) but there are 3 of them, so it will add up.
I will also have a military reservist pension.
Usually they can quite small but i been activated several times for a couple of years each, so that adds a lot of retirement points making it about 62% of what an active duty pension would have been at my rank.
And I had a moderatly high rank at the end.
Plus I bought quite a bit of silver when it was cheap in the mid 2010s.
The recent tripling in silver prices has turned that from a side-show into a "I got something" asset.
I retired from Sears, what pension I'm getting is through the PBGC that was created from the Enron disaster. After the Titanic sank something is better than nothing but its half of what I was promised over my decades of service.
Lump sums where locked out because of the PBGC oversight before I was old enough to go, wish I had that option at the time, I would have been better off.
Lump sums where locked out because of the PBGC oversight before I was old enough to go, wish I had that option at the time, I would have been better off.
I work in public education and recently became vested in the state pension. I also have a ROTH ira which I self manage.
My wife will get a small teachers pension - if the state of South Carolina actually funds it someday. Funny - they take her money every check but they don't put in their own to the required amount. 
I wonder how many more pensions will go bankrupt now that many of the baby boomers are pulling from them.
I wonder how many more pensions will go bankrupt now that many of the baby boomers are pulling from them.
When I retire I will pull from two government pensions with combined service based on my high five years of salary. Luckily the state has been good about keeping these well funded so they don't face the same pressures many pensions do... Also part of why I work the job that I do.
Not my only retirement source - self funding some other options.
Not my only retirement source - self funding some other options.
I get a pension and voluntary pension, the company gave us union benefits to avoid joining a union.
There’s a union on the manufacturing side (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).…… no union on the service / repair side.
My wife gets a military pension.
There’s a union on the manufacturing side (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).…… no union on the service / repair side.
My wife gets a military pension.
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Yes have four. Regular military retirement, VA disability, CRSC (combat related special comp) and civil service retirement from dept. of the Navy. Best thing is that two of them are tax free and North Carolina doesn't tax military retired pay. The eagle really screams loud the first of every month. Also SS is a kind of a defined pension plan.
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Just VA. 37 and saving/investing all I can.
I'm drawing a small pension from a publicly traded corporation. Quite rare these days. They discontinued said pensions some years back, increasing 401k contributions as the offset, but I worked there before the switch. In today's world, in the USA anyway, pensions are largely limited to government entities, and unions. If I was given a do-over on my work career, I'd look for a government job, just for the pension. I know several people that retired in their 50's, pulling huge pensions from the government. I'm jealous...but not happy come tax bill time!
My federal pension along with my own Thrift Plan savings allowed me to retire at age 53. Many people think federal pensions come free, but over 29 years I paid about $95,000 in my own retirement contributions. I also had about 50 working quarters paying Social Security tax, and that allowed me to take SS benefits at age 67. Annual cost of living adjustments have been a huge benefit.
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