Retirement

[barfle]

Some of us have made it, some of us are approaching it with glee, some of us don't have a clue how we're going to handle it. So I figured I'd start a thread to discuss retirement.

I recently discovered that, as a gummint employee, I could add my military time (1 year, 11 months, 11 days) to the calculation of my retirement fund, but it would cost me 7% of my total income during that time, plus interest. The two years adds a significant amount to the pension payout. My military experience was reasonably successful from a personal basis. I made Sergeant (E5) in 15 months, so of the various draftees, I certainly did well. As I recall, that promotion put me over $200 per month. So just to toss a few numbers around, I figure I averaged about $150 per month for 24 months (just to keep the numbers easy to deal with). If those figures are remotely close to being accurate, I made a grand total of $3,600. 7% of that is $252. Nearly 40 years of interest (I have no idea what the rate is) might bring that up to $1,000 that I would have to pay into the fund in order to get about 2,000 per year raise in my pension.

Should I go for it, or will I die within six months of retirement?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Your HRO is supposed to have an individual on staff designated a retirement advisor. This alleged advisor can find out the exact size of the military time deposit. Then I suggest consulting your wife, an astrologer, and a tarot reader about the projected life expectancy question. Then you rolls the dice and you takes your chances.

[barfle]

I have contacted the guy on staff, who sent me a form to fill out and send to the Army to get an accurate number for my military earnings. Since it's a gummint operation, I may end up retiring before they get around to replying.

But considering the fact that my grandmother made it to 102, I'm betting on making more than 65½.

[dai bread]

I retired 3 years ago next April, 3 months & a bit after turning 65 which is pension age here. There is no mandatory retiring age (there used to be) and the pension is not means tested, so for a few months I did quite well. How well showed up in my tax return!

The women in my life thought I should continue working, but I wasn't in the sort of job where people carry on (company director; musician, for instance) and conditions at work were getting slowly worse, so I took retirement. Would you believe we were expected to monitor the visitors' carpark from 14" TV screens? The said carpark was right behind the reception desk, and clearly visible through a window, but we had our backs to it.


Retirement is recommended. I should add that my house is paid for and my children are grown. Those make a huge difference to my financial needs. Though the City Council is doing its best to change that by rating me off my property. I live in a desirable leafy suburb, and Council officials think I shouldn't.