September 2015

Half of all new teachers are worse off than if they had been in a 401k plan.
In light of the significant underfunding of some state and local retirement plans, this paper discusses the pros and cons of offering all state and local government workers Social Security coverage.
Pension advocates call it a "feature, not a bug" that some small minority of educators receive quite generous benefits while everyone else gets much less.
Luckily, most millennials aren’t following Elite Daily’s advice to forget savings and just spend.
The same pension plan can simultaneously be too stingy for some workers and too generous for others.
Wishing away pension funding problems won't change the fact that current plans are simply not delivering sufficient retirement benefits to the majority of the teaching workforce.
Half of today's new teachers will not stay in a single pension system long enough to qualify for even a minimal pension benefit. Instead, they'll face thousands of dollars in lost compensation in the form of forfeited employer contributions.
Due to backloaded pension structures, teachers must work many years before their future benefits exceed the value of their required contributions. In the median state, teachers must serve at least 25 years to receive a pension worth more than their own contributions.
Mary W. is a former nurse and second-career teacher from Georgia who reached out to us to learn more about the current research on pensions and Social Security. Social Security coverage varies within the state of Georgia, and some school districts provide coverage while others do not. I interviewed Mary to hear her story and perspective on retirement planning as a teacher.