Are you counting on that city, state, fed pension?

[davsel]

Better think again.

Unfortunately, my wife is counting on a city gov pension, and we're not sure if she should take the cash payout while she can, or take the monthly payments - as long as they last.
It took a while to convince her that her pension will not pay out forever.

The CSPD and PERA still push the city for higher pay and benefits.

This is not difficult math.

Coming to a city and state near you:
From: http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=225550

From The "Duh" File - Detroit Pensions

This sort of story illustrates the utter and complete crap that our media puts out.

"The benefits that we got, they weren't given to us. They were earned. These guys worked their asses off for said 30, 40 years, sacrificing life and ... health. The least they could do is have some sort of security after they're gone, after the fires are out."

You forgot the rest of the story.

For 30, 40 years you threatened and extorted the people of Detroit. You lobbied, petitioned and voted for that which you either knew or should have known was impossible to provide. You threatened to not put out fires if you didn't get these promises in the form of pensions and medical benefits, effectively putting a gun to the head of everyone in the city.

You forgot that irrespective of how much pressure you applied and how loudly you screamed, whether you threatened not to extinguish fires and go on strike or not and no matter how many signs you waved and sob stories you told to the electorate, it is not possible to make something that can't happen occur.

You can't jump over a building and a contract to do so is void and unenforceable because you contracted to do an impossible thing.
The blame for this lies both with you and with city management. The city made a promise it couldn't keep but you demanded the promises that you or your union bosses knew were impossible, and if you didn't know it was only because you willfully and intentionally ignored fifth grade arithmetic.

If you voluntarily place a gun in your own mouth and pull the trigger absent a malfunction you are going to blow your brains out. That is a certainty.

Likewise it is a certainty that two exponential growth functions, where one rate of growth is higher than the other, will inevitably run away from one another. When the higher-growth rate is an "obligation" and the lower is "revenue"bankruptcy is inevitable.

When you "contract" to do such a thing it is an utter certainty that if you live long enough you will not get paid in full and you might not get anything.

You thus contracted with someone to do an impossible thing and you either knew it was impossible or willfully ignored the fact that it was, when all you needed to understand to know that in advance was to have been awake during your fifth grade math class.

The same situation, incidentally, applies to Medicare -- that is, Senior Citizen medical promises. The federal promises alone are north of $200 trillion, not the $17 trillion that we "recognize."

This very same financial fact also applies to virtually all state and local pension and in-retirement medical plans, along with most private pensions, for the exact same reason.

I think it sucks that you're not going to get your allegedly-earned "benefits" but the money to pay those benefits never existed and was never going to.

This is exactly identical to knowing you make $27,000 a year, spending $37,000 a year, having $170,000 on the credit card and then whining that it's "unfair" when the card company won't let you run up another 10 large.

This, incidentally, is our Federal Government right here, right now, today -- just add the zeros to the above and you get our tax revenue, our spending, and our federal debt.

We, as Americans, must stop living lies right now because it is only through facing the truth that we can plan for the fact that we lied to ourselves and demanded that others lie to us, and thus that which is impossible is not going to happen.

Or we can keep doing what we've been doing and you, like this gentleman, can then claim to be "surprised" when the inevitable and known in advance occurs.

[sellersm]

My advice? Based on everything I've been reading, is take it out NOW. Convert it to something with value, NOW.

[jerrymrc]

I can start next year after 34 years. I want to go another 4. Not much in the way of a pension for us .gov federal workers anymore but it is better than nothing. After 37 years with a final high 3 pay of $65K my annual "defined benefit" will be about $24K per year.

Under the new retirement plan that started in 89 SS is part of our retirement system along with a 401K plan.

People like clerks/admin/nurses that did like 25-30 years would only get about $10 in retirement. In my case in looking at all my sources when I retire I hope to be around $60K per year but then I have a total of 15% going into my 401K plan. I put in 10% and have a match of 4% along with an automatic 1%.

I do look at it that if my employer is unable to pay my pension then the USA does not exist as we know it. It is not the giant gravy train many think it is. I have many friends that work for company's that have a much better deal.

[Ronin13]

Most LE agencies in CO are doing away with pensions and going to investment matching for retirement- I've already counted out any pension in my future- and plan to do my own retirement planning. Maybe, if I'm lucky, with the way things are now, I can afford to retire in about 45 years at 75.

[Irving]

My company just recently changed benefits in such a way that many people who were considering retiring within the next 5 years are now retiring NOW. As in before 2014.

[sniper7]

I don't count on any kind of retirement. Even my 401Ks that I have I am scared the government will eventually bankrupt and steal it all.... i wish SS would disappear and I could put that money into my safe.

My wife is on PERA, but I have her starting a 401K. PERA does pretty well from what I have seen and listening to my parents who are retired teachers as well.

[rbeau30]

If.gov is strappd for cash, you have to think about what they would go after.

Pensions... They already borrow from Social Security.\

Once that runs out, think they'd seize 401Ks? Yes. and if they did, what would WE do about it? Nothing. And if you did? You would loose.

Default on pensions? Absolutely! What would those folks do about it? Nothing. And if you did? You would loose.

IRAs? Those would be next. Again, see above.

Savings accounts? let me see, other countries have already done this. And the subservient subjects did nothing, because they Could Do Nothing.

Then, the currency collapses, effectively making every deposit everywhere, worthless.

[sellersm]

If.gov is strappd for cash, you have to think about what they would go after.

Pensions... They already borrow from Social Security.\

Once that runs out, think they'd seize 401Ks? Yes. and if they did, what would WE do about it? Nothing. And if you did? You would loose.

Default on pensions? Absolutely! What would those folks do about it? Nothing. And if you did? You would loose.

IRAs? Those would be next. Again, see above.

Savings accounts? let me see, other countries have already done this. And the subservient subjects did nothing, because they Could Do Nothing.

Then, the currency collapses, effectively making every deposit everywhere, worthless.

^This. Look around, it's happening in other nations & has happened historically. There's already a lot of talk of it happening soon here. Do the math, the printing press has no limit, there is NO debt ceiling for 3 months, what do you think is going to happen?


Sent from my fat fingers using Tapatalk

[sellersm]

Read this & consider: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1...ans-wealth-now

Capital controls are being discussed quite readily now. Many articles about folks having issues with getting large sums of $$$ out. Many banks now have limits on 'out of country' transfers (just try to move away & expatriate & get your $$$).

[davsel]

Read this & consider: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1...ans-wealth-now

Capital controls are being discussed quite readily now. Many articles about folks having issues with getting large sums of $$$ out. Many banks now have limits on 'out of country' transfers (just try to move away & expatriate & get your $$$).

It will happen before you know it.

From Page 49 of the report (emphasis mine):

The sharp deterioration of the public finances in
many countries has revived interest in a “capital levy”—
a one-off tax on private wealth—as an exceptional
measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is
that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance
is possible and there is a belief that it will never be
repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen
by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters,
including Pigou, Ricardo, Schumpeter, and—until he
changed his mind—Keynes. The conditions for success
are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks
of the alternatives, which include repudiating public
debt or inflating it away (these, in turn, are a particular
form of wealth tax

There is a surprisingly large amount of experience to
draw on, as such levies were widely adopted in Europe
after World War I and in Germany and Japan after
World War II. Reviewed in Eichengreen (1990), this
experience suggests that more notable than any loss of
credibility was a simple failure to achieve debt reduction,
largely because the delay in introduction gave space for
extensive avoidance and capital flight - in turn spurring inflation.

The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to precrisis
levels, moreover, are sizable: reducing debt ratioos to end-2007
levels would require (for sample of 15 euro area countries) a
tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth.