O.T. Retirement???

I have read a lot of disapproval for retirement benefits of employees that have given the major part of their lives to a company.
I worked for 37 years in a major aluminum manufacturing plant and was repesented by I.A.M. Why should I not receive a retirement?
I draw about $1,600.00 per month and out of that, I have to pay $500.00 for my insurance.

How many of you draw a retirement check and how much do you draw?

Get real!!

It's terminal impudence to ask someone how much income they have.

Don't fee too bad. I worked 36 years for the Unisys computor co. and only draw about $1200.00 month from them. Stan

I am on the WTD retirement plan.

Goose---maby some people are not ashaimed or too proud to tell. I told mine.

Hey Goose,could be IRS moles trying to get one over on us! Hoss

Lot of farmer types on here - remember we have no retirement plan handed to us, just what we work out and save for ourselves. No free money like you get.

As well, we get to pay doble into the Social Security and Medicare systems - you got free money from your employer there too.

You might want to consider your audience.....

--->Paul

No personal offense intended, but if you worked for a company for 37 years, and nobody forced you to do it, and you were well paid - you didn't exactly "give" your life to the company. It was a two-way deal hopefully - good for you and good for them. I don't call that a sacrifice. You should get whatever was mutually agreed upon. Some people work hard their entire lives and get no retirement. It wasn't long ago that many people worked at least 50 years before they could collect anything, and then when eligible, didn't last very long to collect it.

I always felt that the retirement plan was part of my pay agreement.

Yes you are due a retirement. I was an automotive technician for 39 years and I receive about $2,200 a month.
Yes I am proud that I went from a low paying job by getting an education and training.

My wife is a RN, has worked for the same hospital for 45 years, the 1st group that had the hospital said you had to be there 10 years to get into the retirement plan. They lasted about 25 of her 45 years, her pension, of which they contributed nothing, is $288.00 a month. That's because the Nuns took the interest during those years to live on. She was goin to retire this DEC, but the economy has changed so much, she's afraid to quit now. My "retirement" has gone downhill with the stockmarket. I still draw the same, the pile from which it is drawn is gettin smaller.

It might help if we knew how much your wife weighed..........

I try to live on S.S. disability but would have got more if the gov. had not screwed me by putting things off again and again and then saying I did not give them the info they wanted when they wanted. I would have gotten like $1500 per month but because they kept putting me off I live on less then $1000 per

No offense Paul, farmers are their own boss when years are bad you take the hit, when years are good you don't take quite the hit. But you are your own business owner. And it's not free money anymore than LDP is a simple handout.

You have a point , Sam#3. BUT! I also don't think ANY company has the right to ask the Federal Government (OUR TAX DOLLARS) to help pay your bennefit package!!! If the company can't pay it then you don't get it!

The company paid you x amount per hour or week salaried to work.You did the work.I don't understand why you are owed anything more.
On the other hand maybe you should pay back to the company each month for giving you good stable employment for 37 years.Mark

Wait till you see the new IRS 2009 plan ! Everyone will get it soon

Two advantages farmers have over factory workers-- if you own land historically it has appreciated in value. Even now with everything else going down, land value is still climbing. Another advantage over working for someone else is expense write offs. I've been on both sides of this fence.

MarkMI and Paul are missing a point here--for those of us that chose to work for wages, rather than ourselves, a pension plan was part of the deal: X dollars per month up front, and if you stayed with the company long enough as a responsible employee you got a carrot: a retirement pension. There's nothing "free" about it, it was earned; if the companies accountants didn't think it was good for the company the pension plan wouldn't've been there.

California Safety retirement, 3@50. 3 % times years of service times higest years compensation. I am 47. when I retire at 53 it will be a number like $6900 to 7200 a month. I am at a loss as why everyone dosen't want to work in California. Of course you have to have the right skills. My share of health insurance cost is $110 a month.

Certainly.

But I'm not in anyone's face about it.

Retirement fund is part of the paycheck, part of what you work for.

All good things seem to topple over in time - land prices, crop prices, retirement funds, housing bubbles.....

I think back when our ecconomy was cooking along real good & everyone was living high off the hog & spending more money than they were making....

And GM had year after year of BIG loses in those conditions..... The other 2 weren't any better.

I think a red light would be going off in a person's head if you are an auto worker, not dreaming where to spend the big checks in the years ahead.....

Kinda like when wheat prices go up to $20 a bushel...... Something is wrong, something bad is going to happen.

It really shouldn't be a surprise that things are going to get in a bind, and people are going to lose money they had planned on collecting.

That was kinda obvious 3 years ago for auto workers?

Just ask any farmer with a Verasun or Pilgram's Pride corn contract.......

Life makes lemons a lot of times, and if you are careful, you can at least see it coming. Doesn't make you immune, but at least some prepared.

Maybe the unions shoulda helped you fellas out a few years ago, and if everyone woulda sat down and worked _together_ instead of trying to stick it to each other, then we would be someplace.

No one feels sorry for a farmer that got $20 wheat or $7 corn 6 months ago - even if we look at 2009 with under $3 corn but $1000 fertilizer that will crush us.....

Going to be the same for auto workers - you made big bucks & got big benefits..... It's gonna be hard to get the sympathy vote from others!

Just how it is, I got nothing for or against personally. I wish things woulda worked out for all, but it doesn't look good, and it seems workers, management, and unions came together to make things this bad - it's up to the 3 of you to sort it all out. A few billion here & there from the govt won't solve the underlying problems. Tyoyota & Honda & Kia & the others which have plants in the USA are not in the same bad deep troubles. The big 3, unions, and workers need to learn from that, and not look to the past. The future is all we got.

Just my opinion. Again, not that I have any axe to grind. If some folks made a killing in the past on their job, good for them.

Today, money is all gone, who you going to collect from? Can't get it from Verasun, can't get it from GM. Nothing there to squeeze any more. What do you want????? It shouldn't be that way, Verasun should pay their contracts, auto workers should get the retirement they were promised, dad shoulda got the coop payment he was due in 1984....

Stuff happens. The money isn't there.

--->Paul

No wonder Arnold is wanting the US taxpayers to bail CA out..

Retirement is only $2450/month before federal tax (no state tax on retirement) with a $90 health insurance premium. Would have been significantly higher, but was penalized 48% due to retiring early. If I didn't have other investments/income this would only accommodate a pretty austere life style. Might need to shoot a few of the deer that I feed all year, rather than let the neighbors have all the "fun". I assume you are getting SS payments in additional to the $1600/month. I've got a few years before receiving SS payments.

Good Post, Paul... As you stated, things do not always pan out as expected.
I had a nice little machine shop biz for 15 years, thought I had it made.. All the customers went to China, so we closed... Life goes on, I did not expect Uncle Sam to come bail me out..

Politicians are the worst for getting huge pensions. I read a few years ago that the leader of the 3 rd. party retired and got a pension of something like $160,000/yr. He was never even the official opposition! I think after one term (4 yrs.) they get a fat pension. A lot of private sector pensions are paid into and done through an insurance company. Some good companies match RRSP contributions. However to put it in perspective, my dad was blown out of a 4 engine bomber in WW II and, being the only survivor, suffered a broken back. He got a piece of the tail turret in his back and had a back belly button. He was putting his life on the line for our freedom. He lied about his age and signed up when he was 17. When he got older, his back bothered him more. As requested by the gov't. he went to a Dr. to have his back checked out. He thought they might up his injury pension. NO! They left it the same at about $120 a month! They give more money to immigrants to establish themselfs. Like most things, there's no such thing as fair. Dave

If when I hired on a pension was offered, then it was offered as part of a pay package. To me then it is defered income. Explain to me how this is not "earned" income.

For Example:
If you were told that if your days off in a year did not exceed your vacation and "allowed" sick leave part of your salary would be a 5K check on Jan 1st. You work hard to not only meet these obligation, but to exceed them. Then "pay" day comes around and the company tells you "oops, sorry we spent the money elsewhere". Where your expectations wrong or the companys because they did not adhere to the contract?

If I am promised a wage and do not receive it, then I look at is as if you have STOLE from me. If I can find you, I feel sorry for you. If a company is not smart enough to put this part of my wages "back" untill I draw from them, shame on them. I would not expect a company like that to get ANY type of help from the govt and all assets should be sold and the proceeds used to properly hang the responsible people. At that point, distribute whats left

DuaneW

People don't 'give' part of their lives up at work unless they're exceeding stupid they get paid for their time.Why spending a long time on a company's payroll 'entitles' anyone to something special?If there was someone offering a better deal they were free to take it at any time.Most people I see 'working' these days should kiss their employers foot every payday for keeping them on the payroll

Sometimes we are riding into the wind and sometimes we catch a tailwind. The grass is always greener over the cesspool. Folks whine, even about the/their subsides. Union members, join, pay dues, believe what they are told and file a grievance. The universe continues to expand, along with the cost of living or dying. Darn… spilled my coffee and may miss the bus.

I worked with other skilled workers and we did basically the same job. When I was hired, I was given a choice where I could take a cut in pay and receive a retirement after 30 years of service. Most of the employees chose retirement.
This pay cut was increased to $2.10 per hour during the last few years of work.
This company is not giving me my retirement, I funded part of it.

I worked shift work and I raised cattle on my 50 acre farm. I didn't have free time and my kids helped me with farm work.

I have severe arthritas at my age of 65 and I blame it on all the hard work I have done.

Worked about 30 years as a firefighter. Over the years we bargained a retirement program and added to it as time went by. Get about $1100/month and I am part owner of a business that pays well, will never retire.

I think about people like your dad, every time I hear a politician talk about their appreciation of the men and women that served this country.
Just sad that there are many--many disabled veterans of foreign wars that are trying to live on the pennys they are awarded for ther services!

May God bless, your dad, and people like him!!

I think everyone should realize that the foreign auto manufacturers moved their operations over here to cancel a major part of their import tax. This import tax that would have been paid to our government goes back over seas. In 1977, I bought a new Yamaha motorcycle for $2100. I was told that the next shipment would be $100 more because of import tax increase.
Today, what would the taxes be on a $30K auto?

Oh! I agree. It's a gamble you take even if the gamble is involuntary. The entire concept of retirement annuities and benefits is being revamped. When I entered the workforce a job with a retirement plan and even the simplest medical plan was a ‘good’ job. That is not the case as we see almost every day. Who thought AT&T or the big auto companies would go under? Younger workers need to learn the world is changing and they need to make plans for their own future or in another forty years the taxpayer will be supporting everybody.