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[Jim is Jim]

What's a pension? What is retirement?
...

OK, my brother retired early (twice now and he's still in his 50s) and gets a decent pension after 30-some years at UPS... but he's looking to unretire again... my father gets a pension after 37 years @ what is now IP, but it is less than half my modest salary and they will likely yank his medical benefits any day... and then there's the iWife who's been teaching for over 30 years and gets rosy predictions of what her pension will pay at X age... this has her thinking of retiring in 1-5 years... I gently try to point out to her that CalSTRS (not as big as CalPERS, but still pretty freaking big) has been hit hard lately and those rosy projections will likely be slashed at some point...

As for me, I've never worked anyplace that even offered a pension, only meager 401k matches with terrible mutual fund options to invest in... in some ways, I think I'm better off than all of my family with pensions... I've known for over 3 decades that I couldn't count on SS and would have to fund my own retirement... and that I could easily beat most mutual fund performance in the open market via self-directed IRAs and Keoghs...

My latest lesson learned (from my father) is that traditional IRAs are NOT such a hot deal because of the min. distribution rules, etc... Roths are the ONLY good retirement plan out there...

It's hard for me to tell which is worse: to rely on a pension or on SS for retirement... but then I see my no-good brother-in-law who hasn't ever worked enough in his miserable life to even qualify for SS... his retirement plan is my sister working 2 jobs forever...

/rant

Jim