I haven’t seen a job with a pension in the last 18 years being in the workforce.
Comment on Is there any way the average American can insulate themselves from the AI bubble bursting?
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 days ago
What did you do in 2020, when everything shut for COVID?
What did you do in 2008, when the arse fell out of the housing market?
What did you do in 2000, when the dotcom bubble popped?
Chances are the answer was “just shuffle on as normal, carry on living paycheck to paycheck, possibly get a new job if you work for somebody badly affected”. Odds are your pension pot will recover by the time you need it.
What do rich people do? They gamble. Watch The Big Short. You could try that, but chances are you’ll lose money. “The markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”, as the old saying goes.
CCMan1701A@startrek.website 2 days ago
stopforgettingit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
Unions and Government jobs have pensions. But if you have a 401k or any type of IRA, the same people who invest pensions are also doing that investing for you if you aren’t managing it ( IE: mutual fund and etfs) and the investments are pretty much the same for both, so if pensions tank, so will your 401k.
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
I had a pension at my last job about 11 years ago. Then not long after I left with it fully vested congress passed a law allowing companies to creatively value pensions far lower than they should have been able to and most companies “bought out” the pensions for a fraction of their value. My pension got turned to mush, then a few month later congress passed a law “fixing the glitch” after most large corps had done their dirty work. My pension would have paid out about $800/month on retirement (likely not great depending on inflation), but their reassessment made it more like $150/month which probably won’t cover a phone bill when I am retired.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
That’s wild
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Yeah, it sucks. I was not relying on that pension as it was never going to be huge, but it was a big part of why I stayed at that company for over a decade.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Gov jobs still have them
IamtheMorgz@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Sort of. I’m a gov worker (non fed) and mine is a joke. 1% of salary per year of service. Not very significant. The old scheme was 2.5, I think, and before that it was 30 years to full salary. I still work with people on that old one, and they’re about at the full 30. In a generation it’s gone from a nice retirement to being more like a supplement. We do pay into SS now though so I guess that’s meant to replace it.
Rooster326@programming.dev 2 days ago
Been to 3 jobs that offer pensions and they all tell the same story you’re giving.
It’s right in the handbook. Hired before X date and you get 25 years to full salary retirement. Before Y date and 30. Hired after 2008 and it’s all the same. 33 Years gets you 33% of your salary. Which ain’t gonna be worth much thanks to inflation.
I worked next to people who at 60 had a full pension coming in, and then collected a full second salary because they’re allowed to DROP - which means work and collect the pension. One morherfucker was working on retiring twice to keep working. That is no longer an option for my generation either.
The older generation literally chopped down all the trees, planted fuck all, and hope to live in their McMansions they bought with Inheritance (of which they plan to leave none). Shits fucked.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Not necessarily. I had a relative who worked for the federal government back in the 70s/80s, and at the time they were trying to get everyone to switch (it was a voluntary choice for people who were in the ‘old’ system) to the new, non-pensioned options. I can’t imagine that the government suddenly decided to return to pensions.
My experience in small, local government was that everyone was on a matched % of paycheck being put into a retirement account. If you worked for a set number of years with the city/county/parish/state your investment would be matched at a specified rate when you retired. Basically just a glorified retelling of a 401(k).
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Do you not have a pension saving scheme that gives a tax break when employers pay into it direct from your wages?
In the UK it’s pretty standard. I think it’s even a legal requirement for employers to offer it, even if the amount they put in is paltry.
turmacar@lemmy.world 2 days ago
In the US those’ve been almost universally replaced by 401k plans, which I assume is what they’re referring to.
CCMan1701A@startrek.website 1 day ago
I’m in the US, so nothing guaranteed. I have a 401 and a bunch of other pots around.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
“The markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”, as the old saying goes.
Some made big money in 2008.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 day ago
A lot more lost it.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Buy low when everything crashes and wait for it to recover in 3-5 yrs.