Don't Let a Pension Ruin Your Life - Evaluate if your pension is "worth it."

If you are the person who is counting down years, if not decades, in their tiresome employment all for the pension—you know exactly the self-imposed prison a pension can create. I have some thoughts on escaping...

This short live stream will cover pensions in general--most common in the public sector. We will discuss how enticing they can be to workers and generally how they grow over the time you are employed.

Then we will discuss the realities of waiting out a pension for months, years, or decades--and what that may mean for your daily existence. If you find yourself chained to a desk waiting for the magic 20-year vest, there are some things to consider that might enable and escape sooner:

1. If you left your job, and found something equivalent without a pension, would it pay more? Often times, private sectors pay more than public sector jobs partly because they do not have the robust pension benefits. If this is a possibility, how much more would it pay? Could you save and invest the increase in income and build your own future pension?

2. Can you leave your job at your current pension level and find something else and plan for retirement without the 20-year magic pension? This question is similar to the one above, but just really, if you left your pension job now, took whatever small pension you may have vested in and started working somewhere else, could you plan for retirement as if the pension didn’t exist. If you are young, and under 10 years into a pension system, the answer to this is most likely yes.

3. How much more do you really need to work to vest? Now, if you are 18-years into a 20-year vesting schedule, hate your job, but have gotten through it hating it most of time—now is not the time to leave. The reality is, you may have already sacrificed a lot of happiness, health, and other parts of your life to get close to that 20-year mark. You should earn what you’ve sacrificed so much for. But my advice to those who are at much less than 20—even only five years, and you already hate your job—begin making an exit strategy.

Most people would not stay in a relationship—whether it be a family member, spouse, or friend for twenty years if it made them entirely miserable. Why would you sacrifice for something much less valuable—money? Don’t let a pension ruin your life.