On Fri, 13 May 2005 03:42:19 GMT, StellaStarr
wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:


Speaking as one of the millions who have never had a pension plan -- and
never will -- $45K per year for sitting around the house sounds pretty
danged good.

Seems like you'd be setting up your own pension plan. I did in
addition to the one from my employer.


You seem to think a pension is some kind of welfare.
It's money you arranged to have taken out of your paycheck, to save up
for retirement.

You know...a "personal account."

And the "sitting around" part is supposed to be the retirement they
worked for all those years. They were wrong to plan for that?

Just because they agreed to have that set aside for them instead of
pay to take home? Part of mine came out of my pay check.

Also for ordinary folks who pay into a pension plan, now days the
money is supposed to go with them when they change jobs. One company
I worked for way back in the 60s had the money I had paid in
transferred to the retirement account of my new employer.

The retirement package is part of the benefits they and their employer
agreed to "in writing" when they started the job. They could have
settled for more money and no pension, but that would have been a poor
trade.

Both I and the company I worked for, paid into an account kept in
escrow for something like 33 years.

I also invested every cent I could get hold of, so now that I'm
retired I don't have to set around the house. I can go play.


One of us seems to be failing to understand something...

Probably over half the population have that problem. :-))

They should start teach investing practices some where around the 8th
grade. If young people would start out saving instead of buying new,
big cars and trucks (one of the worst investments you can make) and
purchased stock on a diversified plan with a good investment counselor
most could probably retire in their 40s.

I was lucky I had smart parents even if my mother only had a high
school education and my dad never made it out of the 8th grade. He had
to work. Still, most thought he at least had some college. They
taught me the meaning of a dollar, but had I listened better I could
have retired a lot younger. As it was, I was 50 when I received my
Bachelors degree. Worked seven more years and retired.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com