Keeping retirement weird. Who is leaving?
On this beautiful Earth Day I am going to be a judge evaluating high school students who are aspiring political cartoonists.
I will receive a small stipend, but I’m not doing it for the money. The stipend is not much. Like so many other retired teachers, we volunteer in schools, we coach, we are political activists and so much else.
We are a free asset to our communities.
I read the other day that every ten years or so the pension actuarial tables and mortality rates have to be recalculated. Some of us are living longer.
For others, life expectancy is actually decreasing. We can blame the widening gap between rich and poor for those whose lives are at greater risk.
For teachers in the retirement pension system, living longer is a problem for the state. The pension actuaries have to account for our increasing life expectancy. It is one factor in the state’s $130 billion pension liability. Some of our state’s politicians complain that retired teachers are living too long.
When I write, as I did yesterday, about health care, pensions and taxes, I Keeping retirement weird. Who is leaving? | Fred Klonsky:
