Pensive Pension Planning

I work in NY state schools, so I am required to fund the NYSTRS. I am Tier 5, so I naturally went to the most easily accessible and reliable resource (besides the NYSTRS website)  - YOUTUBE!  The hidden gem (for ME) was a video by Brad Finn - another NYS educator.  He explained HIS retirement, though he is Tier 6.

It looks like at 10 years in the system, I'm VESTED.  That money will officially be mine.  (Because I've made my career so far on a string of flexible long term sub jobs, my years in the system have been inconsistent. )  

This pension system looks at my FINAL AVERAGE SALARY.  This equates to my 3 highest consecutive years' salaries to calculate my payout.   There are a lot of variables that go in to the equation.  If I have more than 25 years credit in the system there's one equation; more than 10 years, another equation.  I won't bog you down with those details, but I saved them for myself for future reference! 

If I want to retire earlier than the pension allows, I can do so without formally retiring as far as the state is concerned.  If I don't need the pension itself, I can resign from the position, use whatever funds I have access to at the time (future blog), and wait until I'm 62 to formally retire. (Look at your pension's "age factor" variables.)  That way, I will get the max benefit from the pension.

I then started to search out more information about pensions and found another gold mine - Grumpus Maximus.  He's retired military and has really dug in and researched every element of his pension.  He then started an online community and has been helping others figure their pensions out. Check out his Facebook group here.

Grumpus and Brad opened my eyes - not only to the pension system - but to something called FI(RE).  It means Financial Independence, Retire Early.    Learning more about THAT movement is up next!