Читать книгу Personal Finance After 50 For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 66

When putting together your retirement plan, you also want to consider any pensions you have available to you. You may have previously worked for an employer offering pension benefits, or you may currently work for a company with such a plan. Also known as a defined benefit plan, a company pension plan is one that your employer actually is contributing to and investing money in to fund your future pension payments.

In a typical plan, the employer may be putting away about 8 to 10 percent of your salary (this money is actually in addition to your salary, because the money isn’t taken from your income as it would be if you were contributing to a retirement plan such as a 401(k) plan). The money is then invested mostly in a mix of stocks and bonds (as it is in a balanced mutual fund).

Two terrific attributes of pension plans are

 The savings happen automatically. Unlike a retirement savings plan like a 401(k), you don’t have to think about your pension plan. You don’t have to cut back on your spending or complete any forms. Your employer is putting away money on your behalf month in and month out.

 You don’t experience any investment hassles or challenges. The pension fund manager does all the heavy lifting with regard to investing the money. So there’s no need for you to research or monitor financial markets or investments.

If your current or previous employers have a pension plan and you may have accumulated benefits, request a copy of each plan’s benefit description and a recent statement of your earned benefits. (When we get to crunching the numbers for your retirement plan, you need your pension benefit statements.)

Based on your years of service, your benefits statement will show you how much of a benefit you’ve earned. Your current employer’s statement or the person or department that works with benefits may also be able to show you how your pension benefits will increase based on working until a certain future age.