Your opinion on retirement benes?

Published

  1. Do nurses have a good retirement package compared to other professions?

    • 1
      I'm retired and pleased with my package.
    • 9
      My workplace has a decent retirement package.
    • 5
      I don't have a retirement package.
    • 2
      I'm not interested in retirement benes.
    • 11
      I wish my workplace had a better retirement package.

28 members have participated

Specializes in Utilization Management.

Do nurses have a good retirement package compared to other professions?

Let's discuss this.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Utilization Management.

I wish nurses had a pension, like railroad workers or teachers.

I know nothing about retirement funds. I keep putting it off, pretending that I'll never want or have to retire.

I keep up my disability benefits, because I figure it's way more likely that I'll have to leave the bedside due to illness or injury rather than retire from it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

One place as a 401K, other 403b. I use both for now, til I decide how next to proceed. Meeting w/financial advisor to get all our planning done---or redone rather. I have always participated in all my retirement plans since I became a nurse nearly 10 years ago. But I need to grow my money better, and here is where the financial planner comes in. My dh also has started his 401K with his job (he is retired military, so we have a pension there). While I would love a pension as a nurse, I know this is not gonna happen, so I do what I can. Better than nothing, and sheltering my money is what I am all about. I want to lower my tax bracket, too, as we are getting up there. Again, for the financial planner to help us with that!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics, MS, ICU.

It is so funny that this thread is here all of a sudden. My husband and I just met with a financial advisor to get things in order and to make sure we are on the right track. He has been putting into his 401K for many years now and I just started one this month. It is very scary to me to think about retirement. It is so far away still but when I look at friends that are at that age very few are in a comfortable position. That is what prompted us to see someone early. The hospital that I work for does not have a great plan but at least they have one. I feel secure knowing that when I move or if I go work somewhere else I can take my little Oppenheimer portfolio 403B with me. Most statistics show that social security will only cover the basics for us like food, energy bills, phone. I think getting started as early as possible is the best strategy. When I look back at all of the years I put it off and what I could have now it makes me ill. The one thing the advisor told us that is good is that we have Disney Vacation Club Time Share until 2054. At least we will be able to go on vacations in the future provided nothing major happens with the time share.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The ONLY financial thing I did right as a young college freshman was put money in 401K at my part-time gig. It was a fairly new concept in the 90's but I worked for a progressive boss who nagged us until we signed up.

When I think of the crdit card folks who ambushed me in the sudent union with Slinkies and chocolate bars I cringe!

I've had a SIMPLE IRA and other retirement vechicles for a while.

I NEVER leave my retirement planning up to any empoyer. I don't intend to be too poor to afford to be a patient in the hosptials where I used to work!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Sure, I would love to receive more from my employer than I do (4% of my salary per year added to the funds I contribute). However, 4% is not that bad compared to a lot of employers.

I started putting money aside for retirement when I was 26, having money taken out of each paycheck into a variety of plans provided by my various employers over the years. The only time I did not do that was when I was in grad school for 5 years. I am now 51 and have a little over $300,000 in those accounts.

If I keep contributing for the next 12 years of so (and assuming moderate growth), I should have close to $1 million by age 62.

As the experts say, it's mostly a matter of investing regularly (EVERY paycheck) for your entire working life rather than waiting until the last minute.

llg

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

The good news: my employer will contribute 6% of my salary into a 403B no matter what in which I am fully vested after 5 years of employment. And if I contribute as little as an additional 2% myself they will kick in an additional 3% matching. That's 9% from my employer if I contribute only 2%.

The bad news: I only just started there 6 months ago. However, that's a pretty good plan. Hopefully I can last there for 5 years. In the meantime, I already have a ROTH IRA of my own and a couple of savings accounts.

Angie, I implore you to reconsider your long-term plan for retirement. It is more likely that you will not end your nursing career disabled enough to draw disability and isn't it more fun to prepare for a fun and healthy retirement?

If you don't want to contribute money to a plan, the next best thing you can do for yourself is to keep your expenses and debt low, live below your means and for goodness sake, contribute something to at least a money market or regular savings account. Set up an automatic deduction plan from your check. The stories we hear about the elderly having to choose between buying their meds and heating their homes are true! I see it everyday.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

the future will be here whether you prepare for it or not..

.

keep credit card low [pay off every month if at all possible]

invest in home..plan to have paid off well in advance of planned retirement so that you can make improvements if necessary so that you start retirement with new plumbing, roof, appliances

plan to invest enough in one year to give you an income for one month, in 12 years you will have some investment to live [don't include ss as an assest

take time to smell the roses now and after you retire that is what life is for

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have a 401K that started when I became a nurse at 40. What with the stock market and all, it hasn't grown very much.

I think my nephew, who is a CHP officer, will get a better retirement. He works for 20 years and can retire at 80% of his highest salary.

Actually Congressman get even better retirement for just a few short years. ..... :angryfire

My dh is a private contractor and always has been so he has no retirement. Except Social Security.

steph

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

I think that military nurses have one of the best pensions. A nurse that I know retired from the Navy with a life time pension starting at $46,000 a year(spent 24 years in the Navy). She gets a COLA raise every year and by the time she is 65 her pension with be $60,000 a year, plus she will start drawing social security. She just started working as a ED nurse and she is only 47.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

The benefits are the biggest reason I am entering nursing, and many, many hospitals still offer pensions.

I think it depends on the hospital system that is in the area that you choose to work in. I always review a company's benefits before taking a job, and healthcare, short and long term disability and retirement programs are huge.

Always make sure that if your company does have a pension program, that it is protected in the event the hospital shuts down or files for bankruptcy...not all pensions work the same.

Benefits in my industry were just dwindling and all you had was a crappy 401K with low matching and huge vesting schedules.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Retire? To paraphrase, Old nurse don't retire, they just fade away.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion