I know it’s hell, because the hours get insane (in a cs degree, 40 hours of class time per week is not unusual.) Figure on taking 4 years to finish instead of 3. But seriously, without the experience, CS degrees aren’t worth that much… they’re kind of a dime a dozen here…

Nobody has cut social security benefits. The promise has not changed. There is no reduction to 70 cents. There is a PROJECTION that in 27 years they will probably only have enough money to pay around 75 cents of each dollar. Of course the accuracy of that prediction that is based on them accurately predicting the entire economy of the country 3 decades into the future.

That does NOT sound like a defined benefit pension. Thats a contribution or cash balance retirement plan. Where the company puts money / stock into an account and holds it till as an investment towards retirement. If his pension was in stock then thats handled more like how an IRA or 401k works. Nobody guarantees your IRA will be worth anything. Nobody guarantees that GM stock held in a GM pension account will hold value. So unfortunately your grampa got bad advice which lost him money.

Defined benefit pensions are the traditional style pension what we mean by ‘pension’ and that is where you work x years and get y% pay. Period. Theres no investment or variability. e.g. if you work 20 years as a federal employee you get 22% of your pay. Period. Its a promise of a ‘defined’ amount. Putting your money in stock is not defined and the amount of the pension is variable and dependent on the performance of the stock market.

The best thing to do when trying to buy eco-conscious is buy local. There’s a small company where I am that hits up all the local farmers’ markets with homemade soaps and shampoos. Everything they sell has only about 5 ingredients, so I know what I’m putting on me, and I’m supporting my local community. The same goes for food. Even if something says it’s organic (or just has eco-friendly advertising like Aveda) how do I know? Well, if I know the person who made it, then I can find out.

Oh- did get one detail form Gramps- the majority of his pension fund, at company encouragement, was mostly made up of GM stock. Mystery solved- it tanked- he lost hundreds of thousands. That decision was made back when such non-diversified encouragement was considered legit.

Thats a different matter. The PBGC is a government entity backed by the federal government. Yes its current balance sheet is under funded. However that doesn’t mean that people are not going to get their pension money. For the PBGC to default on pensions the federal government would have to let it fail. That is not going to happen. The government would not let the PBGC simply die and default and stop paying peoples pensions.

Yes some trash collectors are paid well. But as a group they make much less than police on average.

Median pay for refuse collectors is $32k /yr while police and sheriff patrol officers made $53k/yr median according to the BLS.

Medical coverage is not the same thing. I don’t believe theres any guarantee for medical benefits.

How exactly did your grandfather lose “almost all” of his pension? What happened EXACTLY? The GM bankruptcy did not wipe out their pensions. Was he maybe a Delphi employee’s whos pension was over $54,000 a year or was there some change in a contract or was he cashed out?

Miguel said: “PBGC DOES NOT cover every pension out there.”
This is true. PBGC does not cover some pensions. State and local government pensions aren’t covered. The governments in question cover those.
Where did you hear that its 25%? That may be misleading as most of those are small pensions or government pensions. There are a lot of plans with very few people. Most large plans are covered so the vast majority of people are covered.

Side note: Keep in mind when we talk about a “pension” that is really just the old style “defined benefit” kind of pension. We’re not talking about your IRA, profit sharing, 401k etc retirement benefits.
Whose cash contribution style plans are not guaranteed by anyone.