Saturday, September 18, 2010

Fort Worth Texas Insolvent

To understand why Fort Worth's pension system is such a financial disaster, look at one month's list of recent retirements.

In January, a 53-year-old policeman retired with an annual benefit of $90,312 for life, plus $256,000 in a lump sum payment. Another policeman, 57, got almost $74,000 annually, plus $313,000 in a lump sum. A 54-year-old firefighter got an annual pension of $90,130, plus $178,000 in cash.

These are not typical cases, but they're not rare, either. The shocking takeaway from the 22 retirees is that they stand to earn significantly more from their pensions than they earned on the job.

With an average age of 50 for the police and 54 for the firemen in this group, they're likely to spend more years in retirement than they worked. An analysis for the City Council, presented in July, projected that the retiring policemen would collect $3.1 million in pension pay.

That's a stunning number, almost twice as much as their career earnings, and it more than compensates for the fact that city employees don't get Social Security or a 401(k)-type account. It's worth stating again: In retirement, many will get more money than they made on the job, and for more years.

You don't have to be an actuary to know that this pension plan will end badly. The technical phrase is "trending toward insolvency."

7 comments:

  1. tick, tick, tick...The collapse is coming, when?

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  2. Sooner than you think.

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  3. Collapse usually occurs when you're not looking. Sort of like getting hit by a bus. You'll know when it hits but just for that second. Are you prepared?

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  4. Agree

    Agree

    Agree

    Also, I cannot recall how many times it has be said here on this blog or how many times I have posted and said " it's the entitlements" and most times I would just get railed on & then somebody would turn it into an Illegal immigrant rant.

    It's all of them - this country can no longer afford people who have not in the past or willnot
    now help pull the damn wagon

    Call it what you want; but sooner or later - all will recongnise it's truth we have 325 Million people and 50 Million are productive

    As Ross Perot liked to say

    That dog don't hunt

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  5. financial market collapsed in September 15, 2008 when Lehman collapsed. the flash crash of the stock market happened in May 6, 2010. in both events, they caught people off guard.
    so when the collapse of the entire U.S. economy it will be a fast and people will be caught off guard too. our modern economy is very efficient and so the crash will be efficient too. i expect the crash to start in the Treasury market when nobody shows up to buy the bonds. when that happens people around the world holding the USD will dump it. and here we go.
    watch the Treasury market people. it is the weakest point of the US economy. if it goes so goes the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. yesterday the chello player
    for the band ELO
    from 72 to 74
    was killed by a bail of hay rolled down a hill hit his van and killed him
    he didnt see it coming.
    it will be quick and devastateing
    buy silver gold things
    good luck

    ReplyDelete
  7. The star telegram link doesn't work because you left a " mark after the .html - THe default 404 error for the website is to resolve to the home page.

    ReplyDelete

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