Seen in Print

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I to think it will all crash. I see so many folks over their head in CC. debt. They gut next to me buys his kids so much crap. play station and new bikes every summer. All on his credit card. He claims to be over $25.000 in debt. WTF. who keeps giving him a higher limit.

Are you kidding me? The credit card companies loves these guys. All he has to do is keep making the monthly payments and he's their perfect customer making money for them - they'll bump up his limit endlessly until he misses a string of payments.

I can remember sitting at my Grandfather's house. My mother was telling him about her credit card problems. He says " let me see your cards." She smiled like he was going to pay them off. Instead he just tossed them into the burning fireplace. "problem solved " he said. " you wont spend any more."

Yeah, we confiscated my son's......but this actually causes a different problem - not using an issued credit card can actually be held against you as decrease your credit rating, supposedly....... It's actually to your advantage to call and officially cancel the card.

I have been lucky with saving for the future. During high school i worked for a Penn grad/retired navy/retired RCA. comptroller. and notch baby. He told me "save for your future nobody else will" I was 17 and he set me up with an ira. I'm 48 now and with the exception of the last 3 years i have made the max contribution yearly. I have made some great gains and some well not so good choices. It's still worth more then i put in.

God advice - "save for your future nobody else will" Put away everything that you can spare starting as early as possible and just keep doing it - a good habit and practice to adopt.

[robert.]

'If I had started work 3 days later, I'd be in the FERS retirement system' Rufus.

Had you worked for the city of philly You retirement would have been the goose that keeps on laying golden eggs. This retirement option was approved only by the people who will receive it.

http://articles.philly.com/2016-04-15/n ... n-payments

[Rufus T. Firefly]

'If I had started work 3 days later, I'd be in the FERS retirement system' Rufus.

Had you worked for the city of philly You retirement would have been the goose that keeps on laying golden eggs. This retirement option was approved only by the people who will receive it.

http://articles.philly.com/2016-04-15/n ... n-payments

Actually, a version of that option is available to Gov't employees and has been for a very long time; I can be re-hired and collect my pension at the same time.

[robert.]

Working and collecting a pension is fine. taking an early buy out 3 years before retirement then coming back 2 days later and working towards your second pension is criminal. If the person were to start at the bottom of the ladder i would have no problem with that. These folks kept their seniority and got their job back at higher pay. Basically they got a bonus of 3 years pay two days off and a higher wage when they came back

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Working and collecting a pension is fine. taking an early buy out 3 years before retirement then coming back 2 days later and working towards your second pension is criminal. If the person were to start at the bottom of the ladder i would have no problem with that. These folks kept their seniority and got their job back at higher pay. Basically they got a bonus of 3 years pay two days off and a higher wage when they came back

In theory, I can do that as well,

This all sounds like business as usual in Philadelphia and brings back fond memories of Rizzo and those lovely years....

This also sounds like a case of ""I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it." which is also pretty much a standard of Philadelphia.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[up148]

Yeah, that's the problem with most government jobs (FAA, Post Office, Etc, Etc.), people are overpaid (some grossly), receive benefits workers in non-government jobs can't get because it's cost prohibitive and in most cases you have to literally kill someone to get fired. Just like school teachers and tenure. Pathetic.

But, on the down side, taking a lump sum payment from a retirement plan would cost the recipient between 30-39% in federal taxes right out of the gate in the pay scale ranges mentioned in the article, plus state taxes. If it's for retirement, I don't see why they would want to do it unless the money was needed for medical bills or some other major emergency. You may get back your job seniority and maybe a little more pay, but you just gave the federal and local governments almost half of your retirement fund. Kind of defeats the purpose.

butch

[rogruth]

Hmmm. I taught nearly 50 years and never knew a teacher that could not be fired.
I must say that I never taught in a school system or state that required union membership.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yeah, that's the problem with most government jobs (FAA, Post Office, Etc, Etc.), people are overpaid (some grossly), receive benefits workers in non-government jobs can't get because it's cost prohibitive and in most cases you have to literally kill someone to get fired. Just like school teachers and tenure. Pathetic.

Pretty sure that my colleagues in the private sector are getting quite a lot more than I am in their paychecks, and that I will never catch up to them. OTOH, after retirement, I can work as a consultant and make more per day, and pick what I want to do. or just sleep in,

Oh goodness, I've got tenure, but no one can tell me what it's worth.......if anything.

But, on the down side, taking a lump sum payment from a retirement plan would cost the recipient between 30-39% in federal taxes right out of the gate in the pay scale ranges mentioned in the article, plus state taxes.

Pretty sure that PA doesn't tax retirement pensions payments if they are Gov't ones....

[robert.]

The buy out was so bad for the city of philly they had to raise a soda tax to fund pensions. Now the state needs to step in and raise taxes in the rest of the counties. It always comes down to the rest of the state bailing out people they cant vote for.

[up148]

I think you are an exception to the government worker rule Martin...but I think you are an exception to many rules. You don't strike me as a big corporation rank and file type.

I always hear how government employees aren't paid as much as civilian jobs so the benefits have to be better, but I can tell you from experience many pay more plus ridiculous benefit packages in some cases. Offices workers, mechanics, etc, etc get more per hour than many comparable civil positions. We've hired some office workers who took early retirement because they told us what their title was with the FAA and they knew less that off the street high school girls in many cases.

PA might not tax retirement funds but the federal government does....unless this is something else the public doesn't know about.

BH

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I think you are an exception to the government worker rule Martin...but I think you are an exception to many rules. You don't strike me as a big corporation rank and file type.

I left industry in the early 80's having learned enough to know that it was not for me unless I sold my soul and part of my spleen and some other body parts that I'm fond of...

I always hear how government employees aren't paid as much as civilian jobs so the benefits have to be better, but I can tell you from experience many pay more plus ridiculous benefit packages in some cases.

That's an old story and used to be true to a point - after '84 Gov't employees went under a new system and are generally just as screwed over as everybody else.....pensions are very close to being just like 401's and can be a roller coaster ride. There used to be some ridiculous health benefits available and they used to carry some ridiculous premiums - think postal....and that list of options got pared down pretty hard, too.

Offices workers, mechanics, etc, etc get more per hour than many comparable civil positions. We've hired some office workers who took early retirement because they told us what their title was with the FAA and they knew less that off the street high school girls in many cases.

I don't it. All too many of the folks where I am couldn't hold a job elsewhere and wouldn't survive in industry more than a few weeks. What I don't understand is how folks with real qualifications don't get these jobs.....the process is complicated and application process is insane, but somehow, somehow, somehow.....and the contractors are worse. If you can get in and are even close to competent, you can just about stay forever. Fortunately I have a damn good secretary and I hope she finds a position in another part of the institute after I'm gone.

There are exceptions to everything as well - specialized skills and knowledge can rate a type of position and all sorts of pay adjustments that can be quite surprising. All of the kids that I've hired over the years have rated a specialized degree bonus and other stuff, but then I try to take as good as care of them as possible since after they leave, it's a hard cold cruel world waiting to greet them and those open arms are waiting to smack them upside the head in every way possible - reality comes home. I don't know why anyone would go in search of an academic research position any more - less pain digging ditches and most days more job satisfaction. Like Frank Zappa noted, "Don't you know, you could make more money as a butcher?".

[rogruth]

I don't know much about anything anymore.
I spent almost 50 years trying to motivate and guide young people.
Some would say "What good were you? Just a band director/music teacher".
I probably wasn't worth much compared to several other fields but IMHO if
I could get one kid a year to change direction I felt that I had done something worthwhile.
When many youngsters are asked what their goals are they either have none or have
some that are completely unrealizable [?].
Probably should remove this.

[J. S. Bach]

I don't know much about anything anymore.
I spent almost 50 years trying to motivate and guide young people.
Some would say "What good were you? Just a band director/music teacher".
I probably wasn't worth much compared to several other fields but IMHO if
I could get one kid a year to change direction I felt that I had done something worthwhile.
When many youngsters are asked what their goals are they either have none or have
some that are completely unrealizable [?].
Probably should remove this.

No, it was an interesting outlook and probably still true today.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I don't know much about anything anymore.
I spent almost 50 years trying to motivate and guide young people.
Some would say "What good were you? Just a band director/music teacher".
I probably wasn't worth much compared to several other fields but IMHO if
I could get one kid a year to change direction I felt that I had done something worthwhile.
When many youngsters are asked what their goals are they either have none or have
some that are completely unrealizable [?].
Probably should remove this.

No. I have similar thoughts and if I managed to get a student off to medical school (several), off to academic positions (several now with tenure), and some off into industry then that's one criteria where I can hang my hat and say I probably did ok by them - they got off to the next leg on their career journey and have succeeded. I still write letters for some for promotions and such after many years time and I still keep a distant watch on several.

Now since I can also sit back and claim that my research efforts made a difference and did good things for people, I can also work with something better than "did no harm" and hang my other hat on "did something useful for others". That's good enough to let me retire successfully and look back w/o wondering what if......