Value of teacher pension

[Anonymous]

Why are you eager to put money into 401k if long term capital gains can be nearly tax free in regular investment account?
There is so much that comes out of teacher's paycheck. I made $40k a year as an aide with no benefits to benefit from. My take home was $1020 every two weeks. If anyone can figure how this was calculated...
Get that $120k job and max out Roth IRA and invest in regular investment account. Those can be nearly tax free in certain states.
401k, SS, and pension may create tax headache.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When would I be eligible to retain the insurance (the earliest I can quit and yet have the employer insurance )?

In my school district, PGCPS, you need to have worked for 12 continuous years to qualify for employer health insurance in retirement. The school district continues to pay 80% of your premium in retirement.

MCPS I think it is 10 continuous years, but I believe the district will only pay 39% of your premium with just ten years of employment. At 15 years they will pay 49% of the premium.

Is the medical plan way superior than Medicare ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you eager to put money into 401k if long term capital gains can be nearly tax free in regular investment account?
There is so much that comes out of teacher's paycheck. I made $40k a year as an aide with no benefits to benefit from. My take home was $1020 every two weeks. If anyone can figure how this was calculated...
Get that $120k job and max out Roth IRA and invest in regular investment account. Those can be nearly tax free in certain states.
401k, SS, and pension may create tax headache.

Thank you - I was thinking about mega Roth IRA conversion. At the moment I have only $200k in solo 401k and about $400k in treasuries .
Can I somehow convert these $200k into mega Roth?
And could you elaborate (perhaps, share a link) on achieving almost free investment accounts ? I was thinking about dollar cost averaging my savings from treasuries into that account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will people still sign up to be teachers if pensions are gone? Just curious

Do you think people become and stay teachers because of the pension? I could earn a lot more in another field and invest those higher earnings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
When would I be eligible to retain the insurance (the earliest I can quit and yet have the employer insurance )?

In my school district, PGCPS, you need to have worked for 12 continuous years to qualify for employer health insurance in retirement. The school district continues to pay 80% of your premium in retirement.

MCPS I think it is 10 continuous years, but I believe the district will only pay 39% of your premium with just ten years of employment. At 15 years they will pay 49% of the premium.

Is the medical plan way superior than Medicare ?

After you qualify for Medicare, you have to take it, and then the plan becomes supplementary - it covers the 20% that Medicare doesn't cover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will people still sign up to be teachers if pensions are gone? Just curious

We still have pensions, they just aren't nearly as generous as they were in the past. In MD, we contribute 7% of our income to the pension, and it's only a good deal if you stay employed long term, which many teachers don't do.

And yes, there's a teacher shortage across the US right now, and in MD. It has more to do with the working conditions and the pay than with the pensions, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you eager to put money into 401k if long term capital gains can be nearly tax free in regular investment account?
There is so much that comes out of teacher's paycheck. I made $40k a year as an aide with no benefits to benefit from. My take home was $1020 every two weeks. If anyone can figure how this was calculated...
Get that $120k job and max out Roth IRA and invest in regular investment account. Those can be nearly tax free in certain states.
401k, SS, and pension may create tax headache.

Regular 401k normally has an employer match, so free money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a chance it's worth it. You'll make twice as much in your sector. In FCPS you would be hired at step 1 on the masters scale, making $68k

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

IF you got a step RAISE each year (you won't, we have historically gotten them around 2/3 of the years), you'd end making $85k. Your pension would be based on the average of your last 5 years working, so around $79k. You aren't eligible to collect that pension until age + years of service = 90, so if you are only working 7 years you wouldn't be able to collect it until 83 years old, and it would be $460/month.

The pension is valuable if you start by 25 and work for 35 years. Otherwise is makes way more sense to go into industry.

DP
I’ll add info about the healthcare in retirement. Monthly cost for an individual is in the $833-884 range for an individual before Medicare eligible.
Here is a chart showing retiree healthcare premiums:
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/retiree-benefits-premiums.pdf

[Anonymous]

How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

Each state has its own Teacher Pension system. Some school districts run a supplementary pension system as well. You contribute more of your salary for the supplementary system and the school district kicks in a little as well.

To ask how much retired folks are getting is a little general. It totally depends on your average final salary and how many years you paid into the system. In VA I think the retirement multiplier is 1.7% and in MD it is 1.55 (for people hired after 2011.)

I've been teaching since 1999 so I have 26 years in PGCPS. Since I was hired before 2011, my multiplier is 1.8% I hope to work till I am 62 so that's be a full 30 years for 54% of my high three average. My annual salary right now is $142,000. That would bring me $76,680 annually in retirement.

But few people teach in the same state for 30 years nowadays.

If you are curious about teacher pensions in general you could read here:

https://bellwether.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Teacher-Retirement-Systems-A-Ranking-of-the-States-Bellwether-Education-Partners-Final-Updated-v11.12.21.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

[Anonymous]

If you’re looking into teaching just for a pension, it’s worth noting that many people don’t last 7 or 10 years. My dept right now is averaging 4 years before transferring districts or burnout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

OK. in FCPS entering with a MA degree but no teaching experience, the starting salary is $67,921

(Of course you would need to get your teacher certification - not sure what the path is in VA but I assume it would be a couple of years of classes etc. But you might be able to teach while conditional but perhaps not for full salary.)

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

After 10 years, your salary would be $80,316. That might go up with COLAs, etc.

Virginia Retirement System says if you are hired now, you will be in the Pension "Hybrid" plan - part defined benefit and part defined contribution.

https://www.varetire.org/media/shared/pdf/publications/hybrid-overview.pdf

"You contribute 4% of your pay toward your DB plan and a minimum 1% toward your DC plan.
Increasing your voluntary contributions to your DC plan provides a higher employer match.
When you make the maximum 4% voluntary contribution, you will earn a 2.5% match from
your employer. All mandatory contributions, along with any employer matching contributions,
are placed into the Hybrid 401(a) Cash Match Plan. All voluntary contributions are placed into
the Hybrid 457 Deferred Compensation Plan. "

Average final compensation is used in the retirement formula in the defned beneft component
of the plan. It is the average of your 60 consecutive months of highest creditable compensation
as a covered employee

A retirement multiplier is a factor that determines how much of your average final
compensation will be used to calculate your retirement beneft under the defned beneft
component. The retirement multiplier under the DB component of the Hybrid Retirement Plan is
1.0%.

So at the end of 10 years, your pension would be 10% of your final 5 year's average salary... or at most $8,000 annually.


Then there is the ERFC - The Educational Employees' Supplementary Retirement System of Fairfax County (ERFC) - which will provide a 0.8 multiplier. So after 10 years, you would get 10x0.008=.08 of your final 80,000 salary which would add I think another $800 per year.

So I'm guestimating a final pension after 10 years of $8800 annually..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

OK. in FCPS entering with a MA degree but no teaching experience, the starting salary is $67,921

(Of course you would need to get your teacher certification - not sure what the path is in VA but I assume it would be a couple of years of classes etc. But you might be able to teach while conditional but perhaps not for full salary.)

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

After 10 years, your salary would be $80,316. That might go up with COLAs, etc.

Virginia Retirement System says if you are hired now, you will be in the Pension "Hybrid" plan - part defined benefit and part defined contribution.

https://www.varetire.org/media/shared/pdf/publications/hybrid-overview.pdf

"You contribute 4% of your pay toward your DB plan and a minimum 1% toward your DC plan.
Increasing your voluntary contributions to your DC plan provides a higher employer match.
When you make the maximum 4% voluntary contribution, you will earn a 2.5% match from
your employer. All mandatory contributions, along with any employer matching contributions,
are placed into the Hybrid 401(a) Cash Match Plan. All voluntary contributions are placed into
the Hybrid 457 Deferred Compensation Plan. "

Average final compensation is used in the retirement formula in the defned beneft component
of the plan. It is the average of your 60 consecutive months of highest creditable compensation
as a covered employee

A retirement multiplier is a factor that determines how much of your average final
compensation will be used to calculate your retirement beneft under the defned beneft
component. The retirement multiplier under the DB component of the Hybrid Retirement Plan is
1.0%.

So at the end of 10 years, your pension would be 10% of your final 5 year's average salary... or at most $8,000 annually.


Then there is the ERFC - The Educational Employees' Supplementary Retirement System of Fairfax County (ERFC) - which will provide a 0.8 multiplier. So after 10 years, you would get 10x0.008=.08 of your final 80,000 salary which would add I think another $800 per year.

So I'm guestimating a final pension after 10 years of $8800 annually..

Oops, I think my math was off.

The ERFC multiplier is 0.8. x 10 years will be 8%. 80,000x0.08= $6400. Add that to your VA pension of $8,000 annually and it is a little bit better. $14,400 annually.