There has been a lot of conversation over defined benefits packages for state employees. It seems to come from everyone except a person who is actually a beneficiary of that program. So here I am. I am a defined benefits retiree of the Alaska State system. You may pause now as you gasp at the thought of someone making that much free money from the state who is willing to say it out loud.
I don’t know about the rest of the retirees who are on the defined benefits package because I don’t see or hear much from any of them. I think they are hiding quietly behind their monthly pension, afraid to boldly come out and state that without it, they wouldn’t be able to live independently, pay their bills, get their meds, and have a chance at a decent retirement home. But we are out here, and we are myriad.
Most arguments against the defined benefits package state that you can save more and have a more comfortable retirement on the money you will get from your 401K. Maybe, but probably not. You see, a defined benefits package isn’t only about the monthly check – though god knows I would be in trouble if I was trying to live off my ability with investments and my Social Security. See, I was raised by parents who didn’t teach me about investing because we didn’t have enough money to invest. They had their own business. It closed. They didn’t make millions off of it. They survived in their old age because of two small pensions they received – one from New Jersey and one from the feds. Small is the operative phrase there. They only got those jobs in their 40s when their business shuttered.
While my parents couldn’t teach me about investing, they did teach me about not going into debt. So, debt has always scared me, and I’ve never really held any beyond my mortgage. You know me, I’m the disgusting person who pays off her bills every month and carries nothing over to the next month.
But I couldn’t do that on just Social Security. And since I spent my career in the health and social services field, it wasn’t as if I was making a lot of money to save and invest. People working with troubled kids and families are usually not making millions.
All of which brings us back to that defined benefits package. Aside from assuring me of a check every month based on funds I can’t spend down to nothing if I accidentally live long, it also provides me with a secondary health insurance that keeps me from selling my house to pay my hospital bills. I had open heart surgery and between Medicare and my State of Alaska secondary insurance, I was not wiped out or left in debt for it.
As for medications, none of us gets older without having to take at least some. And if you have to choose a plan through Medicare and take multiple medications, it’s hard to figure out which is best for your needs. If you have the defined benefits program from the state, you don’t have to decide. The state program covers it for you.
I know the state is running out of money. And maybe there are more people out there than I suspect who wish all of us old people would just up and die. And maybe there are a lot of people out there jealous of the benefits we get that they don’t. You all have my sympathy. But you are wrong to think this is the way to save the state financially.
Maybe future defined benefits packages will have to be smaller. Maybe new employees will have to pay more in to get more out. Maybe. What’s for sure is that without some sort of defined benefits package, we will continue to lose professionals to the lower 48, and many of them will be our children. In case you haven’t notice, the brain drain is rapidly heading south as our state offers little to keep our children here.
I am a senior with a defined benefits package. I worked for it and will not be shamed into some sort of silence over that fact. I am not what is bankrupting this state. None of us are.