TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Feb 1, 2012 19:44:36 GMT -5
The grass is always greener......
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 1, 2012 20:07:10 GMT -5
Yep, the first 14 years doesn't get you much except almost half way to the "big prize". That is why it is hard to walk away from. It's too much time to recoup elsewhere, but not enough time to get you much of anything in terms of a pension if you leave it behind.
The problem with this is that I had no option. I did not walk away from my job, but my lab moved to another institution. If I didn't move with my boss, I would not have a job.
Unfortunately, pensions are an abysmal retirement plan for my job series. It's not uncommon to be in several institutions (I've been in 5 in 33 years of employment) over my lifetime and I'm another 15 years from retirement. At this point, I doubt if there will be another move, which is good since my retirement fund is now a 403b.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on Feb 1, 2012 20:22:24 GMT -5
Yep, the first 14 years doesn't get you much except almost half way to the "big prize". That is why it is hard to walk away from. It's too much time to recoup elsewhere, but not enough time to get you much of anything in terms of a pension if you leave it behind.The problem with this is that I had no option. I did not walk away from my job, but my lab moved to another institution. If I didn't move with my boss, I would not have a job. mich: I feel your pain. I truly do. DH had to move with his company to keep his years of service. It was a win/lose. On the one hand we love the location that we moved to; on the other hand, the new location is a much higher COLA (SF Bay Area). We went from having a paid off home that we would have been thrilled to retire in to having a pretty hefty mortgage.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Feb 1, 2012 21:58:57 GMT -5
The grass is always greener...... My ass it is! I'm not giving up my sweet contractor gig to become an underpaid government drone. Sure I could be out on my butt this summer if we lose our contract rebid, but I'm not trading my fat paycheck for $40k a year, a crappy pension, and more stability.
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formerexpat
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Post by formerexpat on Feb 1, 2012 22:30:13 GMT -5
Sometimes a lot...but they can also spell corporation.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Feb 1, 2012 22:31:03 GMT -5
Aww cmon Dark the health insurance is cheaper and you'd be making at least $60k. I'm pretty sure IT guys get more than me and I think you'd get a COL adjustment of like 10% more than I do. There is that pesky thing about data center consolidation...wonder how that affects things like you guys in the mirror image servers? Yeah its redundant but its redundant for a reason. Btw those SESers don't get nearly enough money to deal with the bullshit. $200k to administer and oversee a trillion dollar budget and deal with the headaches and constant rule changes? Not in this lifetime! No wonder the last dude quit besides the minor issue of no Senate confirmation.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Feb 1, 2012 22:39:16 GMT -5
There is that pesky thing about data center consolidation...wonder how that affects things like you guys in the mirror image servers? It won't affect us at all. On the one hand they're trying to consolidate data centers, but there's a requirement for each agency to have two geographically separate data centers for their mission essential systems. So that if there's a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or what have you, that destroys your primary site you aren't totally hosed. We only have two data centers, and our secondary site is already co-located with a couple other agencies. It's going to hit agencies that have multiple data centers spread all over the country.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on Feb 1, 2012 22:45:31 GMT -5
Aww cmon Dark the health insurance is cheaper and you'd be making at least $60k. I'm pretty sure IT guys get more than me and I think you'd get a COL adjustment of like 10% more than I do. There is that pesky thing about data center consolidation...wonder how that affects things like you guys in the mirror image servers? Yeah its redundant but its redundant for a reason. Btw those SESers don't get nearly enough money to deal with the bullshit. $200k to administer and oversee a trillion dollar budget and deal with the headaches and constant rule changes? Not in this lifetime! No wonder the last dude quit besides the minor issue of no Senate confirmation. Ya, those Senate confirmations....they're such a pesky little thing.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Feb 1, 2012 23:04:01 GMT -5
Its a check and balance, don't get me wrong. On the other hand how in the hell are you supposed to straighten up an agency and head it in the right direction when every President appoints a new head? Some things shouldn't be bargaining chips for political pissing matches. Running an agency is a big job, one that should be given to a highly qualified candidate not the president's buddy and not subject to the whims of a Congress engaged in a pissing match with the President. Take the politics out of it.
I will note that while Congress refused to confirm the President's selection, they have no suggestions of their own and couldn't appear to give a damn about what that interruption does to the agency's operations.
We've technically got mini data centers in all of our offices. DC doesn't want to store our data so its stored in all of the regional offices.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Feb 2, 2012 1:39:51 GMT -5
We've technically got mini data centers in all of our offices. DC doesn't want to store our data so its stored in all of the regional offices. Sounds like you guys are the people they're targeting with the data center consolidation effort. If your agency needs any help getting a new data center built out and managed let me know. I know a company with lots of expertise in that area.
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The J
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Post by The J on Feb 2, 2012 12:40:45 GMT -5
Did I make any generalization or did I compare a specific Fortune 500 company employee with an equivalent municipal position in a fairly similar geographical locality? I was doing the same thing, except I was comparing a municipal clerk with a degreed professional in management with more years of service, both working in THE SAME geographic location and noting that the clerk will receive the higher pension. Your first comment to me was to not make broad generalizations. I didn't.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Feb 2, 2012 13:27:55 GMT -5
...:::"special privileges, see 1886 to 2000...":::...
I guess Wolverine and Bill Compton could speak to this. Kind of like how they both fought in the Civil War... I think for different sides though.
...:::"If you get the old federal government pension thats all you got besides anything you did on your own. There was no TSP (401k) for those under the old system, a system that's been gone since right around when I was born in 1984.":::...
And those with a TSP can totally smoke those under the old CSRS if they actually take advantage of it, and so long as the market doesn't collapse. Yes its sad that many people who were very close to retirement had to stay on for 5 more years during the most recent collapse. Then again, their assets should have long since been moved to stabler funds.
...:::"Some things shouldn't be bargaining chips for political pissing matches. Running an agency is a big job, one that should be given to a highly qualified candidate not the president's buddy and not subject to the whims of a Congress engaged in a pissing match with the President. Take the politics out of it.":::...
Hehehehe. But my friend's brother might run for President in 2040 and I've already informally been promised the administrator position of the agency of my choice!
Karma to you though WVU. We need long term committed leadership, not flavor of the month fads. Especially since some of these people just use the job as a stepping stone to the $1M/year private sector job.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Feb 2, 2012 13:51:24 GMT -5
They have targeted funds. And then there's the G fund if you are really risk averse. When I moved my holdings out of the default G fund and increased my contribution beyond what gets you a max match, I sat down with my aunt and picked a lifecycle fund.
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ontrack
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Post by ontrack on Feb 2, 2012 15:52:51 GMT -5
I'm all in the L2040 fund. One of my coworkers thinks it's too invested in bonds, but I don't have the knowledge to pick an investment mix myself and constantly rebalance it.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Feb 2, 2012 16:22:43 GMT -5
I think I was in between 40 and 50 when I did retirement age. I ended up going all 50 I think. My aunt used to run retirement plans for corporations when she worked at Schwab and Vanguard. I was going to do a mix between lifecycle and the other funds. She told me the lifecycle ones included a mix of everything.
Which reminds me I was really trying to figure out which brokerage house is holding the TSP stuff. Everything's got the TSP name on it but one of the brokerages is holding those accounts. Given the sheer size it has to be one of the big boys.
I majored in finance. I can research, track and rebalance but I don't want to. When I get enough money to play around with yeah I will. For my 401k I want to the money in and forget it. Increase my contribution with each raise and ignore it otherwise.
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ontrack
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Post by ontrack on Feb 2, 2012 16:30:14 GMT -5
I'm between 40 and 50 too, but the 50 wasn't set up when I first started and I didn't want to bother changing it when it was established.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Feb 2, 2012 18:34:18 GMT -5
I don't know exactly what my distribution in my TSP is. Like you, set it up, throw money in it every paycheck and forget about it.
I wasn't too impressed with the returns on those "life cycle" funds.
I think a lot of mine is going into the S&P 500, and the rest is split between the G fund and the Bods fund (forget what it's called, F fund I think?). The bonds fund actually has had the best return from what I saw.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Feb 2, 2012 21:01:25 GMT -5
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Feb 2, 2012 22:10:26 GMT -5
My wonderful DH is in the G fund. (He's as risk averse as they come.)
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highlandbelow
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Post by highlandbelow on Feb 2, 2012 22:35:38 GMT -5
Message deleted by highlandbelow.
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