Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Wow, pretty healthy incomes and savings. While I think our military is a little large, anyone who is in the military should get great pay and benefits. There are other government employees that I am not so sure about their pay levels for their competence levels and efforts though. Purely anecdotal, but I know a few who lead me to this opinion.

 

Be careful with the benefits. Not all government employees get guaranteed income or health benefits. I work for a state university. I do get a pension--but remember, that also means no match on my 403B savings and I have no control over where or how that money is "saved" for me. (And if I leave w/o retiring, I get half of the actual dollar amount in the account. HALF. If I die, my DH will get the full amount. I find that odd.) Anyway, I also don't get health benefits. My job does have a weird thing were I can purchase health insurance w/ unused sick leave, but since I have young kids, I have no sick leave saved up, although I might by retirement (but don't you tend to get sick again a lot when you are older?).

Anyway, just saying that it's not all government jobs that give great retirement benefits. Oh, and on the drawbacks? Can't ever ask for a raise. It's all determined by the legislature. We all get the exact same amount (well, there's this small amount for merit but it causes great tensions and everyone gets about the same amount) every single year.

That is, when we get a raise. My raises over 10 years have averaged about 2% per year. Two years, we got no raise at all. That's all just in real dollars. We've also had to pay more for health insurance, so it's actually less than that in dollars in our pockets.

 

I was thinking that, too, Boston Gal, like maybe I should join the army. (And then I think about what they deal with in Iraq and am like, uh, no thanks.) But it is depressing to not have that kind of pension.

Perhaps we should join the police force? I have until I turn 35 to get into the NYPD...

 

This is going to be interesting to see how this turns out for all these people on government pensions.

I have read that many municipal pension plans are very underfunded. So, taxpayers in the private sector who usually don't have pensions themselves are having to save for their own retirement while at the same time paying taxes to pay for the pensions of government employees. I can see problems developing with this.

 

raises - you guys actually get raises??? i am a physician and medicare (and other insurance companies) are dropping my reimbursements by 10.5% in July and by another 15% next January... which means, if you take my overhead into account, a pay cut of about 26% by this time next year.... you guys are lucky to even have the opportunity to get raises...

 

I'm a state employee - but not a hack! I traded in a long commute and worry over the private sector jobs for some security and lower pay.

The state is, um, "intersting" to say the least when it comes to logical use of talent. Your previous noter is right. There's hardly any room for growth or merit. I've been with the state for 10 years, and at 42, I will likely retire from my current position decades from now.

Years ago, I would think of ways to save money and it would fall on deaf ears. I'm very lucky to work in a cool department, with interesting, supportive co-workers. I had to do three transfers to get to this position though!

 

Will they really stay together and raise children while in the military? As a two military family?

Can you see living apart while having children? What happens they live with mom or dad? Or what if one is stationed overseas?

In the military they own you. You can't decide I want to live with my husband.

It's great they are savings, but I wonder in 5 years when kids come and they have to live together in the same house can they?

Or will they?

 

I'm a federal government employee. We don't get a pension, but our TSP (like a 401K) does have several indexed funds we can choose from, and we do get a decent match. Also, we have moved to a better incentive-based pay-banding system (NSPS). This year I got the biggest raise I have ever received without a promotion. The total of bonus and salary increase was about $4500. This was on top of the annual raise we get every January. I could make a lot more in private industry, but I would also have to work more than 40 hours a week. Also, the area I work in is very family oriented so I never get any trouble for taking off at the last minute for family. When I started, I got 13 workdays of vacation and 13 workdays of sick time. After 3 years, I moved up the ladder to 19.5 workdays of vacation (a little over 4 weeks) and 13 workdays of sick time.

I've also gotten to work from home depending on the position I held at the time.

I have no complaints. I am not lazy and I enjoy challenges at my job. Contrary to popular belief, not all positions in the government consist of doing nothing. I spent a lot of time doing a lot of work, and there were times in my career that I did have to work weekends and long nights.

 

I always find it interesting when people say, "well, heck, I should do 'x' and get all that easy money." Yes, you should. Everyone should get a Masters degree, or go through bootcamp, or put their life on the line to save others (cops, firemen) and they should be well rewarded for it. The fact that most people won't do those things is what creates value (i.e., supply/demand)in the first place, though.