victor60630
New Member
I am considering writing a book similar to case studies and want to know about your experiences (good and bad) about retirement, social security, nursing homes, inherited wealth, senior living, death of a spouse etc. I won't share any information you share and if I write something it will be a mixture of three or four peoples experience and just first names made up. I have shared my experiences below and if you decide to share your experiences you can share them here.
My experience hasn't been extremely bad but not good either. I never really saved enough because over the years I have had some financial set backs. I fell down and broke my arm and hurt my knee working as a substitute teacher at 65.
I had worked as a school teacher in Chicago so I took my retirement for ten years of working in cps ( around 1400 dollars a month) because I couldn't live on what they gave me for worker mans compensation. Then I was told by insurance Tricare (since I was prior military National guard/reservist) that I had to take medicare. So this meant that my medical insurance went from 200 dollars a year to $523.80 every three months.
Then I took a job at a charter school in Chicago work getting paid through a private employment agency and asked the Chicago Teachers retirement board if I could work their since I am not allowed to work at a Chicago Public School while collecting a pension. They said it was okay if I worked for through the agency.
Then at the end of the school year the Chicago Teachers Retirement Fund contacted me and informed me that I couldn't work at that school since teachers working at that school were paying into the Chicago Teachers Retirement fund and that if I worked over 100 days I would lose my pension.
So I asked if I could work for a school in Chicago whose teachers didn't pay into the Chicago Teachers Retirement fund and they said yes. So the next year I obtained employment with a company whose teachers didn't pay into the chicago teachers retirement fund and my rent doubled so I decided to buy a house since I was in good health was making decent money and wanted to keep working.
Two weeks after I closed on the house the Chicago Teachers Retirement Board contacted me and said they had reworded the clause on their back to work rules and I could not work for this company and if i worked over 100 days I would lose my retirement. So I thought about inquiring about suing but every lawyer I called said they didn't handle that type of law. So I quit and started paying my mortgage out of my savings.
Then about six months later i ran into a friend who hires special education teachers for a private school and she said I could work for her school 100 days a year for 30K which the maximum amount I can make a year. That helped. I had checked into taking my social security when I was 65 and told that I had enough quarters so the WEP (windfall) wouldn't affect me. So I decided to wait till I was 70.
For those who don't know if you have a pension from being a government worker, armed forces, teacher, fireman or police officer the social security takes away 40 to 50 percent of your social security away. Now that I am 68 I decided to stop by the social security office considering taking my social security retirement and this time they told me I don't don't have enough quarters paid into social security and that instead of 1320 dollars a month I will only receive 778 dollars a month.
I try to be upbeat but curious is it just me. Are you experiences negative or positive. I was thinking about writing a book about does retirement work or doesn't work. What are your thoughts.
My experience hasn't been extremely bad but not good either. I never really saved enough because over the years I have had some financial set backs. I fell down and broke my arm and hurt my knee working as a substitute teacher at 65.
I had worked as a school teacher in Chicago so I took my retirement for ten years of working in cps ( around 1400 dollars a month) because I couldn't live on what they gave me for worker mans compensation. Then I was told by insurance Tricare (since I was prior military National guard/reservist) that I had to take medicare. So this meant that my medical insurance went from 200 dollars a year to $523.80 every three months.
Then I took a job at a charter school in Chicago work getting paid through a private employment agency and asked the Chicago Teachers retirement board if I could work their since I am not allowed to work at a Chicago Public School while collecting a pension. They said it was okay if I worked for through the agency.
Then at the end of the school year the Chicago Teachers Retirement Fund contacted me and informed me that I couldn't work at that school since teachers working at that school were paying into the Chicago Teachers Retirement fund and that if I worked over 100 days I would lose my pension.
So I asked if I could work for a school in Chicago whose teachers didn't pay into the Chicago Teachers Retirement fund and they said yes. So the next year I obtained employment with a company whose teachers didn't pay into the chicago teachers retirement fund and my rent doubled so I decided to buy a house since I was in good health was making decent money and wanted to keep working.
Two weeks after I closed on the house the Chicago Teachers Retirement Board contacted me and said they had reworded the clause on their back to work rules and I could not work for this company and if i worked over 100 days I would lose my retirement. So I thought about inquiring about suing but every lawyer I called said they didn't handle that type of law. So I quit and started paying my mortgage out of my savings.
Then about six months later i ran into a friend who hires special education teachers for a private school and she said I could work for her school 100 days a year for 30K which the maximum amount I can make a year. That helped. I had checked into taking my social security when I was 65 and told that I had enough quarters so the WEP (windfall) wouldn't affect me. So I decided to wait till I was 70.
For those who don't know if you have a pension from being a government worker, armed forces, teacher, fireman or police officer the social security takes away 40 to 50 percent of your social security away. Now that I am 68 I decided to stop by the social security office considering taking my social security retirement and this time they told me I don't don't have enough quarters paid into social security and that instead of 1320 dollars a month I will only receive 778 dollars a month.
I try to be upbeat but curious is it just me. Are you experiences negative or positive. I was thinking about writing a book about does retirement work or doesn't work. What are your thoughts.