Page 34 Excellence In Education Lincoln Daily News January 2025 According to the CDC, the average life expectancy for a man in the United States is 74.8 years. If this individual were a man and collected benefits until death (let’s assume 75 years) they would collect $608,049.28 over their 8 years of retirement as a Tier 1 educator, while collecting $555,042.32 as a Tier 2 educator. This is a difference of $53,006.96. If this person were a woman, the CDC projects they would live to be 80.2 years old (let’s assume 80 for this example). The gap here would be even wider, with the educator collecting $988,080.08 as a Tier 1 educator, and $901,943.77 as a Tier 2 educator, a difference of $86,136.31. This is also not considering that, as a Tier 1 educator, this person would have been able to retire anywhere between 5 and 12 years earlier than they would have been as a Tier 2 educator. Considering that Tier 2 educators are not going to get the same amount as Tier 1 educators, you might think that TRS would require these two groups to contribute different amounts of their paychecks to TRS before retirement. This makes sense, as everything else relating to money between these two groups has been different up to now, so why not this too? You would be wrong about this, as both groups are required to contribute 9% of their gross earnings to TRS, even though they will not be collecting the same amounts in retirement. Up to now, all of my arguments have been regarding financial inequality, but let’s take a moment to really consider the difference of time. I have coworkers who have retired in their mid to late 50’s. These people began teaching when they were in their early twenties and kept going throughout their lives. So many of these people have talked about how tired they are, and how much they need to retire. Whenever I hear these comments, I cannot help but think that, when I am in their shoes, I will have somewhere in the ballpark of a decade left to work. What am I going to miss out on, having to work for so many more years? My wife and I just had a son at the end of 2023. When I retire, he will be pushing forty and will likely, if he chooses to, have kids that are in high school. I will miss so many of those early years with my grandkids. I will not be able to be there as often for my son as my parents are for me now. Anyone with parents who help watch their grandkids know how much of a blessing this can be. I will be the grandfather who was only around on the holidays, who was always working. I want to end on a story and a call to action. First, the story. At the beginning of the 20232024 school year, we had someone come in to talk to the teachers in my school about TRS. This is when I really started looking into TRS and the differences between the tiers and realizing how deeply flawed the current system is. I asked several questions of the presenter, and he understood that I was outraged at the lack of equitability. He told me that I could retire before I turned 67, I just could not start collecting my retirement benefits before that age without incurring the penalties. I will never forget that he said to “find something to do in the meantime,” meaning to find a way to make money between whenever I retire and the time I turn 67. I refuse to believe that, as a college educated person, I should have to work most of my career in one position, only to start an entry level position in my mid-to-late fifties doing something else until I retire. Why did I even bother going to college if my only choice was to work until I resent my career for not valuing me and my service, or having to work some other job for a decade or more where I may not even use that degree? Continued --
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