Grumpus Maximus
- Website: grumpusmaximus.com
What You’ll Get Out Of Today’s Show
- How can you calculate a pension’s value? Is it worth it? And how do you incorporate this future income into your retirement plan?
- The 10th year of employment in a pensionable career is frequently an inflection point. It’s this halfway point when people begin to consider sticking it out in a job for remaining time required to qualify for benefits.
- Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, Grumpus came to his inflection point after 16 years in the military. With just four years left, staying for the pension began to feel like a golden albatross.
- Grumpus Maximus’s book, The Golden Albatross, is designed to help those midway toward earning a pension make value calculations before going through a major life event or leaving it all behind.
- Not all pensions are created equal. They are a promise to pay, so how well funded the pension is against future obligations is an important provision to consider.
- For Grumpus, FI was the answer to all his problems. Between his pension and the investments he and his wife already had, along with not being big spenders, he realized he would never need to work a real job again if he didn’t want to.
- The five variables that make a pension more valuable are:
- The pension starts immediately.
- The pension has a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).
- The pension includes healthcare.
- The pension uses a high-value calculation based on the number of years in the system.
- The total dollar value of the pension.
- The best place to understand a pension’s value is from the plan website. Well-run pension plans have online calculators to help determine how much a pension will be worth annually in retirement.
- After deciding to retire from the military after 20 years of service, Grumpus and his family moved to New Zealand, where he is using his GI Bill benefits to go to school and earn a master’s degree.
Resources Mentioned In Today’s Conversation
- ChooseFI Episode 057 with Grumpus Maximus
- Sign up for ChooseFI’s FREE Financial Independence Course, FI101!
- ChooseFI’s 3 Card Cash Back Credit Card Strategy
- Register for the live pension webinar with Grumpus Maximus
- Order your copy of The Golden Albatross!
The Golden Albatross
If your job offers a pension, then this book is a must-read. Easily learn how to calculate your pension’s objective value and weigh it against the subjective benefits of leaving for more fulfilling work.
