Any part-timers that have PERS

[dreamin_disney]

or anyone that's is familiar with it. For 23 years I've been a part-time employee

My info is

23 years part time
but I don't get full credit

according to my PERS acct

Total service credits Estimated Earliest Retirement
12.217 years 4.386 years
2% @55

I will be 46 years old this year. What is buying credits to put towards years and how do I figure out the cost for that. I really need to start getting this taken care of. I didn't realize I was only getting partial year due to being part-time. Being a part of this budget board has opened my eyes to saving, budgeting and preparing for the future. Any tips or advice until I can get in to talk to someone . TIA!


oh and each month my work takes out money to put in my Pers acct and my employer matches it. Can I put more $$ into my acct or do I need to look for a different type of retirement acct?

 

[barkley]

dh is a pers retiree but there are so many different formulas and so much depends on how an individual agency contracts and when a person hired in..... that your best bet is to call them up and find out what it takes to have them run the numbers for you. I know that his pers does constant 'benefit education events' throughout the state they handle for members at all stages of planning.

 

[JinxedSydney]

Check with your state PERS. In California, this message is on their site: "As a result of the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA), the Additional Retirement Service Credit (ARSC) is no longer a service credit purchase option."

As different public entities struggle with meeting their pension obligations, you might look into using the money you'd buy credit with towards a different type of retirement fund. Just a thought. You also might be able to find a forum (not DIS) that is specifically geared towards not only your state PERS, but for part-timers.

 

[RADOPT]

buying credits to put towards years and how do I figure out the cost for that

Talk to the PERs department or HR. They should be able to thelp you. I know in California, it was very expensive to buy credits. My friend looked into buying for 5 years so she could retire sooner and it was not worth it.

Good Luck.

 

[barkley]

just as a suggestion if you are going to contact your pers agency anyway-if there's someone who would in an emergency handle any of your legal affairs-find out if your pers has a specific form permitting this. I don't know about other agencies but calpers has a very specific form that is the only form they accept (a power of attorney will not suffice) and it can take months for them to process it and update a member file once it's been completed by the member and submitted. I speak from experience on having dealt with this for another calpers family member.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Talk to the PERs department or HR. They should be able to thelp you. I know in California, it was very expensive to buy credits. My friend looked into buying for 5 years so she could retire sooner and it was not worth it.

Good Luck.

I am in CA and everything is expensive here :/ Thanks for the info

just as a suggestion if you are going to contact your pers agency anyway-if there's someone who would in an emergency handle any of your legal affairs-find out if your pers has a specific form permitting this. I don't know about other agencies but calpers has a very specific form that is the only form they accept (a power of attorney will not suffice) and it can take months for them to process it and update a member file once it's been completed by the member and submitted. I speak from experience on having dealt with this for another calpers family member.

Good idea. Thank you

 

[runwad]

just as a suggestion if you are going to contact your pers agency anyway-if there's someone who would in an emergency handle any of your legal affairs-find out if your pers has a specific form permitting this. I don't know about other agencies but calpers has a very specific form that is the only form they accept (a power of attorney will not suffice) and it can take months for them to process it and update a member file once it's been completed by the member and submitted. I speak from experience on having dealt with this for another calpers family member.

I can't help you OP but thanks for this Barkley, I'm gonna check too.

My DH is in PERS. I've been doing webinars to learn some things as he is about 8 years away from retirement. I wish we'd of known about buying service credits as he is about 3 years shy of having been grandfathered in to better benefits. Oh well. To the poster who said buying credits was too much, like what's too much? Like 10k a year? Not that I can do it now, it's closed, but just wondered if we were more informed if we could've got into a better retirement plan for him. I would've been covered free under his retirement medical benefits. Now I'm not, only while he is working, drat!

 

[RADOPT]

I am in CA and everything is expensive here

In the San Francisco bay area by any chance? Prices are nuts!!!

 

[disneyhand]

Lot's of good advice here. I'm retired CALPERS, but my situation was so different then what you're asking about. I found that talking to coworkers about PERS and our employer was also extremely helpful. Being good friends with our HR person was a great perk too. Good luck

 

[dreamin_disney]

Lot's of good advice here. I'm retired CALPERS, but my situation was so different then what you're asking about. I found that talking to coworkers about PERS and our employer was also extremely helpful. Being good friends with our HR person was a great perk too. Good luck

I really don't get chance to talk to other that have pers. Most of the people I'm around are CTA . HR is across town which I only go to that building area maybe once a year if that.

Once I'm done helping DD with college I plan on putting most of that money toward retirement so I need to look into that

 

[usnuzuloose]

What is pers? And buying credits for what? Sorry I haven't worked since 06.

 

[disneyhand]

What is pers? And buying credits for what? Sorry I haven't worked since 06.

Public Employee Retirement Sytem = PERS and in my situation localized to my state CALPERS

 

[disneyhand]

I really don't get chance to talk to other that have pers. Most of the people I'm around are CTA . HR is across town which I only go to that building area maybe once a year if that.

Once I'm done helping DD with college I plan on putting most of that money toward retirement so I need to look into that

Here they (CALPERS) also offer seminars for retirement planing, plus they have a website and people you can talk to by phone. Yours should be able to assist you, good luck!

 

[runwad]

What is pers? And buying credits for what? Sorry I haven't worked since 06.

Buying credits is the equivalent to buying years of service. Sometimes it's beneficial to do so to get better retirement benefits. I have no clue how much a service credit would be, we were too busy raising a family, retirement wasn't even on our radar. It's only now that we are 8 years from retirement that we realized if my husband had 3 more years of service, it would've had a pension that got a 3% COLA raise every year and better medical benefits (free for him and I). Now we will have to pay for me, his isn't free but will still be economical. Of course no clue 8 years out how much it will cost us, we'll have to wait till we're closer to retiring. But had I known about buying service credits and we could've afforded it at the time, we could've got grandfathered in to the better plan :-(.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Buying credits is the equivalent to buying years of service. Sometimes it's beneficial to do so to get better retirement benefits. I have no clue how much a service credit would be, we were too busy raising a family, retirement wasn't even on our radar. It's only now that we are 8 years from retirement that we realized if my husband had 3 more years of service, it would've had a pension that got a 3% COLA raise every year and better medical benefits (free for him and I). Now we will have to pay for me, his isn't free but will still be economical. Of course no clue 8 years out how much it will cost us, we'll have to wait till we're closer to retiring. But had I known about buying service credits and we could've afforded it at the time, we could've got grandfathered in to the better plan :-(.

If you find out could you pm me and let me know, we are kind of in the same predicament. My retirement went away wentt the economy went south. We have a little longer than 8 yrs, but not by much.

 

[runwad]

^Its not an option for us anymore. There was a certain date you had to have so many years service by and that date is long past. Someone else in the thread said it costs a lot I wondered too? Like how much would a year service equate to? 5k, 10k, 20k? It probably would've been too much for us at the time to be able to do anyway. Just our luck, we are always a day late and a dollar short.

 

[usnuzuloose]

^Its not an option for us anymore. There was a certain date you had to have so many years service by and that date is long past. Someone else in the thread said it costs a lot I wondered too? Like how much would a year service equate to? 5k, 10k, 20k? It probably would've been too much for us at the time to be able to do anyway. Just our luck, we are always a day late and a dollar short.

Oh boy, I am sorry. Thanks anyway I appreciate it.

 

[amcnj]

One thing I have heard from people who bought back service credit in other systems is that the sooner you do it, the less expensive it is. Not sure this is universal, but it makes sense that it could be, since the plan has less years to take that money and make it grow prior to your retirement. In their cases they could only buy back credit for years they actually worked for certain government entities (any federal or state time I believe). Some of the above postings make it seem like in this case you could just buy additional years of credit without a work requirement, so this might be a whole different animal.

 

[PurplePeopleMover]

Sorry, I'm on my second PERS job and I'm still not sure how it all works.

 

[barkley]

Sorry, I'm on my second PERS job and I'm still not sure how it all works.

it constantly changes so what is the rule one day may not be the next. what with public employee 'pension reforms' in some states it's impossible to keep up with what pensions/benefits current retirees will continue to receive let alone if those who have'nt yet retired.

I will say that a good source of information for current and future pers retirees is the rpea (retired public employee's association). their websites (different ones for different states/retirement systems) are an interesting read. they can also be a great resource (even if your not retired/not a member of rpea) to find out exactly what department/what extension at the retirement agency to call with a question (I find it preferable to CalPERS's phone tree of hell).