Changes

First the GOOD news. Our son wrote and he is doing fine. He will graduate on time, even though Hurricane Dennis dumped a ton of water on them. They have been doing clean up activities that will keep them from enjoying the last week of BT (which is a free floating week, normally). He is very upbeat, even though he had to report that there have been two deaths at Fort Benning while he has been there. First, an Army Ranger was crushed when a HumVee that was being pushed UP a hill, got free and ran him over. I almost cried for that man and his family.

The second death was heat related. That prompted our son to write a separate letter to me to warn me about working so hard in the Texas sun without water. I will follow his advise. I figure he is smarted than I am at this point on that.

I am excited about going to see him in a few weeks. I miss my boy!

Now for the bad news...

We received notice recently that our CEO was implementing changes at our company. The details have been made public, so I am not doing anything illegal by posting this. The changes affect everyone in the company in one way or another. The changes that WILL affect me are pension plans and the 401k company match.

Retirement is something that we all look forward to. I was hoping that the company I work for would provide 25% of my retirement money, Social Security about 25% and personal savings the other 50%. With the new plan, I stop accruing pension money on December 31st, 2005. The amount that I have accrued is pretty small (I have only been with the company 2 years), it was growing. I have never been able to retire from a company and I was really looking forward to growing old with my current company and collecting a small but important pension with them.

The second thing that will affect me is the company matched 401k plan. I currently have 5% and the company contributes 4%. Under the new plan, I will get 5% match on my 5% contribution, with a match of up to 6%. I will most likely increase my contributions the first of next year.

Here is what is disappointing thing about the retirement change: I have worked for 4 major companies that offered retirement. 3 of them I became vested in, so when I left, I got the money in the form of check that I could either roll over to an IRA or spend. In the two cases in the past where I left the company, I cashed in one (it was$500 or so) and rolled over the other ($11,000) to an IRA. My last company had a CAP plan that I invested money in 401k as well as a retirement plan. I rolled both of them over. They are now valued at less than a years worth of living expenses.

Now I work for a new company (as of two years ago), and I am vested in the company. My "pension" will freeze on December 31st, 2005 and whatever it is valued at, I will get. I am not sure how much that is. I have only 2 years of pension, so I am sure it will be less than $5,000...way less. The last time that I checked, it was an annuity of less than $50 a month. So I am sure it will be a lump sum payout, being taxed out the wazoo. If I could roll it over tax free, my IRA would get a boost :-) .

Now third thing may not affect me, but it could. They have announced WFR's (Work Force Reductions) ... 14,500 people world-wide over the next 1.5 years, starting in October. Half of the reductions are coming from "global" groups that do not affect me, but the other half could. I have been told that 2,000 people have accepted an enhanced voluntary severance package, so that will help some. Early retirement will help some as well. I will keep my options open. If I am a WFR recipient, then we will be ok for 3-6 months or so. We have ways of cutting back at home to allow us more time, plus I will qualify for unemployment (which will pay the mortgage). I have some money saved if I cannot find a job immediately and I can always hit up Christianjobs.com :-) .