Every week we see new stories about getting the pensions AXED by their employer, the bankruptcy court, or by government.  Many times this is happening to people ALREADY RETIRED that have already been receiving their pensions.

How is this possible????

Well, one way is when the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp (PBGC) takes over the pension because the employer has gone bankrupt, or the pension has been declared bankrupt.  In many cases the pension was “underfunded” because the promises made to the workers were too lucrative and impossible to pay.

The problem is compounding when the pension funds are invested in the market, and the funds suffer losses in the market.  It makes it difficult if not impossible to recover those losses because they are so huge.

Many times city, county and other local governments promise specific pension benefits, only to later have new administrators change the plans in order to balance budgets.  Once again, promises made that were too generous are later retracted.

We will post links to some of these stories as we find them, but just beware of relying too much on “pensions” and “social security” or you could find your retirement becoming a real nightmare.