From: Karen Younge 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.financial-plan
Subject: Is this good or bad?
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 03:59:26 CST
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	=R7Qm

A couple of quotes from the column "Your Pension News" in the
Association of Retired City Employees
newspaper in my town. I'm eligible to retire from my job with the City
in about three years, so I picked up
the paper for my own information.


     Quote #1
     "Early in the year many financial professionals forecast an
     economic recovery for this quarter.
     Judging from the Retirement Fund August 31st report estimated
     funding level at 83.35% it has not begun to
     happen. Despite the uncertain financial climate we can be
     proud that the City of ----- Retirement System re-
     mains in the upper 4 percentile of public pension funds."

     Quote #2
     "As you well know, over the years, several suggestions have
     been offered to supplement the long
     wait to reach 95% funding. We had a one and a half hour
     discussion on the critical retiree need and the issue
     of maintaining a funding ratio."

These two statements are "all Greek to me". What are they saying? Can I
conclude anything about the sound-
ness (or reverse) of the pension system from these remarks? To
investigate further, what questions should I
ask and what answers should I want to hear from my pension system? The
Department I work for has about
1100 employees, with only 77 of them under 30 years of age, and my guess
is the age spread in other depart-
ments is about the same. Is this a financial train wreck waiting to
happen?

Karen