CAT Tracks for July 3, 2015 THE NEXT PENSION TIME BOMB

All teachers and former teachers need to read this article...

...especially newbies, i.e. "Tier II teachers", those of you hired after January 1, 2011.

Yes, it's long and gets a bit complicated...

...yes, it's scary and depressing as hell...

...but your "golden years" hang in the balance.

And, yes, "newbies" the article addresses your lack of concern about retirement:

...unions have been kept so busy trying to maintain benefits members are supposed to be guaranteed, they haven’t been able to spend much time advocating for greater benefits for new employees. And union leaders say that many of those new employees don’t even know they should be advocating for themselves.

Michael Williamson, president of the LEAD 300 teachers union in Carpentersville-area Community Unit District 300, says he finds new teachers are preoccupied with figuring out how to manage a classroom and don’t pay much attention to pensions — especially those who are fresh out of college and decades from retirement. “Our members who are 22, 23 — pensions aren’t real to them,” Williamson says.