The retired high-school teacher in Ohio, whose last name is known to Business Insider but withheld over privacy and professional concerns, said her retirement isn’t looking how she anticipated. Both she and her late husband were public servants, which means they didn’t have high-paid careers, but she does have a pension — meaning she’ll get a monthly payout in retirement. But it’s not getting her as far as she’d hoped.
“We lived the modest life of two public employees just making ends meet,” Linda said. “We bought a house, we struggled in debt. I’m still in debt after his death, and the bills keep coming, and I need to keep working.”
Before her retirement, she was earning about $5,000 a month. Now, with her pension, she’ll have about $3,700 a month coming in, according to documentation BI review.
She’s looking into part-time work and other opportunities that could keep her afloat. She wants something that will give her a “modicum of autonomy” when it comes to scheduling, and she said that if necessary, she’d apply for Instacart and deliver groceries. She wants to ensure she’s never burdensome to her children, even in her older age.
She doesn’t ever see herself being able to stop working completely; she said she’d work until she could no longer physically do so.
Linda isn’t alone. Many retirees or would-be-retirees aren’t able to fully throw in the towel. The Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found just more than half of respondents over 65 were living on an income of less than $30,000 in 2022, and many older Americans are expecting to work until the day they’re not physically able to anymore. It’s a situation that’s become more pronounced in the past few years, as retirement becomes increasingly reserved for higher earners — and it may only get worse as pensions continue to wither and Social Security remains imperiled.
“I fully see myself working for the next 20-some years — if I have that many left. Whatever years I have left, I will not be enjoying the retirement life in Florida,” Linda said.
A looming retirement crisis for many
Linda’s retirement goals are modest: She’s hoping to concoct a winning recipe with her teacher’s pension, a rolled-over government-worker retirement plan, the sale of her house, and some part-time work.
“I’m hoping that all of those ingredients piled together in a bowl will bake something that I am able to live with. I will never be wealthy. I will never be without care and without worry, but I would like to at some point get to the point where I am free to travel and supplement my income with part-time employment,” she said.
Linda is one of the dwindling number of retirees who have a pension, but that comes after a career spent in low-paying public service. A Government Accountability Office report last year found that older lower-income Americans had become increasingly less likely to have any retirement account balances; simultaneously, fewer low-income households had a pension. That means that the onus of retirement saving and planning has shifted onto workers rather than employers who pay into a monthly pension benefit; for lower-income workers, who may not be able to spare savings, that can be an even more acute challenge.
Linda said she thought teachers especially had gotten a bad rap over the past few decades. The idea that they just want to siphon off of the system couldn’t be further from the truth, she said.
“Even though I had that position, I also had the low salary that went with it. And there are many things that you have to deal with in life financially,” she said. “And teaching, unfortunately, is not a career choice that guarantees financial stability.”
Even so, she said it was still the most uplifting and rewarding work she’d ever done.
She’d also like the country to rethink conversations around Social Security and retirement benefits more broadly. She said pensions had gotten into the hands of private equity, potentially imperiling those guaranteed benefits. At the same time, politicians have taken aim at Social Security, suggesting pushing up the retirement age and not moving to fund its coffers.
“We have to get out of this frame of mind that suggests that Social Security that people have paid into for decades is somehow an entitlement. It is a right,” she said.
But, even so, Linda still feels fortunate: She has two adult sons who will always look out for her; she’s even moving to be closer to one. They make good money, and she knows she has a safety net.
“There are so many in this country who are looking at retirement age and throwing up their hands and in total desperation, wondering how they’re going to make it,” she said. “And those are the people I really feel terrible for.”
Are you struggling to retire or not experiencing the retirement you hoped for? Are you working during retirement? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
