Retirement question

My husband and I are doing a lot with financial planning and as a per diem substitue I enrolled in the NYSTRS. What kind of account is this exactly? Does anyone know if I can also set up a ROTH IRA? Thanks.

Re: Retirement question

the NYSTRS (New York state teachers retirement system) is your PENSION. it is very important. you can do whatever you want in addition to that (IRAs, 401 k/403 B) etc. to have more money for retirement, but the pension is key.

whatever distrcit you work for automatically takes 3% out of your salary and put it in to NYSTRS. the district also matches your 3% for a total contribution of 6%. you can't touch this money until you retire without penalties. after 10 years with a district, the district assumes total responsibility for the full 6% contribution into the bank, it's no longer pulled out of your check.

my advice to you is to KEEP track of EVERY day you work as a per diem substitute. 180 sub days, i believe, add up to one year in the NYSTRS. i know of older teachers in my building who can't retire now because they didn't keep track of sub days in the beginning of their career, and they might have had a year of sub days and could have used that year to retire a year earlier. you need to request in writing a letter on district letter head from each dsitrcit you sub in at the end of the year statng the number of days you worked. you can combine several districts to make up the year's worth or 1/2 year's worth, etc. i woudl also keep your won records so you know.

Once you have a regular teaching job (full-time, every day) it's easy to track. a year with your district is a year in the TRS. it doesn't sound important now, but NYSTRS is the key to your retirement. Tier IV teachers (that would be all of us) must have 30 years of service to be able to retire with 60% of their final salary. you can retire before then, but the pension wont' be as generous then. every year makes a difference. so that one year you might not log in at the beginning of your carreer, or all those sub days that added up... makes a big difference when you have 28 years of service and you just want to retire already! also, it's your money.. they're taking it out of your check the first 10 years of your career, so you might as well benefit from it.


Hope this makes sense... post if more questions.

Re: Retirement question

Thanks for explaining that. I will be sharing this information with many teachers I know that are substituting now.
I'm wondering though about how my years as a T.A. (teacher assistant). During those years I definitely contributed to the NYSTRS. Do you think those years will count toward my retirement? Ex: I worked 3 years as a TA, do I now only have to work 27 years in my current teaching job to collect my pension without penalty?


TIA

Re: Retirement question

Posted by mdn13

Thanks for explaining that. I will be sharing this information with many teachers I know that are substituting now.
I'm wondering though about how my years as a T.A. (teacher assistant). During those years I definitely contributed to the NYSTRS. Do you think those years will count toward my retirement? Ex: I worked 3 years as a TA, do I now only have to work 27 years in my current teaching job to collect my pension without penalty?


TIA

Re: Retirement question

thanks for your help! I'm trying to see if I can find the answer online somewhere now. I'll post if I find it.

Re: Retirement question

http://www.nystrs.org/main/welcome.html

Re: Retirement question

Karen- Thank you so much for that great explanation. I do have them taking out my 3% now even as a sub and I will definately start keeping better track. I probably have 90 days already!