retirement crisis

my wife is an educator and i own a small business and am an elected school board member.

my wife is really frustrated because she worked in another field for years and paid into social security.

about 10 years ago she decided to teach and recently found out she will not receive her full social security payout because she also contributed to a teachers retirement plan.

she will get approx. only 40% of what she should get from social security.

this affects anyone who goes into some sort of public service after having another career.

so she doesn't get the 30 years needed for full retirement pay from teachers retirement nor full pay from social security.

there is something wrong about that.

now i know that is a minor problem in the scope of things but it is still disturbing.

in other words, she will be penalized for going into a helping profession.

my next question though, is how many people does this rule affect and is it figured into social security?

Many people who (traditionally) have gone into public service had social security withholdings impacted. In fact, until about 20 years ago, federal employees really did not get social security -- the federal pension was expected to pay everything. Many state and county workers also had such a program (especially up until the 1970s or 1980s).

So, I would agree that it was very unfortunate for the school system that your wife worked in to not "catch up" with where most government employment situations (apparently, they withheld money for the pension, but not social security as it was common back 20-30 years ago -- I would not be surprised if at least 20% of all people in her situation are similarly situated).