These days, it is rare for someone to spend their career in one place. Most people jump around, leaving for a higher salary or winning work culture, much like professional athletes. There is nothing wrong with trying to better yourself, but it can come with a downside when you’re ready to hang it up: finding all of your old retirement benefits.
For many AT&T employees, the opportunity to retire comes earlier than planned. To restructure its workforce, AT&T will at times present retirement-eligible employees with a Supplemental Income Protection Plan (SIPP) offer. This provides a financial incentive to voluntarily leave the company, should you accept it. Typically, you only have a short window of time, around 7-14 days, to decide.
As we all work to stay safe, one additional thing likely on the minds of many AT&T employees right now is the health of their 401(k)s. One potential factor in how yours is holding up right now is how much AT&T stock you own.
One of the most important things to plan for in retirement is healthcare. Essentially, how are you going to pay for medical costs that will only rise as you grow older?
Don’t let anyone tell you that your birthday is just another day. Each revolution around the sun may mean greater access to your retirement savings and other assets. That’s worth celebrating. As you start to prepare for retirement from AT&T, there are some birthdays that are more important than others.
In November, the interest rate used to calculate AT&T pension payouts – the Composite Corporate Bond Rate – was lowered to 2.94%. That means, if you’re an AT&T employee who may retire between now and the end of the year and would like to elect a lump sum, your payout may be larger than last year.
A refrain that best describes estate planning is that it’s not about the years you have left, it’s about the years you have lived. As an AT&T employee or retiree, you’ve likely earned a variety of valuable retirement benefits, such as your AT&T pension and your 401(k) savings. Although thinking about life after you’re gone can be difficult, it becomes easier when you reframe it as planning how to successfully manage all you’ve worked hard for.
If all goes according to plan. Those are the rose-colored words people commonly say when they think they’ve got retirement fully covered. If all goes according to plan, I’m all set for retirement. They are often spoken by people who expect to retire with a sizeable pension or some kind of financial windfall, such as from selling a business.
A steak dinner and guaranteed money for life. Who could say no? As AT&T employees near retirement age, they are often invited to seminars – dinner included! – to learn about something that can supposedly allay all their retirement fears. That something is annuities.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s latest Retirement Confidence Survey, two-thirds of workers are confident they have enough to live comfortably in retirement. The same number of workers surveyed are confident they are doing a good job saving for retirement and know how much they will need. But, only four in 10 workers have actually tried to calculate how much they need, which can be a costly mistake.
