What do you do between your buy out and the day your pension starts?

[Omaha Steve]

A family member took a buy out a few years ago. She can't touch her 401K until she is 59 & 1/2 without a huge penalty. She had a choice between a conventional pension or lump to a 401K. She was affraid the pension might go under and took the lump sum. She has 2 years to go. While she has been waiting, she has been laid of from 2 other jobs at much less than she was making. Her husband was fired in a downsizing. He has the midnight shift in a convenience gas station. She worries because there have been 2 such clerks killed in late night hold-ups in the last 6 months in our area. There is no 2 clerks on duty law in Nebraska.

Welcome to the world of the middle class sliding down hill.

[Lasher]

1. She can start drawing now from her pension money.

If you roll your 401(k) into an IRA you can start drawing from it without penalty prior to age 59 1/2. What you have to do is take out the same ammount every month for 5 years.

[Warpy]

2. Welcome to the corporate expiration date of 55

Once you hit your mid 50s, you're a corporate liability. Your wages have gotten a bit too high and the cold actuarial tables at the insurance company say the corporation will have to pay higher insurance premiums to keep you on. The corporation checks its own actuarial tables and finds out a green kid right out of school who needs a couple of years to learn how to do your job is more cost effective than you are and out you go.

If you're really lucky, you've got that 401K and/or severance. If you're not, you're like the majority, thrust into a really cold world with 7-11 years ahead of you with no income except what you can put together with a patchwork of minimum wage jobs that usually go to feckless teenagers. The rest of your life will be spent trying to hang onto at least a little of what you worked for before you hit your corporate expiration date.

Ten years ago, you could have downsized the family house and moved into a smaller place or condo, mortgage free. Now you're probably under water on what's left of your mortgage and you're stuck. If you're lucky, that monthly whack is lower than the prevailing rent. If you're not, you're going to spend what little you have left trying to keep a roof over your head and then hit the road, Jack, because you lose.

This really is a race to the bottom, and nobody is running it faster than people over 50.

I'm sorry for your friends. They have plenty of company.

This country has never cared for anyone but the rich who are coddled and pampered every step of their way through life.

[izquierdista]

3. Touching your 401(k)

You can take a distribution before 59-1/2 from your 401K without the big penalty. There are numerous loopholes (like being unemployed) and you can take out 1/(your life expectancy) as a distribution with no problem. For example, if you are 53 and actuarial tables say you will live to be 84, you can take a distribution of 1/31 of the account balance. Check IRS Publication 590 for the definitive word on the matter.

[Statistical]

4. This.

Depending on the size of her 401K and her life expectancy the max she can draw may be limited.
Say $350K 401K, 84-53 = 31 = 1/31 * 300K = $11K per year.

Also the penalty is only 10%. You pay taxes regardless. IF she needs more she may need to draw a penalty amount. She should keep it small to minimize the 10% but it is doable.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Kick

[swilton]

6. I've sort of been there

I went to graduate school which to some extent provided a little income. The point was to retrain. Having said that there is a surplus of political scientists....

But between working at my old job (military intelligence) and going to school, I chose the latter.

Substitute teaching is lucrative - in the DC metro area it pays $100/day. The only problem is dealing with a classroom of children (primary school - high school) can be challenging. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and hang in there.

Good luck!