VIDEO: 3 Important Numbers in Railroad Retirement

Transcript:

Check out this video to learn the three most important numbers, every railroader should know.

Welcome everyone to the Railroad Retirement Whiteboard. My name is John McNamara, of Highball Advisors, and today's whiteboard session we're going to learn the three most important numbers for railroad retirement.

So, there's a lack of fusion around railroad retirement and people don't understand it and I get that because it's a lot of reading and manuals and boy, it's exciting. But, these are the three important numbers to remember. So I'll just go through them real quick. So this way you'll have in your head.

So over, starting on my right, your left, is five. Five is a big number or 10, I put in parentheses. But really for 99% of the railroaders, it's five. So what's five? Five years. Five years and you're vested into the railroad retirement board and your Tier Two starts growing after five years. It starts moving there and you can never lose your railroad retirement benefits after the five years. So that's a big number. Five. Get to five.

Now we move on. 25. It's a good number. It's important. You've done 25 years. That's something to celebrate. You keep your current connection and the big advantage here is if you're involuntary terminated and you're not offered another position in the same place or the same craft, that type of thing, your survivor annuity gets protected. That's one of my big things is people leaving the railroad and losing that survivor annuity, something unfortunate is to happen to you. If you leave the railroad and go work for a non-railroad employer, you can lose your survivor annuity in case something happens to you. So, that's a big one. So 25 years, that's something to think about right there.

And 30. 30 is the big number. Everybody talks about 30 and what do I mean by that? 30 years. It's really two numbers. It's 60 and 30 but we'll just use 30 and that's the golden ticket. Full retirement age, 60 years, 60 years old, with 30 years of service. Full retirement benefits at 60.

What's also great is your spouse, he or she at 60 also that's their full retirement age. So why the rest of us non-railroaders have to work till 67 in my case to get full retirement age, you get a seven year jump on me and that's fantastic and there's no deductions. None of those early reduced reductions for people who are like 62 with 15 years of service, that type of thing. So the golden ticket.

So these are the three most important numbers. I hope you found this helpful. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Getting some excellent growth there. Like to keep it going. Reach out to me if you have any questions and as always everyone, please stay safe, stay on track and take care.

So long everybody. Bye.

Get Free Railroad Retirement Assessment

Disclaimer: This article is provided for general information and illustration purposes only. Nothing contained in the material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. Highball Advisors encourages you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation. Reproduction of this material is prohibited without written permission from Highball Advisors, and all rights are reserved.from Highball Advisors, and all rights are reserved.