Travis County Commissioners Court
October 20, 2009,
Item 3
3.
approve proclamation declaring October 18 through 24, 2009 as "national save for retirement week" in Travis County.
>> should I read the proclamation.
>> you read proclamations beautifully, judge, I would appreciate it if you would do this time.
>> thank you, norm.
i will read with renewed enthusiasm after this comment.
it reads whereas October 18th through 24th 2009 has been congressionally endorsed as national save for retirement week.
whereas the united states residents are living longer than ever before, the cost of retirement continues to rise, and retiree health care costs continue to increase at a rapid pace.
whereas recent data from the employment benefit research institute indicate that in the united states less than two-thirds of workers or their spouses are currently saving for retirement and that the actual amount of retirement savings of workers falls far below the amount that is needed to adequately fund retirement.
whereas many employees have available to them through their employers access to defined benefit or defined contribution plans to assist them in preparing for retirement and may not be aware of retirement options and the importance of saving for retirement.
whereas many employees may not be taking advantage of workplace defined contribution plans at all, or through the full benefit allowed by the plans or under federal law.
whereas national save for retirement week is a special time to raise public awareness about the importance of adequate retirement savings and the availability of employer sponsored retirement plans, educate the population about the importance of participating in employee sponsored retirement plans and encourage active employees and retirees to manage their retirement resources prudently and whereas all Travis County employees can benefit from increased awareness of the need to save for retirement and the availability of tax advantaged retirement savings vehicles to assist them in saving for retirement.
now therefore we the Commissioners court of Travis County, Texas do hereby proclaim October 18th through 24th, 2009, to be national save for retirement week in this community.
and encourage all of our residents to take charge of your retirement and save for their retirement.
move approval.
>> second.
>> thank you, judge.
i'm norman mccree, the chairman of the Travis County deferred compensation oversight committee.
i have barbara wilson a member of that committee as well.
we attended a conference that was here in Austin in September.
national association of government defined contribution administrators.
this is a promise that they have endorsed as well as the federal government to designate a week in October for national retirement -- national save for retirement week, which we think is important that all employees, as well as members of the community take advantage of any kind of retirement plans they may have at their workplace because -- because it's very important to to have enough funds available at retirement to continue or maintain your standard of living.
barbara has come up with -- with some statistical information that she would like to share as well that will point out how important it is to save for retirement.
>> I need to start with the disclaimer that I'm speaking as a county employee that needs to plan for my own retirement, not as an expert in the area, not as legal counsel.
>> too late.
>>
>> [laughter]
>> also, I need to clarify that I'm not facially a member of the deferred compensation committee.
i sit with the committee and provide legal advice, but I'm not actually a member on the committee.
>> we consider her a non-voting member.
>> okay.
>> [laughter]
>> I went to two training sessions that were about preparing for retirement.
some of the statistics that I heard were kind of frightening.
one of the things that was clear from the statistics is that people are underestimating the needs that they are going to have in retirement.
about 55% of the preretirees think that their expenses are going to go down during retirement.
what actually happens is only about 30% experience a decrease in their expenses.
even worse than that, is the fact that only 8% expect them to increase, 20% of the people experience an increase in expenses during retirement.
experts are saying now that -- that in order to have an adequate amount of income during your retirement, you need to plan on having at least 70 to 85% of what your working income is.
years ago it used to be much less than this, but you really need to think that it's going to cost you more.
one of the reasons for that, inflation.
one of the reasons that people are underestimating their needs is they -- they aren't really aware of the impact of life expectancy.
right now, the average life expectancy is 86 years.
but think about that.
if the average is 86, that means half of the people are still going to be alive after 86.
so you can't plan on running out of money at age 86 because if you do, and you are one of that 50% that lives to be 95, well, I mean, the whole 50% doesn't live to be 95, but up to 95, then you have nothing to live on for the last 10 years of your life.
so it's better to plan on 96 as -- as the time over which you need to spend the money that you are going to have in retirement.
another problem is that many people who are very conservative are thinking in terms of interests.
but -- but the decline in interest rates in the last 20 to 30 years is dramatic because in may of '81, the interest rate was at 16.3%.
in December of 2008, the interest rate was at 3/100ths of 1%.
so the interest income that you would get on any amount of money that you would save has gone down to 5% of what it was in '81.
another reason that -- that people are underestimating their needs is that their underestimating what their health care costs going to be.
if medicare benefits stay at their current levels, just like they are now, couples can expect to need approximately 300,000 to half a million dollars to cover their medical costs during their retirement.
now, that's spread over the entire probably 30 years of retirement.
but that's a lot of money.
and it's going to have to come from somewhere and social security, if it keeps going up at the rate that it did this year, which is not at all, it's not going to cover that kind of -- kind of cost.
there's three ways to get a better result for your retirement.
the first one is to plan on working either full or part time after you retire.
i know from comments from other county employees that that's not a very popular option.
another is to delay the time, the age at which you retire, so that you postpone when you start getting your social security and your pension benefits, that has a twofold effect.
one is that you have more money available in those pots to distribute over the amount of time that you will be retired.
the other is that you have fewer years to distribute it over.
so you get more per year.
and then the point of all of this at this point is the third way is to have additional savings, to save through whatever plan works for you, but deferred comp is the one that the county has provided for people that had some tax advantaged aspects to it and is worth considering.
our goal is not to scare people this morning,
>> [laughter], although the news is kind of scary.
it's to encourage, motivate, inspire.
>> actually, it wasn't to scare at all.
it's to inform so that you don't get a nasty shock later.
i would rather know now that I need to face these kind of things than to find out when I'm 85, that -- that there's nothing left for the last 15 years of my life if I live to be 100 which apparently is -- is not an unreasonable expectation at this point.
>> I would like to add that -- that as county employees, of course this is -- this is information that is useful for the community as a whole, but as county employees we are fortunate to have Texas county retirement system that we all contribute to, it's an excellent retirement system.
also that the court sponsors define contribution plan through great west retirement services.
that we went to this past February and from -- from all of the feedback that I have received it's -- it's employees and participants are happy with great west and there's a lot of information at their disposal through their website as well as they can call our representative who -- who at great west, I was just going to give that phone number.
will cornforth who a lot of employees have met with before, is our representative.
he can be reached at 457-9240.
and the website for great west is www.gwrs.com and also they recently moved into new offices in the wells fargo building, which is 15th and guadalupe street.
so just a few blocks from this location.
>> could you repeat those, the telephone number and also the website so those that didn't have a chance to jot it down will maybe have an opportunity to do it now.
>> yes, sir.
again the name is will cornforth.
his phone number is 457-9240.
and the website is gwrs.com.
and their offices are located at 15th and guadalupe in the wells fargo building on the third floor.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
approach.
>> we have a beautiful proclamation for you.
somebody is required to receive it.
>> norm thank you so much for all you do.
we really appreciate it.
>> now, let me just indicate to those with items on the agenda, we will call up the vehicles item, a 4, this afternoon.
that's a 4 and the -- the related items.
next we will call up 4, then we will go to -- 12, and
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:40 PM
