Courtney Billittier comes from a long line of educators, including her father who recently retired after 35 years of teaching. But Billittier, who has been teaching for the past 14 years, will have to work longer than her father to earn a smaller pension.
That’s because state lawmakers passed pension reform legislation to deal with a budget crisis in 2010 that created new standards for public sector employees hired at the start of 2011. The result is a two tiered pension system: Employees hired before 2011 were able to retire as early as age 55 and with more financial perks, while employees hired after that year were eligible to retire at age 67. This is often referred to as Tier 1 and Tier 2 benefits.
Billittier said her father has always encouraged her to have a separate retirement savings account because of the change in state law…