GREENSBORO, N.C. — When you hear the word ‘retirement’ oftentimes the words “fixed income’ come with it. The retirement check never changes even if the price of living goes up.
That changes this year. There are a little more than 70,000 folks in the Triad who worked for a city or county entity, and now get a retirement check from the state pension plan. Those payouts total $1.47 billion in yearly payments.
The North Carolina Treasurer is planning on an extra 2% bonus in everyone's checks. That total payout alone will be around $29million.
Why is this bonus happening?
“The pension plan was up almost 10% last year, and now we have exceeded our rate of return for the last 5 years and this is a few million dollars coming out of our earnings,” said Dale Folwell, NC State Treasurer.
That's right, the government made more earnings than they thought they would and so they're passing some of the extra on to you. The NC General Assembly did for state workers as well.
"We provided all state employees with a 5% raise over the next two years, and for the money set aside in our savings, we thought it would be a good idea to provide a bonus just to show our appreciation for all state employees and particularly, teachers."
Retired state employees and teachers will also get a 5% cost of living bonus over two years.
Now the question is, when will you see the bump in your retirement check? The logistics are still being worked out, so a little later this year, we'll keep you posted.