Some retirement rules come with the job, not the birthday.

A teacher, a firefighter, a county clerk, a Teamster, and a postal worker each retire under a different set of rules than the book's twenty-one. These are the chapters for those jobs, written the same way: the rule, the math, the source, and the questions to ask the pension system.

Each one is a separate chapter, sold on its own for less than the book. None is finished yet. Pick your job below and you will hear when it is.

A page from the book
Same format as the book

The jobs

In the order they are being written. Teachers first, because the repeal of the two rules that cut a teacher's Social Security is the most time-sensitive thing on this page.

Public school teachers and college faculty
CalSTRS

Two benefit formulas by hire date, the age factor, the earnings limit after retiring, the 403(b) 15-year catch-up, and what the WEP and GPO repeal means for a teacher's Social Security.

In progress, first
State, county, and city employees
CalPERS and the county systems

Classic and PEPRA formulas, the pay cap, reciprocity between systems, retiree health vesting, and the 457(b) plan that can be drawn at any age after leaving.

In progress
Police, firefighters, and corrections
CalPERS safety and local plans

The age 50 and 25-year penalty exceptions, 3% at 50 and 2.7% at 57, disability retirement and its tax treatment, and the $3,000 retiree health exclusion.

In progress
Union members in the trades, grocery, and transport
Multiemployer (Taft-Hartley) plans

How the federal guarantee differs from a corporate pension, early retirement subsidies, the rule that stops a pension for working in the trade, and where the 2021 to 2026 rescue left your plan.

In progress
Federal employees
FERS and CSRS

Minimum retirement age by birth year, the 1.1% multiplier at 62, the supplement that bridges to Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan withdrawal rules.

In progress
Military retirees and veterans
DoD retirement and VA

The 20-year pension under both systems, the Survivor Benefit Plan decision, VA compensation and the income tests it never touches, and California's new exclusion for military retired pay.

In progress
Railroad workers
Railroad Retirement Board

Tier I and Tier II, retirement at 60 with 30 years, how each tier is taxed, and why California taxes neither.

In progress
Clergy
Church plans

The housing allowance that continues into retirement, and what the Social Security opt-out means at 62.

In progress
Self-employed and small business owners
Solo 401(k), SEP, and the sale of the business

Contribution room above the employee limits, the year the business sells and what it does to the Medicare lookback, and the earnings test for the self-employed.

In progress

Don't see your job? Say so.

The list above is a guess at who needs this most. If your work has its own pension, its own plan, or its own rule, say what it is and you will hear if a chapter gets written for it. Nothing to buy, nothing to sign up for beyond the email.

This is a request for a chapter about the rules for a kind of job. It is not a request to review anyone's benefits, and no one will look up your situation. The chapters, like the book, explain the rules and show the math. They are not advice.

The book these belong to

The core book is Fifty-Five to Seventy-Five: The California Retirement Rulebook: the twenty-one rules that switch on by age for every California resident, from 55 to 75. The job chapters are written to sit beside it. Buying the book is not required to get a job chapter, and buying a job chapter is not required to get the book.