Butch's Blog for April 20

[Butch Ritter]

                Today’s mail brought one of those good news/bad news moments. I received my Retirement Packet from the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of The United Methodist Church (the good old GBPHB of the UMC)! It is good news because I get a pension thanks to you faithful United Methodists. It is bad news because the packet contains help for reviewing the types of benefits I am eligible to receive. Uh oh- Types? Options? And the kicker to the whole thing, “You may wish to seek the advice of a financial planner as you evaluate your options.” (Translation: “You are about to enter a brume in which clarity and understanding no longer exist.”

                The packet contains 15 separate pieces of material. The enclosures include three booklets, a few applications, a potpourri of forms, and a soupcon that

I will understand nothing. If I get confused, they invite me to send an e-mail with questions and/or a request for additional information to my retirement team. Can you believe I have to have a team? Presumably my “team” will include some of the same people who wrote the material and they will respond quickly. Where should I start? Maybe a question about my MPP? Or my CRSP? Or perhaps some posers about my UMPIP?

                I know for sure that as confused as I am and will continue to be, I still need to praise God for Old Mission member Derald Slagle. Derald was the chair of our conference program that put our pensions on solid ground.

 

                “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

 

Butch