Former state school employee Church paid in $150K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.31M in retirement

Former state school employee Cynthia Church, who retired in July 2016, saved $150,346 toward a pension over 23 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Church would collect as much as $3.31 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Church received $69,558 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Church will have already received $214,997 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.