Former state school employee Cummins paid in $181K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.72M in retirement

Former state school employee Michele Cummins, who retired in July 2017, saved $181,349 toward a pension over 27 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Cummins would collect as much as $3.72 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Cummins received $78,270 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Cummins will have already received $241,925 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.