Former state school employee Deetjen paid in $61K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $851K in retirement

Former state school employee Kimberly Deetjen, who retired in August 2017, saved $60,897 toward a pension over 11 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Deetjen would collect as much as $850,951, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Deetjen received $17,886 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 4 years of retirement, Deetjen will have already received $74,830 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.