Former state school employee Jaspers paid in $84K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $1.3M in retirement

Former state school employee Mary Ellen Jaspers, who retired in June 2018, saved $84,464 toward a pension over 15 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Jaspers would collect as much as $1.3 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Jaspers received $27,391 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Jaspers will have already received $84,663 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.