Former state school employee Kiener Barnett paid in $179K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.34M in retirement

Former state school employee Lisa Kiener Barnett, who retired in May 2018, saved $179,367 toward a pension over 36 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Kiener Barnett would collect as much as $3.34 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Kiener Barnett received $70,150 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Kiener Barnett will have already received $216,828 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.