Former state school employee MacDonald paid in $163K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.1M in retirement

Former state school employee Carmen MacDonald, who retired in June 2016, saved $162,687 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, MacDonald would collect as much as $3.1 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes MacDonald received $65,112 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, MacDonald will have already received $201,254 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.