Former state school employee McCarthy paid in $121K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $2.86M in retirement

Former state school employee Jacqueline McCarthy, who retired in May 2018, saved $121,125 toward a pension over 26 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, McCarthy would collect as much as $2.86 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes McCarthy received $60,035 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 2 years of retirement, McCarthy will have already received $121,871 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.