Former state school employee O'Brien paid in $24K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $333K in retirement

Former state school employee Diane O'Brien, who retired in June 2018, saved $23,578 toward a pension over 14 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, O'Brien would collect as much as $332,803, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes O'Brien received $6,995 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 4 years of retirement, O'Brien will have already received $29,265 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.