Former state school employee Parmelee paid in $80K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $1.03M in retirement

Former state school employee Karen Parmelee, who retired in August 2016, saved $79,905 toward a pension over 16 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Parmelee would collect as much as $1.03 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Parmelee received $21,545 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 4 years of retirement, Parmelee will have already received $90,136 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.