Former state school employee Peterson paid in $211K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.1M in retirement

Former state school employee Kathryn Peterson, who retired in June 2017, saved $210,941 toward a pension over 28 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Peterson 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 Peterson received $65,078 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 4 years of retirement, Peterson will have already received $272,261 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.