Former state school employee Pfaff paid in $121K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $2.51M in retirement

Former state school employee Karen Pfaff, who retired in June 2016, saved $120,772 toward a pension over 22 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Pfaff would collect as much as $2.51 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes DuPage Policy Journal.

The projection assumes Pfaff received $52,802 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Pfaff will have already received $163,206 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.