Teacher Retirement System: Is there a Max Contribution for Physicians

[alpha2delta]

Is there a cap on how much can be contributed per year to a teacher retirement system plan for physicians. I understand that contributions are determined by salary, years of service, and determined % contribution, but is there a yearly cap/max that can be contributed?

What would be considered a "good" pension (i.e amount of money that would be dispensed per year in retirement?)

Thanks!

[Larry Ragman]

Your first question doesn't appear to have enough info for anyone to answer. Teacher pension systems are state dependent. I doubt there is a physician specific limit, but there is almost certainly an upper limit that applies to everyone.

As or your second question, it largely depend on your planned spending in retirement. In fact most people work backwards by determining how much they want to spend then looking at sources of income in retirement to decide how much to save. For example, say you want to spend $120K a year. Then if your pension is $40K and SS will throw off $40K a year, you need enough savings to provide $40K a year. Following the 4% rule of thumb, that means putting away $1M. More if you want to cover some years between retirement and starting SS.