I think retirement is a pipe dream...

bigdaddysaints said

The wife and I made some terrible financial choices in the first 15 years we were married, and we'll probably never catch up to have a decent retirement.
Thats said, her parents made excellent financial choices in their 45 years in the work force. Both always put max into 401ks, etc. My Father in law worked for Shell and when they did pensions, one of the things they did was also give him shares of stock and he also bought a lot of extra over the years. So they are both retired at 62. My Father in law could have retired at 55, but worked until he someboby finally ticked him off.
So, long story short, my in laws are my retirement plan. His financial guy told him that if they lived to be 90, they would have $27M, i told them i wasn't greety, and I'd be ok if they passed away before that (jokingly of course)....

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Most major O&G companies have both a company managed pension and employee 401k. Its sauce for the goose. The O&G is highly competitive so they use these tools to attract and retain the talent. The idea of a pension is the more time you invest by staying at the company the more you earn. However, I tend to think that concept is lost on a lot of younger people. If a smaller independent is offering say 10% more in base salary but no pension, then most are bird in the hand and will chase the short-term gains. I get there are a lot of reasons to chase the base salary. But, looking back at almost 35 years in the industry and working for only two companies, I'm well-fortified by my time in grade. The 401k ebbs and flows with the market (if you've been faithful to it) but the pension is worriless and builds with nothing more than the time you've spent in service to that company.
It's a shame that the pension programs were often used as a cash cow for short sighted municipalities or wasteful (or even criminal) company managers. They are good programs typically. Just harder and harder to find.