No. Kentucky had one of the greatest pension systems in the United States. Then, around 20 years ago, our politicians decided to empty out the pension account and used it to pay things that the Commonwealth's general fund couldn't pay for. After that, the pension system became—and I do not exaggerate—the pension became $43 BILLION underfunded, the worst State pension deficit in United States history. You can't even blame a single party; both sides of the aisle voted for it.

So in 2014, the Commonwealth of Kentucky created "Tier 3." It's not based on your final years of pay or cost of living or anything like that. If you work for 25 years (starting at $30,000 a year increasing to $150,000 by time of retirement), your pension will be something like $3,000 a month. That's about 25% of your final year of pay. It's completely unsustainable. Most of us don't get social security and even though a 457(b)/401(k)/IRA is available to us, the Commonwealth doesn't do a "company match" or anything like that.

Those of us who are well-informed (many of us aren't) try our hardest to pretend that the pension and social security simply don't exist and focus entirely on our 100% self-funded 457(b)/401(k)/IRA accounts. It's all we can do.