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Frontiers April 2015 Issue

$AVE IT! It’s never too early to begin saving for retirement by ron taylor and della o’halloran Mike Arshop, a material analyst for Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, Calif., is thinking more these days about his future after he retires from Boeing. He’s been planning and saving for that day for a long time. Arshop has worked for Boeing and its heritage company, Hughes Aircraft, for just over three decades. He’s 56 years old and would like to retire in about six years. One of the best things he ever did to make sure he was saving enough money to retire, Arshop said, was to sign up for company retirement plans as soon as he could. “I want to have 32 BOEING FRONTIERS options when I retire. I know people who didn’t save and they couldn’t retire when they wanted to, or afford the things they wanted to do.” Pam French, vice president of Compensation and Benefits, said there is “no doubt” that starting early is better than starting later when it comes to saving for retirement. “But wherever you are in your Boeing career,” she said, “one of the best ways to help make sure you have enough money to fulfill your retirement vision is to put some away in the Voluntary Investment Plan (VIP). Save as much as you can as early as you can, but at least contribute enough to get the full company match.” Employees can pay into their VIP accounts on a pretax, aftertax or, if eligible, Roth basis. In addition, most VIP participants receive a company match and most newer nonunion employees receive an additional company contribution. Most nonunion employees hired before Jan. 1, 2009, will begin receiving a new company contribution called VIP+ in 2016 as Boeing moves from traditional pensions to the enhanced VIP. To help these employees manage their retirement savings, Boeing offers tools and services such as one-on-one financial counseling from Ayco and, for eligible employees, the new Retirement Income Modeler. Another resource is My Retirement Income through Boeing TotalAccess. Arshop uses the site to periodically check on his investments. He said


Frontiers April 2015 Issue
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