LASERS Launches New Initiative for Millennials

The month of May marks the launch of LASERS new initiative, Millennials Investing Now for Tomorrow or MINT, targeted to state employees in the early stages of their careers. MINT is designed to educate early-career LASERS members on the basics of the System and guide them in the direction of securing their financial future.

If you are a LASERS member between the ages of 20-35, the two-part question you should ask yourself is, “Do I understand my retirement system and am I saving enough for my retirement now?”

LASERS is a defined benefit plan, which means that your contributions to LASERS (automatically deducted from each paycheck) help to fund a benefit that is guaranteed to you monthly for life once you retire. Although the LASERS defined benefit plan offers a guaranteed retirement benefit, the average rank-and-file retiree’s benefits is modest at $24,204 annually. LASERS encourages you to be aware of ways you can supplement your LASERS retirement benefit and understand what options are available for you to take advantage of now, so you can reap the benefits at retirement age.

Do you know which LASERS retirement plan you are in? Do you know how a LASERS benefit is calculated? Do you contribute to the Deferred Compensation Plan? Do you know the benefits of preserving your annual and sick leave balances? Do you know the benefits of purchasing or transferring service credit early in your career? These are all questions that MINT is designed to answer, along with many more topics.

The MINT campaign will be a series of infographics based on specific topics that are beneficial to our MINT audience. Each infographic will be released via the LASERS Member Connection email service, the LASERS website, and our social media accounts. To keep up with the topics, check out the MINT web page on the LASERS website, subscribe to the email list, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  

If you have specific questions about MINT or would like to share your ideas for topics, please email us at lasersmint@lasersonline.org.