The federal retirement system, even for Congress-critters, is generally not nearly as lucrative as being a school superintendent anywhere.
“Gingrich is 68 now. He was 56 then. You have to have attained minium retirement age of 55 to get your retirement pay, so he made that. Otherwise, he’d had to have waited until he was 60 years of age.”
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I am going on this....fwiw
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/227793-newt-gingrich-2010-personal-financial-disclosure.html
Newt Gingrich’s financial disclosure statement [PDF above] does not require the discloser of income from the government. He is eligible for a full pension as he served the required 20 years. He was Speaker from 1994-1999. His pension is based on an average of his salary for the highest 3 years.
Born in 1943, Gingrich is 68 – under one scenario, he may have been collecting benefits for 12 years (plus medical):
“Retirement with an immediate, full pension is available to Members at age 62
or older with at least five years of federal service; at age 50 or older with at least
20 years of service; and at any age to Members with at least 25 years of service.”
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30631.pdf
Gingrich’s government is likely to be on the order of $120 K/year + medical.
…….“Would it come as a shock to hear that former Speaker Newt Gingrich who resigned under an ethics cloud with 20 years in the House and former Senator Alan Simpson with 18 years in the Senate who serves on the President’s Deficit Commission, both hard line advocates of cutting People Program entitlements, are on the public dole. Both collect full CSRS pensions including Cola increases, full medical care and other Congressional privileges. As an example, consider that Sen. Bill Bradley (NJ) who retired in 2000 after 23 years of service is expected to receive a total of $7.9 million in pension payments (assuming an average lifespan).”…..
More recent examples of Congressional pension largesse are Senators Chris Dodd and Byron Doran who will collect $125,000 and $116,000 annually after 30 years of service, Judd Gregg will collect $63,000 for 16 years, Kit Bond and Jim Bunning will each receive $58,900 for 14 years of service. These pensions do not include annual COLA ‘adjustments.’ <<