The Teachers’ Retirement System is approaching a historic milestone: It will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.

The Social Security Administration announced a cost-of-living adjustment of 0.3 percent in 2017, an increase that will affect more than 65 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients.

The third week in October is National Save for Retirement Week. Congress began this effort in 2006 to raise awareness about the importance of retirement savings.

The UFT and its allies — the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems and the National Education Association — are leading the fight to protect public pensions.

The legislative session that recently ended in Albany is a lesson in why we, at the UFT, remain on the lookout when it comes to our members and their pensions.

Thanks to the strength of the union and its negotiating power, the salaries of UFT members employed by the DOE have regularly increased. When they retire, members receive a defined-benefit pension, employer-provided health insurance that eventually supplements Medicare and, for most members, income from a Tax-Deferred Annuity.

When you retire, you have another important decision to make: “Should I take the Maximum Retirement Allowance or select an option that provides for beneficiaries but reduces my monthly pension check?”

Remember the old joke, "If I knew I was going to live so long I would have taken better care of myself"?

Thirty million Americans used money from their retirement savings to respond to an emergency in the past year.