Last month, I reported that we were implementing a change to our retirement plan. We introduced a 50% matching contribution to what our missionaries themselves deposit into their retirement accounts, hoping to encourage them to save. The change is now fully implemented, and I am pleased to say that it has had the desired effect: 100% of our missionaries are participating in the program.
Next comes educating our missionaries regarding their accounts. I have noticed a tendency for eyes to glaze over when conversations turn to financial matters. I guess it is like when I was trying to learn Bangla, and the Bangla speaker started speaking at a rate exceeding that of a four-year-old. Financial matters are a kind of foreign language for many people. Pray for wisdom as to how I might help our missionaries acquire this new language. I would be open to your practical suggestions as well.
Over the past year, there have been many articles warning that we must not expect investments to perform as well in the future as they did for the period 1985 – 2014, “The Golden Years of Investing.” According to the Wall Street Journal, we might expect almost 60% less return. This will have a serious impact on investment strategy. Our matching contributions program helps to mitigate this trend. But it will not make up for lost time and low returns already experienced.
Fortunately, the rules for 403 (b) retirement plans, which cover religious organizations like ours, allow for “catch-up contributions.” Our Finance Committee has been working on a proposal to make catch-up contributions to our missionaries’ retirement accounts. The amount of the contribution will be based on the number of years of service and the expected number of years until retirement. Pray with us as we finalize the details of how this will work.
The funds to cover these benefits will come from our Benefits Fund, which is supplemented by Estate Funds. Our Estate Funds are bequests from the estates of friends who have included us in their wills. These gifts have been a tremendous blessing over the years. As I have written over these months concerning retirement, a generous donor has contacted me to help with a significant contribution to go even further than we had envisioned. He suggested that we set up a Fund to receive gifts from others who may be interested in helping. If you would like to contribute in this way, you may do so through our new “Retirement Fund.”