Then, there is what happened to a friend of mine back in the early 90's. After 10 years of service, she could retire from her job with the county of Orange (So. California) and get a very nice pension. Right after she retired, the county went bankrupt! She didn't get a penny of pension.
Well, that sucks for your friend, but no one should be able to retire after 10 (or even 20) years on the job. That's ridiculous. I worked for 45 years. Most of us do. Reminds me of a server at my local IHOP. I go in one day and she is visibly angry. I ask her what the problem is, and she tells me she just had her 30th birthday and called the Social Security Administration to sign up for retirement benefits!!! Yeh, she had those expectations dashed.
About "retiring" after 10 years. Some places consider you to be vested in the retirement system after working there for 10 years. Employees may hang on for exactly 10 years just for that reason. Then they move on to another job, usually a better one. If you leave you still get a pension from the first place when you reach retirement age. I knew several people who drew pensions from 3 places. Small ones, but they mount up.
Sort of weird, but wife and I know a guy that was getting a full pension, SS and unemployment...........all at the same time and it was all legal.
So, just what does a person do if the business you are getting a pension from closes and/or files bankruptcy? Pension gone, like what happened to my friend?
First, you gotta define what you mean by "pension." There is a Federal agency that guarantees some of that stuff (PBGC, I believe.) Other than that, I guess see a lawyer. If it's an IRAs or 401(k) plan, then your dollars are in the hands of a trustee and not the employer.
What happened to your friend has been in the news for other county & state governments. It's wise to check pension administration set-ups before signing on with local governmental organizations. If pension funds are under the local government's control, they are free to "borrow" from the pension's trust funds in order to finance unfunded but popular projects.
After a certain point, I believe around 69 or so, a person can work and not be penalized on the Social Security. If by chance a person of that age was released from work then he or she could conceivably draw unemployment so yes, drawing unemployment, a pension (or military retirement) and receiving a Social Security check might even be fairly common place among working seniors.
Full Retirement Age varies based on the year in which you were born. For me it was 66 1/2 years, but I continued to work beyond that for a number of reasons. Boeing is nearing bankruptcy, and , while I don't know know if Hal draws a pension from them or has money in a managed account, if the company goes belly up, pensions are among the first things to go along with company health benefits if they were allowed to continue after retirement. As Logan said above, local governments can and do go bankrupt, such as Detroit and several smaller cities, and that was one of the things the Dems included in the Covid bill, as they have to pay off their union supporters since they no longer look out for the worker. Their emphasis has shifted to the Illegal Immigrant, and they always assume that black Americans will continue to vote for them no matter what they do.
Those 401K plans are vicious. If the markets drop enough you don't get squat. They're not something that's reliable like a pension.
The 401 K funds will only drop big time if they are poorly invested. Choosing the investment is most important.
Everybody is not so, so-so. Some like me didn't think about it until it was thrust upon them. You may not be an exception to the rule (if there is one) but there are less like you and more like me who both travel and live by the seat of their pants.