There was good news and not-so-good news this week.

The good news…I got an email from the compensation manager in the Human Resources Department of the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia.

“I have been trying the reach you regarding your AFSC vested pension benefit….”

What? Previously unknown (to me) money? Score! Or so I thought.

I was on the AFSC staff in Hawaii back in the 1970s, my first “real” job after leaving graduate school, and the letter was to notify me that I was vested in a retirement plan at the time I resigned. I had been eligible to begin drawing pension payments in 2012, but their attempts to notify me at that time had been unsuccessful.

This was a surprise. I hadn’t expected anything more from that long ago job. And I wondered what it might be worth after more than 35 years, with those decades of compounding investment returns.

Well, then came the not-so-good stuff. No fairy tale windfall here. When a letter with the specifics arrived, it seems I’m eligible to receive $26.43 per month, or $317.14 per year. Or I can apply for a lump sum of slightly over $3,000.

Yes, I’m glad to be able to take the cash. But it’s a good thing I hadn’t been counting on this in my retirement planning!