URS Retirees Share Their Stories | Corona Ngatuva

‘I’m very appreciative URS was there’

With URS his ‘silent partner’ this retiree was able to adjust his life plans after a health scare.

“I don’t have to follow the market or worry about making the perfect investment decision. That constant monthly benefit is huge.”

At his neighborhood gym Corona Ngatuvai, 58, often finds himself talking with people in their 70s about retirement. Some owned businesses, others worked in the private sector. Almost all feel the same insecurity about whether their money will last. Not Corona — thanks to his URS benefit. “A lot of them still worry every day about whether they have enough,” he said. “I’m less worried than any of them. I don’t have to follow the market or worry about making the perfect investment decision. That constant monthly benefit is huge.”

An Unexpected Detour

Corona didn’t expect to retire when he did. After 25 years with the State of Utah, ultimately serving as chief architect in the Department of Technology Services, he assumed he’d work several more years. But a health scare changed his plans. He described it as a sudden, serious infection that doctors warned could have been fatal if it had progressed differently. “It scared me enough to start thinking about what the next steps were going to be,” he said. He retired in July 2022 at age 55 after buying additional years of service credit. “I’m very appreciative URS was there,” he said. “My life would be completely different without it.”

His ‘Silent Partner’

The prospect of a lifelong retirement benefit, Corona said, helped carry him through 25 years of demanding, often stressful work. “In some ways it was like a silent partner,” he said. “It got me through a lot of tough years.” He remembers colleagues who left for private sector pay but later returned, realizing the long-term value they had walked away from. “The potential benefit was just too great,” he said. He wishes younger URS members better understood the value of their retirement benefits. “It’s the kind of benefit people don’t appreciate until they’re older,” he said. “Then they look back and realize how rare it is.”