Q: I will be 55 next year and have 17 years in service. I would like to know about early retirement and how to go about it.
A: Early retirement opportunities are offered by an agency to meet its needs, There isn’t anything you can do to cause an agency to offer you one. However, all that is academic. You don’t have the age and service needed to take early retirement: age 50 with 20 years of service or any age with 25. Further, you aren’t yet eligible to retire under the MRA+10 provision (minimum retirement age with at least 10 years of service) because your MRA is 56. Even if you decide to retire under that provision when you reach 56, you need to be aware that your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 62.
