Q. I am 53 with 18 years of federal service under FERS. I am retired Army Reserve (four years ago) with 24 years, two in active duty. I have paid into Social Security and FERS.
1. If I buy back the two years of active duty, I will have 20 years of federal service. Would I stay at 24 years military or drop down to 22 years?
2. How would I calculate potential retirement amounts to determine if it is a financial benefit to buy back the two years of active-duty time?
3. Are my Social Security, military, FERS or federal retirement reduced secondary to having four retirement funds?
A. 1. Making a deposit to get credit for your active-duty service wouldn’t reduce your years of military service.
2. Your annuity would be increased by 1 percent of your high-3 for each additional year of creditable service unless you retired at age 62 or later with at least 20 years of service; then the increase would be 1.1 percent per year.
3. You only have three “retirement funds,” unless you are including your Thrift Savings Plan as a source of additional annuity. In any case, you’d be entitled to receive all of them with no reduction in any of them.
