Q. I am a federal employee with law enforcement status. My mandatory retirement date is calculated as the end of the month in which I turn 57 years of age (March 31, 2014). However, I have determined that retiring at the end of the 2013 leave year, which is Jan. 11, 2014, is the best date for me to retire so that I may: 1) take advantage of the 100 percent sick leave credit now available to FERS employees, and 2) permit the maximum annual leave lump-sum payment available to me at that time. I can’t see any benefit to waiting until my maximum mandatory other than a few dollars in monthly annuity for service time between Jan 11 and March 31, 2014, as I would lose the extra annual leave accrual available to me if I retire Jan. 11. Do you see any errors in my analysis that would stick out as far as waiting to retire at my maximum mandatory date? Are there any other factors that I am not seeing?
A. Your analysis appears to make sense. To increase your confidence, you might want to have a financial analyst run the numbers to see which date makes the best sense.
