Q. I am a GERS employee with the U.S. Postal Service. I have 18 years of service and will reach my minimum retirement age next year. Would it make sense to retire and take the annuity, or postpone it until I’m 60 or 62? I can be covered under my husband’s insurance.
A. If you retired now and accepted your annuity, it would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 62 (five-twelfths of 1 percent per month). If you postponed the receipt of your annuity until age 62, you’d avoid the reduction, but the amount of your annuity may be frozen at the point you left government. Whichever option makes better sense financially is something you’ll have to decide.
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I also forgot to say how many years of service in the post office. I have been there 29 years.
If you retire at age 60 with 30 years of service, you’d be entitled to the SRS. If you retire with 29 years of service, you wouldn’t be entitled to the SRS and your annuity would be reduced by 5/12 of 1 percent for every month you had fewer than 30 years of service.
I believe at age 60 you only need 20 years of FERS service to retire w/o penalty vs 30 years of FERS service if you retired before age 60.
Also, at age 60 you are eligible for the FERS SRS with just 20 years service vs 30 years service if you are under 60.