Q. I resigned January 2017 after 30 years federal service (age 51). I am now struggling to make ends meet and am seriously thinking about retirement. Please help me to understand the pros and cons if I take this step.
A. Unfortunately, you aren’t old enough to retire. Assuming that you didn’t receive a refund of your retirement deductions when you left government, the earliest you could apply for a deferred annuity would be age 56 and 4 months.
4 Comments
With all due respect, with 30 years of service under your belt and only being 5 years away from retirement eligibility WHY THE HECK DID YOU QUIT?
Other than resigning in lieu of being fired or leaving government for a far more lucrative job opportunity, resigning from civil service with 30 plus years service w/o at least an early retirement,discontinued service early retirement or medical retirement pension makes no sense IMO!!
Well said.
One other thought – if you resigned under good terms and with money being tight, why don’t you try to get back to work for civil service? USA Jobs has many Federal job announcements current or former career Federal employees can apply for!
With you leaving Federal civil service as a career employee, you can apply for any job opening you are qualified for, either with your old agency or another Federal agency and resume your Federal career!! If you do get hired back, your sick leave balance will be restored and you’ll be in Annual Leave Group 3 with your 30 years. If you cashed out your FERS Contributions, you can pay them back to get retirement credit for your 30 years service!!
Indeed.com also has great jobs listed. Go to the VA…there are always jobs there…cuz people are getting fired left & right!