It’s easy to make mistakes when you are planning to retire. Some of the biggest mistakes apply to all employees; a few apply only to CSRS or FERS retirees. All can be costly. Here they are and what you can do to avoid them: Retiring on the spur of the moment. It can be disastrous, for two reasons. First, if you hand in your retirement application at the last minute, it may contain errors that delay processing or even cause it to be rejected. Second, decisions made in haste often come back to bite you. Once committed to a course…
Browsing: Military service deposits
Q. I am 55 years old and have 18 years of active duty and 13 years of Army Reserve duty for a total of 31 retirement years in the Army Reserve. I am eligible to collect my Army Reserve pension in January. This is based on the Defense Authorization Act of January 2008, which allows a 90-day reduction of age from age 60 — for every 90 days of active duty in the support of the war on terror. I have met that threshold. I would like to go to work for the federal government with a projected start date of February…
Q. I am a Postal Service employee and under FERS. I am at my minimum retirement age of 56, have 33 years of service (25 with the Postal Service, November 1988-present, and eight years of military service that I bought back: Marine Corps, 1975-1979; Coast Guard, 1984-1988). I was going to retire voluntarily at the end of this month, but I have contacted the Office of Personnel Management and also contacted human resources shared services. One person tells me I’m eligible for the special retirement supplement, and another tells me no. I understand that the military buyback does not count…
Q. I separated under FERS in 2001 and just started receiving my pension. When I noticed it didn’t include my active-duty time, I learned that I had to have bought that back before I separated. I don’t recall anybody ever mentioning this. What’s the reasoning behind not letting people buy back after they’ve retired? Is there any way I can still buy it back?
Q. I have 22 years of military service and am a civil service employee. When I retire, would it be advantageous to buy my military time back to get a better retirement?
Q. If an employee didn’t receive DD-214s for reserve duty, how does he get reserve time calculated to buy it back?
Q. I have over 14 years of civil service. I’m retired military (20 years). I’m almost 58 years old. I fall under FERS. A while back, an email came down asking who would be interested in Voluntary Early Retirement Authority/Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay. I replied in the affirmative. If they offer VERA/VSIP, my supervisor says he would not approve it for me, as he cannot afford to lose the position. My plan was to retire at 60, but if they offered VERA/VSIP, I would go earlier. With talk of reductions in force being thrown into the mix, I’m concerned what…
Q. I plan to retire in January. I worked 25 years and bought back five years of active-duty military time, so I will have 30 years for retirement as of September. I read somewhere that the five years that I bought back military might keep me from getting the special retirement supplement. Is that true? I planned to retire, and the supplement was part of my plan. Do I have to have 30 years of working to get the supplement?
Q. I joined the military Sept. 12, 1978, and retired Oct. 1, 2008, with just over 30 years of active military service (no broken time). I began working for the federal government under FERS on Jan. 4, 2009. I’ve been told that I can resign after five years of government service (Jan. 3, 2014) and collect retirement benefits from the federal government once I reach the age of 62. Is that correct? If I have 40 hours of annual leave and 40 hours of sick leave, what is the earliest I can retire? Would it be two weeks prior to…
Q. I retired from the Army after 23 years and began my civilian service last year. I have seen from your blog that, even as a military retiree, I can buy back my years of military service and apply them to my federal service. But if I do: 1. Do I lose my health care through Tricare? 2. At what point do I stop receiving my military retirement pay (when I buy back my military service time or when I retire from civilian service)? 3. Would this affect my disability pay, which I believe is separate from my military retirement…