Best day to retire

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Q. I’m a FERS employee who is planning to retire in December of this year. When is the best day to do that?

A. Because you are a FERS employee, you’ll have to retire no later than the last day of a month to be on the annuity roll in the following month. If you retire at the end of business on Dec. 21, you’ll have satisfied that requirement and be entitled to any annual and sick leave you earned during that pay period. If you retire after that date but before Jan. 1, you wouldn’t have worked for a full pay period and wouldn’t be entitled to any additional annual or sick leave. In either case, you’d be paid for all your accumulated annual leave, including any hours that exceed the annual carryover limit of 240 hours.

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Reg Jones was head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management. Email your retirement-related questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com.

6 Comments

  1. I also am planning on leaving in December of this year. Since the last day in December is in the middle of a pay period, if i leave on 12/31/2019, would I need to use leave to “fill out” the rest of the pay period?

    • Because you are a FERS employee, you will need to retire no later than December 31 to be on the annuity roll in January. If you did that, you would no longer be an employee. Since only employees can use leave, you couldn’t “fill out” the rest of the pay period.

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