Government Retirees

[gayl]

When did you decide to retire? I retired/ left govt service when my pension = my take home. Another poster has me wondering if this scenario is common.

I'll be a dbl dipper in a few years. Not bc I want to. Bc the IRS says so

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

I retired from the feds when my job ended seven years ago, and I went out on a Discontinued Service Retirement ("DSR") at the age of 52. My pension is only 22ish percent of my final gross salary, but my TSP, which I moved to a rollover IRA, has doubled in the last 7 years.

 

[zinger1457]

Did you retired under CSRS? That probably is a common scenario for those that retired under CSRS but not for those who retired under FERS. The FERS pension isn't meant to be the sole source of retirement income, TSP and SS are a big part of it. I did a 'deferred' FERS retirement with only 14 years of federal service, just started collecting my small pension last year.

 

[gayl]

Actually I converted my pension (county) to a higher value pension so it was underfunded. I was paying 2k month + standard contribution + 27k on retirement but it was a strange time. Had I finished my 5 yr 'repayment' contract I could have retired with 800m more -- but I was happy to leave

 

[stepford]

When did you decide to retire? I retired/ left govt service when my pension = my take home.

My DW will do something like this, but is kind of cheating... by working part time (while accumulating full time service credits) she's dropping her take home pay - making it much easier to reach the point where pension equals pay.

This trick of working part time while getting full service credits is a great gift for the ER crowd if available. While one's salary (and hence, of course, one's savings) are reduced, the opportunity to work PT in the years leading up to retirement makes those last few years much easier to bear.

While not in government service I was able to do the same thing working for Megacorp. I worked 50-80% of FT from age 46 until ER at 55. My pension isn't great (DW's will be significantly larger) but is just as much as if I'd busted my butt full time those last 10 years.

 

[Amethyst]

We were both in the Civil Service Retirement System, and both retired, at different times, at 66% of our high-three salary. CSRS pensions are taxed as regular income, except for a pro-rated portion of the contribution amount. Because we contributed 7% of our pay to CSRS instead of to Social Security, neither of us qualifies for SS.

CSRS employees were not allowed to contribute to the Thrift Savings Plan when the TSP first came out. Congress later allowed a 5% contribution and finally the full amount, but CSRS employees do not receive "matching" TSP employer contributions.

 

[old medic]

I'm a Local Government Employee and fall under the State retirement system. I have spent 35 years full time on a truck, only 31.5 in the system, but will have 33.5 years of credible service towards my retirement benefit. I was paying heavy into my 401K and realized that my actual take home money would increase in retirement.. Yes I loose my insurance and building the 401K, but FC says we can make it... and I'm tired...

 

[donheff]

I retired at 56 after I reached the 30 years needed for pension eligibility. Retiring early was one of the factors attracting me to civil service at the outset. I liked my work but always looked forward to the paid unemployment. I had carefully run the numbers and concluded DW could retire at the same time and we could comfortably maintain our lifestyle. In the event, DW kept working for several years out of an abundance of caution. My calculation had nothing to do with any arbitrary percentages of salary or take home pay. I did the standard exercise of compiling multiple years of expenses and compared income from pensions and portfolio withdrawals to cover expenses with a significant fudge factor.

 

[Amethyst]

Gayl, I have read this paragraph 3 times, and still have no idea what it says. How do you convert a pension, and are you saying you paid extra money to do this? What was strange about the time?

Actually I converted my pension (county) to a higher value pension so it was underfunded. I was paying 2k month + standard contribution + 27k on retirement but it was a strange time. Had I finished my 5 yr 'repayment' contract I could have retired with 800m more -- but I was happy to leave

 

[MikeWillRetire]

I will be retiring some time in the next year or so, when pensions and social security at 62 will cover my expected base expenses in retirement (everything except travel and snowbirding). I estimate that will be about 44% of my high-3 salary. My TSP will cover the travel and snowbirding costs.

 

[Music Lover]

My pension maxes out at 35 years and the earliest age of eligibility is 55. I took 14 months leave without pay 2 months before turning 54. I was allowed to contribute to my pension while I was off. When I turned 55 I went back on strength (on paper only) to use up my few remaining vacation/leave days. Then I retired with just under 35 years of service.

 

[teej1985]

If I can stick it out that long, as soon as I am eligible for lifetime health insurance.

That's quite a lot of working though. If I'm financially able to retire sooner, I will.

 

[1242Vintage]

Retired last May. My take home monthly pension after taxes is 95% of what I was taking home when working.

Several decades ago I bought 5 years of service credit and at retirement unused sick leave was also credited as service time. Ended my career at age 56 with 40 years of service credit.

 

[Montecfo]

Pension?

What's that?

 

[Music Lover]

Pension?

What's that?

It's what kept many of us at a job we didn't like that much

 

[old medic]

Retired last May. My take home monthly pension after taxes is 95% of what I was taking home when working.

Several decades ago I bought 5 years of service credit and at retirement unused sick leave was also credited as service time. Ended my career at age 56 with 40 years of service credit.

We have a max vacation they pay on separation, anything more rolls into sick time, and that applies to credible service, adding 2 years to my time.

Wife bought 2 years of temp time back... but looked into buying some I had and was 4X as much

 

[pacergal]

We could retire at 30 years or early at 55.
My 30 year mark was age 54, but I worked to age 60 for medical insurance to 65, not free, but pretty darn close.

 

[steelyman]

I left work at 53, retired (became eligible for benefits) at 55.

 

[Vacation4us]

DH and I retired last November. He worked for the state starting at 21yo. He could have retired as early as 50 with 90% of his pay. He stayed an extra 2 years because he loved his job. No extra earnings on pension just extra contributions. Lost all his sick time as service credits since he exceeded his 30 years of work.

Turns out no longer contributing to his pension makes the pension check bigger than his paycheck while working. We are down an income since I retired with him. We do have full medical dental and vision until Medicare . He’s 53 I am 54 life is good.

When anyone whines about his pension his response is “I chose well”. DH grew up poor . Ten people living in a 2 bed house. He slept on the floor beneath the pull out couch poor. He chose a career specifically for a pension. Turns out he loved the job and they loved him.

 

[Amethyst]

I also got a year's sick leave credit toward my pension, which allowed me to retire a year earlier and still get the 66%. The high-3 wasn't as high as I'd expected, owing to a 3-year freeze on Federal pay, but I was done.

 

[Amethyst]

I won't say I chose my career for a pension, but it certainly was an incentive.

I remember my Dad saying what a great benefit it was and how I would be a fool not to go after it, even though it meant moving 1,000 miles all by myself. He had paid into a union pension fund all his life, retired early for health reasons, and watched his non-COLA pension shrivel into irrelevancy during the 1970's inflation years. He ended up getting a job in his late 60's.

DH and I retired last November. He worked for the state starting at 21yo. He could have retired as early as 50 with 90% of his pay. He stayed an extra 2 years because he loved his job. No extra earnings on pension just extra contributions. Lost all his sick time as service credits since he exceeded his 30 years of work.

Turns out no longer contributing to his pension makes the pension check bigger than his paycheck while working. We are down an income since I retired with him. We do have full medical dental and vision until Medicare . He’s 53 I am 54 life is good.

When anyone whines about his pension his response is “I chose well”. DH grew up poor . Ten people living in a 2 bed house. He slept on the floor beneath the pull out couch poor. He chose a career specifically for a pension. Turns out he loved the job and they loved him.

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

I retired when my 22% pension + my planned withdrawal from my 457 + my dividends + my rents were double my monthly expenditures.

Working to earn more money seemed pointless.

 

[stepford]

I retired from the feds when my job ended seven years ago, and I went out on a Discontinued Service Retirement ("DSR") at the age of 52. My pension is only 22ish percent of my final gross salary, but my TSP, which I moved to a rollover IRA, has doubled in the last 7 years.

I retired when my 22% pension + my planned withdrawal from my 457 + my dividends + my rents were double my monthly expenditures.

Working to earn more money seemed pointless.

This is kinda spooky. My Megacorp pension is also right around 22% of my max salary. I wonder if there's some kind of hidden global "rule of 22" for early retirees?

 

[W2R]

I retired as soon as I was eligible to do so, and waited until then so that I would get my FERS mini-pension and FEHB in retirement. I had contributed the max to the TSP and more than that to my taxable investment portfolio. With FERS you just don't get those huge pensions but they did match my TSP contributions and I get SS. But then you know all that.

I found the pre-retirement training offered by my agency to be extremely helpful so if any are offered for you, I'd recommend attending.

 

[Bigdawg]

I found the pre-retirement training offered by my agency to be extremely helpful so if any are offered for you, I'd recommend attending.

The helpfulness of the training depends on a few factors if you ask me. #1). Knowledge and understanding of the attendee prior to attendance. Knowledge and presentation of the actual training. Sometimes the presentor is just OK.

DW is 9 years into a FERS position after 21 in the USMC. She will jump in 2-5 years and will have to defer her FERS until age 63. From what I gather, the vast majority of folks do not defer. They work up until eligibilty of some sort. We don't need that because of our military pensions. Took a lot of digging and asking to get the specifics of quiting at 50-54 and defering until 63. Most responders were wondering why we were doing it that way. Same responses we would get when talking to people about 55 rule with 401k's. Most people just don't know.