Neecy, I'm glad that's working out. It'll be interesting to see whether you promote in the Reserves... I've seen a lot of passed-over Navy active duty earn a Reserve promotion.
This is a federal civil-service GS-13, right? Is there a calculator to help with figuring out the wisdom of buying your service time? If you buy 14.5 years of time with civil service, then what happens to the military pension? If you bought the time then how many good years would you need for a Reserve retirement, and how much pension would you receive?
Then there's the whole issue of the civil service healthcare system vs Tricare and Tricare For Life.
About the only other advice I can think of is to keep maxing out your civil service TSP for the match. And at the GS-13 pay scale, you probably want to max out the TSP instead of the Roth TSP.
Hi Nords! So glad you came into my thread. That would be awesome if I get promoted in the Reserves. I will be in an overage position, so I do not know how that works when it comes to Definitely Promote/Promote allocations. Yes, I agree with maxing out my TSP. I am loving the match already! Yes, it is a federal GS-13 position. I can't find a calculator. But if I had an active duty pension, I would have to waive it to collect a federal pension. However, I can collect a Reserve pension and a federal one. If I buy my time, I would be able to retire sooner (I think you need 20 years minimum). FYI-- I am forty years old.
The Advantages of Making A Military Deposit
Posted on Sunday, 15th November 2009 by Linda Sherman
If you are a current federal employee with prior military service you should consider making a deposit for your military service. There are two reasons why making a military deposit may be beneficial:
You could retire sooner, or
Your can increase your retirement annuity.
By making this deposit, your years of military service are included in your civilian retirement computation, just as if you performed that service under your current retirement system. Unless you are receiving a military retirement, making a military deposit is usually a great deal, often paying for itself within a year or two of retirement.
Retire Sooner: A military deposit may allow you to retire from your civilian position earlier than with your civilian service alone. If you reach your Minimum Retirement Age (MRA) before you attain the required years of service, this may be your ticket to retire earlier than anticipated. For example, if you began your federal civilian career at age 28 as a FERS employee and, you were born in 1955, your MRA is 56, but you will not attain 30 years of federal civilian service until you reach age 58. If you made a deposit for your four years of active duty military service, you could retire at the MRA of 56 – two years earlier than if you did not make the deposit. (Note: If you are covered under the Special Retirement provisions for Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, Air Traffic Controllers, and Military Reserve Technicians the military service cannot be credited towards the 20 years of special retirement coverage for retirement eligibility, but will be used in computing your annuity.)
Increased Annuity: Making a military deposit will increase your federal retirement annuity. By making the deposit, you are purchasing a guaranteed monthly annuity payable when you retire. The annuity is paid directly to you in the form of monthly payments for the rest of your life (and your spouse’s life if you elect a spousal annuity). The military deposit is fully refundable if you change your mind and want a refund of the deposit.
To determine if this deposit is advantageous to you, simply compare the total military deposit amount to the increase in retirement income. Then determine how long before the increase in your retirement annuity will pay for the military deposit amount.
For example, let’s say you have four years of military service and five years of federal service as a FERS employee.
High-three Salary: You don’t know what your high-three salary will be when you retire, but you decide to use your current salary of $60,000 as your high-three salary.
Military Deposit Amount: Your payroll or HR office determines your military deposit amount will be $2,600 for four years of military service.
Computation: If you are a FERS employee, your retirement annuity is increased 1% for each additional year of service. So the computation is:
4 years of additional service x 1% per year x $60,000 = $2400 yearly increase in retirement income attributable directly to the one-time military deposit. That is a $200 per month increase in your annuity payable for your entire life.
Conclusion: In this example, it took just one year and one month of retirement income attributable to the military service to equal the entire military deposit amount. This is the break even point. The higher annuity income continues for as long as you live, and will be also used to compute a spousal annuity if applicable. If you plan to spend more than 13 months receiving this annuity, the deposit is beneficial.
If you are a CSRS employee the military deposit amount is higher, but the return is also higher:
X years of military service x 2% per year x high 3 salary = annual annuity increase.
This calculation does not include the time value of money considerations. For those analytical types, TVM calculations would be appropriate, for everyone else, let’s keep it simple since this is normally such a short period of time.
Retired Military: Making the military deposit is not for everyone. If you are retired military and are receiving full military retirement pay, it is usually not advantageous to make a military deposit, because you must waive your military retired pay for the service period to be included in the civilian retirement annuity. Usually the full military retirement is of greater value than the civilian retirement annuity. Use the computation method above to determine if making the deposit would be beneficial or consult with your HR/Benefit Specialist.
Military Disability Retirement & Reserve Retirement: You must waive your military retired pay in order to receive credit for military service in a civilian annuity, unless your military retirement is based on:
A service-connected disability incurred in combat with an enemy of the US;
On account of a service-connected disability caused by an instrumentality of war and incurred in the line of duty during a period of war; or
Under provisions of 10 U.S.C. 12731-12739 (retired members of the reserves).
A deposit is still required for the active duty military service to be credited in your civilian retirement annuity.