Please explain the federal annuity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking at Employee Express right now -- no "personal benefits statement" as far as I can tell.

It's called "employee benefits statement" or something like that. It's one of the links in the left side menu. If you find it, it has a ton of really interesting information--including what your severance would be if you got RIFd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm looking at Employee Express right now -- no "personal benefits statement" as far as I can tell.

It's called "employee benefits statement" or something like that. It's one of the links in the left side menu. If you find it, it has a ton of really interesting information--including what your severance would be if you got RIFd.

NP - thanks! Had no idea that link was there.

Have always wondered if I leave -- whether after 2 yrs or 10 or whatever but am in my 30-40s, whether I could get my substantial contributions to the FERS annuity out. People always say yes -- but never saw it in writing anywhere. Nice to see it written clearly in there that it's eligible for refund IF you are not eligible for an immediate annuity within 31 days. In just 3 yrs at the gov't at 4%+, that money is adding up and if I left I wouldn't mind rolling it over into an IRA or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t you guys have access to Employee Express? You can get your full Personal Benefits Statement that will give you your projected annuities based on earliest full retirement date, early retirement, optional reduced.

FDA civilian here. Haven't heard of this! Will be checking it out tomorrow

[Anonymous]

I work at FDA and have never heard of that. Please post back if you find it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you retire before age 60 and take benefits then there is a reduction, I think it is 5% for every year before 60 but I am not positive.

If you retire before age 62 with less than 30 years you lose 5% for each year before 62 you retire unless you retire at age 60 with 25 years service in which case you have no reduction. If you retire with 30 years you have no reduction regardless of when the retirement took place. You also get the FERS special supplement (unless Congress eliminates it) if you retire at age 57 with 30 years service. You get that until age 57 and it’s slightly less than what you will get from SSA when you turn 62.

http://www.fedweek.com/retirement-benefits/calculating-special-retirement-supplement-2/


Basically, don’t retire at 57 unless you have 30 years. Don’t retire at 60 unless you have 25. Maybe hold out for 62 to get those extra 5 years plus 10% but the special supplement at 57 with 30 years is pretty good if you can go that route.

[Anonymous]

To clarify -- say you're in the gov't for 6 years and leave at 45 -- do you get your portions of the pension/annuity funds out right away (so you can invest them)? Or must it sit with the gov't until age 57 or 62 or 65 (even though you won't meet the years of service requirements having left at year 6)? Or is your contribution somehow forfeited?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To clarify -- say you're in the gov't for 6 years and leave at 45 -- do you get your portions of the pension/annuity funds out right away (so you can invest them)? Or must it sit with the gov't until age 57 or 62 or 65 (even though you won't meet the years of service requirements having left at year 6)? Or is your contribution somehow forfeited?

And by your portion I just mean the 4.4% you had to put in per pay period.

[Anonymous]

My wife is Fed Law Enforcement and has mandatory retirement at 57. If I understand it correctly, she gets 35% of her high 3 after 20 years, and then and additional 1% for each year beyond 20 up to a maximum of 42%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you retire before age 60 and take benefits then there is a reduction, I think it is 5% for every year before 60 but I am not positive.

If you retire before age 62 with less than 30 years you lose 5% for each year before 62 you retire unless you retire at age 60 with 25 years service in which case you have no reduction. If you retire with 30 years you have no reduction regardless of when the retirement took place. You also get the FERS special supplement (unless Congress eliminates it) if you retire at age 57 with 30 years service. You get that until age 57 and it’s slightly less than what you will get from SSA when you turn 62.

http://www.fedweek.com/retirement-benefits/calculating-special-retirement-supplement-2/


Basically, don’t retire at 57 unless you have 30 years. Don’t retire at 60 unless you have 25. Maybe hold out for 62 to get those extra 5 years plus 10% but the special supplement at 57 with 30 years is pretty good if you can go that route.

You don’t need 25 years of service st 60, just 20.

[Anonymous]

Does the high 3 include locality + base pay, or only base pay?

[Anonymous]

This is very helpful. Can one of the experts give me their thoughts on this scenario?

My DW is a GS 15 10, making $163,000 per year. She's been a federal employee (attorney) for 18.5 years.

She's thinking of switching to the private sector in a few years. She likes working and so plans to work until 65 or later.

Should she wait until after she has 20 years of federal employment to make the switch to the private sector, since she's only 1.5 years away?

And if she doesn't feel strongly about making the switch to the private sector, what about just staying in the current job, which she likes well enough? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is very helpful. Can one of the experts give me their thoughts on this scenario?

My DW is a GS 15 10, making $163,000 per year. She's been a federal employee (attorney) for 18.5 years.

She's thinking of switching to the private sector in a few years. She likes working and so plans to work until 65 or later.

Should she wait until after she has 20 years of federal employment to make the switch to the private sector, since she's only 1.5 years away?

And if she doesn't feel strongly about making the switch to the private sector, what about just staying in the current job, which she likes well enough? Thank you.

How old is she is now makes a difference in the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very helpful. Can one of the experts give me their thoughts on this scenario?

My DW is a GS 15 10, making $163,000 per year. She's been a federal employee (attorney) for 18.5 years.

She's thinking of switching to the private sector in a few years. She likes working and so plans to work until 65 or later.

Should she wait until after she has 20 years of federal employment to make the switch to the private sector, since she's only 1.5 years away?

And if she doesn't feel strongly about making the switch to the private sector, what about just staying in the current job, which she likes well enough? Thank you.

How old is she is now makes a difference in the answer.

Not to mention what her practice area is and how marketable it is along with how marketable she is re: business origination. Some practice areas in government are transferable and others are not. Honestly you should start a separate thread because you're asking a multi-faceted question that will probably derail this thread from the original topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is very helpful. Can one of the experts give me their thoughts on this scenario?

My DW is a GS 15 10, making $163,000 per year. She's been a federal employee (attorney) for 18.5 years.

She's thinking of switching to the private sector in a few years. She likes working and so plans to work until 65 or later.

Should she wait until after she has 20 years of federal employment to make the switch to the private sector, since she's only 1.5 years away?

And if she doesn't feel strongly about making the switch to the private sector, what about just staying in the current job, which she likes well enough? Thank you.

How old is she is now makes a difference in the answer.

Not to mention what her practice area is and how marketable it is along with how marketable she is re: business origination. Some practice areas in government are transferable and others are not. Honestly you should start a separate thread because you're asking a multi-faceted question that will probably derail this thread from the original topic.

Good question. She is 48 years old.

[Anonymous]

I’m totally confused about determining what age you “retire” at. Say you worked for the government from age 31-35 (5 years total) then left for the private sector. To make the math easy, say your high 3 average was $100,000. If you file for benefits when you are 62, what benefits, if any, are you entitled to?