I never had the choice between CSRS and FERS, not really, not enough CSRS years in as of mid-80s, to qualify for CSRS-Offset, much less full CSRS. but HR had so little understanding themselves back in the transition era, that I was advised on the pros and cons of choosing, and was given a piece of paper to sign saying that I voluntarily chose to go FERS. Which I signed.
the one and only advantage of FERS I understood at the time, and which caused me to semi-consciously "voluntarily choose" to go FERS, was that IF I got RIF'd at some point in fed career before getting sufficient years or age in, I could take what retirement funds I'd accumulated up to that point in TSP-I could take with me, including the match. A perceived advantage of FERS vs CSRS, given a concurrent example of consequences of "going CSRS" at the time: the example of my dad who faced getting RIF'd a handful of years short of CSRS retirement.
but I sure didn't have a clue what to do with index (tsp) funds. American Assoc of Indiv Investors, which I subscribed to for a couple years early on, mainly talked about stocks, as I recall. of course I had no additional investable funds to spare to put into stocks outside tsp, so trying to gain financial education that way did little good. then taxable IRAs came along around the time I had a little extra cashflow which I put into taxable IRA mutual funds, until I maxed out on the tax-deferred contributions side of IRAs, at which point I went back to blindly putting more funds into tsp, not having any real clue how to manage account or balance among the limited choices we had in tsp, or what level of risk was appropriate to my age, years in service.
I didn't know I could watch real market indices on daily/weekly basis and correlate their performance to performance of C/S/F, etc. until 20 years into the game, I finally started catching a clue, thanks to internet access and reading. so here I am, still catching up on understanding appropriate exposure and risk levels given rapidly approaching proximity of full retirement age/years. and feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the balance in the account, given everything else going on economically in the world, including at home in dear old G and appropriations and national debt/deficit, and the real economy at home and abroad vs market insanities. which is why I will likely try to continuing working a few months/years past eligibility date, as long as they can afford to keep me, which becomes more tenuous by the year.
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