Thread: FERs Retirees, anyone?

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

What uscfanhawaii said plus my $0.02.

I believe this statement about ss benefits to be incorrect. This page along with the links on the page will tell you the SSA rules.
Retirement Planner: Benefits By Year Of Birth
This may help: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070-1952.pdf
What Mr. Jones may mean is that if you earn no more income, the amount you receive at full retirement will not be more than it would have been if you had been full retirement age when you retired? Retired from where? You are not retired ss wise until you apply for benefits even if you did retire from somewhere else?
Who is Reggie Jones? So many questions but this is why I try to research stuff myself using publications from the applicable agency instead of listening to experts.
Good luck in your quest for the truth. It is not often easy to find.
PO

Thanks PO. After reading yours and USCfanhawaii's explanation, I think I understand now what Reggie Jones meant. I think he meant if the person's current estimated benefits as of age 62 is $1000, age 66 is $1500, age 70 is $2000 ($$ are hypothetical), that's all he's gonna get, no possibility of either amounts increasing except for COLA.
That makes me worried since I plan to retire at 58 w/o any intentions of working. I will only get 30 years and not 35 years as uscfanhawaii mentioned. I was looking forward to my SS at 66, but the current estimated benefits might not be the same amount.
Oh well, I guess I need to tap my TSP...

PS. Reggie Jones is one of the "experts" in Ask the experts -Retirement of federaltimes.com

Here's another erroneous info:

Q. As a FERS letter carrier, if I retire and have 600 hours of unused annual leave, will I get a check for the 600 hours or is 440 the most I can get payed at retirement?

A. Because you are a postal service letter carrier, your lump-sum payment for unused annual leave is limited to 440 hours.


ME: The answer was partially right, a letter carrier can only carry-over a maximum of 440 hours to the next year. The key word is "Carry-over." However, the question was about retiring with 600 hours which I can correctly infer that he earned this extra 200 hours of annual leave in the current year and he is retiring EOY. The correct answer would have been YES, he'll get the 600 hours worth in $$.

Originally Posted by Maricar19

Here's another erroneous info:

Q. As a FERS letter carrier, if I retire and have 600 hours of unused annual leave, will I get a check for the 600 hours or is 440 the most I can get payed at retirement?

A. Because you are a postal service letter carrier, your lump-sum payment for unused annual leave is limited to 440 hours.


ME: The answer was partially right, a letter carrier can only carry-over a maximum of 440 hours to the next year. The key word is "Carry-over." However, the question was about retiring with 600 hours which I can correctly infer that he earned this extra 200 hours of annual leave in the current year and he is retiring EOY. The correct answer would have been YES, he'll get the 600 hours worth in $$.

I am a FERS letter carrier and my mantra has always been "use it, or lose it" especially with SL. I have never carried over 440 hours of AL let alone 40 hours. I'm going to try my hardest in the next four years to reach the goal of 160 hours. Pfft! Who am I kidding.

More erroneous info:
Q. Does the lump-sum payment for annual leave count against maximum earnings to be eligible for the special retirement supplement? Also, if I choose a retirement date and the application begins processing, can I back out before that date?

A. Yes, the lump-sum payment counts toward the maximum earnings limit. As a rule, you can change your mind about retiring unless your position is being eliminated or, alternatively, that someone has already been selected to fill your position.

ME: Lump-sum payment for annual leave does not count towards the earnings limit of the special retirement supplement income.

Originally Posted by konakathy

I am a FERS letter carrier and my mantra has always been "use it, or lose it" especially with SL. I have never carried over 440 hours of AL let alone 40 hours. I'm going to try my hardest in the next four years to reach the goal of 160 hours. Pfft! Who am I kidding.

My spouse is also a letter carrier (ex USN, ret. USNR) and shares your logic, too -actually sometimes Uses AL before even earning it. But not SL -save it for a rainy day. You never know with your line of work...last year, mate suffered stress fracture due to heavy snow season. Was out for 3 months.

I am 22 months from FERS retirement eligibility. As it stands,,,,,, first day eligible is first day out!! I plan to "POSSIBLY" withdraw a minimal portion of my TSP in order to retire debt free. I plan to leave my retirement in TSP and not enroll in a TSP Annuity. I hads thought that I would project approx 5 years of salary and allocate it to the G-Fund. Allocate an additional 5 years to the F-Fund and then manage the remainder with the allotted 2 IFt's /month. Here's my question, As I project % returns on TSP dollars, is 4-5% return a reasonable objective?

Also, I would appreciate any suggestions or alternatives to this plan from those of you more knowledgable than I.


Thanks,
Kave

4-5%? I guess that depends on your own investing history and experience. Will you be using some premium service that has historically returned that on conservative allocations? With my track record I'd be happy with half that rate in retirement. That doesn't leave me much to live on but anything is better than nothing. Capital Preservation is the name of the game in retirement.

Hi kave,
Google wells fargo retirement calculator. Check also the TSP website retirement calculator.
I am not sure what you meant by allocating 5 years each to G and F funds.
Why not try one of the premiums offered by TSPtalk? You have better chance of "growing" your retirement funds unless you are "in tune" with the market. This is the way I look at premium subscription - if you have more than $5000 in your TSP, paying $200 a year is well worth it.

FYI- below are the annual returns for the Different funds
xxxxxGxxxxxxxFxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxSxxxxxxxI
2009 2.97%>5.99%> 26.68%>34.85%>30.04%
2010 2.81%> 6.71%> 15.06%> 29.06%> 7.94%
2011 2.45%> 7.89%> 2.11%> (3.38%)> (11.81%)
2012 1.47%> 4.29%> 16.07%> 18.57%> 18.62%
2013 1.89%> (1.68%)> 32.45%> 38.35%> 22.13%

As you can see, leaving your money with G fund will not bring the 4% you are aiming for.

Originally Posted by Maricar19

Hi kave,
Google wells fargo retirement calculator. Check also the TSP website retirement calculator.
I am not sure what you meant by allocating 5 years each to G and F funds.
Why not try one of the premiums offered by TSPtalk? You have better chance of "growing" your retirement funds unless you are "in tune" with the market. This is the way I look at premium subscription - if you have more than $5000 in your TSP, paying $200 a year is well worth it.

FYI- below are the annual returns for the Different funds
xxxxxGxxxxxxxFxxxxxxxCxxxxxxxxSxxxxxxxI
2009 2.97%>5.99%> 26.68%>34.85%>30.04%
2010 2.81%> 6.71%> 15.06%> 29.06%> 7.94%
2011 2.45%> 7.89%> 2.11%> (3.38%)> (11.81%)
2012 1.47%> 4.29%> 16.07%> 18.57%> 18.62%
2013 1.89%> (1.68%)> 32.45%> 38.35%> 22.13%

As you can see, leaving your money with G fund will not bring the 4% you are aiming for.

I agree 100%. I decided to start using one of the premium services beginning this year and am extremely pleased with my personal results this far.

Frank

Maricar19, I think Kave is talking about keeping 5 years of withdraws (living expenses) in the safety of the G Fund in retirement. I see many sites recommending that now. The idea is you invest the rest in riskier assets and in the case of a downturn you have 5 years to make that up because you are living off of the funds that didn't drop in value.

In the TSP, of course, this is more of a psychological thing because it's all one pot of money and is paid out proportionately. I guess you have to rebalance it yourself every IFT/paycheck.

Hi Kave, based on Cactus' explanation, I doubt your withdrawals will be able to sustain your retirement fund on the G fund. If you leave it in the G fund, the only way to preserve and earn some, is to withdraw no more than 1.5% of your funds. Simple math will tell you to withdraw less than what you earn.
The Wells Fargo calculator allows you to input more than 3 sources of income at different begin and end dates. It is good for TSP pensioners since if we retire before 62, we have the supplemental income, the FERS annuity, And TSP. You can also add SS at 62 pr whatever age you desire. This is also good if you have a military reserve component which starts at 60.