Re: PessOptimist's Retirement Story
Hi PO:
Nothing has really changed in my plans. End of 2017. Take no annual leave in 2017. Sell back 448 hours.
COMMENT: SUPER. You have a date and a plan.
I was recently reminded of one individual who figured it all out and extended his initial retirement date to take his annual leave while still employed. His rationale was he accrued annual leave while on annual leave, still had the same FEHB and “other benefits”. I think the plan was he carried over 240 hours at the end of the leave year and while on “terminal leave” he would accrue 24 hours of annual leave to use (extending retirement date by three days) or sell back. Check my math 240/80=3 pay periods*8 hours=24 hours annual. Plus he backed up from the end of the leave year to use the 208 he earned the prior year so was on about 11 weeks of terminal leave while still employed. He was CSRS so maybe something else influenced it. Sounds like it was a lot of work to figure it out. Comments please?
COMMENT: I retired CSRS in 2006 and noted that many federal workers under CSRS did similar things during their last quarter to use leave they would otherwise lose. If you are CSRS, and planning to leave at the end of the fiscal year or calendar year, your scenario sounds like a good use of annual leave if you will otherwise lose those benefits. If you are somehow able to treat them as leave that can add to your Time In Service, I'd calculate the benefits under that scenario before making a decision. For example, I don't believe FERS employees were able to make use of SL in their calculations like the CSRS folks. In some cases, I think annual leave was somehow converted to leave for purposes of retirement computation; but it's been a long time and I don't remember the details.
My MAIN reason for posting is that in the last couple of weeks three people in my chain have asked about my projected retirement date. I have previously made this known to them. They all stated they were just confirming and two of them said something like “we would love to have you stay longer”. Must have been something that came up in a meeting they had. Why would they want me to stay longer and why mention it more than two years out?
COMMENT: If they are preparing the OMB Budget for 2017, they may also be cushioning their FTE count for the outyears (2018-2021). If you are staying, they get to use your salary and benefits for budget projections, which are likely higher than a replacement with fewer years service and less time in grade. Just a thought. And, while your management may be screwy, there are probably some rationale fair minded types in the bunch (budgets are made by the bunch) that recognize good employees and are concerned about losing staff of high value.
These people WERE NOT my supervisor who has to be a GS-whatever manager. It might be interesting to hear what my supervisor has to say during my annual review. I made my plans known to my previous supervisor and current one when that supervisor was acting for my old supervisor. Confused yet?
COMMENT: Nope. If gets a bit crazy as you near retirement day. I remember how everyone told me how much they would miss me, and how it would be crazy hard to fill my position when I left. Loved hearing it. It did great things for my ego. But my retirement day came and I retired and they did just fine without me and found a good person to replace me and I moved on to a better life...enjoying life..
Bottom line-why did these questions and comments come out of the blue? Am I really valuable or does my FTE go away when I retire and they are wanting to keep it while negotiating? It’s more than two years out. Are they trying to plan FY 2018?
COMMENT: See above.
Sticking around for an additional year if I can health wise (including mental health) would put me over my SS retirement age before I start collecting SS. That might get me a whopping $180 per month. Plus an extra years income. Plus TSP matching. Plus the FERS multiplier increases. Plus my high three might increase.
COMMENT: It's worth running those numbers. Increasing your retirement in a "significant way" is worth the time and effort to check out with your personnel department, but define significant before you start the analysis. That way you know if it's a good decision or not; and in any case, I strongly recommend having a date set in your mind. It's one of the great accomplishments of our lives. But also realize, if you want to work after retirement, there's a whole world of opportunity out there. I enjoyed the private sector for 3 years before I hung it up for good. Nice way to help out the SS check. Not sure any of this helps you but I wish you the best. Have fun during this time. As I've told you before, you're in a great place in your career.
All the best,
FS
FogSailing
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