Thread: PessOptimist's Retirement Story

I have a retirement ID card from NASA. Gets me into the fitness center and credit union.

I guess I will find out soon. It definitely wont get me in to work and since DOE doesn't really know my agency exists, who knows?
PO

Update time. First the discussions with my bosses. Tuesday or Wednesday I was in my immediate boss’s office talking about stuff when our supervisor came in. My boss was bantering with me about my retirement date as usual. The supervisor asked if something had changed. I made it perfectly clear that I was retiring at the end of the year. They do keep trying and I guess I should be flattered?
Yesterday my boss came in to my office to discuss things and mentioned that I had 33.5 hours time off award that I cannot sell back and I should get them on the leave schedule. Nice of him to remind me and a confirmation they have accepted that I am leaving.
According to my spread sheet I have 42 10 hour tours of duty left. Minus 3.35 that is 38.65 days. I better get the work stuff prioritized cause that time will be gone before I even know it is.
Actual retirement stuff now.
I submitted the package to the HR retirement person who is brand new as the person handling my retirement moved on. Great. He seems to be doing OK. He says “everything looks good”. Time will tell.
One would think that the SF3107 would be all you need. You also need a SF52 requesting retirement where you have to state a reason for requesting retirement. They also need statement of military service, marriage certificate(s), SF2818 about FEGLI life insurance and W4s for fed and state withholding. Some of this is in my eOPF folder but whatever. All must be paper copies signed in ink.
Left to do so far:
Submit a new request for a Retirement Benefits Estimate next week as my pay changes 10/14/18.
Get rid of items on my “moveable property account”. (there is no signed paperwork involved here about becoming responsible for property-it just appears on your account)
Get files off my “personal” drive on the agency system. (seems real simple but…too big to zip and send in an email, can copy it to a thumb drive but only agency approved thumb drive which you cannot insert to a personal device to download)
Get rid of paper in the office.
Try to get rid of stuff left in office by previous occupant. Or leave it for new occupant.
Try to get pertinent information to people about current/ongoing/shelved projects.

PO

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Update time. First the discussions with my bosses. Tuesday or Wednesday I was in my immediate boss’s office talking about stuff when our supervisor came in. My boss was bantering with me about my retirement date as usual. The supervisor asked if something had changed. I made it perfectly clear that I was retiring at the end of the year. They do keep trying and I guess I should be flattered?
Yesterday my boss came in to my office to discuss things and mentioned that I had 33.5 hours time off award that I cannot sell back and I should get them on the leave schedule. Nice of him to remind me and a confirmation they have accepted that I am leaving.
According to my spread sheet I have 42 10 hour tours of duty left. Minus 3.35 that is 38.65 days. I better get the work stuff prioritized cause that time will be gone before I even know it is.
Actual retirement stuff now.
I submitted the package to the HR retirement person who is brand new as the person handling my retirement moved on. Great. He seems to be doing OK. He says “everything looks good”. Time will tell.
One would think that the SF3107 would be all you need. You also need a SF52 requesting retirement where you have to state a reason for requesting retirement. They also need statement of military service, marriage certificate(s), SF2818 about FEGLI life insurance and W4s for fed and state withholding. Some of this is in my eOPF folder but whatever. All must be paper copies signed in ink.
Left to do so far:
Submit a new request for a Retirement Benefits Estimate next week as my pay changes 10/14/18.
Get rid of items on my “moveable property account”. (there is no signed paperwork involved here about becoming responsible for property-it just appears on your account)
Get files off my “personal” drive on the agency system. (seems real simple but…too big to zip and send in an email, can copy it to a thumb drive but only agency approved thumb drive which you cannot insert to a personal device to download)
Get rid of paper in the office.
Try to get rid of stuff left in office by previous occupant. Or leave it for new occupant.
Try to get pertinent information to people about current/ongoing/shelved projects.

PO

Hey PO, flattery is one thing but tell them to put the $$ where their mouth is.
We had one guy who supervisors really wanted him to stay on for another year....they ended up giving him a 25% salary bonus to get him to stay!

Originally Posted by uscfanhawaii

Hey PO, flattery is one thing but tell them to put the $$ where their mouth is.
We had one guy who supervisors really wanted him to stay on for another year....they ended up giving him a 25% salary bonus to get him to stay!

Having the usual posting problems.

I am a WB employee so pay increases are determined by negotiations between agency and appointed bargaining unit.
No pay increase enticements possible. If I stick around I get the same pay and all encumbrances associated with the current position PD be damned.

The only possibility would be a contractor position with a tight PD. It is not going to happen.

PO

A recap here that may help someone. How the heck do you figure out if you can retire and survive on your FERS retirement? Short answer is you probably can’t. This applies to immediate retirement.

If you are retiring between age 62 and MRA you will get a FERS supplement. If that applies to you, look it up on the OPM site. https://www.opm.gov/retirement-servi...ets/ri90-8.pdf will get you started. There will be other links in a search but OPM is the only .gov one.

First thing is to contact your HR office and request a Retirement Benefits Estimate. If the local HR person says no, elevate it. The program my agency uses is FedHRNavigator.

The way I approached the current salary thing was to pretty much ignore it. It will scare the **** out of you because the retirement benefit estimate is probably about 15-25% of your current pay after survivors benefits and health insurance are deducted unless you have the FERS supplement. If you aren’t eligible for the FERS supplement it means you are over age 62 and should go to https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/ and log in or establish an account and get your latest Social Security Statement. Add the monthly amount estimated in the FERS retirement benefits estimate to the amount on the social security statement. If you are eligible for the supplement forget the part about social security and use the amount on your retirement benefits estimate. This will be your take home pay before withholding after you retire. Subtract the estimated income tax from this amount. Likely between 12 and 15%. This will be your new take home pay after retirement.

Now get the amount you actually receive from your agency per pay period and multiply by two. Subtract this amount from your new take home pay after retirement. This figure will be what you probably need to make up if you continue your current spending habits. Figure out where that amount will come from. TSP withdrawals, another job, spouse SS.

If the above is confusing maybe this will help.

current take home from agency per month	FERS retirement amount per month	SS per month	total post retirement income per month	taxes on total post retirement income per month at 15%	post tax post retirement income	what you have to make up per month to continue current income
$3,000.00	$1,000.00	$1,000.00	$2,000.00	$300.00	$1,700.00	$1,300.00

Financial managers will tell you that you must factor in all income and above all buy their product or perish from lack of money. If the only thing changing is the income from your .fed job, the rest stays the same.

My approach to getting rid of the noise surrounding retirement.

PO

If you follow Tammy Flannagan at govexec.com, you will recall that she also had some good news to consider when looking at retirement finances.

No more 7.5% FICA tax.
No more 3.5% Medicare tax.
Depending on your state, no state tax on Pension or Soc Sec.
No more 10-15% deduction for TSP saving.
Possibly lower transportation costs (no commuting).

Of course, depending on your own retirement situation, there may be additional costs.
Travel costs, if travel is in your future.
Health Care costs will eventually catch up to everyone.
Long Term Care costs, especially if you don't have LTC insurance.

Bottom line.....make (and follow) a budget with all of these things in mind!!

Originally Posted by uscfanhawaii

If you follow Tammy Flannagan at govexec.com, you will recall that she also had some good news to consider when looking at retirement finances.

No more 7.5% FICA tax.
No more 3.5% Medicare tax.
Depending on your state, no state tax on Pension or Soc Sec.
No more 10-15% deduction for TSP saving.
Possibly lower transportation costs (no commuting).

Of course, depending on your own retirement situation, there may be additional costs.
Travel costs, if travel is in your future.
Health Care costs will eventually catch up to everyone.
Long Term Care costs, especially if you don't have LTC insurance.

Bottom line.....make (and follow) a budget with all of these things in mind!!

Yes, yes, yes. Plan, plan, plan. Everyone's situation is different as to income but the bottom line is what is coming in to the house now v what will come in post retirement and how to make up the deficit.

PO

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Get files off my “personal” drive on the agency system. (seems real simple but…too big to zip and send in an email, can copy it to a thumb drive but only agency approved thumb drive which you cannot insert to a personal device to download)

What about CD or DVD? That is what I did.


If you planned well, TSP should make up any deficit (part of the 3 legged stool) along with other savings/investments. As USCFan points out, there are many deductions from your work paycheck that you will not have in retirement.

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

Yes, yes, yes. Plan, plan, plan. Everyone's situation is different as to income but the bottom line is what is coming in to the house now v what will come in post retirement and how to make up the deficit.

PO

Eggzackly! Healthcare cost is a really big deal. Even with excellent health insurance and medicare! As we age healthcare costs continue to go up, unfortunately we ain't getting any younger. LOL

I woke up this morning with a question about taxes on my FERS annuity. IRS pub 721 leads me to believe the Survivor Benefit Premium is not taxable for fed income tax. Other comments here and there say it is.

The question is, if my yearly FERS annuity is $22,222.22 and the Survivor Benefit Premium is $2222.22, leaving me $20,000, is the taxable amount for fed income tax $22,222.22 or $20,000?

I thought I would ask an actual FERS annuity recipient.

PO