Re: Medicare and Social Security
Originally Posted by
FireWeatherMet
Interesting footnote from your link:
On pg 7 those making the case against CSRS said it was too costly compared to private industry retirment plans:
"A preliminary design study, performed for OPM by consulting actuaries and reported--28 percent of pay for CSRS and 17 percent for a "typical nonfederal" plan"
However, Senator Al Gore Jr objected to that analysis...and for very good reason:
"But when Sen. Albert Gore, Jr., questioned this, GAO added that 25.1 percent was the figure from the same study for large companies with work forces closer in size to the federal civilian work force."
I would have liked to have had the security of CSRS (and not have the FICA SS taxes) AND the capability to invest 5-10% of my cash tax free into a TSP like vehicle.
Funny, when I was presented the choice of CSRS vs FERS (yes. I was offered a choice), I don't recall being advised that I could also invest in tsp at the same time. unfortunately I was still in grad school on career conditional appointment and didn't know enough to make decision other than job insecurity (30 year career? really?) I couldn't imagine that for myself at the time, even tho parent was a career CSRS kinda guy who had already retired at that point-he took a buyout then, had his MRA but went out with less than 30 years on a directed reassignment-RIF.
Having a backup plan (tsp) for job insecurity was a big argument for me in late 80s to go FERS instead of CSRS based on my own job hunts in the 70s and 80s prior to getting on board the gov. I didn't get the details on the directed reassignment/RIF early-out deal from my dad until just a few months ago but I knew he'd sweated a RIF a few years earlier than that also-which factored into my decision.
"life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards" - soren kierkegaard
Bookmarks