Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Hello Maricar19.
I think a mod could move this to Retirement and IRA Talk to get more replies. There are a lot of retirement threads on the board with lot's of great info based on lot's of different situations.
I haven't started a retirement thread yet but have been thinking of it for a while.
Three years more for me.
PO
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Hi, I retired a little over a year and a half ago and thing have been very good. I think it is important to plan things you want to do so I chose to learn about investing as well as a few other activities like church and reading etc. Even though I received a buy out and I had saved enough to be able to comfortably afford to retire I often question my judgment because I didn't have to retire and I probably should have waited until I was at least 66 when I plan to start collecting social security. Life is not all about money but another two years would have been an extra cushion in case the family needed help or something unexpected comes up.
Here are a few other tips. Consult your HR and OPM and request retirement estimates for different dates. Look at OPM.GOV and find the best retirement dates in the year. Make sure you calculate your accrued leave and sick leave. Sick leave can be counted as time in service but it is calculated on a whole month basis so you could loose almost a month if you are not careful.
If you are going to get monthly distributions from the TSP you should know that they won't take out State Taxes. I compensate for this by having extra dollars taken out of my OPM Retirement.
Lastly, I would advise staying active in investing and not getting too conservative when you retire. No matter where you put your money you should stay invested and informed because you want that money to grow and last at least another 20 -25 years.
Good luck! :)
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Marica19,
I concur with PO !!! Many of the Board Members have shared their retirement experiences, both CSRS and FERS, in the thread he linked !!! Also, lot's of questions, answers, and opinions posted there, as well :D
I'm sure adding your knowledge and experiences there will help us all...one thing for sure...Fed "retirement" is NOT a cut-and-dried issue !!! I've had my eyes opened several times !!!
BTW...loved PMaloney's post, too !!! :)
Stoplight...
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Thanks PO. I tried to do a search, "retirement" and i didn't get a hit. Maybe, I did the search wrong. I appreciate the info.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Thanks for sharing, PM. I already started getting some retirement estimates.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Maricar19,
I'll will get someone to move this over to the retirement thread. Just add to it once in awhile so it stays on top and you will get some information other retirees or soon to be.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Really, the best thing you can do for you retirement other than put the max in TSP, is to do whatever you can to push your Hi 3 earnings calculation as high as you can. Take/compete for any and all promotion opportunities as they present themselves. Save the max annual leave in you final year, and if you have a large sick leave balance, don't use it, let it roll over to credit the extra time. One other thing you can do is move to an area with a higher locality pay to inflate your Hi 3. Sure some of this is not doable, but it can make a difference to the numbers when you finally retire.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
wheeble
Really, the best thing you can do for you retirement other than put the max in TSP, is to do whatever you can to push your Hi 3 earnings calculation as high as you can. Take/compete for any and all promotion opportunities as they present themselves. Save the max annual leave in you final year, and if you have a large sick leave balance, don't use it, let it roll over to credit the extra time. One other thing you can do is move to an area with a higher locality pay to inflate your Hi 3. Sure some of this is not doable, but it can make a difference to the numbers when you finally retire.
Thanks W. Unfortunately, wherever I work, the pay will be the same. Regarding Annual leave, I tried to map it out so that by the time I retire, I would have 760 hours to cash in, again..things happened this year that I have only 300 plus hours to carry over next year. Anyway, I just have to keep on trying.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Maricar19
Thanks PO. I tried to do a search, "retirement" and i didn't get a hit. Maybe, I did the search wrong. I appreciate the info.
The search function on this site is lacking or I haven't figured out how to use it in the last six years. Not necessarily Tom's fault (Mr TSPTalk to most of us) but seems to be true on all vbulletin forums.
Whatever, the thread has been moved to a better place to get responses, which you have gotten. I would suggest reading all the retirement stories when you can. There is a whole lot of good info in them, some of which will not apply directly to you. I will share more of my story so far but the reply I started got wordy and whiny so needs editing.
I did not know about the sick leave being calculated on a whole month basis so am asking pmalaoney how many hours of sick leave equal one month. You do learn something on this thread every day.
Regards PO
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PessOptimist
I did not know about the sick leave being calculated on a whole month basis so am asking pmalaoney how many hours of sick leave equal one month. You do learn something on this thread every day.
Regards PO
When I retired my sick time got calculated into my total time in service. But they calculate out to the full month and it was calculated 6 hours for every 8 hours I had on the books. I had to use up almost 3 weeks of sick time or loose it. I left 3 days on the books just in case I miscalculated. If you fall under the month by even one hour you loose that whole month.
Re: FERs Retirees, anyone?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
nasa1974
When I retired my sick time got calculated into my total time in service. But they calculate out to the full month and it was calculated 6 hours for every 8 hours I had on the books. I had to use up almost 3 weeks of sick time or loose it. I left 3 days on the books just in case I miscalculated. If you fall under the month by even one hour you loose that whole month.
According to OPM website, 6 hours is equivalent to 1day, ergo 174 hours is equivalent to 1 month.
Thanks to you both for the responses.