Thread: My retirement journey

Hope they come through for you in December. 2020 sucks.

Well, it has now been 108 days since my last day on the job.

I got the message December 10th that my pension has been finalized, but I still have NO IDEA when the real money starts.
They said on the servicesonline.opm.gov site that I should receive my benefits booklet within 2 to 3 weeks. But the don't post what the
expected payment start date, or the amount will be, or when the FERS supplement will kick in.

As far as I can figure, I am expecting a FERS retirement of $3K a month, and a FERS supplement of around $1,200 a month. That's $4,200 I think they owe me.

But they've only paid $1,780 a month in interim pay. And the website says that they plan to pay that $1,780 on January 2, 2021.

Does that mean that I won't get the "settlement" payout until February? That would mean they will owe me $10K by the time they actually start paying my full pension. Is that for real?

Anybody who has been through this - How soon after finalizing did you get paid something other than the interim payment?

Thanks

James, seems like it was pretty soon after finalizing everything. Within 30 days if I remember correctly. Don't forget all the "deductions" for taxes, health insurance premiums, etc. May cut into your catchup payment?

James just curious how you figured how much you might need to tie you over until your full retirement kicks in. I am still a few years away but i want to plan accordingly. Is there some magic formula to go by ie. you need 2-3 months pay set back?

Although 108 days seems like an eternity when waiting for your retirement to be finalized, I retired in January of 2011 under CSRS and did not receive my full pension until October 2011. My benefits booklet was received in September, so there was only a 1 month wait from interim payments to full pension. Of course in those days 10 and 11 month waits was the normal so it is good to see there has been improvement in the wait times.

Oh and just an FYI, I received my backpay in December 2011, but again, that was under CSRS.

Quabit, most of us saved the maximum A/L which gave us a nice little nest egg while waiting for the finalization of our retirement. Depending on the type of retirement plan you are retiring under you should get "interim payments" pretty quickly after retiring (60 days or so after retiring). 2-3 months pay saved up and your A/L should get you through Ok. You are smart to start planning now. Best of luck to you!

Hello again. Thought I would give an update. I can see that this thread is happily moving along while I have been fishing, which is great.

So yesterday, I finally got my "catch-up" money. That means that the payments that have been coming (as expected) at less than full annuity have been caught up and I expect to get regular payments monthly starting January. I retired June 30th, so I'm about average, from what I've heard.

Life is good, we could not be happier. We are so blessed! I hope all of you have a great retirement as well. Anyway, I'm a personal trainer at a gym (Florida, so we are still open) owned by a large company, and easily making the max that I can make without lowering my annuity. I come in 4 days a week for 6 hours. This leaves me plenty of time to fish, play tennis, etc. My boss is really cool, and I will have no problem taking enough time off to keep from going over - which leads to a question:

I had been told that the cut off for retirement income without a penalty was 17k. I received a letter in the mail from OPM and it really appears that the number is actually 18,240. Does anyone know if there has been a change?

Originally Posted by Scout333

Quabit, most of us saved the maximum A/L which gave us a nice little nest egg while waiting for the finalization of our retirement. Depending on the type of retirement plan you are retiring under you should get "interim payments" pretty quickly after retiring (60 days or so after retiring). 2-3 months pay saved up and your A/L should get you through Ok. You are smart to start planning now. Best of luck to you!

nice but how do you know when that A/L check is coming?

dave123 I have been driving a schoolbus (until Covid) for about 6 years now and the number goes up each year, 18,240 sounds like the number for 2021 and 17k was for 2020. Once you turn 65 you will be able to make as much as you want without penalty, but until then you will need to pay attention to the max allowable.

Thank you Raven, that is what I was leaning towards.

Net or Gross??

Unfortunately it is gross...