PessOptimist's Retirement Story

[nasa1974]

For retirement purposes your sick leave is counted at 6 hours vs. 8 hours. Make sure you do the calculations correctly or you can get screwed. If you are off by one hour you lose the whole month of sick leave. I left 3 days of sick leave on the books just to play it safe. Also depending if you are FERS or CSRS will depend where in the month you want to retire because it affects your first pay check.

 

[PessOptimist]

Thanks for the replies.

I thought it was better to retire last day of month, why not June 30th? I believe if you retire in middle of pay period, you don't get any leave for that pay period. Suggest you request an updated retirement estimate based on the new date(s). The way they calculate your time is informative. Sick leave credit only counts in monthly increments so you want to use up any extra

June 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] is the end of a pay period. I just picked it because of that. Got to request the retirement estimate for the new date.

For retirement purposes your sick leave is counted at 6 hours vs. 8 hours. Make sure you do the calculations correctly or you can get screwed. If you are off by one hour you lose the whole month of sick leave. I left 3 days of sick leave on the books just to play it safe. Also depending if you are FERS or CSRS will depend where in the month you want to retire because it affects your first pay check.

Nasa, I am not understanding the 6v8 hour thing. To complicate it further my normal AWS is 4x10. So since I get 4 hours sick leave per pay period or about 8 hours per month you are saying it increases my credited fed time by 6 hours per month?. After 20 years with this agency I am used to getting screwed administratively. Usually from bad or no information from HR about things and me not checking it out for myself. I am FERS and do understand that my first interim amount retirement check will come the first of August if I retire on June 23[SUP]rd[/SUP].
Again, thanks for the inputs. Perhaps I am not thinking correctly but one month’s sick leave credit for me would be about .3% of my high 3?
PO

 

[nasa1974]

PO,

I would think the calculations for sick time should be the same since I retired. I will try to find my notes and give you some exact numbers. It may take a few days.

 

[nnuut]

The Best [Not FERS] day for me was Jan 1st!
And Yes I had to notify my Supervisor, lots of stuff to do before I left.

 

[PessOptimist]

Nasa, don’t bother as I think I have it figured out. The actual calculation is not easy to find on the OPM site and what is there is for CSRS. So, I contacted my HR retirement person at the mother of the mother agency and she is usually pretty good at finding answers. She told me once my questions made her better at her job. Imagine, a .fed wanting to be knowledgeable about the job.

Since I will retire at a maximum of around 200 hours of sick leave, I think this is not worth worrying about too much. Yes, an additional month of credit toward the calculation will amount to additional money, perhaps an order of chicken tenders per month or a stingy tip for a restaurant meal 3 times a year. Yes, I will hate letting a day of sick leave go away when I could be “sick” but there are a lot of other things to consider about this.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

The Best [Not FERS] day for me was Jan 1st!
And Yes I had to notify my Supervisor, lots of stuff to do before I left.

Nnuut, there is no best day for me from what I read since I am retiring in the middle of the year.


Personally, it WILL be the best day of my life.


You are absolutely correct that if you have any responsibilities at all you need to take care of them before you leave. Some to protect yourself about property and some to state that you will no longer be available as POC on ongoing projects.

If you have a job with no responsibilities other than doing your bureaucratic function or just don’t care, see ya.

If I have learned one thing in the past year it is that responsibilities for projects that belonged to persons in your chain of command may be given to you and were not a concern to the person departing. You find out when a deadline is passed without action. In the past year I have had three WB bosses depart and three GS13/14 depart and leave their responsibilities with me, a WB. The GS-12s acting for the missing 14 have never been hesitant to pass the responsibility on to a WB person and no info at all on what has happened or where the project is because they do not know. Not in my PD which is to supervise a team of craftspersons but I try.

To anyone worried about my complaints, about a year ago management announced they were formulating a business plan to correct problems with the management culture here. No news since and the person who stated that has moved on to a higher GS position. I am sure it will be “fixed” soon.

Sorry for the whining. Thanks for the retirement info.

PO

 

[Scout333]

Sorry for the whining. Thanks for the retirement info.


PO, it is amazing how things you have put up with for half your career become unbearable when you get within six months of retirement! Ha!

 

[evilanne]

A month = 174 hours, so you can take your current sick leave & divide by 174 to see approximately how many days/months/years you have. Actually it will calculate months & days, but you will continue to accrue hours each pay period until you retire. The monthly calculation it at top level that is calculated in months/days from the day you started until you last day. Once calculated they will round off in months--this is why it is important to get retirement estimate, which will make the calculations clearer. See https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/c050.pdf and https://www2.usgs.gov/humancapital/pb/documents/SICKLEAVECONVERSIONCHART.pdf or https://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/publications-forms/csrsfers-handbook/c050.pdf

 

[nnuut]

Cashing in the MAX AL at retirement was a Great thing to do!!!! $$$$$$$$$

 

[Valkyrie]

remember high three is calculated from your last day back. they got me on that with a buy out at the end of Sept '16. so all of a sudden monthly retirement check is less than what I had counted on. it would have been better for me not to take the buyout and just stayed until end of Dec.

Nnuut, there is no best day for me from what I read since I am retiring in the middle of the year.


Personally, it WILL be the best day of my life.


You are absolutely correct that if you have any responsibilities at all you need to take care of them before you leave. Some to protect yourself about property and some to state that you will no longer be available as POC on ongoing projects.

If you have a job with no responsibilities other than doing your bureaucratic function or just don’t care, see ya.

If I have learned one thing in the past year it is that responsibilities for projects that belonged to persons in your chain of command may be given to you and were not a concern to the person departing. You find out when a deadline is passed without action. In the past year I have had three WB bosses depart and three GS13/14 depart and leave their responsibilities with me, a WB. The GS-12s acting for the missing 14 have never been hesitant to pass the responsibility on to a WB person and no info at all on what has happened or where the project is because they do not know. Not in my PD which is to supervise a team of craftspersons but I try.

To anyone worried about my complaints, about a year ago management announced they were formulating a business plan to correct problems with the management culture here. No news since and the person who stated that has moved on to a higher GS position. I am sure it will be “fixed” soon.

Sorry for the whining. Thanks for the retirement info.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

remember high three is calculated from your last day back. they got me on that with a buy out at the end of Sept '16. so all of a sudden monthly retirement check is less than what I had counted on. it would have been better for me not to take the buyout and just stayed until end of Dec.

Thanks Valkyrie, shouldn’t be a factor as my last pay raise was 1 Oct and I damn sure am not sticking around until 1 Oct 18.

Thanks everyone for all the inputs. I have been looking at all the info and based on past retirement estimates the estimated sick leave credit actually appears to be computed using 2087 hours per year which is 173.91666... hours per month which is 5.797222... hours per day.

This explains why projected sick leave balance of 298 hours calculates to 1 month 22 days instead of 1 month 21.67 days using factors 174 and 6. I suspect that just like your SS computation they are using fractions in this case 12[SUP]ths[/SUP] and 30[SUP]ths[/SUP].

More importantly I noticed reviewing past estimates that I always used the end of a month which always left me with 23 days “Total Title Credit” since my start date was the 8[SUP]th[/SUP] of the month. My latest estimate request is for the end of a pay period which is the 23[SUP]rd[/SUP] so I think my credit will be 21 years 0 months and 16 days still leaving some on the table.

Maybe a better retirement commencement date would be the 7[SUP]th[/SUP] or 8[SUP]th[/SUP] in the long run. Of course that may change my first interim payment to a month later. But it would mean one more working payday coming in. So many things to think about.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

Thinking about things pertaining to my retirement, what to do about the catch up contribution to TSP?

The TSP and IRS language is “you must elect to contribute the maximum amount before you are eligible to make catch-up contributions”. The 2018 max is $18,500 which is $712 per pay period. If I also continue to contribute $231 per pay period for catch up and then retire mid-year, have I fulfilled the requirement of contributing the maximum? Will the IRS come after me like I was Al Capone? Will they demand I put an additional $7820 in to TSP? Will they demand I pay taxes on the $3465 catch up contributions?

Being able to contribute the max and catchup amounts per year has been a good but not easy place to be. The question was brought up by a wannabe retirement advisor. Not sure if I am serious about even bringing it up here.

PO

 

[nasa1974]

PO,

With your sick leave calculating out to 1 month and 22 days you will only get credit for monthly units. If you do not take any sick days you will lose out on getting paid for those 22 days.

 

[PessOptimist]

PO,

With your sick leave calculating out to 1 month and 22 days you will only get credit for monthly units. If you do not take any sick days you will lose out on getting paid for those 22 days.

Got it nasa, thanks. This will have to be addressed closer to retirement time and I will try to use it all just on gp's.

PO

 

[nasa1974]

Got it nasa, thanks. This will have to be addressed closer to retirement time and I will try to use it all just on gp's.

PO

Just be careful not to take too much and then you lose the one month. I gave back 3 days just to play it safe.

 

[evilanne]

Thinking about things pertaining to my retirement, what to do about the catch up contribution to TSP?

The TSP and IRS language is “you must elect to contribute the maximum amount before you are eligible to make catch-up contributions”. The 2018 max is $18,500 which is $712 per pay period. If I also continue to contribute $231 per pay period for catch up and then retire mid-year, have I fulfilled the requirement of contributing the maximum? Will the IRS come after me like I was Al Capone? Will they demand I put an additional $7820 in to TSP? Will they demand I pay taxes on the $3465 catch up contributions?

Being able to contribute the max and catchup amounts per year has been a good but not easy place to be. The question was brought up by a wannabe retirement advisor. Not sure if I am serious about even bringing it up here.

PO

They haven't come after me yet If you are retiring mid year you could actually contribute $24,500 if you wanted while still working if you can afford to. You can also just increase your regular TSP to cover the amount you are currently contributing to both (not a good idea if you may change your mind and delay retirement & miss out on any matching)

 

[PessOptimist]

They haven't come after me yet If you are retiring mid year you could actually contribute $24,500 if you wanted while still working if you can afford to. You can also just increase your regular TSP to cover the amount you are currently contributing to both (not a good idea if you may change your mind and delay retirement & miss out on any matching)

Great idea! Can I borrow about $12,000 next year? I promise I will pay it back as soon as...well never mind:laugh:. That scenario crossed my mind about maxing it out with the hopeful leave sell back but..maybe I should just leave it as is since one never knows what may happen:worried:.

 

[PessOptimist]

I got a couple more estimates from my go to HR retirement specialist. I stated before she worked for the mother of the mother agency but was wrong. She works at an agency that is a mercenary for the mother of the mother agency. Whatever, she seems very competent. Just proves you can never be sure who is calculating or in charge of your retirement based on what agency you work for.

Whatever the agency is, they are using a new program to estimate retirement pay. The product you get has a FedHRNavigator logo in the upper right corner.

The two estimates were seven days different but showed a $$ per year difference. There is no difference in the years/months listed, only the days. Then I noticed my high three calculation increased $$. Hmmm.

I asked the HR person some questions and will let you know the answers.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

First to answer the last post, the difference in the amount was due to my high three. I took a new job 1[SUP]1/2[/SUP] years ago at about a 20% pay increase. So, duh, of course high three will go up. I just never thought so much. The other question for HR was why they always recommend FERS employees retire at the end of the month. Answer is your first interim annuity payment arrives on the first day of the second month after retirement. In other words retiring 6/30 starts the annuity 7/1 which is paid 8/1. So retiring 7/8 starts the annuity 8/1 and the first payment is 9/1.

I thought I had it all planned out, retire 6/30, sell back 336 days AL, start SS at 66y2mo on 7/1, SO starts SS at the same time 62y5mo, still get military annuity and VA disability, kick back and not have to touch TSP. Maybe.

Then I attended a webex about something unrelated and they had a presentation from my HR go to person about military, CSRS and other time deposits or buy back. Guess the end of the year is slow for this division.

I started thinking that the last time I addressed this was 2014 and maybe I should check it out again since my pay has increased since then.

Back story-when I hired on as a FED in 19 and 97 I was told that if I paid the deposit I would have to waive my military annuity at that time. The amount of the deposit at that time was $11,199 which was a small fortune I didn’t have so based on the amount and information about the annuity it was a no brainer to say no thank you.

Along about 2012 I ran in to a FED who was also a retired military lifer who claimed he was buying back his military time and still receiving his military annuity. He did not have to waive it until he started drawing his FED annuity at retirement. He also stated he would lose none of the other lifer benefits such as access to exchange, commissary and most importantly TriCare health insurance.

I did some checking on my own and found he was right. I also checked out the money difference in FED annuity after deposit v military annuity + Fed annuity at that time and came up that it was better to remain status quo. The only real difference was I would have been retirement eligible under MRA+10.

I revisited this in 2014 and found it would take almost 10 years to reach the break even point after paying the deposit and the FED annuity still wasn’t enough even with collecting SS at 62yo. So I put that idea away.

Now I find that the break even point from 6/30/18 is 2[SUP]1/2[/SUP] years and the additional income is over $8k per year. I have yet to have gotten an official annuity estimate if I pay the deposit and haven’t really verified that it will not reduce or eliminate the VA disability pay and health insurance under TriCare for Life.

Lot’s to check out keeping in mind that males from both sides of my ancestry usually expire in their early 80s. I would be 69y8mo old at the break even point under the buy back scenario. Would it be worth it?

Is there anyone out there in a similar situation who could tell me their experience? Similar being, receiving military annuity, VA disability pay, paid military deposit to get FERS credit for the years, waived military annuity at FERS retirement and did it effect the VA disability or TriCare insurance?

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

I did some rechecking about that payback time for the military deposit. I had not included some allotments for insurance from the military annuity and recalculated the actual before tax income. Pay back is four years. Plus I will have to come up with about $22k from some IRA or TSP. Still thinking about that one.
Getting pressure at home about staying employed until the end of the year. Bosses say we would welcome you staying a little longer. Not with a lot of enthusiasm. Big decision and time to decide.


Humurous to some about what I will do after retirement. I do have a lot of deferred home maintenance and cleanup/getting rid of detritus from 60+ years accumulation. A few years ago while discussing retirement with my brother mentioned Jethro Tull's Aqualung as inspiration. It's a brother thing, and his sense of humor. Since thinking about retirement while stuck in traffic this afternoon, I have an ear bug of that song. Maybe I should stay employed for the betterment of society?

If any real news comes up about this subject, I will keep you all posted.


PO