Retirement stories and suggestions

[mar69]

Took me 7 Months!:suspicious:

It has been 7 mths, and I am still waiting.

 

[Zebra]

I planned well ahead of retirement knowing OPM takes a life time to get their act together on behave of your full retirement pay; I stuffed back as much as possible and of course I retired at SS age, plus TSP monthy payments and I have military retainer as well. Now that I have been retired for 4 months.....I am glad I did what I did, as OPM sucks canal water. Wait until you have to call them; plan thousand attempts before you actually hear the phone ringing and then plan to be on the phone for over a hour sometimes until a real person comes to the phone. BTW, make sure if you are using a cordless phone to have it fully charged!!!!!!!!!

 

[Scout333]

Zebra, Noticed you're from Decatur, AL. Hope you made it through the storms all right!

 

[nnuut]

It has been 7 mths, and I am still waiting.

You're due anytime, check the mail box!

 

[brooksmd]

Z...I've resigned myself to the fact that no amount of worrying will change the OPM bottleneck and when it's done it'll be done. Like you I planned and prepared after hearing stories from guys I worked with, plus my wife loves her civilian work as well as the Air Nat Guard, so we have plenty of income without touching TSP. My only question is who's next on the Navy SEAL Top 10 list?

 

[Zebra]

brooksmd, yeah, I have been wondering the same; I say keep going!

OBTW, I am not worrying about OPM, I just like to slam them, after all the organization deserves it.

Have I told you lately retirement is SWEET!

 

[Zebra]

Yeah thanks for asking, but we dodge the bullet and are ok, so many got hit and hit bad. My house is back to normal ops, but so many that have good homes to live in are still without power.

Zebra, Noticed you're from Decatur, AL. Hope you made it through the storms all right!

 

[vol46]

I just wish OPM would have made it public knowledge that it would take six to eight months to finalize retirements.

 

[Zebra]

I knew because of this Forum and I am not surprised whatsoever, but one does need to make plans and have insurance to cover the partial payment shortfalls.

 

[Bquat]

Here's an update from Fedsmith on annuity calculation time.

http://www.fedsmith.com/article/2902/processing-time-calculating-annuities-getting-worse.html

Glad i'm not one of the ones waiting. What happened to 45 day estimate sent to reporters 3 months ago. They hired 40 more people. Let's see what happenens. I hope it was accountants and mathmaticians. Probly phone answerers and supervisors. Just guessing here.:suspicious:

Good luck guys that are waiting. Keep your money tight it may still be a while. Maybe the government can have retirement loans at 2% for your own money or payment anticipation loans for 12 months.

 

[Silverbird]

What they aren't saying is how many they lost to retirement/quitting, and how many actually work on this. "We got 40!" might not really mean much if you are supposed to have 100 and you have 42 counting the new hires.

 

[Bquat]

What they aren't saying is how many they lost to retirement/quitting, and how many actually work on this. "We got 40!" might not really mean much if you are supposed to have 100 and you have 42 counting the new hires.

As political as this has been since 2005, they probly had their senior people working on this and they may have been doing each others as they went into retirement.

 

[brooksmd]

As I posted on Zebra's thread, I talked to one of my former managers this morning (Sat, May 21) who retired Oct 2010.
The end of April he got his first full retirement check with the adjustment from Oct. A few days later he received his
book with his adjusted retirement statement. So OPM is still taking 6-7 months. Plan ahead if your nearing retirement.

 

[Kaufmanrider]

As I posted on Zebra's thread, I talked to one of my former managers this morning (Sat, May 21) who retired Oct 2010.
The end of April he got his first full retirement check with the adjustment from Oct. A few days later he received his
book with his adjusted retirement statement. So OPM is still taking 6-7 months. Plan ahead if your nearing retirement.

Funny, a co-worker retired end of December, and received his full payment in May already. about 4 full months.

Of course he mentioned he had an easy comp for OPM to do. No breaks in service, no divorce, etc. He thinks that made his easier to wrap up. Either that or they are getting faster.

 

[brooksmd]

Well Z and I both retired Dec 31 and we're still waiting. Unless some get lost in the shuffle, I would think processing
would be first in, first out. But who knows when you deal with the government. Fortunately I was aware of the delay
having talked with guys who retired before me, so I was prepared. Plus my wife still wants to work a few more years
so we aren't totally dependent on what I get.

 

[Bquat]

My brother retired Aug 31 and callid retirement services last week and got the special number and will get his in june. He was getting 60% of his and will get a large payment. 15K before tax. He should of called at 7 months but didn't wait for them to answer because he was on a cell phone and didn't want to use 16 min. I would of called the next day on the home phone. I say after 6 1/2 months start calling. So he takes 8 1/2- 9 months mark and he was before the big Dec group. Good luck. He had only $200 of his annual leave sale and one time lump sum left. Well he got used to the low pay now and will enjoy the big pay rase.:blink:

 

[PessOptimist]

I have no idea of the actual facts but here is what a former fed co-worker (contractor) who retired at the end of 2009 told me.

He began calling after 6 or seven months and got the usual transferering around and long wait times and no real answers.

He had a week off recovering from a minor medical thing and decided to use the down time calling and waiting. He claims that late one day, probably after quitting time on the east coast, he talked to someone actually handling cases. She put the phone down and came back after a while and said she had his folder and would process it that day or the next. In another month he had his full pay and paperwork.

He claims that while talking to this unknown person, he got the impression she was working all alone in a basement somewhere surrounded by hundreds of cardboard file boxes containing unprocessed folders.:worried:

 

[Handballer]

Before I retired end of Oct 2008, I heard talk about us FERS workers possibly receiving credit for unused sick leave at some future time.

Has this happened? I haven't received any payment for it yet.

See http://www.postmasters.org/legislation/latestnews/11_03.pdf

 

[Kaufmanrider]

Before I retired end of Oct 2008, I heard talk about us FERS workers possibly receiving credit for unused sick leave at some future time.

Has this happened? I haven't received any payment for it yet.

See http://www.postmasters.org/legislation/latestnews/11_03.pdf

Congress passed a bill. It effects future retirees. They did what CRS has, credit toward your retirement check, When you retire, up until Dec 31, 2013, you will get your sick leave credited to your retirement at 50% of what you earned. After Jan 1, 2014, you get 100% toward your retirement computation.

Unfortunately, as you were alread retired you won't recieve anything.

http://www.myfederalretirement.com/public/178.cfm

http://www.apwu.org/news/webart/2009/09-134-fers-enacted-091028.htm

http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20091115/BENEFITS02/911150316/

 

[brooksmd]

I'm surprised FERS employees don't treasure the letter thanking them for not abusing their sick leave. To think that some would rather some monetary compensation. How dreadful. How inconsiderate.