Stoplight's Retirement Story (FERS, Gap in Service, Military Buy-Back)

[Dutchy]

Congratulations Stoplight!! I retired 3/1/12 and it of course, IT's GREAT! Only warning: my interim annunity is extremely low, much lower than 60% of my estimated full annuity..I've asked OPM for details and am awaiting a reponse..

 

[Zebra]

Congrats and join the wonderful club of Retirement Stoplight!!!!!!!!! It is hard for me to believe I have been retired since 31 Dec 2010; everyday has been blessed and wonderful! I hope your retirement will be awesome and fun!!! I was a 22 year military retiree and a 22 year FERS GS13, life is good!

 

[Stoplight]

Stoplight, What was it like waking up this morning being a retired FED? Looking forward to mine. 1 day and a wake up. How long is the "honey do" list? Good luck and looking forward to comparing retirement notes.

A little weird, Nasa...you'll see...tomorrow

The "honey do" list isn't too bad...my list is longer !

Stoplight...

 

[Stoplight]

How was breakfast?

GREAT ! Bacon, some over-easy eggs, and a nicely-toasted English muffin !

Best part ? It was consumed at > 9 AM

Stoplight...

 

[Stoplight]

I always heard that the sun rise somehow looks different after you retire. How was your's today? Or did you sleep thru it

Talan,

Although Big Dog STILL stuck his face in mine at 6 AM, I managed to convince him to go away...so I slept through it !

Stoplight...

 

[Stoplight]

Thanks, Dutchy and Zebra !

Dutchy, I appreciate the "head's-up" about the low paycheck...I've seen how everyone here seems to be all over the board when it comes to what their "interim" check looks like....it appears to perhaps be tied to how complex your calcs are, and how your Agency deals with OPM. I'm optimistic that things will go well, and if they don't, I'm prepared to hang on for 8 months before I start wincing :embarrest: The good news, for me, is that my Brother retired from the same Agency in Dec 2011, and his final OPM numbers are already in hand...4 months ! I'm hoping my numbers get resolved that fast, but my situation is a little more complex than his was...

As a general comment : I still don't feel "retired"...so far, I've felt like it's a weekend...today, my 3rd day, just seemed like an RDO or long holiday weekend ! The stress is slowly melting away, and the Wife says she can already see a change in my "attitude", but I guess this retirement "thing" doesn't happen overnight !

So...for you already-retired Guys : How often do you shave now ?

Stoplight...

 

[bolang]

That's simple-Ask the Wife....

 

[bjean]

Congratulations Stoplight!! I retired 3/1/12 and it of course, IT's GREAT! Only warning: my interim annunity is extremely low, much lower than 60% of my estimated full annuity..I've asked OPM for details and am awaiting a reponse..

My friend retired 10 mths ago and said she just received her full retirement annuity this week. She had a break in service so it was more complicated for OPM to figure.........her FERS was about $100 less than our agency's estimation and the supplement was about half of social security estimation at age 62. Her interim FERS annuity was 60%, I dont understand why OPM is not consistent with calculations for interim payments, etc.?

I got back into the market yesterday for some reason and am going to have to hold, I dont have the discipline or market smarts to move in and out like some of the savvy members!

 

[nasa1974]

A little weird, Nasa...you'll see...tomorrow

The "honey do" list isn't too bad...my list is longer !

Stoplight...

This morning felt like I had taken the day off for a long weekend. When I went out to get the paper my neighbor gave me a funny look though.

 

[nnuut]

All I can say is, When It's Good It's GOOD!

 

[Stoplight]

Final LES

Well, I got my final LES for my payday on Friday. The good news is, they got my annual leave lump sum balance included in this check, rather than the possible 2 weeks from now they warned me about..I ended up with a few more hours on the books, so the annual leave number was a little larger than I expected

The bad news is...the Tax Man sure gets HIS share

Some other comments :

I worked 45 hours of an 80 hour week. The health care premium, FERS retirement contribution, and the TSP deduction were based on that percentage of my regular wages (i.e., nothing extra was taken out due to the A/L money)

Fed tax, Social Security, and Medicare all took their cut of the A/L money...took out about 23%, just to make sure ! I'm glad I live in a State that has no State income tax...

Other than that, I’ve heard nothing else "official" on my retirement. I’m supposed to get my retirement package from my Agency next week, but I’ll be on a cruise


Stoplight...

 

[nasa1974]

Final LES

Well, I got my final LES for my payday on Friday. The good news is, they got my annual leave lump sum balance included in this check, rather than the possible 2 weeks from now they warned me about..I ended up with a few more hours on the books, so the annual leave number was a little larger than I expected

The bad news is...the Tax Man sure gets HIS share

Some other comments :

I worked 45 hours of an 80 hour week. The health care premium, FERS retirement contribution, and the TSP deduction were based on that percentage of my regular wages (i.e., nothing extra was taken out due to the A/L money)

Fed tax, Social Security, and Medicare all took their cut of the A/L money...took out about 23%, just to make sure ! I'm glad I live in a State that has no State income tax...

Other than that, I’ve heard nothing else "official" on my retirement. I’m supposed to get my retirement package from my Agency next week, but I’ll be on a cruise


Stoplight...

Stoplight, good news. I have something to look forward to.
I worked 72 hours my last pay period and should see that in the checking account Friday. My AL in the same check would be nice but I won't count on it. I figured at least 20% for taxes. I claim single 1 deduction for tax purposes. I like getting a little money back at the end of tax time. So where are you going on your cruise?

 

[berline]

All I can say is, When It's Good It's GOOD! View attachment 18740

Does he have boobs?

 

[Stoplight]

So where are you going on your cruise?

Nasa and All,

Sorry I didn't respond sooner...we left a week ago and drove to visit the Wife's Sister and Nephew in South Florida, then met some Old Friends for a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas...Freeport, Nassau, and Carnival's "private island" (Half Moon Cay). After coming back, we drove up to spend the night with my recently-retired Brother in Jacksonville, and then drove home today ! It was a GREAT time, but we got a boatload of dirty laundry to work on tomorrow

Several developments on the retirement front...see next post !

Stoplight...

 

[Stoplight]

A Flurry Of Paperwork !

Well, I was gone for the last week, doing a "retirement cruise"...spent some time seeing some Family, and hooking up with some great Friends from long ago, drinking too much, eating too much, and getting caught up with Friends and Family...I kinda like this retirement gig !

Now on to the boring retirement details...to summarize, for those who don't want to read this entire thread : I retired FERS on 30 Apr, with 30 years, meeting the MRA (56), and multiple Fed agencies, with a break in service...

My Navy retirement counselor had told me, I'd get my "retirement package" the week of 11 May. Of course, we were gone this week, but upon returning today, I had 4 different documents in the pile of mail our pet/house sitter had collected !

Two of the 4 documents were from OPM...one had my claim number, and 1 had my password to access their web site for retiree payments.

The 3rd document was a hard copy of my final LES from the DFAS accounting weenies...I'd already downloaded a copy of this from the Navy's web site (see previous post), and it included my lump sum payment for my annual leave.

The big package was the one the Navy counselor told me was coming It included :

- Certified summary of Fed service
- Computation of high-3 salary
- Benefit estimate (including reduction for survivor benefit, deductions for health and Fed tax (I never carried the life insurance), addition for annuity supplement (but no detail on how that was calculated !)
- Navy-specific info on what happens next (OPM actions, TSP withdrawal information, customer satisfaction survey, Retiree ID card procedure)
- and a copy of my final SF-50 !

I have to admit...my brain is mush tonight, so I haven't gone through the numbers closely, but everything looks real close to the numbers I crunched before

I'll take a closer squinty-eye at all the material over the next few days, and see how things shake out vs. what I was expecting...of course, I haven't received the first cash deposit of my defined pension yet (early June ?), so I have no way of knowing yet what $$ number OPM will come up with for my "interim" or final pension check...

Stay tuned !

Stoplight...

 

[nnuut]

Been there, done that the end is near!:cheesy:

 

[jimijr]

Congrats Stoplight! I went 12/31/10 FERS and have never looked back, rocking retirement.

 

[nasa1974]

Stoplight, great news. Hopefully I will see some more stuff this week.

 

[Stoplight]

Only warning: my interim annunity is extremely low, much lower than 60% of my estimated full annuity..

OUCH !

Man, Dutchy...you weren't kidding !!!

I finally got around to logging in to the OPM web site...my screen is labelled as an "Interim" screen or some such. I was surprised to see my first "statement" available, that shows what my first check will be. While I knew the FERS annuity supplement would not be included until OPM does their thing, I was a little surprised to see the payment is < 60% of my BASE pension ! That puts it ~ 38% of what my final numbers should be Like I noted before, I suspect the reduced number is because of my complex "situation", with different agencies and a break in service...OPM doesn't want to give me too much, so they're probably erring on the low side. I guess that means I'll get a pretty hefty check with back pay when they DO finalize my file !

Oh well...sure glad I planned for this, based on the good info from those of you who went before me ! We have some money in the bank, so we should be okay.

One other minor annoyance : In my retirement application, I listed a checking account for my direct deposit. It is different than the account I was using for my active duty deposit. However, OPM is showing my first check going in to the "old" account. I guess they ignored the info on the retirement app, or they haven't gotten around to looking at that section yet No big deal...you can change that on the web site, but I'm going to wait and see just where the $$$ shows up before I do anything...


Stoplight...

 

[Stoplight]

Just for the record, I got a paper copy yesterday from OPM, with my "new" (pathetic) interim payment amount !

Stoplight...