Planning on a retirement while still at your full time job.

When your in the Federal Government and you reach that point in your career, when you can retire at full benefits, it’s a wonderful experience. Some might call it a life goal, some will call it a sweet and sour moment, others just won’t care. If you leave before your planned calculated retirement date, the government will punish you by taking away a percentage of your retirement, based on the amount of time you have left.

Under the current federal government retirement plan called FURS, they calculate the number of years in service against the total earned at the end of your service. So far I have thirty three plus years in service, and that equals thirty three plus percentage for my top three salary years averaged out. If I was making 100,000 dollars average out over those last three years, my retirement amount, would equal 33,000 a year. That is, 33 years at 1 percent a year, equals 33,000. For an early retirement, say four years early, you can easily have four percent taken away from your final number.

Now some will say, that doesn’t sound like a great retirement plan, but that’s what congress has decided our loyal Federal Employees deserve. There’s not much we can do about changing our retirement plan, we’re at the whim of Congress and the White House. So, let’s not get into comparing our retirement with Congress’s retirement. That will make everyone mad. That’s only one third of the triad that makes up the FURS plan. The other two is social security benefits, plus what you saved in your 401k plan commonly called, TSP.

So, when you reach that point and the Office of Public Management can’t take away from your retirement, it should be a party.

It’s sweet that they can’t take away a percentage of your retirement, and sour, because now you have to decided what to do with your life.

If your like me, I’ve spent the last thirty three years, getting up in the morning and coming to work, not knowing what I will be doing for the most part. I could have been sent to a far away place to take photographs for an investigation or spent the time at my desk doing paperwork. Now, this period in my life is more of a reflection, not just on what I have accomplish, but what I plan on accomplishing.