Creditable Military Service for FERS

[gk10012001]

Just a story of some recent events that some ex USA military folks might find interesting. 

 

I am ex Air Force.  8.4 years total time from the 80s and 90s, separated honorably as a Captain (O-3).  I get no retirement pension.  The only benefits I get are  dinner at Olive Garden on Veteran's day, A VA letter authorizing VA home loan if I borrow, some low possibility of VA health care as a low priority group 8 and if I show income < 50,000 depending on where I live.  Not an issue as I will be on Medicare soon.

 

  Anyhow. I always wanted to join the government as a civilian in the GSA so I could get something out of those Air Force years.  I assumed I could buy into the FERS retirement, get credit for my Air Force time and literally immediately qualify for a small pension.  Sounded good.  I read all the OPM stuff, how to add up my years, how to calculate how much I would have to pay in, and then what the pension would be.   Tried for years to crack that GSA nut but never got in.  This month I may have an insider pulling for me so I finalized my final questions to be sure I had all the details about the service buy in stuff and fired off an email to benefits at OPM gov.  I got an email response from the OPM benefits folks (yes they responded within one hour) and the lady said the following: 

 

"You must have 5 years of FERS to be vested for retirement and your active duty years are added to that."

 

  <deleted>!?!  So creditable Military Service does not really and completely mean Creditable Military service as I had though.   It seems while I could buy in and get credit for my 8.4 years of Air Force time, that time would not be able to be used to meet the 5 years of FERS Civilian service time one needs to be vested!   I thought I had read everything I could about the Military service credit and this never popped up.  It turns out the OPM decision on this was backed up by the Federal Court and I found some other references about this 5 years.   Bottom line is, to get pension credit for military time, one must have 5 years of Civilian FERs time.  

 

  I think even Pattaya  will be open and I will be there before this happens

Edited July 27, 2021 by gk10012001
add

[EVENKEEL]

FERS retirement is not much really. 1% of your high 3 yearly salary per year of service. For easy math 60K/yr = $600 x 8.5 yrs = $5100/yr pension.

[gk10012001]

7 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

FERS retirement is not much really. 1% of your high 3 yearly salary per year of service. For easy math 60K/yr = $600 x 8.5 yrs = $5100/yr pension.

yes I know.  But my numbers would be:  >120k/yr x 0.1x 13.5 = 16,200/year.  My original 8.5 years of military plus the next 5 years of Civilian service.  The problem is, I did not originally see the fine print about needing 5 years of actual Civilian service, then the Military time is added on.  I am > 64 now.  So in order to get credit for my Military service years for retirement purposes I would be > 69   !  While Pattaya may be open by then,  ...

[EVENKEEL]

3 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

yes I know.  But my numbers would be:  >120k/yr x 0.1x 13.5 = 16,200/year.  My original 8.5 years of military plus the next 5 years of Civilian service.  The problem is, I did not originally see the fine print about needing 5 years of actual Civilian service, then the Military time is added on.  I am > 64 now.  So in order to get credit for my Military service years for retirement purposes I would be > 69   !  While Pattaya may be open by then,  ...

High 3 base pay does not include OT or any other types of pay. So, it would be outstanding to have 120K for base pay.

You'd be surprised how many guys don't know how their FERS is figured until they retire.

Edited August 9, 2021 by EVENKEEL

[gk10012001]

1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

High 3 base pay does not include OT or any other types of pay. So, it would be outstanding to have 120K for base pay.

You'd be surprised how many guys don't know how their FERS is figured until they retire.

Yes I know.  My starting base salary is $119,787.  After 3,4,5 years it would be more.  I have several degrees, worked on the system the Air Force/OPM wants to hire me for, am an ex Air Force Captain, active clearance etc.  And that huge Ground Based Strategic Deterrence program (GBSD) effort is being run out of Hill AFB and Roy Utah, and that is not a location that a lot of people are looking to move to.   I thought this was going to be the final job in my career, until I came across that need 5 years of actual civilian service, independent of any Military buy back time.   And regardless due to my resume and record they are starting me at 8 hours vacation time every pay .   Crazily th.e locality pay for that area has NOT kept up with the housing costs.  Rent for decent places is crooked.  Decent houses are up over 350k.  Not much flat land out that way I guess due to proximity of the hills?  And similar to Melbourne, Florida, when Northrop moved their Manned systems headquarters there, the house prices jumped. 

 

  And the Government of course daisy chains all sorts of things.period (2 weeks) which works out to 26 days a year or 5 whole weeks, add on 10 days federal holiday and I think 4 hours pay period sick leave.  So while this could be tolerable thing, the time lines are tough.

 

$17,968 hiring bonus, but requires a minimum 24-month service agreement

They match 6% of  pay into the TSP (401k) but that requires 3 years to be vested to keep.

Pension and military buy back if I work 5 years.

 

  When I took jobs in industry, the hiring incentives/relocation bonuses only required 1 year commitment.   So now at 64.5 years of age,  I fully expected to work 1 year to get me past medicare age, 2 years if the job was fun, 3 years I just did with Northrop and that was tough because while I worked there 5 years ma contractor, those 3 years as a direct under their actual managers was horrible.  Working 5 years until the age of 69 to get the benefit of my military time for pension seems unlikely.  I enjoy engineering and it is good to keep the mind active but, lounging around my modest Florida home in the swimming pool, playing some poker once or twice a week, spending 90 days two times a year in Thailand may win out.

 

Luckily I do not need the job nor to work, I was just hoping to keep busy while Thailand sorts things out.  Heck, my social security alone will be $30K a year right now if I took it. And I took care of investments and dividend and interest income as I always planned to semi retire to Thailand after my first trip there in 2004. 

 

"Few people on their deathbed said they wished they had worked more"

[gt162]

On 8/8/2021 at 10:54 PM, gk10012001 said:

Yes I know.  My starting base salary is $119,787.  After 3,4,5 years it would be more.  I have several degrees, worked on the system the Air Force/OPM wants to hire me for, am an ex Air Force Captain, active clearance etc.  And that huge Ground Based Strategic Deterrence program (GBSD) effort is being run out of Hill AFB and Roy Utah, and that is not a location that a lot of people are looking to move to.   I thought this was going to be the final job in my career, until I came across that need 5 years of actual civilian service, independent of any Military buy back time.   And regardless due to my resume and record they are starting me at 8 hours vacation time every pay .   Crazily th.e locality pay for that area has NOT kept up with the housing costs.  Rent for decent places is crooked.  Decent houses are up over 350k.  Not much flat land out that way I guess due to proximity of the hills?  And similar to Melbourne, Florida, when Northrop moved their Manned systems headquarters there, the house prices jumped. 

 

  And the Government of course daisy chains all sorts of things.period (2 weeks) which works out to 26 days a year or 5 whole weeks, add on 10 days federal holiday and I think 4 hours pay period sick leave.  So while this could be tolerable thing, the time lines are tough.

 

$17,968 hiring bonus, but requires a minimum 24-month service agreement

They match 6% of  pay into the TSP (401k) but that requires 3 years to be vested to keep.

Pension and military buy back if I work 5 years.

 

  When I took jobs in industry, the hiring incentives/relocation bonuses only required 1 year commitment.   So now at 64.5 years of age,  I fully expected to work 1 year to get me past medicare age, 2 years if the job was fun, 3 years I just did with Northrop and that was tough because while I worked there 5 years ma contractor, those 3 years as a direct under their actual managers was horrible.  Working 5 years until the age of 69 to get the benefit of my military time for pension seems unlikely.  I enjoy engineering and it is good to keep the mind active but, lounging around my modest Florida home in the swimming pool, playing some poker once or twice a week, spending 90 days two times a year in Thailand may win out.

 

Luckily I do not need the job nor to work, I was just hoping to keep busy while Thailand sorts things out.  Heck, my social security alone will be $30K a year right now if I took it. And I took care of investments and dividend and interest income as I always planned to semi retire to Thailand after my first trip there in 2004. 

 

"Few people on their deathbed said they wished they had worked more"

Go for it. You also forgetting benefits including medical and dental insurance for life including fedblue that covers Thailand.

[gk10012001]

On 8/13/2021 at 4:41 PM, gt162 said:

Go for it. You also forgetting benefits including medical and dental insurance for life including fedblue that covers Thailand.

There is no way I will be working for 5 more years at my age.  And as for medical, Medicare is fine with me.  If I really really loved the area, and if I was intending on buying a home there, and retiring there, and if I really liked the type of work,  I would take it.  They just sent me several dozen more things to fill out, forms, etc.  Some are routine, one requires my college transcripts from 1975, be sent a specific way, but neither of my Universities send them that way.  So after over two months of interviewing, initial draft offer, emails with same draft offer but not official, it looks like nothing is going to happen.  No problem.  Heading back to Florida.  Do some house hunting.  Take another interim contract engineering job.  Then wait things out until Thailand is more open.