Welcome to our newest class at Falls Church

[bartleby]

Newest Judges, welcome to the Corps. You have just finished your first day of training at Falls Church. What a grand adventure you are on. The training will be fast and furious and the time will fly by. Don't panic, find an insider, and I know you have some very good insiders there with you, and pick their brains and kindness for encouragement and endurance. The days are long, but the weeks are short. You have a very small class and it will give you the opportunity to make some very good friends. You will not believe how bonded you will be in two weeks. Talk amonst yourselves and find out who has the best SSA background, the best medical background, the best hearing experience, the most common sense, and the best sense of humor. You will use these people for weekly resources as you travel through your first year. Help each other. This isn't law school, nobody has the highest GPA. Sharing is allowed and encouraged. Get your sleep and eat properly. Play hard on the weekends, but remember, class comes early on Mondays. You all are the cream of the crop. Keep your heads up and make us proud. Keep us informed occasionally, we can't wait until you all come home. Your family on the ALJ Discussion Board.

[dropduff]

Bartleby, You're a class act!
Newest ALJs, Congrats and best of luck!

[tmgesq]

Thanks Bartleby..we r all working hard and bonding well. I'm very proud to be a part of such an impressive group of people.

[maxlaw]

Oct 21, 2013 22:06:56 GMT -5 bartleby said:

Newest Judges, welcome to the Corps. You have just finished [snip]

+1. Please make liberal use of the human resources around you. Your evenings and weekends together should be treasured. Most are unlikely to have another extended opportunity to be in a group of so many accomplished people, and some of those relationships will span the miles and years.

[arkstfan]

Wonder if they used the same seating methodology as when I went through training. The were two seats per table and people with agency experience were seated with those without. Within the first day or two I had passed off all my cheat sheet bookmarks that had been passed on to me by more experienced writers.

[usnjudge]

My info is that the majority of this new class are brand spanking new to SSA. I think the percentage was 67%. I am not sure that I would say that this is some indication of future hiring or consideration. I wouldn't put it beyond it is what it is. Welcome to the fold to all of them!

[yarddog]

Thanks for the Falls Church ALJ class info. They must be VERY busy to have been so radio silent.
Good luck to all.

[tmgesq]

We actually each have a table to ourselves and for the first time in training they provided the class with 2 monitors each so that our experience is just like our home office experience. We are all getting pretty close and have some terrific people in the class. I am in awe of the experience and talent in the room.

[txginger]

The new class is about 1/3 SSA, 1/3 judges from other jurisdictions (e.g., workers' comp), and 1/3 other.  It is a nice mix. 

Note to ALJ hopefuls - the hiring was in jurisdictions with high workload to ALJ ratio - meaning, it is hard to keep judges in some locations (mostly in the mid west and West Virginia) so that is likely the next round of hiring next year will be in the same areas.  If you are hoping for California - you could be in for a long wait.  They don't have to workload to justify hiring.  If they lose one, they may move the position to another office.  When folks say they got transferred in a year - beware because it is likely to become the exception rather than the norm.  Also, when picking an office, look up how many judges it has. If you want Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, or Indiana you could be at the top of list! 

[true]

Good info txginger!

[tmgesq]

Well another class is in the books-- the fabulous Furlough class has graduated and we are all heading off to our assignments-- good luck to all of you still hoping for the job.

[BagLady]

Congrats to you and the others! May you all have nothing but success in your new endeavors!

[peterprinciple]

Welcome to the newest reincarnation of your selves. Know that in your individual actions, you now represent the whole of us. In carrying out your duties, I ask you to do one thing, even as we all try to do so.

Remember.
Every day, remember.

Remember your oath to the public trust, to the law, and to the individuals who present themselves before us.

Remember that this title, this authority, this responsibility, was given to you, you were not born to it, and you "deserve" it only as long as you bring honor to it.

Remember, finally, that you are human and so are all those around you. Treat your claimants with the respect that you believe you deserve. Work with your colleagues with humility, knowing they may one day save you from your own mistakes. Make sure that all around you know you value them and their contributions to your own success.

Remember these things and, when you have completed this excerpt of your life, YOU will be remembered as a good judge.

Welcome to the corps.

[tmgesq]

Words to live by for sure!

[epic0ego]

tmgesq and peterprinciple, thank you for doing honor to the ALJ Corps and to the judicial profession!

[bartleby]

Good Morning all,
I am sure you are back in your offices and chomping to start hearing cases. Excellent!! Now, if you will do me a favor, pay attention for a minute. One of the reasons I went to work for SSA a long time ago was because I had no retirement, no savings, and no medical insurance. Our retirement program is a three prong process. One prong is the pension, one prong is your Social Security retirement Benefits, and one prong is your TSP. The pension kinda sucks. If your high three is $150,000.00 and you work for 20 years, you will recieve $30,000.00 a year in retirement. That is a $120,000.00 cut. (I am just using these numbers as an example as most of you will have high three of about $165,000.00). Your Social Security Retirement will be less than $36,000.00 per year, so now you are at $66,000.00 for retirement. Now for the third prong of the process, the TSP. TSP is your 401K program, ie, your pretax savings with the Agency. The Agency will match 5% of your salary if you put in a certain amount/percentage, which I think is 5%. To maximize the Agency matching part you need to put in money every payday throughout the year. You can put in up to $17,500.00 at this time. If you put that in by June, you lose the Agency match amount from then until December. To receive the agency match amount and to maximize the 401K, you need to put in $673.07 per pay day. This will give you the maximum contribution and maximum Agency match. If you begin this right now or as soon as able, you will not miss it from your paycheck and in 20 years you will have probably over $500,000.00, or as I like to put it a nice piece of change. Some of you do not have 20 years to do this, so begin to maximize as soon as possible so you will be comfortable in retirement. There is a bill being brought up that will get rid of the defined benefit portion, ie, pension, for new hires. This will not affect you all but perhaps classes after you. If you wait to begin contributing the max to your 401K, it will become harder and harder as you decide to spend more and more of your new salary. If you do it now, you will never miss it as you will never have had it to miss. Somehow, I felt compelled to share this with you all, I have no idea why. Stay thirsty my friends.

[chinook]

Bart, that is excellent advice. It not only applies to SSA but all federal employees. In addition, if you are over age 50 (I think) you can add an additional $2,000 or $2,500 to the TSP as a catch-up.

If you are a veteran, consider "buying" your military time, this will increase the number of years used to calculate your retirement. Go see somebody at HR to determine how to do this.

[bartleby]

Chinook, I believe the catch-up is $5,500.00, but I might be wrong. The military buy back is an outstanding opportunity. I bought back 2 years of mid-60's Army time for less than $300.00 and it gave me an extra two years of Government time for retirement.. That was a no-brainer. It is really easy to do. If you do it, I think you need to do it within 2 years of coming on board or else they will start charging you interest.. IIRC.

[sealaw90]

Yes guys, buy back your military time!!  Before my 2 years as a newly minted GS-14, I filled out a form, sent it to the Coast Guard, and they produced the official document of my time.  The HR department sent it to DFAS and I got a letter in about a week that said pay us $8,900 for 9 years of service as an 03/04 in the 90's and I have a year to pay it off interest free. 

By adding 9 years to my retirement, I gain about $15,000 per year (based on Bartleby's $150K salary) in my retirement for as long as I live - I'd say that is the best investment of $8,900 I could find!

I just have get a figure for my 05 time - that will be more expensive, but again, it may be worth it in the long run.  Any retired reservist can do this too - it does not reduce your reserve retirement.

[papresqr]

Bartleby is correct - you have 2 years from the time you start to pay it off without interest. It costs a percentage (I believe it was 3%, but don't quote me on that)of your total base salary. I paid right about $1,000 to get almost 5 additional years towards my retirement. Anyone with more recent service will, of course, pay a higher amount, since the salaries increased substantially since the 70's. Even so, it's well worth it to do, since you only have to do 15 more years to get to 20.

As for the pension, it may be slightly higher depending on your circumstances. As bartleby said, a high 3 salary of 150,000 will get you $30,000 a year after 20 years. However, it is slightly higher ($33,000) if you retire after age 62 with 20 years, because you get 1.1% of your high 3, instead of 1%. I know, I know...but still...it could make a difference if you're close to either or both of those marks and trying to decide whether to retire or not.