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Post by Ace Midnight on Feb 3, 2015 17:10:53 GMT -5
Do retired military get this FERS pension in addition to their military retirement or is that double dipping? To keep it divided - if you qualify for an active duty retired pension - you're probably already getting that, you don't buy back (at least I don't recommend it) and you will double dip, although you will be earning your FERS from scratch. If you will qualify for a reserve pension at 60 (potentially 57, depending on your deployments since 2007 or 2008), then you buy back all of your active duty time (IET, extended AD, ADT for 30 days or more, deployments, etc., NOT annual training or guard/reserve monthly drills/meetings), and that bolsters your FERS, and you will also get your reserve retirement when eligible (typically at age 60).
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Post by Pixie on Feb 3, 2015 17:25:19 GMT -5
I heard "they" are talking about changing it to high 5. Any idea if we would be grandfathered in under the high 3 or would they change it to high 5 on us. That could make a big difference during the first 10 years of Judgeship.. My understanding is it would be across the board for all employees, with no grandfathering. The idea is to reduce spending. Wouldn't help much if it only applied to new hires. The new hires will be paying more for their retirement, however. That doesn't apply to current employees. Pix.
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Post by bartleby on Feb 3, 2015 22:30:34 GMT -5
Sounds like new Judges that may want to retire may be disadvantaged with this move. Any idea if or when this might go into affect. 5 years would take some of us back to 5 digit figures to be averaged instead of 6 digit figures.
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Post by jd on Feb 4, 2015 22:03:27 GMT -5
Once you are over 50, you can also contribute an additional $6,000 toward TSP. This is known as a catch-up provision. So this year the TSP maximum is $18,000 for those under 50. Those over 50 can also contribute the additional $6,000 (highly recommended). Just make sure you divide the amount over the number of pay periods.
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Post by Pixie on Feb 4, 2015 22:19:06 GMT -5
Once you are over 50, you can also contribute an additional $6,000 toward TSP. This is known as a catch-up provision. So this year the TSP maximum is $18,000 for those under 50. Those over 50 can also contribute the additional $6,000 (highly recommended). Just make sure you divide the amount over the number of pay periods. Yes, spread over all of the pay periods ensures the maximum agency contribution, which I believe is an additional $6000 for the year. Not a bad deal. Pixie.
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Post by jd on Feb 4, 2015 22:26:28 GMT -5
You can start to contribute the year you turn 50. So if you turn 50 on December 31, you can contribute the whole year.
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Post by gary on Feb 4, 2015 22:40:35 GMT -5
To do the catch-up contributions, you need to fill out a separate form from the regular contributions. And you need to submit one every year.
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Post by Pixie on Feb 4, 2015 22:51:41 GMT -5
You can start to contribute the year you turn 50. So if you turn 50 on December 31, you can contribute the whole year. To clarify, this post applies to the catch up provision only. That begins at age 50, for all of you "older" employees. Everyone else can contribute the maximum (minus the catchup provision) from the beginning of employment. This also qualifies the contributor for the maximum contribution from the agency. Pixie.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2015 22:56:33 GMT -5
Do retired military get this FERS pension in addition to their military retirement or is that double dipping? You can get both. "Double dipping" refers to the practice of doing 20 years active duty, draw your military retirement and then do 20 years civil service and draw a separate retirement check. Of course you can as you did two (2) separate jobs and would be entitled to both your military retirement check and your FERS check. There has been talk of changing it, but it's DOA in my opinion.
What you CAN NOT do is use any of your military time (20 years) in computation of your total FERS time. If you wish to forfeit your military retirement, then you can add that 20 years to your FERS retirement. Talk to Bob if you get the call and he will explain all of that to include buying back any military time that didn't result in military retirement pay.
So if you retired as an enlisted member and wish to forfeit your retirement and use those years to max out your "high 3" pay as an ALJ, you are going to be a lot happier down the road. 15 years from now, the cap pay should be around 200,000/yearly and it will beat E-7/E-8 retirement any day of the week and twice on Saturday. ($200,000.00 x .011 x 35 years = $77k a year).
Tiger
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2015 23:08:22 GMT -5
Sounds like new Judges that may want to retire may be disadvantaged with this move. Any idea if or when this might go into affect. 5 years would take some of us back to 5 digit figures to be averaged instead of 6 digit figures. Bartleby,
In my 20 years of active duty, it changed 3 times and each time you were grandfathered into your own plan. That was the military and military retirement is a "sacred cow", but the Federal Employees seemed to be the next best thing to a "scared cow" and I doubt any changes of that magnitude would be "across the board" or retroactive.
"New hires only" would be my opinion because if it was retroactive, it would effect military members and military retirees that forfeited their retirement pay to join FERS to now get less than they had under their military retirement pay.
Finally, all of this requires the Congress to pass a law other than the naming a post office or other federal buildings with the President's signature, NOT LIKELY IN MY LIFE and I just turned 54. IMHO
Tiger
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Post by HallmarkFan on Feb 5, 2015 5:33:04 GMT -5
Or you can abandon this mad dream and stay where you are and put some serious money in the bank for that retirement on the French Riviera. Just kidding - well sort of - these are good questions to ask HallmarkFan and I appreciate as we get closer to having to possibly having to make a decision you have to put pencil to paper. My only hope is that if you get the offer you have figured it out enough to answer on the spot and not need 24 hours to mull it over. Alas, I may only be able to afford Riviera Beach, FL. Thanks to all for the great info.
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Post by FlaTreeFarm on Feb 5, 2015 7:27:45 GMT -5
Or you can abandon this mad dream and stay where you are and put some serious money in the bank for that retirement on the French Riviera. Just kidding - well sort of - these are good questions to ask HallmarkFan and I appreciate as we get closer to having to possibly having to make a decision you have to put pencil to paper. My only hope is that if you get the offer you have figured it out enough to answer on the spot and not need 24 hours to mull it over. Alas, I may only be able to afford Riviera Beach, FL. Thanks to all for the great info. Personally, I would pick the Florida version over the French version every time! No need to convert to Euros!
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Post by anotherfed on Feb 5, 2015 7:41:14 GMT -5
Alas, I may only be able to afford Riviera Beach, FL. Thanks to all for the great info. Personally, I would pick the Florida version over the French version every time! No need to convert to Euros! And I'll go ahead and say it, the Floridians are much friendlier than the French ... Yes, I said it. But nothing can beat the food and wine in France.
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Post by thankful1 on Feb 5, 2015 11:34:39 GMT -5
Personally, I would pick the Florida version over the French version every time! No need to convert to Euros! And I'll go ahead and say it, the Floridians are much friendlier than the French ... Yes, I said it. But nothing can beat the food and wine in France. Its just the Parisians. Every where else they are wonderful. But there is one place that can beat the food and wine, and its not Florida, its Italy! And our dollars are finally gaining some steam!
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Post by hondo35 on Feb 6, 2015 9:19:18 GMT -5
Did we just become a travel blog, lol?
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Post by sealaw90 on Feb 6, 2015 9:48:07 GMT -5
Did we just become a travel blog, lol? No Hondo, that started many months ago with the City of the day thread....
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Post by hondo35 on Feb 6, 2015 9:53:46 GMT -5
Did we just become a travel blog, lol? No Hondo, that started many months ago with the City of the day thread.... Touche.
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Post by ruonthelist on Feb 9, 2015 16:07:57 GMT -5
There is a lot of good info on this thread, and in the Benefits section of the FAQ.
Judges, in general, go into government service much later in life than the majority of government employees. Of course, some judges come from other government positions and bring their vested credit towards civil service retirement with them. But most judges have only a fraction of their working lives to earn retirement credit for judicial service. In recognition of this demographic fact, the federal government has set up special rules for retirement calculations for Article III judges. Similarly, every state government with which I am familiar has a specialized retirement system for the judges of its courts of general jurisdiction, distinct from the state’s general civil service retirement system.
Federal ALJs do not have a separate judicial retirement system. They are under regular civil service retirement, which means, for those hired since the mid-80s, FERS.
The FERS trifecta of TSP, Defined Benefit, and Social Security can provide a comfortable retirement for those who work substantially all of their working lives in civil service (particularly if they adequately fund their TSP). However, if your federal career is substantially shorter, the defined benefit will be very modest, and you will have had less time to build up your TSP balance.
Several years ago the ALJ organizations drafted a bill to bring the calculation of ALJ retirement into line with other job fields with shortened careers (e.g. law enforcement). It was introduced in a few congresses, but never got out of committee. I don’t believe that it was even introduced in the most recent congress. So for the foreseeable future newly hired ALJs will be in the same retirement category as other FERS employees.
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Post by Pixie on Mar 6, 2015 19:10:30 GMT -5
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Post by karaj on Mar 6, 2015 21:26:22 GMT -5
If you are a current ALJ, you can email Bob Ghelkin at Central Office and he will give you a ballpark retirement computation based on your prospective year of retirement. I am not sure his calculations include the TSP (401k) contributions. My colleague worked for ODAR as an ALJ for almost 20 yrs. He was dismayed to learn from Bob that his pension was between $2-3000/mo. He is in his late 60's and decided to keep working. I would definitely research and consult w/ some reputable financial planners instead of putting all my eggs in the govt. pension basket.
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