“Yes, my name is Marty. I like to know about FERS, if there is a maximum amount of years that I can work and then it is no longer counted towards my retirement calculation. For instance, if I was on the Csrs, I believe the cut off is like 42 years. Is it the same for first? Thank you.” – Martha
Micah Shilanski 00:00
Have you ever wondered if you can max out your FERS retirement? There’s a certain point where you can work and it no longer accounts towards your retirement. If you ever wonder the answer that question, then stay tuned for this FERS Federal Fact Check. Hi, I’m Micah Shilanski with Plan Your Federal Retirement, and welcome to this FERS Federal Fact Check. We had a question that came in today from Marty. She went ahead and called in, boy that I am loving this, and we’re getting a lot of federal employees to call in with our new number, you can call in, leave a message, a voicemail, of a question, and hopefully it’s something we’re going to be able to answer, and if so, we’re going to be able to get back to you with that and create great videos just like this. So let’s listen to Marty’s question.
Marty 00:41
Yes, my name is Marty. I like to know about FERS, if there is a maximum amount of years that I can work and then it is no longer counted towards my retirement calculation. For instance, if I was on the CSRS, I believe the cut off is like 42 years. Is it the same for FERS? Thank you.
Micah Shilanski 01:05
Marty, what a wonderful question, and it would make sense, right? Hey, this former retirement system has a limit on how far I can work, does this new retirement system do as well, as you pointed out under CSRS, which was the former Retirement System, in order to be part of CSRS, she had to start working before 1983 right? So it was kind of the cutoff is way back then, so if you’ve been hired after that, you’re probably in the FERS retirement system now, under CSRS, the former system, well, I guess it’s still active, right? But the FERS system that’s there, the maximum time that you could work that counted towards retirement is 41 years and 11 months. That maxed out your pension at 80% under CSRS, but your sick leave could help count and make that a little bit more than that, so is there something equivalent under FERS? The answer is no, there’s no limit on your FERS pension, you can continue to work and increase your pension now, if you have, you know, let’s say you’re in special provisions, maybe that’s law enforcement, air traffic controller, firefighter, something of that nature, then you know what your pension calculation will be, 1.7% for the first 20 years, then after that, it goes to 1% a year, but then again, that doesn’t max out your retirement, whether your FERS or in special provisions, your retirement doesn’t get maxed out, which is a beautiful thing, but always be intentional about this, right? Why are you going to work? There’s two parts to retirement, we talk about this all the time. There’s the mental and the physical, I’m sorry, mental and financial part we’re getting ready for retirement. The mental, are you ready, right, are you ready to unplug, are you ready to do something else, to start that next chapter of your life? Have you done what you need to do in your professional work environment? Sometimes I meet with clients and they’re financially ready to retire, but they haven’t checked that first box yet, so they’re not really ready just yet, but if you’re mentally ready, all right, are we financially ready? And let’s make sure you’re always working on that, because sometimes you don’t know when you’re going to be mentally ready to retire, so it’s always important to be working on that financial side. If you have a question about your federal benefits, then go ahead and give us a call, and you might be featured in the next FERS Federal Fact Check, till then, Happy Planning!
