It’s always advisable to start preparing for retirement at least a year before you expect to retire. However, when you get an early retirement offer, buyout, or RIF, you’ll be motivated to make a quicker decision. You have to use your time wisely and plan in either case.
Most agencies offer pre-retirement seminars for employees. Ensure that you take part in such seminars; otherwise, consider taking the retirement seminars provided by private firms.
Go to your agency’s benefits counselor and request to go through your Official Personnel Folder (OPF). Look through everything to ensure that it contains all your federal employment documents (including those for military service), the correct date for your pay adjustments, your life insurance coverage, health benefits, and your designated beneficiaries. If anything is missing or inaccurate, you two can sort it out.
If your Official Personnel Folder is in proper shape, verify the year and month, you’ll meet the age and service year requirement to retire. Then get an estimate of your retirement annuity. Also, confirm whether you qualify to carry health and life insurance coverage into retirement.
If you’re a FERS employee, ask for an estimate of your Special Retirement Supplement. Also, confirm whether any deposit you owed before civilian or military service when your retirement deductions weren’t taken out of your pay would affect the amount you will get from an annuity.
If you want to make a deposit or redeposit, you can get the form from your benefits counselor or download it at www.opm.gov. Click on Forms, then Standard Forms, then scroll down to SF 3108 (FERS) or SF 2803 (CSRS).
If you’re receiving military retirement pay, ensure that you ask how it will affect your annuity. Typically, you will have to waive your retired military pay and make a deposit to cover that time before you retire so it can be included in computing your civilian annuity. In rare cases, you may be able to receive both, but you’ll still have to deposit to get credit for that time.
If you owe your agency any money, you should arrange for its repayment so your annuity won’t be used to offset your debt. Also, if there’s a court order assigning a part of your annuity to a former spouse, include that in your planning.
Lastly, you’ll have to fill out your retirement form. You can obtain a copy of the form from the personnel office or download it at www.opm.gov. Click on Forms, select Standard Forms, and scroll down to SF 3107 (FERS) or SF 2801 (CSRS). Once you have filled out the form, give your benefits counselor the original for review and make a copy for yourself. If everything checks out, you are all set to retire on that specified date.
