When Can I Retire From Federal Service? Your Three Dates: Eligible, Unreduced, and Affordable

Formulas current as of 2026 · Sources: OPM · SSA

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Enter a target monthly income and find the earliest FERS retirement age that covers it in every year, including the gap years before Social Security.

FERS retirement eligibility, defined: You qualify for an immediate FERS annuity when your age and your creditable service together meet one of the combinations in 5 U.S.C. § 8412 — the most common being MRA+30, 60+20, 62+5, and MRA+10. "Immediate" means the pension starts the month after you leave. Separate before you meet any of them, with at least 5 years of service, and you get a deferred annuity instead — later, and without health insurance.

Who This Article Is For

• Feds who've been told "you can go at 57" and want to know what that actually pays
• Mid-career hires (30s or later) who won't reach 30 years by their MRA
• Anyone weighing MRA+10 against working a few more years
• Spouses trying to pin down a real retirement date, not a range

1. Every Path in One Table

Eligibility is a two-part test: age and creditable service, both measured on your separation date. Your Minimum Retirement Age (MRA) is between 55 and 57 depending on birth year — 57 for anyone born in 1970 or later. (MRA by birth year.)

Two rows deserve a warning label:

• MRA+10 is eligible but not unreduced. The reduction is permanent if you start the annuity right away. The way around it — postponing the start date — is covered in Section 3.
• Deferred is not a retirement. It's a pension you're owed later. It comes without FEHB, without the Supplement, and without credit for your sick leave. (Deferred vs. postponed walks through the difference.)

Special-category employees also face mandatory separation — 57 for most law enforcement officers and firefighters, 56 for air traffic controllers — so for them "when can I retire" has a hard back edge. (Our ATC 50-vs-52 scenario runs those numbers.)

2. What Counts as "Years of Service" — Exactly

The thresholds are exact. Twenty-nine years and eleven months is not 30 years.

Service is counted in whole months. OPM drops the leftover days. An employee with a service computation date of March 10, 1997, who separates February 28, 2027, has 29 years and 11 months — short of MRA+30 by days, and short in a way no one can round up. Separating March 31 instead clears it.

Some time counts for eligibility, some only for the pension:

• Unused sick leave adds to the pension computation, but never to eligibility. 2,000 hours of sick leave won't turn 29 years into 30. (How sick leave converts.)
• Military service with the deposit paid counts for eligibility and the pension (not for the Supplement amount). Without the deposit, it doesn't count at all for a FERS annuity. (The buyback math.)
• Refunded FERS service — time you worked, left, and cashed out — doesn't count unless you redeposit it.

The service date printed on your SF-50 is usually your leave SCD. That can differ from what OPM credits for retirement (military time without a deposit is the common culprit). Ask HR for a retirement estimate that states your creditable service in years and months, and plan against that figure.

3. One Employee, Four Dates

Here's how the paths play out for one person.

Jordan was born in 1975 and joined federal service at 35. Jordan is 51 today with 16 years of service, a High-3 of $120,000, $300,000 in the TSP with 10% going in each paycheck, 600 hours of unused sick leave, and self-only FEHB at $274/month.

Illustrative example. Modeled with FedHorizon's FERS engine: High-3 held at $120,000 (no raises assumed), TSP growth 6%/year with Jordan's contributions continuing until separation, Social Security estimated from salary. Pension figures are before the survivor election and before cost-of-living adjustments. Not financial advice.

Jordan's MRA is 57. With a mid-career start, Jordan never reaches MRA+30 before 65 — so the dates that matter are these:

Read it top to bottom and the three dates appear:

Eligible: 57. On Jordan's 57th birthday, an immediate annuity is available. It's $1,669 a month — permanently 25% smaller, five years under 62 at 5% each — with no Supplement.

Unreduced: 60. Jordan has two ways to reach an unreduced pension at 60. Leave at 57 and postpone the start until 60, when the 20-year waiver removes the reduction. Or keep working to 60. They are not close:

• Postponed from 57: $2,225/month starting at 60, and nothing from the pension for three years.
• Worked to 60: $2,525/month for life, plus $1,283/month of Supplement until 62, plus three more years of salary and contributions — a TSP $162,576 larger.

Same start date. The worked-to-60 version pays $300 more every month for life, and $1,583 more every month until 62.

If Jordan does leave at 57, immediate versus postponed is its own question. The engine puts the break-even at about age 69: taking $1,669 starting at 57 collects more in total until then, and the postponed $2,225 pulls ahead after. Postponing also keeps unused sick leave in the computation, and FEHB resumes when the annuity starts — provided Jordan met the five-year enrollment rule before leaving.

Leaving at 55 is the expensive one. At 55 Jordan is below the MRA, so the departure is a deferred retirement: the pension waits until 60 (or 57 at a 25% cut), the 600 hours of sick leave are forfeited, and FEHB ends permanently. Two years earlier out the door costs a lifetime of employer-subsidized health insurance.

4. The Third Date: When the Income Is Enough

Eligibility and the reduction are rules. Whether you can afford to leave is arithmetic — and it has to work in every year, not on average.

Here's Jordan's monthly income, retiring at 60, by phase (gross, before tax, FEHB, and COLAs; TSP drawn at 4% of the balance at retirement):

The tightest stretch isn't the first year of retirement. It's 62 to 66 — after the Supplement ends and before Social Security starts, if Jordan waits to claim at full retirement age. That five-year dip, $1,283 a month below the first two years, is the stretch that decides whether 60 works.

There are three standard ways to fill it:

1. Draw more TSP in those years only, then drop back to 4% once Social Security begins. (Withdrawal strategies.)
2. Claim Social Security earlier. Claiming at 62 fills the gap with about $2,053 a month (our estimate) — but that benefit is permanently about 30% smaller than the age-67 amount.
3. Work a little longer. Every year of service raises the pension, shortens the gap, and adds to the TSP.

None of these is automatically right. What's wrong is checking only the first year of retirement and calling the plan done.

The When Can I Retire? calculator does this year-by-year test for you: give it a target monthly income and it finds the earliest age where even the leanest year clears it.

5. Common Mistakes

• Treating the MRA as a retirement date. It's an eligibility input. With fewer than 30 years, retiring at the MRA means MRA+10 — reduced, no Supplement.
• Counting sick leave toward eligibility. It raises the pension; it never gets you over a threshold.
• Planning from the leave SCD. Get a retirement estimate that states your creditable service, especially if you have military time.
• Leaving a few months before the MRA. That turns an MRA+10 (with FEHB) into a deferred annuity (without it). If you're close, the calendar matters more than almost anything else.
• Assuming "unreduced" means "the same." A postponed MRA+10 annuity at 60 and a 60/20 retirement at 60 are both unreduced. One pays $300 a month more for life, plus the Supplement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the earliest I can retire under FERS? With an immediate annuity: your MRA (55–57) with at least 10 years of service. Under 30 years, that pension is reduced 5% for each year under 62. Special-category employees and early-out (VERA) offers can go earlier — at 50 with 20 years, or any age with 25.

Can I retire at 57 with 20 years? Yes, under MRA+10 if 57 is your MRA. The pension is reduced 25% if it starts at 57. Postpone the start to 60 and the reduction disappears, because 20+ years at 60 qualifies as unreduced.

Do I get the FERS Supplement with MRA+10? No — not at any start date. The Supplement goes to MRA+30, 60/20, special-category, and early-out retirees.

Does unused sick leave count toward my 30 years? No. Sick leave increases the service used to compute your pension, but eligibility is tested on actual creditable service.

Can I keep FEHB if I leave before my MRA? Not with a deferred annuity — FEHB can't be carried into a deferred retirement and can't be reinstated later. To keep it, you must retire on an immediate annuity (including a postponed MRA+10) after five years of continuous enrollment.

Does military service count toward retirement eligibility? Yes, if you've paid the military deposit — it then counts toward both eligibility and the pension. It never counts toward the FERS Supplement amount.

The Bottom Line

The eligibility table answers "when can I retire?" in a technical sense, and it's the least useful of the three answers. The date you're eligible is a floor. The date the pension stops being reduced is usually the real retirement date for anyone without 30 years at the MRA. And the date the income covers every year — especially the years between 62 and Social Security — is the one that decides whether you stay retired.

Find all three before you pick one.

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