Federal employee retirement checklist

Your SCD for retirement drives everything downstream — eligibility, years of service, and the multiplier. It appears on your SF-50 (block 31). If it looks wrong, or if you have prior federal, temporary, or seasonal service that may not be credited, raise it with HR now while the paperwork still exists.

MRA is set by birth year and ranges from 55 to 57. It is the earliest you can retire with an immediate annuity if you have enough service, and it anchors every scenario you will model from here.

Contribute at least 5% to capture the full agency match — anything less is declining part of your salary. This is also the stage where allocation decisions have the most time to compound.

Your annuity is built on the average of your highest three consecutive years of basic pay — which includes locality pay, but excludes overtime, bonuses, and allowances. Promotions, within-grade increases, and a move between locality areas all move this number.

Retiring at your MRA, at 60, and at 62 produce materially different outcomes — not just a bigger monthly check for waiting, but a different multiplier at 62 with 20 years, and a supplement that only exists before 62. The right date is rarely the earliest or the latest.

If you retire before 62 with an immediate unreduced annuity, the supplement bridges you to Social Security — and then stops permanently at 62. It is also subject to an earnings test if you work after retiring. Plan for the drop rather than discovering it.

The election is made at retirement and is difficult to change afterwards. A full election reduces your annuity by 10% and gives your spouse 50% of it for life; a partial election reduces it by 5%. Continued FEHB coverage for a surviving spouse depends on electing at least a partial survivor annuity — which is what makes this more than a pure break-even calculation.

Some states exempt federal pension income entirely, some tax it as ordinary income, and some have no income tax at all. If relocating is on the table, this is worth knowing before you pick a date rather than after.

Your agency can produce an official estimate from your actual record. Compare it against your own projection — if the two disagree, the cause is almost always creditable service or High-3, and both take time to resolve.

Verify the earnings history SSA has on file and get a benefit estimate at 62, at full retirement age, and at 70. For FERS employees this is a genuine third leg, not a rounding error.

FEGLI has its own five-year continuation rule, and the post-65 cost curve on Option B is steep enough that keeping it by default is often the wrong call. Decide deliberately.

A FERS annuity begins the first day of the month after separation, so separating on the last day of a month starts your annuity the very next day. Separating on the 1st means waiting most of a month with no annuity. The same date also determines which leave year your annual leave payout falls in.

Unused annual leave is paid as a lump sum at your final hourly rate, so hours carried into retirement convert to cash. Unused sick leave is different — under FERS it converts to additional creditable service in your annuity computation, and is not paid out. Burning sick leave before retiring forfeits annuity credit.

Installments, partial withdrawals, an annuity, or a rollover all have different tax and flexibility consequences. Decide before you separate so the paperwork isn't rushed alongside everything else.

Gross annuity is not what lands in your account. Federal tax, any state tax, the FEHB premium, and the survivor reduction all come out first. Budget from the net figure, not the headline one.

TSP, FEGLI, unpaid compensation, and the FERS basic benefit each have separate designations, and they do not update themselves after a marriage, divorce, or death. An outdated form overrides your will.

Your SF-50s, benefits elections, and service history are far harder to obtain once you no longer have agency system access. Keep your own copies before your last day.

OPM pays an estimated partial annuity while your case is finalised, and full adjudication commonly takes several months. Plan cash flow for a reduced payment during that window, with a true-up afterwards.