Federal employees throw around the term "High-3" so often that it starts to sound self-explanatory: take your three highest salaries, average them out, and you have your pension calculation. Except that isn't actually how OPM calculates it. Your FERS High-3 is your highest average basic pay earned during any [...]
Federal employees tend to develop interesting relationships with sick leave. Some use it as fast as they earn it. Others guard every single hour as if OPM plans to exchange it for beachfront property at retirement. By the final stretch of a career, it’s not unusual to hear someone [...]
When most veterans transition into federal civilian service, HR usually hands them a stack of paperwork and briefly mentions a "military buyback." Most feds nod, file it away with their onboarding forms, and forget about it. Fast-forward 10, 15, or 20 years: retirement is on the horizon, and those military [...]
Most federal employees spend years obsessing over their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) balance. They check their C and S Fund allocations weekly, project their High-3 average salary down to the penny, and run FERS pension calculations until their eyes cross. Yet, one of the biggest threats to a smooth [...]
Federal Retirement Taxes Under FERS: What’s Taxed, What’s Not, and How to Prepare Many federal employees assume that after paying into the system for 20, 30, or 40 years, the government will offer a "thank you" in the form of tax-free retirement income. Unfortunately, that is one of the [...]
FEGLI Option B Cost After 50: The Hidden Price Cliff Every Federal Employee Must Plan For For most federal employees in their 30s and 40s, Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Option B feels like a no-brainer. It provides cheap, hassle-free life insurance equal to up to five times [...]
Deciding between the Traditional TSP and Roth TSP is one of the most consequential tax choices you will make during your federal career. With evolving tax brackets, major SECURE 2.0 provisions taking effect, and updated elective deferral limits, the strategy you select today directly shapes how much income you [...]
For federal employees working under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), determining your future pension amount is the bedrock of retirement planning. While the basic calculation looks simple on the surface, your actual take-home check depends on specific multiplier rules, unused sick leave credits, and mandatory deductions. This guide [...]
Take the Guesswork Out of Federal Retirement: The Complete FERS & TSP Roadmap Planning for federal retirement can often feel like trying to assemble a complex financial puzzle with pieces scattered across different agencies, HR portals, and outdated policy manuals. Between estimating your Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) basic [...]
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