giritrobbins t1_j9wa4sv wrote on February 25, 2023 at 12:36 AM

FERS isn't great. It's 1% of your high 3 years multiplied by the number of years of service. If you exceed 20 years it's 1.1%.

If you do 40-50 years, it's nice since you still collect social security and you likely have TSP but the number of people I've seen get that far is really low.

socialthrowaway87 t1_j9wmuj7 wrote on February 25, 2023 at 2:13 AM

New federal employees also have to contribute 4.4% if I remember correctly. It’s important to factor that in. It was a much better deal for the older employees who only have to contribute like 1%.

CovidRedpanda t1_j9yblje wrote on February 25, 2023 at 1:34 PM

FERS can be great if you have military service + TSP.

You can finish with 15-20 years of serviceand move onto something else. I will be in my early mid 40s. Go private 10 years. Then, go back to federal, likely jump to a grade 14/15. work at least 5 years, get the high 3 and forever health care. At the age of 62, you can live well. The pension has COLA. I don’t know anything about MA pension.

Lot of folks in the federal system are veterans. They also have military pension and VA disability. They pocket easily over 5k a month at the age of 37. If they are in federal system, they are working for their 2nd/ 3rd pension.