FERS Deferred Retirement Calculator

The Background on Deferred Retirement

Most people (even feds!) are under the mistaken impression that if you don’t stick it out to “full retirement” such as MRA+30, Age 60 + 20 years, etc., you’re not eligible for retirement under FERS (or pension/annuity, which I’m using largely interchangeably here). In fact, OPM’s guidance outlines the eligibility for “deferred retirement” and specifically states:

Deferred retirement is for former federal employees who were not entitled to an annuity upon separating from Federal service but will become entitled to an annuity after reaching a certain age. Former employees may be eligible for a deferred retirement if they—

• Are not eligible for an immediate annuity within one month of separation from their agency;
• Meet the minimum civilian service requirements; and
• Do not take a refund of retirement deductions after separating from service (or transferring to a non-covered position).

The Math Behind this FERS Deferred Annuity Calculator

For the purposes of this simple calculator, I’m taking the most common case for feds currently facing the fork that are not eligible for full retirement. Per OPM, that means:

1 percent of your high-3 average salary for each year of service

That’s

Years of Svc × High-3 × .01

So for the case of our hypothetical fed, a GS-14 in “Rest of US” with 9 years of service, that would be:

9 × $150,000 × .01 = $13,500

(annually, meaning $1,125/mo)

Disclaimer

I am not providing financial advice here, I’m not even entirely sure this is accurate for our case. With the recent fork-ing of federal employees, it’s been a hot topic in our house trying to figure out what Mrs. Jarhead might eventually be eligible for if she left with 9 or 10 years of service.
So take the whole thing with a big grain of salt and do your own research, but the basic assumptions here are as follows:

• You’re a fed under FERS
• You have >= 5 years of service, but are not eligible to retire under one of the normal/full plans
• You’re leaving your FERS contributions in vs withdrawing them when you separate
• You will take a deferred annuity some time between MRA and 62

Want to Dig Deeper?

This super-basic FERS Deferred Retirement Calculator is designed to give you a rough estimate of what your annuity would look like if you “take the fork” (separate from federal service before full retirement eligibility). If you want a more detailed calculator that considers more variables, I recommend the one at PlanWell ^{*not affiliated in any way}.