Avoid Federal Retirement Errors

By Brent Meyer — SafeMoney.com Founder & Editor Reviewed by Licensed Financial Professionals  |  SafeMoney.com — Trusted Since 2011  |  Updated Regularly Quick Answer: Learn common retirement mistakes made by federal employees and how to avoid them. Secure your future with safe money alternatives today! As a postal or federal employee, you have high-quality federal benefits. In time, they will play directly into your retirement, whether you will be eligible to retire in the next 15 years or are a new career hire. Among your many benefits are programs that directly affect your financial future. Tax-advantaged retirement savings plans, guaranteed-pension payouts, and cost-efficient life insurance coverage are just a few of those programs. Your challenge is to ensure that you maximize what is available to you. Making smart choices early will help you reap rewards for the rest of your life. So, it’s important to weave your federal employee benefits into your complete financial picture to set yourself up for the most successful retirement possible . To get there, you need to avoid the mistakes some federal employees make with their benefits and retirement planning. These slip-ups can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost benefits. And what’s more, once these mistakes are made, they can’t be reversed or changed. Neglecting Your Personnel File Do you know exactly what your personnel file says? When you were hired you have may assumed that your file was set up correctly and the federal system knows your exact status and eligibility. Believe it or not, some federal employees who wait to review their files as they start to plan for retirement have found there was a mix-up when they were hired… And they were placed in the wrong federal retirement system. Don’t be that employee. Routinely review your Official Personnel Folder (OPF) for accuracy. Pay close attention to Form SF 50 (Notice of Personnel Action). This form is updated every year and features important retirement-related details. Want to know which retirement plan you’re in? Find Box 30 (“retirement plan”) on that form and see if you are officially covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), CSRS-Offset or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Another important indicator is Box 31, “Service Computation Date” or SCD. While there are many intricacies to how this date is calculated, it generally refers to the date you starte