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The Federal Retirement Decision Guide
Each benefit comes with its own rules and forms. The decisions don't really happen one at a time.
How your pension, survivor election, Social Security, TSP, health coverage, life insurance, and taxes fit together, and how to put your retirement on one page.
Your pension, Social Security, TSP, health insurance, life insurance, and survivor benefits each come with their own rules and forms. The decisions don't really happen one at a time.
Why decide your federal retirement benefits together?
When you take Social Security can change how much you need from your TSP. TSP withdrawals can change your taxes. Your survivor election can affect your spouse's income and health coverage.
You have one retirement, one household budget, one tax return, one investment portfolio, and one life you want all of this money to support. So the question worth asking of every form is what it changes somewhere else.
A choice that looks good by itself can feel different once you see what you're asking the rest of your money to do.
What should you have in front of you before you decide?
Your creditable service and the high-3 being used, pension estimates for the retirement dates you are seriously considering, your survivor and FEHB options, your FEGLI coverage, Social Security estimates at several claiming ages, your TSP split between traditional and Roth, and a realistic estimate of what you expect to spend.
The guide walks through each one and ends with a worksheet that puts them on one page.
What this is, and is not
Eight short sections, most ending with what you can do, with sourced charts and worksheets you can fill in on screen or print.
It is education, not advice. It does not know your service record, and the rules that apply to you are the ones in your own file, so verify them with your agency before you make a final election.
Inside the guide
- How your benefits work together. What one decision changes somewhere else, from the survivor election to the tax return.
- What your pension will actually provide. The formula, the percentage people miss, and the gap the rest of your money has to fill.
- The survivor election, side by side. What each choice costs you, what your spouse keeps, and why health coverage rides on it.
- Social Security and the supplement. Why one check ending should not decide when the next one starts.
- Your TSP, FEHB, Medicare, and life insurance. Leave it or move it, what Part B costs as income rises, and giving the insurance a job.
- Your retirement on one page. Taxes across the retirement years, then a worksheet that puts it all in one place.