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I am a Federal Government employee and although a few years from retirement have already had my retirement calculations done by my assigned retirement person. At retirement a Fed employee has the option to choose a 100%, 50%, or a 25% survivor benefit. If I elect a 100% survivor benefit in my case for my spouse who is 5 years older than when I plan to retire at age 66, for him to receive my full monthly benefit projected to be around $2300 I will need to have deducted around $400 a month until my death, or if he passes first until his.
Assuming that you're referring to either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and not some little-known agency-specific retirement system of which I'm unfamiliar, I don't believe what you've written is correct. I know of no option through OPM for a CSRS or a FERS retiree to elect a 100% survivor annuity. Under CSRS, the maximum survivor annuity is 55% of your unreduced annuity. Under FERS, the maximum is 50%. Here is the official information from OPM:
Why would an input of only $20,000 result in $600 per month for life by putting the $20,000 into an annuity?
(especially if annuities are not recommended investments)
Asking out of lack of knowledge on this.
Through the magic of compound interest, it all depends on how long ago you put the $20,000 into the pot. 30 years ago, that $20,000 would have doubled every 5 years.
I will weigh in on this. I think that my FERS retirement which will have a factor of 36 years (meaning 36% times the average of my high 3 income years) I will say that it will have a profound difference. It isn't a whole lot of money but since I didn't get paid a senior executive salary it is not something to sneeze at either. In conjunction with my military pension things look a bit brighter. Add in the fact that I will have a similar number in SS to my military pension and the wife has nearly identical number in SS as I do, our retirement is secure baring anything unforeseen. With a home that is mortgage free and a 401k fund that matches my current value of home, I feel quite fortunate. Even if I stay in this state of high cost of living I can still live comfortably. So in answering the initial question is my pension a boon? Yes but it took two of them to make me feel secure.
I am a retired teacher in TX--we don't pay into SS in my district--only a few really large districts do like Dallas ISD--
I think the mother might have gone to work when policies were different and interest rates certainly were...
If the MOTHER checked life for beneficiary there is usually a box for the age of the beneficiary
My friend who retired when I did was a widow with daughter just out of college...
She had the option to make her daughter the beneficiary of her pension (more than 20 yrs service w/Masters degree--so good chunk of money) after her death for the daughter's life BUT that would have reduced her own monthly amount--to hold back for the beneficiary's part of the pension's longevity----and she didn't consider it at all because she had other resources for the daughter to inherit whenever not the mother died...
My age is about 5 months older than my husband--when I checked my pension options it was basically the same payout to get life time benefit for him if I died first as it was for it to stop with my death...
So because I have health care benefits through my teacher retirement system and he is on it as well for Medicare supplemental and RX part D I opted for that...so if I pre decease he can still have health ins deducted from the pension...just seemed smoother operation...
Social Security gives a monthly allotment to surviving children of a dead parent. When my husband & I were in college, he was receiving $190 per month from Social Security because his dad had died...
I believe that a surviving child must be underage, in school or disabled in order to receive the SS benefit. And then the child receives the benefit only as long as he/she remains eligible under those restrictions.
Although we're talking a small amount of money in my ex's case, a five figure pension per month is truly mind-boggling.
I worked as a public pension administrator in California and there's a lot of blabbing going on here. There are a small percentage of 5 figure monthly pensions but not many percentage wise.
Also, the COLAs are ALMOST ALWAYS capped at around 2% depending on the local agency contract , etc. Sometimes there is a COLA bank where sometimes it can result in a higher COLA .
TFW46, my husband started receiving the SS benefit as a surviving child of a deceased father when my husband was a child. The $190 per month from SS continued through my husband's college years and through his years in graduate school. (which must have met the criterion of 'being in school' as you state)
My pensions is why I don't need to have a million dollars in reserve to be retired. I chose to work in public service for $45,000 a year in exchange for a secure retirement income. Sorry if that offends some. I could have made a lot more in the private sector.
Assuming that you're referring to either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and not some little-known agency-specific retirement system of which I'm unfamiliar, I don't believe what you've written is correct. I know of no option through OPM for a CSRS or a FERS retiree to elect a 100% survivor annuity. Under CSRS, the maximum survivor annuity is 55% of your unreduced annuity. Under FERS, the maximum is 50%. Here is the official information from OPM:
Thanks for giving me the correct info. When I made several inquiries about this to my retirement counselor because I saw calculations she did for me with 100%, 50%, and 25% she gave me the impression 100% would provide 100% death benefit. Glad I started this process early because so much info I had to clarify again and again. One big one was my SCD. I kept seeing a date that was a year before I actually began working at this VA this go around. I finally discovered that SCD date was calculated on giving me credit for the previous 1 year and 23 days when I worked at the VA in the mid 80s. Great I thought, but my counselor forgot to tell me that I needed to pay for that time because I had cashed on the $100 or so that was in my retirement account when I separated from services the first time around. Would have been even better to have know this in 2001 when I went back to work for the VA because with interest tacked on that $100 grew to $1,000 in 15 years which I paid right away when I learned about this.
My pensions is why I don't need to have a million dollars in reserve to be retired. I chose to work in public service for $45,000 a year in exchange for a secure retirement income. Sorry if that offends some. I could have made a lot more in the private sector.
Ditto I applaud your choice. I earned a bit more but it amounted to the same thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightengale212
Thanks for giving me the correct info. When I made several inquiries about this to my retirement counselor because I saw calculations she did for me with 100%, 50%, and 25% she gave me the impression 100% would provide 100% death benefit. Glad I started this process early because so much info I had to clarify again and again. One big one was my SCD. I kept seeing a date that was a year before I actually began working at this VA this go around. I finally discovered that SCD date was calculated on giving me credit for the previous 1 year and 23 days when I worked at the VA in the mid 80s. Great I thought, but my counselor forgot to tell me that I needed to pay for that time because I had cashed on the $100 or so that was in my retirement account when I separated from services the first time around. Would have been even better to have know this in 2001 when I went back to work for the VA because with interest tacked on that $100 grew to $1,000 in 15 years which I paid right away when I learned about this.
Thanks again.
A lot of public service HRs are a bit confused on this or they just don't give out the entire bit because it is not in their wheelhouse. It just happens and there maybe something we can do for friends by letting them know and having that passed on to their friends in the office.
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