The 10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Get Ready for Federal Retirement

Download your eOPF before you walk out the door

Your electronic Official Personnel File goes to OPM when you retire. Once you leave, you lose access. If OPM has a question about your work history later — a missing SF-50, a service computation date that doesn't add up — they can't call your old HR office, because that office probably doesn't exist anymore. Save a copy to a personal drive this week.

Audit your SF-50s and your beneficiary forms

Pull every SF-50 and look for gaps. A missing promotion, a step increase that never posted, a break in service that wasn't coded right — each one can cost you real pension dollars. Same with your beneficiary forms. A shocking number of feds filled these out at orientation 25 years ago and never touched them. Ex-spouses. Deceased parents. Wrong addresses.

Price out a military buyback

If you served in the military and you're not already drawing a military retirement, a buyback is almost always worth it. You pay 3% of your military basic pay. You add those years to your federal service. Interest-free if you complete it inside your first 3 years of federal employment. We've seen buybacks cost $4,000 and unlock a year of extra pension — every year, for life.

Know which of the three doors you're walking through

Full, unreduced FERS pension requires both age and years of service:

• MRA + 30 (Minimum Retirement Age, 56–57, with 30 years of service)
• Age 60 + 20 years
• Age 62 + 5 years

There's a fourth door — MRA + 10 — but it hits you with a 5% penalty for every year you're under 62. You can postpone to dodge the penalty. Most people don't realize they have the choice.

Work the 1.1% multiplier

Your pension formula is simple on paper: years of service × multiplier × high-3 salary. The multiplier is 1.0% unless you retire at age 62+ with 20+ years — then it jumps to 1.1%. That's a 10% raise on your pension, for life. One extra year at the office can fund a decade of retirement. Run the math before you pick a date.

Convert your unused sick leave into creditable service

Banking sick leave isn't just goodwill. At retirement, those hours convert into months and days of creditable federal service — meaning a bigger pension. Thousands of hours isn't unusual; a healthy balance can add a year or more to your formula. Stop burning sick leave you don't need.

Pick the right retirement date (it's worth thousands)

Three stacking rules:

1. Last day of the month — your salary runs through month-end, your pension starts the 1st.
2. End of a pay period — you pick up extra leave accrual.
3. December 31 — your lump-sum annual leave payout lands in the following tax year (lower bracket for most retirees).

Get all three to line up and you can pick up several extra paychecks' worth of money — just by picking the right Friday.

Lock in FEHB for the rest of your life

This one is the scariest to miss. To keep your Federal Employees Health Benefits in retirement, you need all three:

• Retire on an immediate annuity
• 10+ years of creditable service
• Continuously enrolled in FEHB for the 5 years right before you retire

Drop coverage during an open season to save a few bucks and you can permanently lose the right to carry FEHB into retirement. No redo. Premiums jumped 13.5% in 2025 and another 12.3% in 2026 — the coverage still costs less than private Medicare supplements over a 25-year retirement.

"Less than 5% of federal employees change health plans during Open Season. That's not because everybody's already in the best plan." — Ann, Weber State Workshop

Don't get blindsided by the Roth catch-up mandate

For 2026 the TSP contribution limit is $24,500, with catch-ups of $32,500 (ages 50–59 or 64+) and $36,000 for the super-catch-up (ages 60–63). New rule: if you earned $150,000 or more in 2025, your catch-up contributions must go into Roth TSP — you can't make them pre-tax anymore. If you don't update your election before the year starts, your catch-up money gets rejected.

While we're here: Roth conversions are now allowed inside the TSP for the first time. Worth looking at if you have a low-income year.

Set up your state tax withholding yourself — OPM won't

This one catches people in Utah and Idaho every single year. OPM's federal retirement system does not automatically withhold state income tax from your pension. Once your claim is adjudicated, log into Services Online (servicesonline.opm.gov) and set your state withholding manually, or you'll owe a lump sum at tax time.

Wyoming residents: no state income tax — nothing to set up. But still check your federal withholding.