[Poundstone]

From things I hear here in Washington DC, I think a tidal wave of federal employees are already starting to retire, almost all of them motivated by fear a significant reduction in retirement benefits could be coming for those who don’t retire soon.

Glad I retired last year!

[SLB]

I am a 61 year old FERS employee. At 59 1/2 I took out enough from TSP to become 100% debt free. I am now working on building my TSP back to the amount I had at 59 1/2 and when that happens - GOODBYE federal employment. Probably in three or four years since I am maxing out the catch up to TSP right now.

[muawiyah]

I really doubt the federales fear a reduction in retirement benefits. As you know, they get nowhere near what their counterparts (if any) in state and local government get.

The FERS system implemented back in the mid 1980s whacked the devil out of the retirement system leaving a substantial load to be carried by the employees' 401(k) (equivalent) funds.

If you merely implemented the current FERS system on state and local employees you'd probably cut the payouts by 50%, or more than that for systems that allow "spiking". As you know the federales do not benefit from "spiking".

[muawiyah]

Unless you are talking about that substitution of "high five" for "high three", plus the problem with Obama freezing pay for three years.

There are always accountants and such who imagine they can make MORE ON THE OUTSIDE which, combined with their retirement, might make them RICH.

Look, since retirement I've had at least one surgery per year (which is pretty common I understand) with one 9 month period of enforced convalescence.

When you retire you have to imagine getting sick for an extended period. It happens a lot.