U. S. Federal Retirement

[Gregory Matthews]

My intent here is not to become involved in a political issue.  Rather, I want to inform in a manner that will help you to understand some of what you are reading in the Press.  US Federal retirement pay consists generally of two types:

Military Retirement Pay:  Today, three (I think.) types of military retirement exist.  It is expected that in the future, Congress will make additional changes in this system.  It is very complex for those who have retired from Active Duty and more so for people who retire from the Reserves and/or retire due to medical issues.  I will not address this retirement system.  Nothing that I will say in this post applies to this group of people.

Federal Civillian Retirement Pay:  Today, our Federal civilians have retired under two different systems.  I will only address the  system under which I retired and is the present system for all retirees.  It is as follows.  

* The minimoon employment required to retire is five years.

*  One per-cent of income is placed in a retirement account.

* The employee can have up to an additional five per-cent of income placed in that retirement account.  The amount chosen by the employee is matched by the government.

*  At the time of retirement, that total retirement account must be invested by the employee in some type of account that will pay the future retirement income.  How to invest that retirement account is up the employee.