Pay & Benefits

Best Dates to Retire 2009

A guide to picking the perfect day to leave in order to maximize your benefits.

Pay & Benefits

Long-Term Planning

Change is in the air for the government’s long-term care insurance program.

Pay & Benefits

Maxing Out

What’s a “full” retirement?

Pay & Benefits

Mail Call, Part Two

More answers to your questions about calculating your benefits.

Pay & Benefits

Mail Call

Answers to readers questions about creditable service and calculating annuities.

Pay & Benefits

Time of Transition

Considerations for those who will be leaving government along with the Bush administration.

Pay & Benefits

Deposits and Credits

Understanding these uniquely important concepts to the federal retirement process.

Pay & Benefits

To-Do List

A guide to forms you should gather and things you should do before and after your retirement date.

Pay & Benefits

The Benefits of Social Security

What you, your spouse and your children are entitled to.

Pay & Benefits

Myth Busting

Setting the record straight about some misunderstood aspects of federal retirement.

Pay & Benefits

TSP and Taxes

A primer on the tax implications of withdrawals from your Thrift Savings Plan account.

Pay & Benefits

Words of Wisdom

Some advice and insight from my aunt and uncle, who have been retired from federal service for more than three decades.

Pay & Benefits

Federal vs. Private

Comparing retirement benefits in the public and private sectors.

Pay & Benefits

Social Issues

Answers to some common questions about how Social Security fits in to the federal retirement process.

Pay & Benefits

Survivor Benefits: Q&A

Answers to questions from last week’s column on providing for your survivors.

Pay & Benefits

Supporting Your Survivors

What will happen financially to the people who depend on you if you die?

Pay & Benefits

Make Retirement Easy

That’s what OPM says its new electronic processing system will do.

Pay & Benefits

Delayed Gratification

For many newly retired feds, the wait for that first full retirement check is long and painful.

Pay & Benefits

Continued Coverage, Continued

Answers to reader questions about continuing health benefits into retirement.

Pay & Benefits

The Five-Year Test

Details of the requirements for continuing federal health benefits into retirement.