USPS Employees – Are you tired of working for the Federal Government? Are you interested in an early retirement? On episode 119 of The Federal Retirement Show, Val breaks down the buyout offer and how this recent development is a significant turning point for many long-time postal workers. Val takes you through the intricate details of the buyout program, its potential impact on the workforce, and what it means for the future of postal services across the nation.

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American Benefits Exchange focuses on providing solid financial solutions to Federal, postal, and state employees as well as members of the United States Armed Forces and small businesses. American Benefits Exchange brings years of experience and knowledge to support these niche markets.

American Benefits Exchange, along with its provider companies, truly understands the needs of civil service employees. A portfolio of products is available to address important financial issues such as planning for retirement, FEGLI Option B replacement, Thrift Savings Plan Rollovers, and Pension Maximization.

1.24.25: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

1.24.25: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Well, welcome back to the federal retirement show. I'm your host Val Majewski with American Benefits Exchange. Appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to join me to view our content, I highly recommend. Before you get started, look at all of the episodes that we have available for you, the federal employee that's looking for accurate and honest information when it comes to your benefits and retirement situation. Want to make sure that you're getting what you need to know so you can make the best choices, the best decisions as you go through your working career and you plan for your future plan for retirement. So today I want to talk specifically, though. We're going to take a little bit of a different approach. Today. I'm going to talk specifically to postal workers, those who work for the United States Postal Service, because I'm sure you've seen the government has offered an early buyout, a voluntary early retirement option, and when you want to look into this decision, you got to know all the different variables and things like that so that you can make the best decision for you and your family. So for those that work for the for USPS, the Postal Service is offering this optional retirement opportunity. And it's for employees that are represented by the Apwu and the Postal Mail Handlers Union. Um, you have a time frame to make a decision. This is time sensitive, which is why I want to just focus this episode on this subject.

Speaker1:
Uh, for those that are in the clerk craft mail handler, motor vehicle services, the maintenance craft, information technology and accounting services. Um, National postal professional nurses. Human resources. Shared service center in Greensboro. Headquarters, facility services, administration and building support, and national material customer service center. These are generally the the crafts that are eligible. Now, if you are eligible, you should have received the letter or should receive a letter by February 3rd outlining this offer for voluntary early retirement. You can definitely look at a lot of different areas to see what's going to be going on and what's all included in this and if you're eligible to retire. But really, if you're in any of those crafts that I mentioned, if you have, uh, 25 years of service, you can retire at any age. Or if you're age 50, with at least 20 years of service, you're going to be eligible for this voluntary early retirement option and this buyout that they're offering now, I said it's time sensitive. So when you look at all the details and you see if it's something that you want to take advantage of, um, you've got to run the numbers, see if it makes sense for you. And we can do that for you. We can help you out running the numbers, and you can go back and look at your, um, retirement eligibility or, I mean, your retirement calculation after you determine if you're eligible to see if it makes sense, because here's how this this typically works normally if you try to retire early.

Speaker1:
Number one, you wouldn't be able to. Because these are not normal retirement requirements for federal employees or for those that work for the Postal Service. But there's not going to be any reduction if you're under age, right? If you're retiring early, there's not going to be any reduction. You're going to get your full pension calculation based on the amount of years you have and your high three. And the calculation which if you're familiar, if you remember, if you're taking advantage of this, let's say you're under the age of 62, which most of you probably will be. If you're looking to take advantage of this, then it's going to be 1% of your high three for every year of service. That's going to be your annual pension. Um, you should still be eligible. We can get some finer details, uh, for the Fers supplement, but there's also a, a buyout that they're going to be offering, and the buyout is $15,000. That's going to be paid in two installments. The first should be of $10,000 by August 15th of 2025. The remaining 5000 on August 28th of 2026 are going to spread it out over two years. But this is for folks that are looking to take advantage of this voluntary early option. Again, any age, if you have 25 years of service, if you're at least 50 years old and have at least 20 years of service, you can take advantage of this and take the voluntary early retirement option.

Speaker1:
So just just understand the implications of this. Number one, it's cool that you can get out earlier. You can get a lump sum. That lump sum may or may not go that far. If you're trying to make up a difference in income that you're making prior to retirement. My normal recommendation is to talk to somebody, go over your situation, see if it makes sense for you, because you will get a pension for the rest of your life. And if you're looking to get into a different career, have another job lined up or things like that, this could be an option for you to do it without a penalty, right? Normally, if you would have left service under these circumstances and not been eligible yet for full retirement or at least a least a reduced retirement. You wouldn't be entitled to anything at any point, um, unless you went to file for a deferred retirement down the road at age 62. But from now until then, you wouldn't be eligible to get a pension or anything like that. So here you can get a pension starting immediately. Um, you can get away from or out of the federal government and collect something, but hopefully you've got a plan in place going forward. So talk to a person who specializes in federal benefits, a person who specializes in helping federal employees with retirement, so you can go over all the details and ensure that you're making the right decision.

Speaker1:
Because I wouldn't want you to say, hey, I made the wrong choice and have to, you know, work on an alternative going forward that may or and this may or may not be a good move for you, but for some it could be. So reach out to us. You can go to our website WW Federal retirement.com. You can fill out the form one of our our experts across the country. If it's not me personally, we'll be We'll be reaching out to you in order to go over your personal benefits and retirement situation. And if you're in this, you work for the Postal Service and you're eligible for this this Vera. Right. This buyout option that they're offering, you want to see if it is advantageous for you to take it. And for some it will. And I will say for some it won't. But you have to look at it on an individual basis. It's there's no blanket statement that I'm saying that everybody needs to do this, because that is not true. You have to determine if it's right for you and your personal situation. So again, for those that are in the crafts that I mentioned earlier and eligible, you should be receiving a letter by February 3rd. You have until March 7th to make that decision. So this is time sensitive. You have until March 7th to make that determination. So take a look at everything, get your review done and make sure you're making the right choice.

Speaker1:
You know all the variables. And then it is I'll say one more time for folks that have at least 25 years of service, you can retire at any age. But if you're age 50 with at least 20 years of service, you can also take advantage of this the The $15,000 payment is split out over two years. You're going to get one in August of this year and then the $5,000 remainder in August of next year. So very, very short and sweet. Today I'm really focusing just on those that work for the Postal Service and this buyout option because of the time sensitivity of it. If you have questions, reach out to us. If you are viewing this and you're saying, hey, I don't work for the Postal Service, um, this episode really isn't for me. I apologize that it's not, but you can go back and view our previous content. We have almost 120 episodes for you to view. Uh, episodes range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes on topics that we believe are pertinent for you and your situation. The last thing again, I'll just remind you to reach out to us. If you have any questions, we can go over your personal situation, whether you're postal or not, and just make sure you're heading in the right direction. Again, my name is Val Majewski with American Benefits Exchange. You've been watching the federal retirement show and look forward to seeing you on a future episode.

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