Keeping Your Retirement Plans Close to the Vest

I know it’s early in the year. However, I’m also aware that some of you are already thinking about retiring. Good for you!

Because planning ahead is a crucial step in assuring that your transition from employment to retirement is smooth, you need to make sure that you avoid any last-minute bumps in the road. Fortunately, OPM has an excellent pamphlet called Thinking About Retirement, which you can download from their website at http://opm.gov/forms/pdfimage/RI83-11.pdf.

In it they recommend that you begin planning a year or more in advance. However, even if you need to compress your schedule to less time than that, the advice they give is still sound.

Although you’ll eventually have to go to your servicing personnel office, for the time being you can shield your intentions from outside view by downloading the forms you need from OPM’s website. For CSRS, you’ll need a Standard Form 2801, Application for Immediate Retirement; for FERS a Standard Form 3107. You can download either of them by going to www.OPM.gov, clicking on Forms, then clicking on Standard Forms and scrolling down to the right form number. Click HERE for full article.