Should I Use My Sick Leave Before Retirement? Or Let it Increase my Pension?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 เม.ย. 2023
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😕Please take your sick leave if you don’t feel good. If you’re got the flu, stomachache, have your yearly check. About 12 years ago, I crossed path during lunch time with a manager . I was returning from the deli. She was rushing out of the building. At 2pm, she called her senior and took sick leave. According to many who knew her, she had taken sick leave before only to give birth and post partum. That day when we crossed, she received a crushing message. Pancreatic CANCER, she was on sick leave for a whole year. She died in service because the amount of leave accumulated. 🙁Take care of yourself and sick leave is there for our well-being. We never know when we are leaving back to God. I lost my daughter, we were making so many plans. Save for the future, but live the present.
With all due respect she didn't die because sick leave accumulated. She passed from cancer
@@nvr2quik2003 Sorry, she died because her priority was the job. Taking days to wind down. Go to doctors appointment for check ups is ok.
Work to live. Don’t live to work. And get disability or some kind of “inability to work” insurance outside of work as well as a life insurance policy outside of your federal benefits. Also if you can, make investments outside of your TSP. At worst, just spend less and live below your means while you work. That way it’s not a shock to your system when you finally retire.
I Currently have just under 900 hours of sick leave in the bank with 35 years of service with an MRA of 23-September-2024. I decided to save my sick leave in case of a major health emergency or something that would require me being in a health care status for several months. To each his or her own, but I have no regrets building up such a safety net as why I should carelessly use my sick leave as some do, then expect others to donate their sick leave to me.
yeah, but just use your sick leave before retiring.. if you get sick after using up your sick leave .. you are eligible to retire .. hopefully you won't get sick .
I'm getting ready to retire and I am SO glad I burned through DECADES worth of sick leave via TWO knee replacements and major reconstructive foot surgery. I only have a little bit of sl left and won't be bedevilled(🙄) by "the big moral dilemma" some here try to use to guilt-trip good people for cashing in on the endless mental and physical suffering they've endured at the hands of the truly morally bankrupt for so long. The people who come here to do that can save their guilt-trips. I guarantee you nobody in Management is walking away from money on the table. Grab what you've EARNED and GO with God. If I had any sick leave left I sure as 💩 would.
Well, I would rather not have had to have two knee replacements and foot surgery, but that is what accumulated leave is for. I also used family leave while my Mom was on Hospice.
The best way is to use before of retirement.
For example, you have 6 months sick leave.
If you use before retirement, you will get pay 100% of your sick leave plus sick leave (104 hrs/Year x 6 months = 52 hrs) and annual leave (at least 52 hrs) for those 6 months during the time you on leave.
If you save it, you get pay only 0.5% per year (for pension 1% per year)
That is what I was thinking. If I take 6 months of leave, then I get full pay during those six month and it also adds to my pension!
Good info Haws. One additional piece of information. Your annuity is calculated to years and full months. If you are credited with 30 years 1 month and 29 days with your sick leave included. Your annuity will be based on 30 years and 1 month. You can burn that extra 29 days and it will make no difference to your annuity. I'd leave a day or 2 extra as a safety net. Cheers!
This is helpful…I was wondering if extra months increase your annuity. Thank you!
If anyone is wondering how long it takes to accrue 2,080 hours of sick leave:
2080/4=520. You get 4 hours of sick leave per pay period so it would take you 520 pay periods without using any sick leave to accrue 2,080 hours. There are 26 pay periods per year so you would have to work 20 years (520/26=20 years) without taking a single hour of sick leave to get one extra year ($1,000) added to your pension.
That’s complete madness and the lesson you should be taking from this is to USE YOUR SICK LEAVE
* A YEAR! not even a hundred buck a month.
I've been a federal employee for over 8 years now and haven't used a single sick hour in probably 7 years. I just use my use or lose annual leave for medical appts and illnesses. Barring any major illnesses, I anticipate it being fairly easy to save up 2080 sick hours, if not more, by the time I retire. Save it for the pension boost, if you can.
My 2¢. Depends on the environment in which you work. If you're ok with working and put your sick leave toward your retirement then go for it. I burnt all mine up and then some. The last two years I was employed really sucked and I wasn't having it so I took off as much time as possible. Covid really screwed things up. For me using sick leave had more of a mental health benefit and was entirely worth burning up. The little bit of difference to put it into retirement wouldn't have been worth the mental turmoil to deal with the daily 🐂💩. I'm glad I retired early.
👍Exactly.
You must have been a postal employee!!
👍👍💯 I’m a GOV employee and see some of my older dear co workers die .. due to stress related illness .. the pandemic didn’t help
Great information. Thank you!
Sick leave is like an insurance policy save it until the end and then use it before you go. If they paid you out like annual leave it would be worth keeping. They pay you pennies on the dollar so it’s more advantageous to use it imo.
But how are you going to legally use it? This is what you certify when you put in for sick leave.
" I understand that I must comply with my employing agency's procedures for requesting leave/approved absence (and provide additional documentation, including medical certification, if required) and that falsification of information on this form may be grounds for disciplinary action, including removal. "
Two words..."FERS FLU". The whole reason why the Gov't waited so long to grant Sick Leave retirement credit was because they used to not compensate employees at all for accrued SL and benefitted from employee forfeiting thousands of hours of leave. Employees basically lost months of earned benefits.
Smart employees nearing retirement started liberally (and legally) using their sick days which isn't hard to do. They could call in Sick every Friday, get a doctors note for some ailment and take a week off from work, etc. It was getting out of hand, but everyone knew if they didn't use it, they'd lose it. Retirement credit for SL is a "something is better than nothing" solution, but still less than fully compensating employees for their earned benefit.
@@Dave-sw2dm well some of us have issues maybe you have a clean bill of health. I could call off every week with the pain I’m in most days, but I suck it up! Won’t be sucking it up down the road.
@@Dave-sw2dm furthermore, I’m a disabled Veteran asked me how concerned I am with using my sick leave I’ve earned! Smh
@@Dave-sw2dm how long have you been in the Government?
You can also use a spreadsheet to figure out your sick leave credit. One month is 174 hours of sick leave. You can divide your sick leave balance by 174 and it will tell you the months. If you use the mod function as in mod(SLB, 174) , it will give you the remainder in hours. So to get fancy, use the trunc function to get months trunc(SLB/174) and then the mod (SLB, 174)/8 to get the extra days. Or, just google the chart.
I did the computation and it came out to be $40 more per month. If this amount over 10 years was compared to my hourly rate it would be only 75 hours of leave (less than 2 weeks). Although the extra money at least gives you something for your sick leave, to me it would make sense, if you have doctor's appointments or are ill, to use your sick leave and not bank it. An extra $4,800 over 10 years isn't much.
Very informative video, thanks.
Save some for emergencies but use most of it. It's the only way to make it mentally to 20 or 30 years of service
In retirement, an extra $83 may actually be nice to have... just depends on your own situation. That's a couple of visits to a (non-fancy) restaurant each month, or a tank of gas. Based on my currently available sick leave, I have projected I'll have about an extra 5-6 months of time added to my time in service when I retire (taking me from about 11.5 years to 12) -- won't be all that much extra, but I'll gladly take whatever extra monthly income that generates.
$1,000 a year for a year’s sick leave. In order to break even, you’d have to live 100 years after retirement. I really don’t think you’ll make it up.
Perfect answer. Definitely take your sick leave.
This is the correct answer!
Yeah and still accrue annual all the while!
To take more than 3 consecutive days sick leave you'll need evidence from a medical provider to prove your serious illness or injury. If you try to circumvent this rule and work an occassional day or so your manager will suspect that you are taking "terminal" sick leave (which is prohibited) and request the medical evidence.
Perfect explanation Hawes
This is great info but I’m looking forward to being sick for over a year before retiring. Hell, I’ll probably burn up my annual leave too rather than taking the check. Things have changed in the last year due to budget constraints so I don’t know if it will be easy enough to suck up a job slot while I go on leave, but for now that’s my plan.
You must work for the same agency I do. I’ve got just under a year to retire and I’m going to take two days off a week on average before I punch out.
yes, use up all of your sick before you retire. If you are younger worker, try to save as much as possible so when you are old you have some to use. If you within 3 years of retirement start using it all up by taking off for appts., helping family members etc. because you get paid your fill salary when you are off !! .. and prolong your actual retirement as long as possible to get a bigger monthly check in retirement. Why rush into retirement when you have all the SICK leave to use.
Another great one thanks 😊
Glad you enjoyed it
Yes you should use it
I enjoyed the video.
Lots of federal financial advisors I’ve talked to recommend using up your sick leave if you can. You collect a regular paycheck and COLA in some locales until you retire. The amount added to your pension does not compensate for that.
Another reason tax payers in private sector jobs hate government workers.
Great channel!!
Haws should do a video on the accounting of service years. It's quite complicated if you have worked for several agencies. I heard many stories of people thinking they had all their years but came up short.
That should show up easily on your WEBTA system it has service computation date on it.
I burned up five months worth right into retirement. I was broken down physically and mentally, it may have saved my life, i was losing it.
I thought I was retiring this week. I had what would have been credited with 3 months and 25 days of sick leave. So I started burning up that 25 days. Lo and behold, I forgot that I started civil service while in terminal leave from the Army. That time didn't count towards civil service retirement and I had to push my retirement date back 2 months. Now I just have the 3 months left and have to suffer through the next two months unless I want to burn another month worth of sick leave. (might be worth it).
To use or not to use, that is a question!
use if you can
Let's say you have one year of unused sick leave and you want to retire. You have two choices. Use the year to increase your pension. The second is use it, but that's not easy. If you plan to retire now but will take one year of continuous sick leave and then retire in one year, try convincing your boss of that plan. If that's approved, that should be the choice everyone should make. One full year's pay without working AND the small increase in your pension for that year. I wish. Of course if you have someone push you down the stairs and you live the next year in a body cast, that will work, but you'll have a quality of life issue for sure. :/
But don't use this for a goal. Feel sick? Don't come to the office. Going to the Doctor? Take the day (it helps your physical and mental health).
I will have close to 1800 hours at age 60. I plan on getting FERS flue the last 2 years and work every other say. I get the time of service and paid for it.
Hilarious - never heard of "FERS flu", that 's a new one. While you are working every other "say" I hope you don't get fired in the process.
I think you can get FMLA for the Fers Flu if u caught it at work
The problem is this is what you certify when you put in for sick leave.
" I understand that I must comply with my employing agency's procedures for requesting leave/approved absence (and provide additional documentation, including medical certification, if required) and that falsification of information on this form may be grounds for disciplinary action, including removal. "
@@mikea1184 if you caught it at work you can get the OWCP for the "FERS Flu"
Please give a video about the ramification of Fed Now.
I was building my SL about 10 years prior to retirement just for this reason. I documented AL in lieu of SL on many hours of leave slips. Then I got selected for a permanent PCS overseas job.
You are allowed to carry over 360 hours AL annually instead of the normal 240 in overseas positions. Then the 360 is your new normal max as long as you don't go under it for the rest of your career.
My boss let me convert the AL back to SL and I reported to the overseas position with over 300 hours AL. I then had around 530 hours of AL on the books at retirement 7 years later which was cashed out.
I still had enough SL to add 6 months time credit with 25 or so days residual which I used in the last month.
One other item of note...I was Wage Grade and retired on the last day of the last pay period on a January 3rd. The yearly pay increase was effective in November but it isn't usually paid until March with back pay. I was due the pay and resulting calculation changes from November through my last day. Took me about a year of back and forth with OPM and my final Agency HR but I did get made whole. GS pay raise starts on the first day of the new pay year so this often gets overlooked for WG.
I recently retired as a federal physician with 30 years of service plus 1 year and one month of unused sick leave, for 31 years and one month for my pension calculation. Because of my high salary and very large amount of unused sick leave, the unused sick leave amounts to an extra $4,400 per year before taxes. Over 30 years (not including COLA), that would be an extra $132,000 before taxes, so it is valuable (enough to buy two new pickup trucks in retirement). I was not allowed to use up much sick leave because using more than 3 consecutive sick days required a doctor's note (and no I couldn't write one for myself). I used up about half of my annual leave a few months before I retired (which reduced a lot of mental stress and allowed me to complete home projects before retirement), but I still had enough unused annual leave to get $25,000 lump sum bonus after taxes. I also receive the FERS supplement from age 59.5 to 62 which is an extra $20,400 per year before taxes to bridge the Social Security gap. With my large pension, FERS supplement, and reduced withholding, my pension take home net is more like 50% of my working take home pay, not 31.1%. In 9 months of retirement, my checking account has doubled in size without dipping into savings, investments, or my TSP. The downside to my retiring in 2022 is that because I am receiving the FERS supplement, I am not entitled to the biggest FERS COLA in decades. Also, if I were to moonlight as a doctor for a few weekends in retirement, I would lose the free money FERS supplement, which disincentivizes me from working.
I really need to know more about this retirement approach you did Doc! I too have 30 yrs in with 2000 sick leave hours saved up. My goal was to get 2080 hrs to have the full years worth, then retire, but you seem to speak as if that is TOTALLY WRONG. What’s your advice on the best way to maximize my way out the door? Use my sick leave up incrementally and take advantage of the paycheck along with the TSP contributions until I burn up all of it?
@@kevinclark1482 There is no magic threshold of getting an even year's worth of sick leave. If it ends up being 11 months and a day or two, so be it. Mine just happened to be 1 year and one month when I reached 30 years of service. 30 years IS a magical threshold because it meant I could get my "full" pension without penalty at minimum retirement age and 30 years of service. My 30 year continuous service anniversary was June 30, 2022 and my original plan was to retire July 8, 2022 for margin of error and to get paid for the federal holiday. Turns out that was a bad plan. For my continuous uninterrupted service there was no need for a margin of error and June 30th was the soonest I could retire without penalty. I would get no salary for the last 3 weeks of July and my pension wouldn't start until Aug 1, thus creating an unnecessary pay gap. So at the advice of a retirement HR employee, I moved my retirement up a week to June 30 so my pension would start on July 1 with no pay gap. Once that date was decided I used the GRB Platform FERS Retirement Estimate Report calculator to estimate my pension, FERS supplement, and sick leave conversion. With sick leave, they round down to the nearest month so if you retire with say 1 year and 29 days of accumulated sick leave, you get the one year but lose the 29 days. To avoid that you try to leave only one or two days, such as 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day, rather than 1 year and 29 days because you would lose those 29 days. Some people game the system a bit by using up those left over sick days before retirement and thus spare unused annual leave days which are more valuable as a direct pay conversion lump sum. My boss thought my using up a month's worth of annual leave before retirement was a bad plan because it markedly reduced my direct conversion of annual leave to lump sum pay. She said I should have burned through a month of sick leave instead, which only becomes valuable if you live a long time into retirement. Perhaps she was correct, but I did not feel right about gaming the system by using tons of sick leave when I was not sick (more than 3 days in a row needed a doctor's note). I did use a few sick days I had to spare. When my wife retired from her state government job, burning thru sick leave before retirement was standard practice since she would spare annual leave and stay longer on the payroll making more pay and increase her pension calculation with two months additional time of service. So both types of federal leave are valuable in retirement, annual leave for immediate lump sum pay conversion, and sick leave in long term pension payout. Since my wife and I each have pensions, ample 401k/TSP accounts, no health conditions, excellent physical fitness, and no mortgage or debt, we elected for NO survivor's benefits to maximize our pension payouts. The secret to a big pension payout is to have a high 3 year salary and to live a long time into retirement. You also don't want to leave 29 days of sick leave in the table. Hope this helps. One regret I have was not researching/comparing adding her to my FEHB. The FEHB is a very good benefit, but her state healthcare plan is lousy and costs 2.5 times as much as my federal plan.
I have a coworker who is a actually milking their sick leave right now by taking 1-2 days here and there every single pay period. They never take 3 days so they don’t have to produce a doctors note. They are 61 and burning up their sick leave until they get to age 62 on Oct 30 and intend to retire on Oct 31. They intend to go out with 0 sick leave hours but maximizing their annual leave hours for the leave pay out check to carry them until their pension check kicks in. I was told this method is more benefitting financially by comparing used sick leave dollars vs converting those hours towards your retirement formula. How do you view that tactic because now I’m considering it myself.
@@kevinclark1482 There are a few things wrong about this strategy. It assumes unused sick leave is not valuable, when it IS valuable in the long run. It doesn't account for a near-retirement time safe margin in case one has an injury or hospitalization when one might actually need to take real sick leave. If one has to rely on the lump sum as a bridge with lots of bills and no cash reserves then one hasn't planned well for retirement. One should have large cash reserves that are a safety net while working but then become good for waiting out a down stock market in retirement so one doesn't have to draw from one's 401k/TSP accounts while share prices are down. Reaching 62 is a good goal because of the 1.1 multiplier increases the pension by 10%. However, by retiring at age 59 I will have collected pension money for almost 3 years by age 62 whereas the 62 year old who waited to retire hasn't collected a dime and thus has to catch up to me for quite a while. There is no way I could have tolerated working another 3 years, myself. By retiring late in the year while maximizing their annual leave lump sum, they are also maximizing the taxes on that lump sum by being in a higher tax bracket from getting almost a full year's salary. Why not wait and retire early in 2024 when their tax bracket will drop down dramatically and then get to keep more of that maximized lump sum? Depends on how big that lump sum is and how frustrating/enjoyable the job is. Again the lump sum is a nice bonus, but it definitely should not be the only thing to bridge someone to their first pension check. It should be noted that the horror stories of waiting months and months for that first pension check are over. I got my first one pretty much right on time without a time gap, albeit an 85% estimate of my final adjudication. They calculate how much your pension will be and send you a slightly reduced estimate on time. Then months later you get the full finalized pension amount plus any under payment from the previous months. It had been retirees' biggest complaint and the OPM has addressed that. In my case, doctors calling in last minute unscheduled sick leave would add an extra burden on other physicians, hurt your reputation of reliability, and sometimes compromise patient care, so taking several days of unscheduled sick leave per pay period was not good medical ethics. Most jobs aren't this mission critical though. One can ethically schedule sick leave for doctors appointments and testing, however, and it reduces the scheduling burden.
Good info. How do you get the FERS supplement if you weren’t a firefighter/LEO/ATC?
OPM has a chart to figure out sick leave. Use all that will be extra days. You get credit for month and year
Pretty easy decision. Using his example, $100K a yr before deductions while sitting on the bench for a yr OR $83 a month extra in retirement? You'd have to live 100 yrs after retirement to break even for adding it to your time over using it. Not to mention you get to contribute to your retirement and savings for another yr if you use it.
Sounds simple except for what you certify when you put in for sick leave.
" I understand that I must comply with my employing agency's procedures for requesting leave/approved absence (and provide additional documentation, including medical certification, if required) and that falsification of information on this form may be grounds for disciplinary action, including removal. "
@@Dave-sw2dm definitely! We were taking hypotheticals based on Mr. Hawes's scenario, so yes, you must do so within the confines of whatever rules and regulations are in place and imposed by your employer! 👍
I have 43 years of federal service under CSRS; retiring the end of this year (with 43.5 years), and will have over 8 months of unused sick leave. I am several years past my eligibility. Running the retirement calculations that add those unused SL hours to my service time, I have an excess of sick leave that will not count toward my annuity time. I actually hit my maximum annuity percentage 9 months ago. I calculated how much SL that I need to maintain my max percentage under CSRS. So I am strategically burning my sick leave. Actually, I just had a surgery a few weeks ago, and that excess pot of SL has come in handy. I still have a lot to burn.
You mean call in sick when you really aren't? I'd say no....only use it when you are sick and use the balance at retirement to increase your credible working years. And...cash in that 240 (of 360 hours if you worked overseas) annual leave for a big fat check. My 2 cents.
Finish the analysis. What's the sick leave worth if you take it today? Whatever your annual salary is. So if you were making around $100K, it's worth around $100K. You'd have to correct your pension for 100 years to break even and 101 years to be a head. Not worth saving your sick leave for retirement. Not saying you shouldn't have some banked for just in case reasons, but shouldn't try and extend pension with sick leave - the government wins if you do that.
If we had an option to burn off sick leave legitimately that would be the preferred choice hands down. Imagine being able to essentially retire a year early, not have to come to work for a year, and still get the extra year factored into your pension calculation. That's the point missing here. While on sick leave you are still in work status so you get to have your cake and eat it too. Unfortunately, you need to be actually sick to do that though.
I intend to retire from Federal service at age 64, and I'll have about 3 months of sick leave built up. I will have 7 years of Federal service, which makes me eligible for retirement (62 years old with at least 5 years of service), BUT, I thought I read somewhere that you need to have at least 10 years of service to convert your sick leave and have it count towards your retirement computation. Is this true?
The extra per month could be invested for an larger gain over time. I am living on my pension so I will be investing all of my social security 😀
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I don't have my spreadsheet in front of me. I think the magic number was 3.5%. As long as you earn that much from interests or dividends then you make more than postponing your SS. From my last reading, my FERS/MIL/VA/SS will not exceed $83K. Anything below $83K in earnings means no tax on dividends. Dump all of the TSP into an IRA and buy blue chip dividend stocks. 4% divi on $500K is $20K a year tax free and you never lose your capital and dividend contenders, aristocrats, and kings will increase their div each year. (Not Guaranteed)
What if ? I worked for 5yrs and retire from FED? But only I'm 35yrs old.. do I get retirement pension later on??
I retired early at 55, now 57. Technically I resigned or quit since I was not at MRA...since I will still get a Fed Retirement at 62, I call it my 2nd retirement.
I did the math, I had 720 (ish) hrs sick leave at the time, If I was retirement eligible that 720hrs would have made an 18.00 (before tax) difference on my retirement so it absolutely makes sense to burn your sick leave, full pay/benefits until it runs out.
Do you want a long, healthy, happy life? Do NOT work for the federal government. The gov't use to have a good retirement, the CSRS. It was replaced by FERS in the 80's and it sucks. And it gets watered down more and more every decade. I worked for Uncle Sam for 30+ years and will die in poverty because FERS does not keep up with cost of living (COLA). Stress has taken years off my life. I worked hard for 30+ years and used up my stockpile of sick leave at the end because of stress. You can't quit because if you do before your minimum retirement age (MRA) you loose your health insurance. That is how they enslave you.
Use every minute of sick leave you have accrued before you retire. I had over one year worth of SL, and glad I did.
What if you cash it out so that it appears you are making more money the last five years?
Also, it's not allowed to take sick leave if you are not sick or in a legitimate sick leave category.
🤔🤧
That part
This.
SL ??? Use it all. Trust me. I’m a retired fed. Not this guy. A.L can be a nice check/Deposit upon retirement. SL use it or lose it bro. 😉
Not the subject, but I wish you could cash in your annual leave anytime in your career. Kinda like an emergency fund if something comes up
I know folks that use sick leave liberally. They don’t miss a birthday, a graduation or a soccer game and I also know people that have an impeccable attendance record.
How about getting it back in a lump sum?
I was a federal employee for two years, if sometime in the future, I go back, do I have to work for three years or does it have to be five years consecutive to get a small pension? I have NOT applied to get a refund for my FERS pension contributions back. I’m turning 34 in a week.
If you worked for the government more than once they are added together until you reach the time needed to retire.
You’d have to work for 3 additional years.
It seems to me that if possible, a person should use it. Because while you are using your leave, you are being paid and you are staying in the job so your total time and service will be the same. Of course, that is assuming that you can justify, needing to take the sickleave
Great video
Do your own research, in my bargaining unit under FERS we are eligible for a sick leave buy back at $.40 on the dollar. That can add up to a nice chunk of change to walk away with.
I have somewhere around 2500 hours of s/l. I have a ways to go till I retire but I'm worried the minute I burn through it, I'll end up doing something stupid like break a hip and need to be off for a lengthy period!
With 2500 hours it is impossible you have a ways to go until you retire; you have at least 35 plus years in with that much AL.
@@celticmco5672 I'm at 30 this year. Maybe it's 2400. I never look so last time I was at 2400. It came out to like close 1 year and 2 1/2 months
I'll have to look at webta. I just put in my time and never pay attention to leave
In my opinion you have a cushion so go ahead and use some of that sick leave!
@@celticmco5672 You earn 4 hour of sick leave per pay period. There are 26 pay periods a year. That is 104 hours of sick leave earned a year. 2500 is a little more than 24 years. So id BOOM started at age 25, then he is age 50 and can work another decade+ if he wanted to!
If you have one year of sick leave, can you use it one year before retiring? For example use all sick leave at 66 and then retire at 67. Is that allowable?
not in all one year unless you can go on FMLA leave to care for a family member... a form signed by a health provider, ie doctor indicating that you have to care for a family member.
It seems to me that for me at least, it’s better to use the sick leave while you’re working. If you have a year’s worth of sick leave and your job will let you it seems to me like you’re better off taking off for a year, coming back for one day and officially retiring. That way you continue to make contributions to your retirement account for that last year without having to tap into it yet.
What are you talking about when you state "if your job will let you"? You are sick or you are not sick. At some point you will have to justify the leave.
@@celticmco5672 If you’re a year away from retirement, and you have a year’s worth of sick leave, you can go through the rigamarole of going on medical leave for a year and end up in the same place, or they can let you use the leave that you’ve earned and saved up to go on leave until your official retirement date.
@@boondoggle4820 You have no idea what you are talking about - there is no such thing as "rigamarole/process" to be granted a year of medical leave (no agency is just going to "let you" take a year of SL). You are either sick or your not; and yes you can be fired your last year if you lie on leave requests.
Celtic is right. Government agencies require medical documentation to be on sick leave for a year and that's not really fun.
@@Zwoman50 I don’t know whether or not any will but I know that they certainly can if you’re ready to retire. If you have the leave they can let you use the leave. I said that it would be my preferred option, if it is an option. The benefit to the agency is that incentivizes people to save as much leave as possible instead of calling out sick as often which causes staffing shortages. Either way, it’s their leave and they have a right to use it. Employers should consider that option.
That SL formula assumes that one never took SL.
Put your sick leave, Vaca or paid time off, on the hind end of your retirement
I wish they paid out for leftover sick leave when you retired. There is not much incentive to hold on to your sick leave. No wonder people burn through it the last year on the job.
and if you use the burning through of sick leave to increase your time in service an extra year you will receive the same amount of FERS when you actually retire.
I never knew anyone that "burned" through their SL the last year on the job. Where can one find these jobs that you can do anything you damn well please?
@@celticmco5672 They start calling in sick like once a week
@@celticmco5672 post office, there all doing it. In fact the retirement seminars are advising them to do it.
@@celticmco5672 , what are they going to do, fire you? LOL! Give you a bad review? If you are just extending your retirement date, if management complains too much there is not much they can do if you have valid reasons to take sick leave. Now, I have never heard of anyone burning a year of leave, but have seen folks burn the days that don't add time to retirement.
Nah. I would rather take the sick leave. $83 bucks is virtually nothing. Just saying.
20 or more years bumps the multiplier up to 1.1%.
No, Bill, you have to be 62.
Right, 1.1% multiplier at age 62 and 20 years, so it would be 22% at 62 years. At 27 years it would be about 30%.
Yes, age 62 with 20 years=1.1% multiplier.
What happens with your sick leave if you have less than 176 hours at retirement or any other number less than one Month?
Your sick leave is added to the Years and months and days you are credited with working. The final calculation is all those years and days added together that equal a full month. All extra days do not help you.
@@StanHasselback So in theory I could lose any hours that don't equal one month?
@@davidw7776 It's not theory, You will lose any time that does not equal a month. Your annuity will be so many years and months.
@@StanHasselback You just made my point for using your SL before one retires. Much more value using my SL prior to retirement.
What if your 61.5 yrs old with 40 yrs of service. You have 6 months of SL will it push you to 62 and let you qualify for the 1.1% vice 1% for your pension? Or do you have to be 62 yrs old to get the 1.1%?
Great question. Unused sick leave does not count towards your age. It will only count towards your years of service. Here is a great video on that: th-cam.com/video/4gU66nzg7Zo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=HawsFederalAdvisors
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Isn't that guy being brought up on federal charges for bilking clients out of their life savings?
If your high 3 is $100,000 a year and get 1% you get $1000 for every year of service. A year of sick leave will give you $1000 extra a year plus any cost of living increase. If you retire at 62 and die at 82 you will get roughly $20,000 extra dollars give or take depending on COLA. If you take a year of sick leave, you now retire at 63 instead of 62 so you get full salary for an extra year and actually get the same FERs pension. Unfortunately, it is immoral, if not illegal to take the last year off on sick leave and then retire if you don't have a valid reason to use sick leave.
It's a rip off.
@@albaptist3385 , maybe, but it did just disappear 10 or so years ago.
@@Dave-sw2dm What disappeared?
@@albaptist3385 , sick leave. We only got to count it towards retirement a few years ago.
It might be immoral or illegal but we may not know what is going on with that person privately prior to retirement and probably none of anybody’s business. They never missed a day of work, they earned it.
It isn't a financial question. I have almost 8 months of sick leave. It is unlikely that I will be that sick in my final year of employment.
I would use some now .. and get full pay while not working !!! retirement pay will be much lower than your working salary.
The calculation is not based on a 40hr work week, it is 174hrs for one month of credit. 173hrs and you get nothing towards retirement. Think of it this way, 1 month will pay you a 12th of your high three average at the percentage you accrued, or you use it before retirement and get paid 100% of your current salary for the day used. No brainer...
So using your example, you would get about $83 a month more; Do you ever get PAID for the actual sick time hours that you saved? Because it would be worth $100k or a year off of work with pay. Now, if you bring it down to the majority of us who work for the government and earn an average of around $60,000 a year. A year of paid sick leave would be worth WAY more to us than the $20 bucks we might get in our monthly retirement check right? Now, if you got BOTH, paid for the sick time you didnt take but banked AND got credit for an additional year, that would be amazing. Which is it?
In regular corporate America, they would want to incentivesize (is that even a word? lol) not calling in sick, so usually pay you like half of the worth of what you have, and then of course they have a lot more of a "use it or lose it" on sick leave than any government agency.,
Better save some of it. The pension might not be available for a few months.
Thats a valid statement for Annual Leave. Your Sick Leave is added to your pension so it doesnt matter if you save it or not. If your pension is delayed a few months so will you benefits of saving your sick leave
Only annual leave provides a paycheck at retirement, not sick leave. Better to have savings to bridge the gap until those pension checks start arriving.
You don't get paid for sick leave !!!! you get paid for unused Annual Leave !!! at the end of your career.
I know sick leave can't bump you up to retirement age but can it get you the 10 percent bonus if you are less then 62?
Unfortunately not.
Question: if you take the leave as terminal leave, when can you file for retirement? Your last working day, or the day your leave expires?
Never really realized how bad a deal it is to hold on to your sick leave. Assuming you live 20-30 years in retirement, you'd only get 20-30% of what you would have versus just taking the leave, plus the time you're racking up while you're in a paid status. My anal glaucoma may start to flare up a bit more often :P
Sick Leave is not a supplement to Annual Leave; It is for only when you are sick or caring for a family member.
it is for when you are sick, when you have doctors appointments and also when approved to care for other sick family members - I have plenty of SL now over 1,400 hrs and i’m retiring in about 3 years - they should give better credit for unused SL to incentivize people that burn it all throughout their careers - like the joke says some people don’t have a line separating their Annual and Sick Leave totals
it is for when you are sick, when you have doctors appointments and also when approved to care for other sick family members - I have plenty of SL now over 1,400 hrs and i’m retiring in about 3 years - they should give better credit for unused SL to incentivize people not burning it all throughout their careers - like the joke says some people don’t have a line separating their Annual and Sick Leave totals
$20000 a year?
Yes, this number is an example of how much you could receive for you pension. Then, you would add sick leave onto that.👍
Sick leave is calculated at 6 hours for a full day not 8. But you don't get the benefit of holidays when cashing in sick leave. Plus any sick leave that adds to your years of service must end in a whole month.
This ought to be a good one with clueless responses. What are you talking about at 1:22 "or just use it before". SL is not AL - you use it when you are sick; there is no box you can check on the SL request that states because I feel like it or it is owed to me. Now if you need a knee replacement before your retire and have to burn 3 months SL by all means do so. Or if you break you leg skiing or are hungover/need a mental health day, sure go ahead and use SL. I left with almost 1800 hours after 33 years (was happy to add it to my calculation) and still used SL when I had a legitimate need to do so; I was never going to basically lie on the SL request.
Of course as you get old there are many reasons to burn some leave. Most people though would rather work the hours even if they are only 50% productive, than take the day off.