Civil service retirement income certain or just a guess? Published Aug. 13, 2008 By Civilian Personnel Tinker Air Force Base TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., -- Do you know if you will be able to retire when you become eligible? The best place to begin is to determine when you will first be eligible to retire. Regardless of your retirement system, you must meet both the age and years of service requirements to be eligible. Appropriated fund civilian employees who are covered by the Civil Service Retirement System can retire at age 55 with at least 30 years of service. The next eligibility step is at age 60 with a minimum of 20 years of service and finally employees who are age 62 can retire with only 5 years of service. The requirements of the Federal Employees Retirement System are similar except the first eligibility is your minimum retirement age with 30 years of service. Your MRA will be between 55 and 57 depending on what year you were born. The requirements for employees at age 60 and 62 are the same as CSRS. FERS also has a form of voluntary early retirement that is not available under CSRS. It is called MRA and 10 (minimum retirement age with at least 10 years of service). However, employees who retire at MRA and 10 years of service will lose five percent of their FERS annuity for each year the retiree is under age 62 and would not be eligible for the Social Security Supplement. Once you have determined your eligibility and retirement date, you should calculate your projected retirement annuity. If your retirement date is more than six months away, you will need to get your retirement estimate through the Employee Benefits Information System website at Air Force Personnel Center. Links to the EBIS website can be found on the AFPC website under the tab for civilian employees. The AFPC website can be found at http://ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil. By using EBIS you can see what effect different retirement dates will have on your annuity. You can also input your data from your Thrift Savings Plan and Social Security statements which will allow you to see the total projected benefits you could receive. If you decide to retire, you should contact your servicing Civilian Personnel Office and speak with a retirement and benefits specialist to request a formal retirement estimate - you should do this four to six months from your planned retirement date. We will go through your personnel folder and give you a detailed estimate. Once you've made the decision to retire, you should call four to six weeks before your retirement date to schedule the appointment for your retirement processing. The Tinker Civilian Personnel Office and the Tinker Federal Credit Union are working together to conduct retirement seminars for employees who are within five years of retirement. These seminars cover civilian retirements and financial planning for retirement. We are also conducting seminars for younger employees to help them start planning now so that they are financially able to retire when the time comes. The goal is to offer these seminars to all Tinker employees. To attend a retirement seminar, please contact your unit training monitor. It is important that you take action and start planning for your retirement today. If you have questions, please contact the Civilian Personnel Office at 739-7516.