Top 5 Regrets of Retiring Federal Employees 

I have worked in the same federal agency for 30 years. I use to be ashamed to tell anyone because I thought I lacked in experience from working in the same agency. Now that I am closer to retiring I don't feel the same. I attended to my children's needs and school activities and took off when needed. I maintained a relatively good quality of life staying put and climbed the ladder to higher paying positions along the way. I had some rough years with different supervisors but I persevered through all the different personalities and challenges along the way. I have no regrets.

Countdown 5 months to my Retirement Day ... Life is too short.. Retiring at MRA!

I couldn't agree more. I am not very far away from retirement. I work with people who are working behind retirement for more money in retirement. However, this comes at the cost of time. It doesn't matter how much you have in your checking account, you cannot buy back the time you gave up to work longer.

My trip this year to Thailand was eye opening. I spend 50 hours a week working, and another 10 on the road in traffic to live in the rat race where I need at least $4,000 to survive each month. I could live in a condo close to the beach in Thailand for around $1,500 and never work another day in my life. We as Americans are the giant elephant tied to a little stake in the ground, they put that stake on us as young adults, and by the time we are 50, we just assume we can't pull it out.

Mr Haws...again...another great video presented with passion as only you can deliver it. Thank you for that. So here's my thoughts on it to pass on to whoever might be interested. Background: 20yrs Army Infantryman Retired, now a Claims Rep for a big Administration with less than 5 years to go. Maybe my experience in the military, mental outlook, or just plain dumb luck combined or maybe my current commander in chief who is better than Google because she knows everything is keeping me on track.... makes me give my thoughts regarding the following: 1st 👍3:05 Glad I'm able to do that and not pretend I am someone I am not. Stand tall for what you believe in yourself. 2nd 👍4:08 After the Army, working for SSA is easy peasy. Don't get me wrong, tons of work, but having fun as you work is the best! 3rd 👍5:08 Express your feelings at work, but with respect. Know the limits of your advance and your boundaries and you'll be okay 4th 👌5:48 Select few works for me. Don't need 100K pretend friends on Facebook. 5th😁 6:25 On my work computer as my background, it says "If you are not happy with what you have, then how can you be happy with more? Simple as that. We can wish all day long, in the past, in the present, for the future. I hear all the time, "I wish I can work for another agency or somewhere else. Keep this in mind...The Grass is not always greener, on the other side. Let yourself be happier, by simply doing the best you can with what you have with the time you have. Stay away from the negatives, and keep feeding the positives. If you are not a Happy Camper now, then it is never too late to start. If you...Really...Really don't know where to start and you're "Lost" per se.... here's a tip... In the Army when we do land navigation exercises and someone gets lost or misoriented, we tell them..."If that happens to you, then go back to your starting point, at least you know where you....Started From!" Everyone Take care, Stay Safe and God Bless.. JT And Mr. Haws...keep putting out these good videos. Sadly enough...more people searching for "Funny or unproductive" videos and not something to either improve their life, help them become a better person, or information to help them with their future!!! But it's cool... I do the same...just balance family, life, fun and work and it will work out in the end.

Another great video, Dallen! For me the most important part of retirement is freedom. Freedom to do what I want to do, when I want to, after being tied down to a desk for 42 years. The only regret I have is that I could've kept working a while longer and held out for more $$, but that wasn't as important. I'm now waiting for my wife, also a federal employee, to retire and join me. She's one of the few holdouts under CSRS and is wanting to maximize her pension.

I retired 12 months ago June 30, 2022 as a federal physician (high in demand specialty at top salary cap) when I reached 30 years of service + one year's worth of sick leave and a crazy jacked up TSP from 29 years max contributions 100% C Fund. I think I probably got the best retirement package of any other federal employee at my hospital, although cannot confirm. One regret was not researching adding my wife (a state retiree) to my FEHB because her Virginia state retirement plan is lousy and costs 2.5 times more than mine. Another regret was not doubling my final year pay period TSP contributions (and 50+ catch up) which I had calculated as the annual TSP cap divided by 26 pay periods, since I retired half way through the year and thus only contributed half of what I could have in 2022 when the market was dropping and C Fund shares were at discount. That would have lowered my final year taxable income even more and given my TSP a final contribution boost. One possible regret was burning through a lot of annual leave instead of sick leave at the end which lowered my annual leave lump sum conversion. I still got a tidy sum, but it could have been twice as much. I used just enough sick leave not to waste any at the 30 day monthly cut off in service time conversion. To use more than 3 days of sick leave in a row we needed a doctor's note (and no, I couldn't write one for myself). I didn't feel ethical calling in sick in the morning and messing up the physician's daily work schedule when I wasn't sick, although I did schedule some sick days off for "medical appointments". I really needed those annual leave days off at the end to relieve job stress and it was a good way to slide into retirement. I made those leave days productive and got a lot of long term projects done so they were completed before retirement. That meant I retired without any unfinished burdens, which I highly recommend.

Agree 💯, doing things you want to do before you lose mobility and energy is key. We have become materialistic, that requires working long hours and being fully engaged in work. Relationships with family and friends suffer.

I think most ppl should consider sleeping more. It’s a weird thing to say. But instead of everyone trying to get as much activities done as possible, try to maximize the stuff that’s easier to do

I’m eligible to retire early next year and I’ve come to realize some of these things the last couple of years. I wish when I had received my first H.R. paperwork 21 yrs ago that these 5 regrets would have been shared. Thank you for sharing, this is perhaps the greatest advise you have given.

All true- just retired in 12/2021 and yea OPM is behind and be ready for missing pay for several months- but lovin it! Still very busy but on what I want to do- stay healthy because you’ll be running around if you’re lucky. So worth yrs with the FEDS to be able to retire early!! Made some great friends & experiences!

No regrets, retired topped out Gs-15, no debt, never thought that would happen, the Lord blessed me

I retired early in January. I don't regret it. It was a stable job with good income but over the last 10 years or so the benefits were being taken away. I recommend retiring at your MRA. So I've been retired for about 3 1/2 months now and the only two things I wasn't prepared for is time going by so fast. Where'd the day go? Time for bed again?? And I wasn't prepared for OPM screwing up my paperwork so much. I get that there's a backlog and may be under staffed so it could take a while. The problem is they actually keep screwing up my paperwork. My retirement application is correct but they've screwed it up 4 times now. Bank information is all on one sheet in an area about 3" x 4" and 4 elements to that information. How do they keep screwing it up I don't know. The worst part is that when they screw it up they won't send your money until the next first of the month so two or three screw ups = two or three months of delayed payments. It's very frustrating. I'd rather be paid in paper check but it's not an option. Also, I'd recommend that you have at least 6 months of accessable and disposable money to live on because you may not get paid when you expect to. A former coworker retired a while before I did and it took six months to start getting paid and it wasn't the full amount. So beware. The process of retirement is an adventure in itself and this site of Dallon's is very informative as to what should be happening and the how to's of paperwork. My paperwork was relatively easy but the larger your extended family and former wives or husband's kids step kids life insurance blah blah can make it quite complicated.

Good Advice. People need to listen to you as you are wise. Your are 100% right. Thank you! All of your videos are great/very helpful, but this is one of the best!

The biggest 'regret' I ran into, and only learned about when getting ready to retire earlier, was learning that all that military time bought back was a serious penalty when it came to SRS. It's usually told 30(civil srv yrs) / 40 = 75% multiplied times the estimated soc. sec. pay if filed at age 62. Well, that formula is actual (30 - active duty bought back) / 40 to get that multiplier. The only way to avoid that hit is to stick it out until you hit 62, but then you get that bonus in pension. I had to extend my work years to adjust to that surprise. That's what also got me watching this channel! Lot of good information learned over the past year, so thanks for that!

I retired at 56 years old with no regrets. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. Man makes plans and God laughs.

Retirement and happiness are very important, I agree. However so is eternity most importantly make sure that you have made peace with Jesus!!!

Exactly 365 days until retirement.

Here are the top regrets based on my mom's experience. I have turned them around so that they are things a retiring federal employee MUST do: Upon and after retiring: 1. Do not exit the federal health insurance program. 2. Do not exit the federal health insurance program. 3. Do not exit the federal health insurance program. 4. Do not exit the federal health insurance program. 5. Do not exit the federal health insurance program. If you exit the federal health insurance program after retiring, you cannot get back in. It is common to retire, and take another private industry job that has excellent insurance. If so, then take your federal plan down to the cheapest self-only plan you can find. Because that company insurance plan may not carry with you when you retire from that company, so you're forced to medicare and market plans. Stay in the federal health insurance program. Please correct me if this information is out of date. I believe it is current. Thank you.

I am retiring in 3 weeks. No regrets. health will drastically improve by being away from the stress of working for idiots.

Great video. Not what I was expecting. Thank you for your great content.

I was 2 years past my retirement age. I loved my job and the people, yet I was at the age that I would have preferred to work part-time and mostly remotely, which was very doable, yet it was not offered, so I retired. I do not understand this logic when the feds are having a problem hiring people.

If a person has reached their retirement financial goals, but still working, would you recommend they stop contributing more than the TSP match? Thinking of slowing down the TSP savings and spend more on things we want to do.

Not necessarily financial advice but very important none the less. Arguably more important! Thanks 🙂

Got age waiver to join at 40 years old (special category), but the thought of working until 60 to meet the 20 min scares me to death. 😞

List starts at 3:00

I’m glad I learned these lessons in my 40’s

I knew some Fed employees who were getting ready to retire but could not because their unemployed married children had to move in with them and now they need more money. They decide to continue to work

My wife is 50 yrs old, 21 years federal service, GS-15 step 7 (DC Metro locality pay)…she’s been looking to break into SES, studying for her doctorate, maxes her TSP, and wants to wait until 30 yrs service before retirement, to maximize pension. I retired from the military almost 10 years ago, so I’m just waiting on her so we can just travel full time or move overseas (Europe or Latin America) and travel.

i got 20 yrs in. once i hit mra in 9 months i can retire with FEHB or health benefits correct? i take my pension with NO deductions at age 60 correct? i am counting the days? moving se asian for 6 months. FEHB works there i am guessing. probably won't need it i am healthy. my retirement is POSTPONED i believe.

You proved to me it’s always about the numbers. I loved everyone of your videos that’s 100% not with just complete waste of time video like this one it just made is 97%

You couldn't have said it better

I’m only working towards being debt free. I have no other plans. I’m a very simple guy. No travel, only hobby is boxing. Like to sleep a lot.

Garcia Jose Martin Laura Walker Cynthia

Made a lot of mistakes, it’s crunch time now , I accept the fact that I might never be able to retire but I’m working as much as I can to put as much distance between me and disaster and hopefully have enough to last me until I do die and leave as much as I can behind . My life is over already I accept that , nothing left to do but work and work harder than I’ve ever worked. I doubt that retirement will will be an option in the near future and social in- security will be a thing of the past because this country is waited down with the freeloaders that could work but choose to scam the system and hurts the people most it was intended to help . The boat is overloaded and the crooked politicians and their elk will get the life boats .

Hi Dallen please explain how to withwraw from tsp after retire at 60 years old with 500 k on tsp and 2000 dlls a month pencion filing taxes as single 22% iat year thanks

Love this ❣️

Do I get 1% for each year of active service I bought back added to my FERS retirement?

got a question for you.. if you fully funded the TSP 20,500 for the year, can you still out an IRA?

Hi Dallen I've retiring in couple month but I just heard salary be increased in health care field by 7 present .how does this work in retirement calculations .when opm send Grb they go back all the way back making lots less now .it is not fair now every thing almost double price , I just confused about all this

Of course we are afraid to express our feelings, cause most of us would get fired!

Is there a way to retire before MRA and keep the federal health insurance.

This sounds exactly what you decribed hippy dippy

You talk too fast. I have been retired since 1995 and have done almost everything right.

With all due respect, to President Biden retired, enjoy your grandkids and family.

These videos are awesome and informative, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, stop saying “right” after every sentence. 🙏😉

Thank you for all your knowledge you helped me