Choosing The Date

Your retirement benefit is based on salary, years of service, and age. As you plan your retirement date, keep those factors in mind.

If you are under 65, choose a date that is after your next birthday, in order to increase your age factor.

Service is calculated in full months. Choose a date based on your hire date to maximize service. For example, if you started work on the 15th of the month, choose the 15th of the month to retire.

Salary is based on your highest 36-month average. Waiting for a raise won’t help you that much, because the new raise won’t help your average.

If you retire and take a payout of your vacation time, you will not get service credits for the vacation time. You can take your vacation as paid time and then retire to increase your service credits. It may be more beneficial to you to take the vacation as a payout. Retirement estimates can help you determine this.

You can use the Retirement calculator to help you decide on a retirement date. You can also ask the retirement staff to do a more accurate estimate for you.