I help federal employees turn a High-3, a TSP balance, and a survivor election into a paycheck that doesn't run out — without guessing, and without a sales pitch you have to sit through.
Most of the mistakes I see aren't math errors. They're timing errors — one part elected or drawn in the wrong order, which quietly changes every other part.
1% of your High-3 average salary for each year of creditable service — 1.1% if you retire at 62 or later with at least 20 years. Special-provision employees (LEO, firefighter, ATC) earn 1.7% on the first 20.
Set by formula. The only levers are service time and the survivor election.
A bridge payment for eligible retirees who leave before 62 — roughly the Social Security you earned during federal service. It stops at 62 whether you want it to or not, and it's subject to an earnings test.
Ends on a date, not on your readiness. This is the gap people forget.
The one part that is entirely yours to direct. G, F, C, S, I and the Lifecycle funds are excellent accumulation tools; none of them is a paycheck. At separation you decide how — and whether — that changes.
Nothing here requires you to move a dollar. Most people shouldn't move all of it.
Claiming early, at full retirement age, or at 70 changes the shape of everything above it — especially the years between your MRA and 62, and especially for a surviving spouse.
A claiming date is a permanent decision made with temporary information.
| Year of birth | MRA |
|---|---|
| Before 1948 | 55 |
| 1948 – 1952 | 55 + 2 months per year (55 & 2 mo. → 55 & 10 mo.) |
| 1953 – 1964 | 56 |
| 1965 – 1969 | 56 + 2 months per year (56 & 2 mo. → 56 & 10 mo.) |
| 1970 and later | 57 |
Reaching your MRA is not the same as being eligible for an immediate, unreduced annuity — that depends on your years of creditable service. Confirm your own dates with your agency HR or OPM.
I'm an insurance producer, not an investment adviser and not your HR office. That boundary is the point — it keeps the conversation on the questions I can actually answer.
The years between your MRA and 62 are the tightest stretch in most federal retirements. We look at what the supplement covers, what it doesn't, and whether a guaranteed income contract belongs in that window.
Leave it, withdraw from it, annuitize part of it, or roll a portion out. Each has different tax, penalty and creditor consequences — including the age-55 separation rule (50 for special provisions). We map them before you file, not after.
The full survivor election costs 10% of your annuity and pays a spouse 50%; the partial costs 5% and pays 25%. Waiving it also affects FEHB eligibility. There is a real analysis behind that choice, and it's reversible for a very short window.
Option B premiums climb sharply in your 50s and 60s. Sometimes keeping it is right. Sometimes a level, privately underwritten policy does the same job for less. I'll show you both numbers rather than assume.
A bad market in your first few retirement years does damage that a good market later can't undo. Guaranteed income isn't about beating the C fund — it's about not being forced to sell it at the wrong time.
One page: what arrives each month, from where, starting when, and what happens to it if you die first. If we never do business, you still keep the page.
Three steps, in this order. You can stop after any of them.
Send me your retirement date, your years of service, and your rough TSP balance — or nothing at all, and just take the guides. No call required to get useful information out of me.
A 30-minute call where I lay out your four parts against your actual dates and show you where the gaps are. You'll get the one-page plan afterward either way.
If a product fits, I'll show you the contract, the guarantees, the surrender schedule and the carrier's ratings in writing. Applications are completed by you, electronically, when you're ready.
Every federal retirement decision that can't be undone, arranged by when it closes. Written for people who'd rather read than be sold to — which, in my experience, is most federal employees.
Your email app should be opening. Send the message and I'll reply with the guide.
No newsletter, no drip sequence, no sharing your address with anyone. You'll get the guide and nothing else unless you write back.
I'm a licensed annuity producer who works almost exclusively with federal employees. I came to this through the Navy — including BUD/S training — and I've kept the habit of reading the actual document instead of the summary of it.
Most of what I do is translation. OPM publishes the rules; carriers publish the contracts; nobody puts the two side by side for the person who has to live with the result. That's the gap I work in.
I run a small independent practice, which means I answer my own phone and I'm not carrying a quota handed down by a home office. It also means I say "that doesn't apply to you" a lot, which is the most useful sentence in this business.
Nothing for the review, the guides, or the one-page income plan.
If you eventually purchase an annuity, the issuing insurance carrier pays me a commission. It is not deducted from your premium as a visible fee, but it is real compensation and you should know it exists — you'll see the product's full surrender schedule and terms in writing before you sign anything.
No. I'm an independent licensed insurance producer. I am not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Office of Personnel Management, the Thrift Savings Plan, the FRTIB, or any federal agency, and nothing I provide is an official government document.
Usually not, and I'll say so. The TSP has some of the lowest expense ratios available anywhere and the G fund has no true private-market equivalent.
The honest question is narrower: is there a portion of your balance whose job is guaranteed income rather than growth? Sometimes the answer is no.
A contract with an insurance company. You give them a sum of money; they contractually owe you a defined stream of payments, or a defined floor under your principal, on terms written into the contract.
The trade is liquidity and upside for certainty. Whether that trade is worth making depends entirely on whether you have an income gap that certainty would close.
No. Take the guides, watch the videos, email me a question and get an answer. A meaningful share of the people I help never schedule anything — that's by design, not neglect.
Five years out is the sweet spot, because survivor elections, FEGLI decisions and the pre-62 gap all still have options attached to them.
Two months out is still worth a conversation. Two months after you've filed, several doors have already closed.
Tell me when you're planning to retire and what you're unsure about. I'll reply with something specific to your situation — not a brochure.