The 30-day rule

Trick question, and you will never get the right answer. The question is this: How many days are there in the months of September, August and February? If you s...

Further proof that nothing in government is simple. For example:

At some point in our youth, most of us probably learned the mnemonic (don’t feel bad, I had to look it up too!) rhyme about how many days are in each month. One version goes like this:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have 31,
Except February alone… blah blah, blah!

You get the idea. But it was a good way to learn how many days are in each month.

Unless you work for the federal government. Then, all bets are off. Because…

The thing is Uncle Sam never learned the 30-days-hath September ditty. So to him, every month is the same 30 days whether its June, January or February and a leap year.

That every-month-has-30-days rule is important when it comes to figuring your retirement benefit. And that is one thing that makes finding the best date for you to retire a little tricky.

Yesterday’s Your Turn radio show featured Tammy Flanagan. She’s the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning. One of the many things she does is figure the best dates to retire throughout each year. Some are the same, sometimes they change. And to make the most of your retirement, once you are otherwise ready to go, you need to know the best date or dates. Then you make the call.

The fact that the government uses a 30-day retirement month, regardless of what month it is, figures into the best-date equation. OPM pays retirement benefits based on a 30-day month, so Flanagan says, “each month of retired pay equals 30.30 of your benefit amount.” So if you retired next month on Feb. 28, which is a Friday, “you’d be credited with three additional days of service” meaning that February, to Uncle Sam and to your pension, would be a 30-day month.

There are different best dates for people retiring under the old CSRS program vs. those retiring under the FERS plan.

If you are retiring under the CSRS system, Flanagan said your best date is often the first, second or third day of the month.

If you will be retiring under FERS, the best date is often the last calendar date of the month.

If you are planning to retire in December or January (both popular months), you need to be aware of the date of the end of the leave year. Because of the annual leave carryover limit.

Here’s a link to Tammy’s column on GovExec for more helpful tips.

Click here to listen to a replay of the Your Turn show any time from your computer.


NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

Compiled by Jack Moore

English speakers are inept at identifying and describing smells compared to the speakers of other languages. However, researchers aren’t sure it’s a problem with our sense of smell or English, itself.

(Source: Smithsonian Magazine)


MORE FROM FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Latest postal reform bill includes USPS-only health plan
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee debated an updated version of postal reform legislation Wednesday that would allow the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to restructure its health benefits program. Included in the revised postal reform bill from Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is a proposal that would create a new postal-only health plan within the broader Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).

New Leadership at DHS cracks down on overtime abuse at CBP
Union and CBP officials call for reform of outdated overtime pay system, saying the purpose of Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime was misinterpreted. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson signed a memo Monday directing agency leaders to suspend Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AOU) for employees whose duties do not meet the requirements. This includes some employees working in headquarters offices, training instructors and employees who have been collecting AUO pay inappropriately, according to internal investigators.

OPM offers agencies helping hand in perking up employee morale
Fueled by budget cuts and pay freezes, federal employee satisfaction across government plunged last year, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Employee Viewpoint Survey. Now, OPM says it’s here to help agencies turn around those sagging satisfaction scores.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.