By William Blake

A civil service retirement calculator is an instrument that helps you to calculate what your retirement benefits will be under the Civil Service Retirement System. How you use the civil service retirement calculator is to input the age you will be at the time of retirement, what your years of service will total, your unused sick days and what your High-3 salary amounts to.

Just as with any retirement calculator, the civil service retirement calculator can not determine precisely what you annuity payments will be. But it can give you a close estimate on what you can expect and can give you information on survivor benefits and annuity with survivor benefits that may apply in your case.

How Civil Service Retirement is Calculated

There is a method of determining retirement benefits for those in civil service. The government has a formula that they follow called the CSRS. The formula is complex and not very easy to follow. A civil service retirement calculator can be a big help. This calculator simplifies the figures and gives a very close estimate of what retirement benefits will be. The calculator even takes into consideration any unused leave you may have and adds that to your years served. The calculations are based on a work year of 261 days not on the standard calendar year.

If you are married your spouse has benefits under the Civil Service Retirement System as well. These survivor benefits are just over half of the annuity payments received by the retiree. This program is designed to care well for the spouse of those in Civil Service. The goal is to offer the best survivor benefits possible to the spouses.

Your high 3 salary is an average of the highest 3 years base pay or salary that you earned in any three-year period. This is basically a calculation of the average of the last three years salary.

The most important information you need to have for proper civil service retirement calculator results is your expected age of retirement, your high-3 salary, your unused sick days and years of service. As long as you have these four details, then your calculations will be perfect. When you finally have these four items, you can go to an online calculator and input the information and you will be given a calculation immediately.

The federal government also provides an online calculator that would be your best option to use. Using the new retirement system, government workers are encouraged to retire at the age of 60. If you are closely approaching that age, then it is time to start calculating your retirement annuity benefits.

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