What is the difference between CSRS and FERS?
We can only generally cover the basic components of the retirement systems. There are many factors that may affect your individual situation. We encourage you to contact your servicing personnel office for individual retirement counseling. The FERS annuity and the CSRS annuity are defined benefit programs. This means that the benefits you receive from your FERS or CSRS annuity are based on your years of service and your salary, rather than on the amount of your contributions and earnings. Most contributions to these annuity programs are made by your agency on your behalf. Your contributions are mandatory and the amount you contribute is defined by law. The CSRS system provides a more generous basic annuity. A simple rule of thumb used to estimate your annuity is to subtract 2 from your creditable years of service and multiply the result by 2. This will give you the approximate percentage of your high-3 you will receive as an annuity. Of course, if you have temporary or military service
