{"id":36,"date":"2026-05-08T13:09:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-06-30T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:03:06","slug":"military-buyback-fers-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/military-buyback-fers-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Buyback for Federal Employees: Is It Worth the Cost?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For many veterans in federal service, <a href=\"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/combine-military-retirement-and-fers\/\">military buyback<\/a> is one of the most powerful retirement decisions available.<\/p>\n<p>Done correctly, it can permanently increase your FERS pension for life.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to compare your pension with and without buyback:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/fersfree.com\">https:\/\/fersfree.com<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>What Is Military Buyback?<\/h2>\n<p>Military buyback allows you to:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Convert active-duty service into creditable civilian service for your FERS pension<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>20 years civilian<\/li>\n<li>4 years military<\/li>\n<li>= 24 years total service<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>How It Increases Your Pension<\/h2>\n<p>FERS Formula:<\/p>\n<p><strong>High-3 \u00d7 Years of Service \u00d7 Multiplier<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Buyback increases your years of service \u2192 increases your pension.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Example<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>High-3: $110,000<\/li>\n<li>20 years service<\/li>\n<li>4 years military<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Without buyback:<br \/>\n= $22,000\/year<\/p>\n<p>With buyback:<br \/>\n= $26,400\/year<\/p>\n<p><strong>Increase = $4,400\/year<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Break-Even Example<\/h2>\n<p>If buyback costs $8,000:<\/p>\n<p>$8,000 \u00f7 $4,400 \u2248 <strong>1.8 years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After that, it\u2019s profit for life.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>When It\u2019s Worth It<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Multiple years of service<\/li>\n<li>Long federal career ahead<\/li>\n<li>Strong high-3 salary<\/li>\n<li>Low or moderate deposit cost<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>When to Think Carefully<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Short federal career<\/li>\n<li>High interest on deposit<\/li>\n<li>Near retirement with limited cash<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>VA Disability Impact<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/military-buyback-disabled-veterans\/\">VA disability<\/a> usually does NOT reduce your FERS pension.<\/p>\n<p>You can often stack:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FERS<\/li>\n<li>VA disability<\/li>\n<li>TSP<\/li>\n<li>Social Security<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>5 Common Mistakes<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Waiting too long (interest grows)<\/li>\n<li>Focusing only on cost<\/li>\n<li>Ignoring lifetime value<\/li>\n<li>Missing service records<\/li>\n<li>Not modeling scenarios<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>What to Do Next<\/h2>\n<p>Compare:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With vs without buyback<\/li>\n<li>Break-even timing<\/li>\n<li>Retirement eligibility changes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fersfree.com\">https:\/\/fersfree.com<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Disclaimer<\/h2>\n<p>Educational only. Confirm with HR\/OPM before making decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many veterans in federal service, military buyback is one of the most powerful retirement decisions available. Done correctly, it can permanently increase your FERS pension for life. If you want to compare your pension with and without buyback: https:\/\/fersfree.com What Is Military Buyback? Military buyback allows you to: Convert active-duty service into creditable civilian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[18,17,14,34,38,36,19,15,37,35],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-va-military","tag-federal-employees","tag-federal-retirement","tag-fers","tag-military-buyback","tag-military-deposit","tag-military-service","tag-retirement-planning","tag-tsp","tag-va-disability","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fersfree.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}