Buy Back RCA time!!!

RammerJammer · Wednesday at 11:25 PM

psd181 said:
It couldn't be much, I bought back 6 months from 88 and it only cost $250ish. Increased my annuity by $25 a month so I've almost got my $250 payment back.

But when did buy back. If you had to it now, there’d be 38 yrs of interest tacked on. I think stillfirstclass bought his time back before 1989 and seems like IIRC was like $6000.

psd181 · Thursday at 5:06 AM

RammerJammer said:
But when did buy back. If you had to it now, there’d be 38 yrs of interest tacked on. I think stillfirstclass bought his time back before 1989 and seems like IIRC was like $6000.

I bought it back in May. I only had 6 months of work in 88.

stillfirstclass · Thursday at 7:27 AM

psd181 said:
It couldn't be much, I bought back 6 months from 88 and it only cost $250ish. Increased my annuity by $25 a month so I've almost got my $250 payment back.

i bought 2 years worth... when you retire, they don't want to give you 100% of your annuity until everything is finialized, a few months later.... when they went back to retroactive and square me up, it was a wash. i owed them nothing and the money they reserved covered my buyback... so very much worth buying...

stillfirstclass · Thursday at 7:31 AM

RammerJammer said:
But when did buy back. If you had to it now, there’d be 38 yrs of interest tacked on. I think stillfirstclass bought his time back before 1989 and seems like IIRC was like $6000.

when i first did the math before i retired, i had the decimal point in the wrong spot

oops.. it was closer to a $1,000 not $10,000.. i even told the retirement counselor i didn't want to apply... when opm got my paperwork, the lady there applied for me, sent me an email and asked how i wanted to pay for it

Beanut · Thursday at 8:24 AM

faceindawind said:
Thanks for info. I will follow. 6 years as RCA on 33 AUX with 5/1 option. Covered for Union REP REG 2 days a week on average with vaycay and sick time factored in, on 44 K/L

The big question would be at what price for those of us with 10+ in now as REG looking and nearing retirement. 8 more years have my 20, with little desire to serve more.

it’s “not as much as you’d think” from what I was told by a DR

agilent80 said:
It would be a good incentive for the table one to retire (JUST THINK OF ALL THE MONEY THE P.O. WOULD SAVE)

I’m table1 with 21 years as an rca. It would absolutely make my day to buy back my time and retire asap

RammerJammer · Thursday at 6:59 PM

stillfirstclass said:
when i first did the math before i retired, i had the decimal point in the wrong spot oops.. it was closer to a $1,000 not $10,000.. i even told the retirement counselor i didn't want to apply... when opm got my paperwork, the lady there applied for me, sent me an email and asked how i wanted to pay for it

So I guess all that talk about the compounding interest is hogwash because I pay around $700 a year now.

stillfirstclass · Thursday at 7:18 PM

RammerJammer said:
So I guess all that talk about the compounding interest is hogwash because I pay around $700 a year now.

i was only making $9.36 an hour, so 1 % of that....

psd181 · Thursday at 8:14 PM

yes, that's what I did also, paid out of the money they owed me.

stillfirstclass said:
i bought 2 years worth... when you retire, they don't want to give you 100% of your annuity until everything is finialized, a few months later.... when they went back to retroactive and square me up, it was a wash. i owed them nothing and the money they reserved covered my buyback... so very much worth buying...

RammerJammer · Thursday at 11:24 PM

stillfirstclass said:
i was only making $9.36 an hour, so 1 % of that....

I’d estimate my base pay around $30,000 in 1994 so the .8% deposit would have been $240. The treasury rate for 2025 was set at 4.375%. It was 1.375% in 2021. It is a variable rate through the years and is compounded annually. So just as an example if they ever did pass the legislation I figured that $240 plus my other RCA time would now cost me several thousand.

Offspeed · Thursday at 11:45 PM

Didn’t pass with the Democrats in charge, therefore nothing like this will pass with the GOP in charge. Maybe emphasize Rural. BUT I Do KNOW SOMEONE who did buy his 10 years as a RCA back. It cost him over $90,000. I didn’t poke around to hard on it because I didn’t want to rain on his parade/retirement. Ask me how! And it doesn’t make sense. How much are we all willing to pay?

stillfirstclass · 2026-01-23T04:40:14-0600

RammerJammer said:
I’d estimate my base pay around $30,000 in 1994 so the .8% deposit would have been $240. The treasury rate for 2025 was set at 4.375%. It was 1.375% in 2021. It is a variable rate through the years and is compounded annually. So just as an example if they ever did pass the legislation I figured that $240 plus my other RCA time would now cost me several thousand.

if i would have bought the whole time i was a sub,, instead of only the first 2 years, those extra 14 years would have been in the thousands with interest