Is the economy holding back your retirement?

A good bit of the traffic we have on our FederalSoup Web site is related in one way or another to impending retirements from federal service.

Typical questions include such things as “What’s the best day to retire?” or “When will I get my first check?” or “Should I keep my money in the TSP?”

At the same time, out there in the private sector, older baby boomers who are among the ranks of the unemployed are signing up for Social Security as soon as they become eligible. While they’ll get less per month when they sign up early, they also figure that some income is better than none.

Back in the federal sector, predictions of an impending “retirement tsunami” among boomers has been brewing for more than a decade. But some fed-watchers are speculating that in this fragile economy, many older feds are in no hurry to dig into retirement benefits and are choosing instead to stay on the job until things pick up.

So our question for the boomers out there is: How do you see the situation?

Are you planning to take retirement when you become eligible? Or are you sticking it out until things get better?