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Members within 5 years of normal retirement eligibility. 

Budgeting For Retirement: Potential Health Insurance Costs

One common budgeting oversight we see from members planning their retirement is comparing their estimated future pension amount against their current monthly bills to see if they can afford to retire. The oversight? Focusing on what their bills currently are, not what their bills will be. This is especially true when it comes to health insurance costs – and even more so if you won't be 65 and Medicare-eligible when you retire.

Returning to Work After Retirement: What ASRS Retirees Need to Know

If you are starting to think about retiring and drawing a pension from the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS), you may find yourself wondering about your options if you’d like to later return to work. The choice is yours – you can certainly keep collecting a monthly pension from the ASRS and go back to work, but it’s important to make sure you proceed in a manner that doesn’t negatively affect your pension. 

Choosing Where to Work

You Submitted Your Retirement Application. Now What?

What happens after you hit “submit” on your retirement application? We input the application information into our system, validate the application for compliance, and place your application in a hold queue (if we require additional information before calculating your benefit) or a processing queue (if no further information is needed to proceed). It’s important to remember that while the ASRS may receive your retirement application in advance of your retirement date, we will not be able to begin any retirement calculations until your retirement date has occurred.

Identifying Your Retirement Date

As you contribute to your ASRS retirement account, you may find yourself wondering, “When can I Retire?” There are actually a number of different combinations of criteria that can be used to determine when you’re eligible for “normal” ASRS retirement. Due to changes in law over time, a primary factor is your ASRS membership date.

Members who began contributing to the ASRS prior to June 30, 2011

If you began contributing before June 30, 2011, you are able to utilize the 80 points system.

Retiring Before 65?

If you’re early in your career, you may think “retiree health insurance” isn’t a topic you should be terribly concerned about at the moment, but you might be surprised! If you plan on retiring before 65, when most are eligible for Medicare, then health insurance costs could be something you want to start thinking about now. 

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