WEB MASTER PAGE
If I don't respond, please text or call: 864 907-3804. You can also email me directly at davidaakopp@hotmail.com and/or dkopp3013@gmail.com. I will always respond if I am aware of your attempt. Members and Officers may send me pictures, videos, and articles. The content on this site does not all have to be postal related. Branches can be involved and have their own page to edit and submit content pertinent to your branch and your branch members. The contents of the page can be hidden from public view and made available only through a password. I am open to ideas on how to make this website useful for our membership and this website editing tool can do quite a bit including having financial transaction capabilities.
Please read about my retirement process below. You may find some of the information useful.
Please read about my retirement process below. You may find some of the information useful.
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2023
I am not bound by the bylaws to submit articles to publish. My position isn't an elected position, and I am not part of the executive board that makes the decisions for the State Association. I do my part listen and respond to what the membership request of me. Please send content to post.
March 2021
Final Day at the Post Office was February 26th 2021
Retirement:
After over 41 years of creditable service I am leaving the Post Office at the age of 62. I am going to miss the work, my co-workers and even management. I enjoyed the job for the most part, but it was time to leave. The party given to me to celebrate my career and soon departure demonstrated our connectedness and since of family. I was deeply moved. One carrier even wrote a funny poem which I will share. I do have advice for those with years to go or are approaching retirement. That advice is to simply care about your career, your fellow workers, and yes even your management. We are here such a brief time, and each day is a gift from God. One thing the poem illustrates about me is that I try to live in the very present, to the extent of forgetting a few moments earlier of wwhere I put with my keys and phone. I think we all should live in the present as much as possible and forgive and ask for forgiveness as quick as possible and love as much as possible.
Legends come and legends go, but David Kopp is like the driven snow.
He loves this job of delivering mail
of delivering letters and packages without fail
Be he's hanging up his uniform se he can stay at home
maybe now he won't have to worry
about forgetting his keys and phone!
Notes about my retirement process.
Shared Services: I made the decision to retire in January or February 2021 and went to Lite-Blue to begin the process. I downloaded 169 pages of forms and was much overwhelmed. Please, don't waste your printer ink. But then I made an appointment with shared services and ordered the blue book which has all the forms for retirement plus instructions. The book was fairly daunting as well and I filled out a few forms prior to the phone interview. The interview was simple, and the interviewer helped me complete all needed forms. There are quite a few forms within the blue book that won't be needed by most retirees. When the phone interview was complete then so was my application with, I think only about 9 pages to mail. I mailed it express mail.
Though it didn't apply to me, those that may be retiring early who expect to get the FERS supplemental, may wait as long as four to six months to get their first check and at which time will be made whole for the unpaid months. As far as the first retirement check, that will take four to six weeks. The date they told me to pick is not the last day of the month but rather the last day of the last pay-period. In my instance, that was February 26th.
Social Security: I made a phone interview the second week of February. I opted to begin my social security benefits beginning Feb 1st which is two days after my 62nd birthday. The income I made in January and February will count against my earnings limit for the year, Unpaid leave compensation only for those two months will also count. If you saved a lot of leave to be compensated for, then on your W2 at the end of the year may cause you to appear to exceed your earnings limit for social security without penalty. Those earnings will not count, but you will likely be notified by social security that they will withhold social security payments the following year to make up for what they perceived they overpaid you. This was what happened to me, and I was to pay back social security some $8,000 about. I had thrown away my paystubs and had very little information to prove my case. The social security wanted a form filled out by my employer to substantiate my claim. The form details the income details for the year you retired. Neither shared services nor our local office would help me get the form filled out. I meant with social security twice. One person said I must have the form and the second person said the same thing but with the info I had, I did successfully win my case, but only barely. The moral of the story is do not throw anything away and maybe get the form filled out before you totally disconnect from the post office. If you keep your paystubs and information, you might not need the form, but this depends on what representative, you talk to when the problem arises the following year of retirement. I don't remember the form number but ask the social security representative about the situation you are going to face the following year of retirement.
I am to expect my first social security check in March on the last Wednesday of each month to correspond with my birthday on the last week of the month. One more note: My wife is retiring under my social security. This means they will bump up her social security, as she doesn't have a long work history, to a level that would be up to half my social security if she were at full retirement age.
Conclusion: I found retirement to be a simple process. I would suggest knowing where documents are as such things as marriage certificates and divorce decrees, military ddform 214 as they may be needed to complete the process. Also, I would suggest buying back any creditable service towards retirement as soon as possible before you begin any retirement process. Each year the cost of buying back creditable service becomes more expensive.
After over 41 years of creditable service I am leaving the Post Office at the age of 62. I am going to miss the work, my co-workers and even management. I enjoyed the job for the most part, but it was time to leave. The party given to me to celebrate my career and soon departure demonstrated our connectedness and since of family. I was deeply moved. One carrier even wrote a funny poem which I will share. I do have advice for those with years to go or are approaching retirement. That advice is to simply care about your career, your fellow workers, and yes even your management. We are here such a brief time, and each day is a gift from God. One thing the poem illustrates about me is that I try to live in the very present, to the extent of forgetting a few moments earlier of wwhere I put with my keys and phone. I think we all should live in the present as much as possible and forgive and ask for forgiveness as quick as possible and love as much as possible.
Legends come and legends go, but David Kopp is like the driven snow.
He loves this job of delivering mail
of delivering letters and packages without fail
Be he's hanging up his uniform se he can stay at home
maybe now he won't have to worry
about forgetting his keys and phone!
Notes about my retirement process.
Shared Services: I made the decision to retire in January or February 2021 and went to Lite-Blue to begin the process. I downloaded 169 pages of forms and was much overwhelmed. Please, don't waste your printer ink. But then I made an appointment with shared services and ordered the blue book which has all the forms for retirement plus instructions. The book was fairly daunting as well and I filled out a few forms prior to the phone interview. The interview was simple, and the interviewer helped me complete all needed forms. There are quite a few forms within the blue book that won't be needed by most retirees. When the phone interview was complete then so was my application with, I think only about 9 pages to mail. I mailed it express mail.
Though it didn't apply to me, those that may be retiring early who expect to get the FERS supplemental, may wait as long as four to six months to get their first check and at which time will be made whole for the unpaid months. As far as the first retirement check, that will take four to six weeks. The date they told me to pick is not the last day of the month but rather the last day of the last pay-period. In my instance, that was February 26th.
Social Security: I made a phone interview the second week of February. I opted to begin my social security benefits beginning Feb 1st which is two days after my 62nd birthday. The income I made in January and February will count against my earnings limit for the year, Unpaid leave compensation only for those two months will also count. If you saved a lot of leave to be compensated for, then on your W2 at the end of the year may cause you to appear to exceed your earnings limit for social security without penalty. Those earnings will not count, but you will likely be notified by social security that they will withhold social security payments the following year to make up for what they perceived they overpaid you. This was what happened to me, and I was to pay back social security some $8,000 about. I had thrown away my paystubs and had very little information to prove my case. The social security wanted a form filled out by my employer to substantiate my claim. The form details the income details for the year you retired. Neither shared services nor our local office would help me get the form filled out. I meant with social security twice. One person said I must have the form and the second person said the same thing but with the info I had, I did successfully win my case, but only barely. The moral of the story is do not throw anything away and maybe get the form filled out before you totally disconnect from the post office. If you keep your paystubs and information, you might not need the form, but this depends on what representative, you talk to when the problem arises the following year of retirement. I don't remember the form number but ask the social security representative about the situation you are going to face the following year of retirement.
I am to expect my first social security check in March on the last Wednesday of each month to correspond with my birthday on the last week of the month. One more note: My wife is retiring under my social security. This means they will bump up her social security, as she doesn't have a long work history, to a level that would be up to half my social security if she were at full retirement age.
Conclusion: I found retirement to be a simple process. I would suggest knowing where documents are as such things as marriage certificates and divorce decrees, military ddform 214 as they may be needed to complete the process. Also, I would suggest buying back any creditable service towards retirement as soon as possible before you begin any retirement process. Each year the cost of buying back creditable service becomes more expensive.