<prompt> Human: I am a 25-year old with no dependents, and I have recently accepted a position with the federal government. We are a non-appropriated agency and we do not follow the GS pay system, so many aspects of federal employment do not apply to us. One that does, however, is FERS pension system for federal workers.Let me preface this by saying that I am very apprehensive about pension plans in general. Growing up, I lost my grandfather at age 59. Since he did not meet the minimum retirement age of 60 at the time he passed, instead of his projected benefit of about 14,000 per year, my grandmother to this day receives precisely Jack Squat from his pension. So naturally, I put a lot of weight on my IRA and 401k for retirement having seen the darker side of pension plans. Since not many organizations outside the government use pensions anymore, I never really took the time to understand how they work. Right now, I am conducting retirement planning with the assumption that my investments alone must sustain my future family and myself in retirement, and that my pension simply wont be there. It hurts to make this assumption, but assuming that I die, decide to leave the organization, get fired, or are strategically RIFed, I think its not a far-fetched assumption. Is this reasonable, or can realistically count on FERS as a source of retirement income?  <response>: In terms of how the FERS pension works, have you read OPMs explanation They walk through how your final benefit is calculated, and go through things like death benefits, etc.In terms of the question of whether or not your pension simply wont be there, know that FERS and its operation is written into federal law. Generally, an employee or Member who is separated from the service after becoming 60 years of age and completing 20 years of service is entitled to an annuity or after becoming 62 years of age and completing 5 years of service, see 5 U.S. Code 8412 If you happen to leave federal service early, then an employee or Member who is separated from the service ... after completing 5 years of service is entitled to an annuity beginning at the age of 62 years, see 5 U.S. Code 8413This means that any changes to FERS must come through Congress for example, the President cannot issue an Executive Order stripping federal employees of their pensions. Finally, while Congress can make any changes they want to the pensions of currently employed federal employees or to those who have left federal service but have not yet started receiving pension payments under current federal court precedent, note that it may be much more difficult for them to make changes to the pensions of those who are already retired i.e., those who are receiving pension payments as such changes may not be permissible under the U.S. Constitution, see Zucker v. United States 