Long story short. I got my CBP officer package accepted, and pending my location request am going to take the job.

I have the option of paying 3% of my total pay from my 4 years in the USMC to make those years count, or starting over on the retirement scale.

Is there one that comes out ahead of the other?

Do it.
4 years will make a difference in the end.

I am guessing it is something like 40-50K? How old are you? What percentage os that of your new base pay? How many years are you paying that out?
Don’t answer these questions here. Just some things to consider.

I say it is worth it.

If I’m reading this right. If you made (high end) 50k a year for 4 years for 200k. You could pay 6 grand for 4 years of service credit.

No brainer.

Pay it in, but wait until after you have passed the probationary status as a new hire.

I did something similar at retirement ( I think it was more than 3%) and it was definitely worth it. Go for it.

I did the math based on my final rank pay for 2004. I didn’t include combat pay, etc. I got a number of $2,485.44. It’s obviously lower because I didn’t go in at the same rank. I just didn’t know if there was a benefit to buying back or taking the same money and investing. I’m 38, so 20 years still has me retiring ahead of most people.

Speaking of retirement; if I’d stayed in I could be on terminal leave in a few months.

Thanks that advice.

Still not sure if I’m crazy to leave a cush corporate job, but I’m not cut out for it.

Pay it! It will add 4 years to your multiplier at retirement. I bought back 8 years of Marine Corps time when I hired on with the feds and it was less than $1k. Paid it through 10% a payday auto-direct. I had the gig pre-arranged, though, and was only out of the Corps 2 weeks when I started so there was no interest. This was about 30 years ago, so it may have changed since then.

Do it. After going through a recent pre-retirement seminar, the instructor showed me if I buy back my 16 1/2 years, I'll make about $500 more per month at retirement. I retired USAF in 93 so I didn't make much back then. I'm in the process of finding out exactly how much it will cost me to do it. plus if I do it, I could retire anytime now.

Listen to dogcatcher on this.

I forgot about the interest. I’ve been out for 15 years. Still, I can’t imagine it being too big a price.

Go to OPM.gov.

You can buy it back whenever you want, up to and including at retirement. The interest rate is the minimum you would pay into the G-Fund. About 1%.

Wait time is around 30 business days to get the form back with the exact pay amount. I called this morning and should have it by next week. Faxed it in on 8/30.