All you fellow feds,
I work in a pretty hot job market and have begun to be contacted by companies and recruiters. Not really looking to leave my current position. Actually just got a promotion (and am not liking the new position nearly as much as the old one), but am always willing to entertain offers. Currently on track to FIRE ~10 years from now. Got a little bit of a late start to the FIRE game, but have been furiously making up ground (thanks partly to the market over the last few years, but also aggressive saving). I'm wondering how you other feds value your FERS pension when comparing job offers?
For example, I just hit 5 years of creditable service (mid 30s, so not a lifer) and am a GS-14 (near the bottom of the payband, not the top). It's easy enough for me to calculate what my FERS pension would be if I left service today (~$5,500/yr). Then, use whatever method you like to equate that to a 401k balance (use the 4% rule and divide by 0.04, use FV, whatever). However...the value of that pension is dependent on the # of years I work. So if I stay 5 more years, it's worth something like $300,000 ($12,000/yr * 25). If I stay 10 more years, it's worth more.
Obviously, one way to do it would be to say that I contribute 4.4% of each paycheck to FERS (yeah, all you old timers who only contribute 0.8% have it good). But FERS is worth more than that 4.4%, I think.
So how would you go about comparing an offer from a company w/o a defined benefit portion?