Seeking financial advice can be a daunting task for federal employees. There are many types of advisors that provide advice and most of them will claim that they are the best kind to work with. Knowing how each professional operates can provide some clarity on who may be the best fit to work with. Understanding their compensation models can provide
Many federal employees are in the fortunate position of having the option of moving to a contract position at retirement, or even before they plan to retire. This can happen with specialties that fall under the normal FERS retirement system, but most commonly this happens with law enforcement officers (LEO) and air traffic controllers (ATC).
Here are some important questions to address when deciding whether or not to leave money in TSP or move it to an IRA.
The financial advice industry has gotten plenty of bad press in the past and rightfully so. The industry is not isolated from criminals, deception and plenty of products that mislead people. I have been a part of the industry for the better part of two decades and there are aspects of the industry that I dislike as well
A common practice of married federal employees is to take a survivor annuity when they retire. The goal of the survivor annuity is to guarantee a benefit for a surviving spouse, which sounds a lot like life insurance.
Most FERS employees are going to want to retire on the last day of the month. The reasoning behind retiring on the last day of the month, is so that you don’t miss out on any income. Retiring on the last day of the month allows you...
What can federal employees learn from the government shutdown?
Collecting Social Security at the right time can have a big impact on retirement. Many people could benefit by delaying Social Security past the age of 62, however, according to the Social Security Administration data shows that only 31% of those collecting benefits are collecting their full benefit. To be clear, collecting Social Security is a decision
The end of the year is a great time to do a review of your finances. Things that tend to change at the beginning of each year are contribution limits and taxes. If retirement planning and financial stewardship is a priority to you, then doing an annual review is vital.
The question of paying off your house or not is one that seems to be a constant debate among people approaching retirement. In fact, it’s a good question for anyone with a mortgage. The way I see it, there are two perspectives that need to be evaluated to come up with an answer to this question.
I have written before about Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and how wonderful they are, but with open season on the horizon I thought it was time to freshen up on our HSA knowledge. There are a few characteristics of HSAs that most people aren’t aware of. Not all pretax accounts and contributions are created equal...
Everyone loves tax free money, but sometimes it’s hard to pay more today for a future benefit. Roth conversions definitely fall in the camp of delayed gratification - but could be a useful planning technique for many federal employees.
Most people are aware that they will be required to take money out of their qualified accounts when they get older. But as with anything in life, the timing is what matters. Do you just start blindly taking withdrawals when you hit 70 ½?
The FERS annuity is the foundation of the federal employee retirement plan. While some federal employees may know how to calculate their FERS annuity, I have found that there are four elements of FERS that people fail to grasp.
If you knew how to potentially save a couple thousand dollars a year, would you do it? If yes, then I would recommend looking in to bunching your expenses. The concept of bunching your expenses has been around for a long time, but I believe has become more applicable with the new tax law.
