Blog

It Pays to Know the FAFSA

The time has come for college bound families to fill out the FAFSA again. Students planning to start college for the 2018-2019 school year can ...

Should You Withdraw 4% From Your TSP?

One huge decision new retirees have to make is how much they will withdraw from their investments. While there is no perfect answer, most advisors ...

The Good and Bad of Lifecycle Funds

Lifecycle funds were introduced to federal employees in 2005. They use a mix of the five funds available in the Thrift Savings Plan designed around ...

Credit Card Debt and a Good TSP Loan

I wrote a previous article that discussed reasons not to take a Thrift Savings Plan (or 401k) loan. Even though I am generally against taking ...

Options for College Savings Accounts

One thought that many young parents ponder on is how to pay for their kids' college education. A four year price tag for college can ...

Stop Cleaning Your Car

Fast forward many years later, and I still have a tendency to do things myself. The main reason I clean my own cars, wax my ...

Five Common Mistakes Retirees Make

Retirement is a goal that most of us aspire to. Even though retirement is often thought of as an ending, it is more of a ...

Avoid Parent Plus Loans

Most families I work with want to help their kids pay for college, and with annual price tags that can reach over $70,000; most students ...

Four Reasons Not to Take a TSP Loan

Taking a loan against your TSP has become a common practice with federal employees. Even federal employees with high incomes have taken money out of ...

How to Make an Extra 90k

Retirement and financial planning are all about being as efficient as possible with our money. There are many aspects involved such as taxes, investment returns, ...

Lifestyle Creep

One of the biggest obstacles to accumulating wealth is what I call ‘Lifestyle Creep’. Lifestyle creep is your spending increasing along with your income and ...

FERS Supplement and the Earnings Test

Many federal employees will be fortunate enough to retire before the age of 62. Those individuals will be eligible to collect additional income from the ...