So today we’ve got a double-header for you on Your Turn. My lead off guest is financial planner Arthur Stein, who specializes in managing finances of active and retired feds. Today he’s going to talk about the pros and cons of playing it “safe” with your TSP and the definition of just what “safe” is. In the second half of the show, I’ll do a year-in-review interview with colleague Nicole Ogrysko, our pay and benefits experts, with a surprise twist at the end.

If you work for Uncle Sam there’s a 50/50 chance you do. That is, your agency has pre-paid so you can shop from home, office or home/office using the popular Checkbook’s Guide to Federal Health Plans. Many people use it to find several best-buys for them. Editor Walton Francis says most people can save lots of money — up to $2000 next year — if they pick the best deal from the dizzying array of health plans available to 4-million-plus federal workers, retired civil servants and their...

Federal workers, retirees and their surviving spouses are fortunate in many ways. They have a large number of health plans to choose from. The government will pay much if not most of the premium. No one can be turned down for any reason. Full coverage continues in retirement, which is not the case in most private plans. While the choice of 20 to nearly 40 health plans and options is bewildering, it is an effort everybody should make. Many federal agencies have made it easier for people to...

Tired of shelling out thousands of dollars each year for your federal health plan? Confused, irritated or both by the multiple-choices available under the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program? Why not consider picking a health plan that pays you? Thousands of federal and postal workers have done it. Joined a high deductible health plan that has allowed them to amass accounts — their very own money — worth $10,000 to $50,000. Welcome to the federal benefits open season, which runs...

Before you answer, your first question might be “what’s a Joe Namath?” or “what’s this Medicare Advantage thing?” If you are of a certain age, and like (or hate) professional football, you will know that Joe was a very famous, successful college and professional quarterback. Now he is best known for TV commercials telling seniors how to get the most out of Medicare. And he is not alone. The FEHB open season runs through Dec. 13. so there is still plenty of time to compare plans, in addition...

Federal workers and retirees have little time to miss another deadline and lose, as in overpay up to $2,000, on next year’s health premiums. All they have to do to ensure loser status for insurance premiums is nothing. Ignore open season (which runs through Dec. 13). Stay in the same health plan you’ve belonged to since the Carter administration. Don’t even consider leaving the high or standard option of your favorite plan since Friends or the Fresh Prince of Belair topped the TV...

Despite the life-altering impact of COVID-19, international tensions and unprecedented political divisions in the country, the stock market keeps on going up and up. The experts give us lots of after-the-fact explanations. But, how often are they right? For many long-term investors — like folks in the Thrift Savings Plan — the question is simple. What, if anything, should I be doing with my portfolio? More stocks or sell high and seek the “safety” of the Treasury securities G fund while the...

With a 4.9% cost of living adjustment (COLA) set for Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) retirees, and a 2.7% pay raise on track for January, many working feds and retirees have got to be breathing a sigh of relief. This is a real take-it-to-the-bank silver lining during a time of worldwide pandemic when so much has changed. It will make trips to the store and gas station less painful. The problem, as always, for working folks and retirees is what's next? There are also lots of...

With good pay, maybe a house, insurance, a retirement plan, and a Thrift Savings Plan, many feds are better off than they thought. And they may need to readjust their thinking about things like do-I-have-an-estate and if so, what’s the plan. Download a will off the internet and forget about it. Or do nothing and let the courts – eventually — decide. Meantime your surviving spouse and children may be at each other’s throats because they know what you really intended! So we asked D.C. area...

Have your career plans changed some, a lot or completely since the COVID pandemic? Has the retirement tsunami, first predicted in the 1990s, actually started? What if another recession is just around the corner? Lots of work-related questions for lots of people. If ordered to return to the office full or even part time, will you do it or retire? Many surveys show that up to 40% of people who have been working from home don’t want to come back to the office. Ever! The same studies show many...

During the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the S&P 500 index lost 50% of its value. The C fund of the federal Thrift Savings Plan tracks the S&P 500. The Great Recession (which was a brief 17 months as recessions go) followed the boom years of 2002 through 2007. What goes up also goes down. At least so far. All of which is why federal investors, who have grown more sophisticated over the years, need to be careful. How they behave prudently or panic during a downturn can determine how...

Even if you’re young and have only been with Uncle Sam for a short time, odds are you already have an estate. If you have been around for awhile, it may be a sizable one. Maybe worth millions because of property, insurance and your growing Thrift Savings Plan. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that you may have an adult child with a drug or drinking problem. Maybe your son or daughter is married to a loser who doesn’t deserve to have control over money you may leave behind. How...

Financial planner Arthur Stein believes that millions of active and retired feds — anyone with money in the treasury securities G fund, or F (bond) fund — are not investors in the true sense. They are, in a sense, putting (or parking) their money in funds that don’t move like the stock market. People in the C fund, S fund and I fund, however, are investing in stocks (large, small cap and an international stock index). And while the C fund, S fund and I funds do go up and down — sometimes big...

Do you know the difference between a will and a trust? And what different types of trusts do? Are you up on tax law changes involving estates? Are you familiar with the relatively new SECURE Act, which probably covers your estate? And what’s an estate anyhow? Having a plan — leaving clear-cut instructions — is critical. Equally important is having a list explaining your wishes and preparations in the hands of someone — your estate attorney — you can trust. So what’s in the ultimate list?...

Investors in the TSPs stock index funds (C, S and I) have done very, very well for a long time. The market has had its ups and downs (but mostly ups) since the end of the Great Recession in mid-2009. Most people didn’t see that one coming and few knew how or when it would end. Until after the fact, when investing your retirement nest egg is not real helpful. The market hit an all time high in June. Since then it has been up and down as investors wait to see what (if anything) the Federal...

It is possible to work for Uncle Sam long enough to get and qualify for benefits and an annuity, but still leave government earlier. Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan thinks that may be about to happen.

It is possible to work for Uncle Sam long enough to get and qualify for benefits and an annuity, but still leave government earlier. Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan thinks that may be about to happen.

Changing estate tax rules and laws need to be understood, and if necessarily, dealt with, if you want your estate handled the way it should be handled. And that means being aware of what Congress and the White House have in mind to make major changes in estate tax laws. Changes that could leave your family with a much bigger tax debt in the future. The proposals are almost always labeled as “reforms”, a key to you to cover your assets. For an update on estates and estate tax law current and...

Oversight of the TSP is 20/20. Its participants include members the House, Senate and occupants of the White House — as well as members or staff of the Supreme Court, FBI agents, IRS auditors, astronauts, SEC attorneys and CIA agents. Many prominent investors and financial experts have said they would L-O-V-E to be able to participate in a low-fee fund with such a generous employer match. And yet when it comes time to retire, some 22% of participants take all of their money out of the TSP...

Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do, WHAM! But there are things you can be doing now, and in the future, to avoid the ordeal. And that’s the subject of today’s Your Turn show, with guest Tom O’Rourke. He’s an estate and tax attorney — and was a long-time lawyer with the IRS.

Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do, WHAM! But there are things you can be doing now, and in the future, to avoid the ordeal. And that’s the subject of today’s Your Turn show, with guest Tom O’Rourke. He’s an estate and tax attorney — and was a long-time lawyer with the IRS.

This year, many of the old demons that haunted them simply won’t be around. Even better, the question isn’t whether there will be a January pay raise, but rather how much that 2022 hike will be. The only question — unless the nation is plunged into a recession or another national emergency — is how much the increase will be. President Biden has proposed 2.7%, whereas some congressional Democrats say they won’t settle for less than 3.2%. Either way, that is good news for workers who in recent...

Working longer, retiring slightly later, can have a big time payoff. And it’s particularly true for federal workers. Most are under the Federal Employees Retirement System, which offers them benefits based on a civil service annuity (for life and partially indexed to inflation), Social Security (fully indexed to inflation) and whatever they have in their Thrift Savings Plan. Although they are likely to have more in retirement than a private sector employee earning the same salary, chances are...

While the majority of current retirees are under the CSRS or Offset system, the vast majority of people working for the government right now are under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). When they retire under a less generous formula, they will get a lower annuity because of the diet-COLA provision of FERS. Some years that reduction — based on an already smaller than CSRS annuity — means they will get a COLA that is 1% less than their CSRS colleagues. Over time that can really...

Most people who have been through a death in the family know that being prepared and doing the best for your loved ones and friends is more than a will you downloaded or instructions that your favorite nephew gets your car (and any remaining payments). A growing number of people are setting things up as if they have an estate. And that means keeping up with tax law at the federal and state level. Maybe changing your residence. So we called on estate attorney Thomas O’Rourke to join us on...