Your Turn with Mike Causey

So, how often do you look at your Thrift Savings Plan account balance, and does it affect your investment decisions? Do the ups and downs of your TSP account keep you up at night? Are you financially nervous in the civil service, or do you think you have the wrong mix of funds in your retirement nest egg? If so, financial planner Arthur Stein has the answers to your retirement questions. Stein will discuss these and other TSP investing topics on the Your Turn radio show Wednesday at 10 a.m. Questions for him or Mike Causey can be sent before the show to mcausey@federalnewsradio.com Listen at www.federalnewsradio.com or 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C. area.

Long ago a financial planner told me the key to success was to have a steady job, invest in any company 401K plan that is offered, get and stay married to the same person, buy a house in an up-and-coming neighborhood, live within your means and wait. Tens of thousands of federal/postal workers and retirees fit the profile, except maybe for the one spouse rule. Even so, the fact is that a lot of people fit the profile of somebody who has done very well financially, especially if they have been with one employer for 20 or 30 years, and if that employer offers a 401K plan, a generous company match and a retirement plan. Maybe they fit it better than they realize. Estate attorney Thomas O’Rourke said the key tools in most estate plans include wills, powers of attorney, medical directives, and trusts. O’Rourke was the guest on this week’s episode of the Your Turn radio show and he talked about things you should be doing to plan for retirement, and how often you should review your plan. Tune in to the show Wednesdays at 10 a.m. at www.federalnewsradio.com or 1500 AM in the D.C. metro area.

When financial times get tough and a bull market rears its ugly head, many Thrift Savings Plan investors head for the safety of the bond index F Fund or, more likely, the super-safe never has a bad day G Fund. To many people, the U.S. Treasury-backed securities are the safest haven in an uncertain market. During the Great Recession many TSP investors pulled out of the stock market (C, S and I funds) into the G Fund. Although the market bottomed out March 9, 2009, and rebounded with a vengeance, many investors never returned. Certified financial planner Art Stein said there is safety and then there is “safety,” the latter actually used by people to mean a lack of volatility. Stein was the guest on this week’s episode of the Your Turn radio show and he discussed the price that investors pay for safety. Tune in to the show Wednesdays at 10 a.m. at www.federalnewsradio.com or 1500 AM in the D.C. metro area.

The Trump administration has submitted a legislative package that would, among other things, eliminate cost-of-living adjustments for current and future workers retiring under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Under the White House plan, the employee contribution to the FERS program would also rise one percent each year, over each of the next six years. It also proposes eliminating the FERS supplement which is a payment workers now get if they retire before age 62, when they are eligible for Social Security. So what are the odds any of the proposed changes will happen this year? John Hatton, deputy director for Advocacy of the National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees outlines the proposals and talks about their chances on this week’s Your Turn radio show. Listen live at 10 a.m. EDT Wednesdays on www.federalnewsradio.com or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

In the news business the best way to bury a story is to release or leak it on the Friday before a major national holiday. Such was the case this Memorial Day weekend when three executive orders designed to whip the bureaucracy in shape were issued Friday afternoon via a telephone conference call with reporters. The three EOs fulfill — at least on paper — President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to drain the D.C. swamp and to snip the red tape that makes it next to impossible to prod nonperforming bureaucrats either to action or the unemployment line. AFGE President J. David Cox joins host Mike Causey on this week’s show to talk about the executive orders and their potential impact. Your Turn is a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

When it comes to the federal Thrift Savings Plan, the average annual returns don’t tell you everything because TSP stock funds do not have many “average” years. “The typical ways to view TSP returns is to look at the total return over a certain time period — annually, quarterly, year to date — or over a number of years,” according to financial planner Arthur Stein. He says patterns are easier to spot when returns are ranked by size. Your Turn is a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

This week the White House revived old proposals to make feds pay more for, and get less from, their retirement package. The Trump administration submitted a proposal to Congress that, if approved, would: eliminate the gap payment, require current FERS employees to contribute an additional one percent a year and eliminate the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for current and future FERS retirees. National Active and Retired Federal Employees President Richard Thissen and Federal News Radio reporter Nicole Ogrysko discuss on Your Turn with Mike Causey. They'll explain the proposed changes, their cost to you and the odds of any, or all of them, becoming law this year — and what, if anything, you can do about it. The show airs at 10 a.m. EDT at www.federalnewsradio.com or 1500 AM in the metro Washington area.

When people close in on their retirement date many become anxious about life after a steady, bi-weekly paycheck. The old Civil Service Retirement System provided a much more generous pension/annuity than the Federal Employees Retirement System, which covers most working feds. So what to do? We ask John Grobe, a former fed, and benefits specialist, to crunch some numbers — the numbers you need to know before you retire. He discusses the “Rule of 7 Rules” to protect your retirement nest egg on this episode of Your Turn, a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

Teleworking: Here to stay or going away? You tell us

The TSP: Is 2018 going to be a down year?

Many say the thin red line between partisan politicians of both parties and the career civil service is the 9,100 members of the career Senior Executive Service. The SES came out of the Carter administration’s effort to revamp the civil service and make top executives more mobile — and responsive — to their political bosses. Some SES members belong to the Senior Executives Association which generally works closely with federal professional groups, unions and retiree organizations such as the National Active Retired and Federal Employees Association to protect federal benefits which have been under attack for more than a decade. That includes everything from pay freezes under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, to major cuts in the Federal Employee Retirement System. SEA president Bill Valdez is my guest on this episode of Your Turn, a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

We take a look at teleworking on this episode of Your Turn radio show. My guest is Frank Landefeld from MorganFranklin. He’s an expert in business development and engagement in federal, state and local governments. Rather than restricting telework, he says, “the federal government needs to make it easier to incorporate flexibility” rather than shrink or restrict it as the Agriculture Department plans to do. Landefeld says the pros of a well-managed, flexible teleworking plan are obvious. “It keeps workers off the roads during the terrible D.C. commute (which applies to other major federal centers) and can reduce the real-estate footprint of the federal government, ultimately saving tax dollars,” he said. He also believes agencies should develop A and B schedules for telework policies that would increase productivity and decrease the need for office space. Your Turn airs live at 10 a.m. EDT at www.federalnewsradio.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

What are the odds of another shutdown either because of man-made political gridlock or because a late March snowstorm ordered up by Mother Nature? Now that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been ousted who’s next? And what’s happening to career employees at the State Department, EPA, Interior and other places who may be deemed as disloyal, or non-team players by their political bosses? What’s going on at the Department of Veterans Affairs? Is it in trouble and can it be saved? Federal News Radio correspondents Nicole Ogrysko, Jory Heckman, Eric White and David Thornton talk about the hottest topics on their beats and what may be ahead for active and retired feds. Your Turn airs live at 10 a.m. EDT at www.federalnewsradio.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

One of the longest-running bull markets in history is celebrating its ninth birthday this month. So how long can it go? Weeks? Months? Years? And when it does correct — how low will it go? We asked Arthur Stein, a Washington-area financial planner who tracks the Thrift Savings Plan. He’s our guest on this episode of Your Turn, a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

For many years experts have predicted that the government was facing an immediate brain drain. A "retirement tsunami" that would leave Uncle Sam without institutional memory and operating without the help of long-time experts and specialists. But the tsunami hasn’t happened. Federal News Radio has been tracking the outflow of government workers on a monthly basis. And the numbers are interesting and surprising to lots of tsunami predictors. Following the November 2016 election and the Inauguration — both of which were supposed to trigger a mass exodus of feds — the number of retiring feds actually dropped most months compared to previous years. It was less, not more, than in the past even though 31 percent of the workforce could leave today and 45 percent of the federal workforce will never see age 50 again. While more feds filed for retirement in 2017 than in 2016, the larger retirement surges —100,000 plus per year — took place in 2011 through 2014 when the government was undergoing shutdowns, furloughs without pay and three years without the regular statutory January pay raise. Those numbers clearly mean something. The question is what? Federal News Radio reporter Nicole Ogrysko has been tracking the tsunami. She’s our guest on this episode of Your Turn with Mike Causey. Your Turn airs Wednesday’s 10 a.m. ET at Federal News Radio or WFED 1500 AM.