Your Turn with Mike Causey

Open season with Walton Francis

The pros & cons of the blended retirement system

Your federal retirement could last decades so it pays to plan ahead. As in having a plan. Doing the right/smart thing now means a payoff for you, for your spouse/significant other and your children. And peace of mind. The way you get your financial ducks in a row can be a major gift emotionally as well as financially for those who may wind up taking care of you. So do you have an estate plan? Does it include beneficiary designations and property ownership arrangements? Do you know the difference between a will and a trust? And which is best for you? Tom O'Rourke is a Washington area attorney who specializes in estate planning. Many of his clients are active and retired federal workers. He says that many feds are worth a lot more than they think.

Are there people in your office who love their jobs and dread retirement but who are putting in their papers effective at the end of this month? Why are so many federal workers suddenly very nervous in the civil service? Some, maybe many, feds are convinced that Congress is going to make big-time, devastating-to-feds, changes in the retirement plan. There are a half dozen plans that if approved by the House and Senate would deal a major body blow to some or all of the retirement program.

Are you excited, dazzled and worried sometimes at the same time by the stock market boom? Are you concerned about what many experts say is a long-overdue market correction? Do you still have the occasional nightmare about the Great Recession? If so, welcome to the club. Obviously, nobody knows when, if and for how long, any correction might be. But we asked financial planner Arthur Stein for his take.

Are you one of hundreds of thousands of federal workers who could retire tomorrow if you wanted to? What if Uncle Sam made you a once-in-a-lifetime cash offer you couldnt refuse. And what if that payment, now $25,000, was bumped up by $15,000? Does the possibility of a $40,000 buyout however remote tempt you to hang on to see what happens? The good news is that the Senate may (as in MAY, MAYBE, MIGHT) consider and pass legislation that would raise the maximum for all government buyouts to $40,000. Currently, only Defense can offer feds that much money to take regular or early retirement. Other agencies are limited to $25,000 which, after all those deductions, doesn't have the buying power it did in the 1990s.

Although buyouts are out there, the odds that you personally will get a $25,000 to $40,000 payment to leave are slim and none. You can wait, and hope, and maybe, just maybe get lucky. But the deck is stacked against you.

Congress and the White House are considering several proposals to slim down or eliminate portions of the federal retirement program. Will they pass and if so, how will they affect you? Find out when NARFE Legislative Director Jessica Klement joins host Mike Causey on this weeks Your Turn. September 13, 2017

Congress is back! What does that mean for you?

Is there a buyout (or a layoff) in your future?

The biggest gains federal worker and retiree investors have made in their Thrift Savings Plan accounts have come from the stock-indexed C, S and I funds. But whats an index and whats an index fund. And why do you need them in your portfolio? Check out the Your Turn with Mike Causey program featuring financial planner Arthur Stein.

Are you planning to retire soon or leave your federal job? What happens to your benefits? Find out when benefits expert John Grobe joins host Mike Causey on this weeks Your Turn. July 26, 2017

This week on Your Turn, financial planner Arthur Stein tells feds and retirees what, if anything, they should be doing now with their Thrift Savings Plan accounts.

How things are going for the SES and SEA.

Why do so many federal employees move out of TSP when they retire from the government? What should you do?