Many federal employees receive Benefits Estimates when they’re planning their retirement. Getting a Benefits Estimate from your HR can be a helpful place to start, but there is a big problem that most federal employees miss.
One federal employee ended up pulling his retirement paperwork before the big day because he almost made an irreversible mistake. He was relying on all the previous benefits estimates he had received from his human resources department, but at the last minute found out he wouldn’t be getting the pension he had expected. Learn from his story and make sure it doesn’t happen to you.
Most Federal Employees make investment decisions on an account-by-account basis. But before you can make good choices for specific investments, it’s important to look at the big picture for retirement investing.
Starting Social Security at age 62? Or anytime before your Full Social Security Age (65-67)? Most Federal Employees are too – but they usually haven’t heard of the three big whammies that come with starting Social Security early. Don’t let these whammies catch you by surprise.
Did you know that your FERS retirement income will have some unique twists and turns? Your retirement income will start, stop and change in ways that simply won’t compute in most financial planning calculators. Find out how your income will change, and what it means for your ‘Gap’.
Imagine you’re retired and living on a fixed income of $5,200/month. But suddenly your income dropped to $3,000/month. What changes would you have to make? Would you be able to stay retired? Who is faced with this situation?
Many times when people consider the VCP annuity, it looks like a viable option. However, there are critical problems with the CSRS VCP annuity that you should know about before you sign on the dotted line.
HSAs (Health Savings Accounts) are special accounts designed to give you a tax deduction for qualified medical expenses. When you use this benefit correctly, you get a tax deduction now and get to use the money tax-free for qualified medical expenses, but it’s not right for everyone.
As a federal employee, you have a number of great benefits. There is one that is often taken for granted but the author says it is actually your greatest benefit as a federal employee.
A financial planner said one of his new clients was a federal employee. It became clear he was not familiar with important benefits his client had as a federal employee.
