Stay informed on Social Security updates that affect federal employees and retirees, especially those covered under FERS. Explore news and analysis on Social Security COLAs, benefit calculations, earnings limits, claiming strategies, and policy changes that influence retirement income. Find clear explanations of how Social Security integrates with FERS benefits, the FERS supplement, and long‑term financial planning. Keep up with legislative developments, inflation trends, and key rules that shape Social Security benefits for federal retirees.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is a life-changing event and a leap into the unknown. The author outlines some important terms and steps to know to help federal employees with the filing process.
Your savings inside of the Thrift Savings Plan that you worked so hard throughout your federal career to accumulate are a large component of providing income in retirement. It is important, therefore, to make sure you make the right choices with regards to preserving these funds. The author provides some advice for federal employees on different ways to determine what constitutes good and bad advice as it relates to their savings inside of the TSP.
The author says that while he is the only candidate running for president who has put forth any visible plan on Social Security, Bernie Sanders’ proposal for reforming the program will ultimately not work. He explains the shortcomings he sees with what Sanders suggests doing to Social Security.
The author says that the presidential candidates so far have said little about their plans for Social Security, but to the extent ideas have been put forward, they do nothing to solve the long term financial problems facing the program.
Are you ready to retire? Many federal employees are now eligible for retirement, but still continue to work. The author goes over some important considerations federal workers should keep in mind as they ponder whether or not it is time to leave the workplace for good.
The author outlines some retirement tax traps for federal employees that can be avoided with proper planning.
The Congressional Budget Office recently released the 2015 forecast of Social Security Policy Options. The author notes that this report is more pessimistic than similar reports from the Social Security Administration’s actuaries. He provides a summary of the report and what it says about the prospects of Social Security’s ability to continue to pay benefits.
The Bipartisan Balanced Budget Act of 2015 made several important changes to Social Security. Several very popular filing strategies are being eliminated, and many people will need to modify their retirement income plans to account for the new restrictions. The author describes what you need to know for planning your retirement.
The author says that one of the most enduring myths of the Social Security debate suggests that the money collected for the system was spent on other government programs. He provides an explanation of why he says this is not true.
The Social Security Administration states that the goal of a cost-of-living adjustment is to ensure that the purchasing power of seniors is not eroded by inflation, but with no COLA planned for 2016, does that mean that seniors do not have to worry about inflation? As the author notes, it depends on how inflation is measured.
