Your Turn with Mike Causey

Thanks to the Federal Employees Retirement System, the Civil Service Retirement System and Social Security retirement programs many people will have guaranteed lifetime payments worth $1 million to $2 million. And that is in addition to their investments in the Thrift Savings Plan. Tom O’Rourke, a Washington area attorney whose practice is limited to estates, trusts, tax and federal pension matters, said most active and retired feds are worth more than they think, “especially if you are entitled to receive a lifetime annuity at retirement.” On this episode, O’Rourke talks about what feds and their survivors should be doing to maximize their cash benefits. These include things such as wills, powers-of-attorney (two kinds), trusts and the like to protect you and yours. He also discusses the steps you need to take to minimize tax liabilities, and what you need to include as part of your estate plan. You can listen to the show streaming on www.federalnewsradio.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area. Your Turn

Earlier this year President Donald Trump proposed a zero pay raise for January 2019. In its place would be a yet-to-come system that would give agencies more flexibility and cash to reward outstanding workers with outstanding raise.

The two largest white-collar federal unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, are challenging provisions in two of the three executive orders President Donald Trump issued in late May.

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 Wedne

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.

Is it true, as many believe, that when it comes to working away from the office, younger workers embrace it while older employees view teleworking with suspicion? Also, where is the dividing line between younger and older. Is it 40 years old, 50 years old, or what? A lot of questions about teleworking but few good — as in provable — answers persist. Which is where, maybe, you and the gang at the office come in, we hope. Federal News Radio is finding out what workers think about teleworking. Does it increase productivity, cut down on pollution and traffic jams as advertised, and is there a downside to teleworking? Does it hurt communication and collaboration? And what about the bottom line: What impact does it have on the customers?

Your Thrift Savings Plan account has had a rough start this year. The TSP is not performing at its hot 2017 levels, so what’s happening and what’s going to happen the rest of the year? Washington area financial planner Arthur Stein will answer those questions when he joins host Mike Causey on this week’s Your Turn radio show. Listen if you can at 10 a.m EDT on 1500 am in the Washington DC area or online at federalnewsradio.com. It will also be archived on our home page so you can listen anytime. If you have questions for him email them to Mike Causey before air time: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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, furlough

In addition to a proposed pay raise freeze in January 2019, the White House and Congress are recommending that Congress do away with cost-of-living adjustments for both current and future retirees under the FERS program, which covers most feds still working. They also want to, among other things, reduce the rate of return on the Thrift Savings Plan’s Government Securities Investment (G) fund, and base federal pensions for new retirees on the average of the highest five years of salary instead of the highest three. So what do these proposals mean? What are the odds that any (or all) of them will be enacted into law this year? Or at some point in your career? Jessica Klement, staff vice president, advocacy; and Jill Talley, deputy director, public relations, from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association discuss. So what do these proposals mean? What are the odds that any (or all) of them will be enacted into law this year? Or at some point during your career? We’ll find out when we talk w

Did the recent stock market nosedive send you moving money from the stock indexed C and S funds into the G fund for safety? If so, was that a smart move? And what’s next? Are you waiting, as in sweating, a much bigger correction that many experts say is long overdue? We asked Arthur Stein, a Washington-area financial planner who tracks the Thrift Savings Plan what he thinks is going on. Did the recent stock market nosedive send you moving money from the stock indexed C and S funds into the G fund for safety? If so, was that a smart move? And what’s next? Are you waiting, as in sweating, a much bigger correction that many experts say is long overdue? We asked Arthur Stein, a Washington-area financial planner who tracks the Thrift Savings Plan what he thinks is going on. 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.