Retirement

Years after the buyout surge of the 1990s some still-working feds are hanging on until the next round of buyouts. But that could take a while.

The Trump administration’s 2020 budget proposal includes significant changes in federal employee retirement programs, most of which are cuts but with one exception.

Retirement expert John Grobe, himself a former fed, said the length and uncertainty of the recent shutdown has a lot more people thinking about retirement, or just leaving government for greener pastures.

John Grobe, president of Federal Career Experts, specializes in prepping feds for retirement and is Mike Causey’s guest on today’s episode of Your Turn.

Allan Roth, founder of Wealth Logic and a nationally syndicated financial columnist, said that when it comes to investing, his motto is “Dare to be dull,” as in boring.

The detailed version of the President’s 2020 budget request includes a series of familiar pay and retirement cuts and a wide variety of proposals designed to change the way agencies compensate, hire, manage and reward both current and future federal employees.

Of the eligible Federal Employees Retirement System participants who have Thrift Savings Plan accounts, January participation rates rose by less than 1 percent because of missed contributions due to the partial government shutdown.

Sen. James Lankford says whatever retirement changes occur should only apply to new hires. Hear this story and more in today’s Federal Newscast.

Several members of Congress have declared the President’s proposed cuts to federal employee retirement “dead on arrival,” while at least one Republican has expressed more of an interest in developing a new system for prospective employees.

Hardly anybody joins the government planning to become rich but you could be well on the way to millionaire status if you meet a few key characteristics.

Ever since the late 1990s some experts on government matters have been predicting a tidal wave of retirements from key federal agencies. That sparked fears of a brain drain as experienced feds fled their jobs heading for the shuffle-board courts.

The Trump administration for the third consecutive year has recommended cuts to federal employee retirement and health benefits as part of its 2020 budget request.

Most of the House Republicans who repeatedly tried to cut costs in the massive FERS program are either gone from Congress or relegated by the 2016 midterm elections to minority status.

Federal retirement planning expert Tammy Flanagan joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for some of the important questions that need asking before making the decision to retire.