According to some political pundits the 2020 presidential election may be decided by voters who are 60-plus years old. They supported candidate Donald Trump, age 73, last time but, according to some polls, are leaning…
May 27, 2020
A lot of people who know how the market works and what the TSP was designed to do would probably say don’t do it. In part because it involves timing the market — buying when…
May 21, 2020
Proposals to eliminate WEP and GPO have been around almost since enactment in the 1980s. But repeal has always been the legislative equivalent of mission impossible — probably still is. But what about “reform” rather…
May 13, 2020
Millions of people who, just a couple of months ago, had good paying jobs, health insurance and vacation plans are now having to make choices between food and rent. Others are still waiting for special…
May 6, 2020
Experts in the stock market, real and self-anointed, know that historically it has gone up and down due to a variety of things — some predictable, some coming from out of left field. Buying stocks…
April 22, 2020
When I was a very young reporter assigned to write obituaries, an elderly colleague (a woman of about 45) gave me some good advice. “If you want to be sure you get a good obit…
April 15, 2020
First responders, doctors, nurses, cops, researchers and scientists have always been heroes. We just didn’t always know it. Now we do! And you can never have enough heroes, especially in a time like this when…
April 8, 2020
The idea of an out-of-the-blue pandemic shutting down America and the rest of the world would be an April Fools Day prank of the worst kind. Unfortunately, this is not a drill. Unlike past major…
April 1, 2020
Many can live comfortably on their federal annuity while giving their stock-indexed TSP funds time to recover. But for the majority of retirement eligible federal and postal workers, that’s not an option. At least not…
March 25, 2020
Most current and retired federal and postal workers have a 401k plan via the federal Thrift Savings Plan. For those under the Civil Service Retirement System, with its more generous indexed-to-inflation annuity for life, the…
March 18, 2020
If you haven’t done your taxes yet, no problem. There’s still plenty of time. If you are planning not to pay your taxes, or not to file at all, that is a problem that, worst…
March 11, 2020
With all the problems bubbling here in March, is Congress really going to spend real time moving most functions of the Office of Personnel Management to the General Services Administration? Except for some Washington-based technocrats,…
March 4, 2020
Working for the federal government has its rewards and challenges. The same when you retire — a lot of options, which also means a lot of choices. Most working feds are under both the Federal…
February 26, 2020
For many people nearing retirement, running out of money is one of the top fears. Unless they work for the federal government. With the Federal Employees Retirement System annuity, Social Security and cost of living…
February 19, 2020