Your Turn with Mike Causey

It is possible to work for Uncle Sam long enough to get and qualify for benefits and an annuity, but still leave government earlier. Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan thinks that may be about to happen.

Changing estate tax rules and laws need to be understood, and if necessarily, dealt with, if you want your estate handled the way it should be handled. And that means being aware of what Congress and the White House have in mind to make major changes in estate tax laws. Changes that could leave your family with a much bigger tax debt in the future. The proposals are almost always labeled as “reforms”, a key to you to cover your assets. For an update on estates and estate tax law current and proposed, I asked Tom O’Rourke who was our guest on Your Turn today.

Oversight of the TSP is 20/20. Its participants include members the House, Senate and occupants of the White House — as well as members or staff of the Supreme Court, FBI agents, IRS auditors, astronauts, SEC attorneys and CIA agents. Many prominent investors and financial experts have said they would L-O-V-E to be able to participate in a low-fee fund with such a generous employer match. And yet when it comes time to retire, some 22% of participants take all of their money out of the TSP within one year of leaving the government and invest in an outside account. How come? Many say they get more flexibility outside of the TSP. Others say they want more investment choices. Or more active management advice from professionals. So we asked a pro — Arthur Stein. He’s a well-known financial planner in the D.C. area and his clientele includes many active and retired feds. Including some members of the self-made Millionaires Club. He’ll be my guest today on Your Turn.

Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do, WHAM! But there are things you can be doing now, and in the future, to avoid the ordeal. And that’s the subject of today’s Your Turn show, with guest Tom O’Rourke. He’s an estate and tax attorney — and was a long-time lawyer with the IRS.

Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do, WHAM! But there are things you can be doing now, and in the future, to avoid the ordeal. And that’s the subject of today’s Your Turn show, with guest Tom O’Rourke. He’s an estate and tax attorney — and was a long-time lawyer with the IRS.

This year, many of the old demons that haunted them simply won’t be around. Even better, the question isn’t whether there will be a January pay raise, but rather how much that 2022 hike will be. The only question — unless the nation is plunged into a recession or another national emergency — is how much the increase will be. President Biden has proposed 2.7%, whereas some congressional Democrats say they won’t settle for less than 3.2%. Either way, that is good news for workers who in recent times were lucky to get 1%. And who suffered through several years without a pay raise proposed by a Democratic administration during the Great Recession. So what else is coming up? What about the future of work-at-home programs? Before the pandemic, the Trump administration was dialing them down. Now a majority of feds in many agencies have had 12-to-14 months of working from home. How about proposals to beef up the staff at the IRS and other agencies that have been intentionally downsized in the past? What about those

Working longer, retiring slightly later, can have a big time payoff. And it’s particularly true for federal workers. Most are under the Federal Employees Retirement System, which offers them benefits based on a civil service annuity (for life and partially indexed to inflation), Social Security (fully indexed to inflation) and whatever they have in their Thrift Savings Plan. Although they are likely to have more in retirement than a private sector employee earning the same salary, chances are their total income will be reduced in retirement. So financially, the longer you work the more you have to spend in retirement. And if you never retire, well, do the math. In the real world, however, most people are anxious to retire. Especially if they’ve worked a long time or have other things they want to do that don’t fit in with getting up and going to work five days a week. So how do you compromise to have the best of both the work and retirement worlds? Make sure that your golden years are 24 carat, as opposed t

While the majority of current retirees are under the CSRS or Offset system, the vast majority of people working for the government right now are under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). When they retire under a less generous formula, they will get a lower annuity because of the diet-COLA provision of FERS. Some years that reduction — based on an already smaller than CSRS annuity — means they will get a COLA that is 1% less than their CSRS colleagues. Over time that can really hurt. Imagine what your FERS annuity will be worth 10-to-30 years into retirement, especially if we hit future peaks of high inflation. So what do you do in retirement whether you are under CSRS or FERS? How do you prepare for it? We asked financial planner Arthur Stein what people should be doing. That’s what we’ll be talking about today on Your Turn.

Most people who have been through a death in the family know that being prepared and doing the best for your loved ones and friends is more than a will you downloaded or instructions that your favorite nephew gets your car (and any remaining payments). A growing number of people are setting things up as if they have an estate. And that means keeping up with tax law at the federal and state level. Maybe changing your residence. So we called on estate attorney Thomas O’Rourke to join us on today’s Your Turn show.

For millions of current and retired feds the “evil twins” that reduce or eliminate their retirement benefits are the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Office. NARFE and other groups have been working for years to modify them without success. But things may be changing under the new administration. I’ll ask Jessica Klement about that today of Your Turn.

Now, 2021, is the time. According to one of the top how-to-get-a-federal job experts, things have rarely if ever been a better time. Kathryn Troutman, founder of The Resume Place, has been guiding people into and up in government for decades. And she says the impact of the war against COVID-19 has created a golden opportunity for people looking for work — steady work — with Uncle Sam. Whatever the reasons, the government is hiring at a pace unseen in years, she said. The government is also taking steps to speed up the hiring process. Troutman will be our guest today on Your Turn.

So the topic of today’s Your Turn radio show is how to make the most out of the extended tax filing deadline while avoiding trouble with the IRS. D.C. area tax attorney Tom O’Rourke will be on hand to answer questions and tell us how to navigate the next few weeks. Meantime, Tom gives us this sneak preview of things you should be thinking about as you prepare to tackle this very important annual chore.

When people go into something like the Thrift Savings Plan, they think of it as a long term investment. Most believe that things like the bond-index F fund and the treasury securities G fund are the safest. Most also concede — and the long term numbers bear it out — that stocks outperform bonds over time. But what about the F fund out performing the G fund? If that’s the case, and the numbers show it to be true, which is the safest? Financial planner Arthur Stein says that “safe” is a relative term. And he also says many feds don’t understand that their TSP retirement nest egg is not really an investment. He’ll be my guest today on Your Turn. Stein has lots of clients who are feds, active and retired. Some of them have more than a million dollars in their TSP account. Here’s the guest column he wrote to explain the “investment” part of your TSP.

The good old days, a time when there was a long career, a gold watch, then a brief and frugal retirement are mostly gone. Some people are now retired for at least as long as they worked. Which can be a blessing or a curse. Things have changed. Mostly for the better. And yet.. The lead obituary in Monday’s Washington Post was about a 99-year old civil servant who had been retired since 1983. Do the math! 38 years is a long time to do anything, whether its working at the same place, being married or being retired. And in the latter case, you start out with a reduced income and under a cost of living adjustment (COLA) formula that doesn’t keep pace with inflation, especially as you get older and your medical costs go up. If you are one of the 75,000 feds with million dollar TSP accounts and are under the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS ), your financial life in retirement should be pretty good. But most people don’t have anywhere near that amount in their federal 401k plan. Also, most will retire und

It is an especially good idea for people who work for the federal government to pay all their due taxes on time. Members of Congress, many who have major tax issues of their own, love to find and publicize information about the number and location of feds who are delinquent, or worse. Bottom line — get it done correctly. So we called the cavalry, and Tom O’Rourke answered. He’s a well known estate and tax attorney in the D.C. metro area and a former attorney with the IRS. He’s going to be my guest on today’s Your Turn show — the first of a two-parter about your 2020 taxes.

Several readers have sent us blueprints they followed to millionaire status. , like the man who went from an account balance of 0 to just over $1.3 million in 23 years. If you are doing well, congrats. Nice work! But could you be doing even better? If you are one with a TSP portfolio heavily or 100% in the stock indexed C, S and I funds, are you overlooking the best of the bunch. Arthur Stein believes you should think about it. He’s a well-known financial planner in the Washington D.C. area. Several of his clients are TSP millionaires. And he teaches classes on TSP investing at Montgomery College. And he thinks lots of investors are missing out on a good thing. Based on past performance, he says investors should take another look at the S fund. He’s my guest today on our Your Turn radio show.

Some experts say this is the beginning of the end of the battle to tame the virus, and that by year end, all will be well. Others say it is just the end of the beginning with a long struggle ahead. Regardless of which side turns out to be correct, most of us are still very much in harm’s way. Most federal workers and retirees have enough — life insurance, an annuity, property — to be considered an estate. Yet fewer than 50% of the people who should have an estate plan have one. Or it may consist of something you downloaded, filled out and filed away. Or perhaps in your efforts to forget a past marriage, you have left your former spouse everything. Help is just a click away. My guest on today’s Your Turn radio show (10 a.m. EST) is Tom O’Rourke. He’s a tax specialist and estate attorney. And a former IRS lawyer and Vietnam vet. Most of his clients are current or former feds who — long before the pandemic — decided to get some advice and work up a plan. While few of us know the answers, its also true that mos

As most federal/postal workers and retirees know, the Thrift Savings Plan is a good deal. About 2% of the 75,000-plus people have become TSP millionaires in the course of their federal service. They didn’t have big salaries, but they had time and patience. And it worked. A growing number have hit the $2 million mark. And these are not rich, hot shot political appointees who brought 401k cash with them. These are people who earned it by being patient and staying the course. Today’s guest is a case in point. Abraham Grungold is a long-time fed who stayed the course. Like most other TSP millionaires, he’s been in it for the long haul. It took 27 years (at a starting salary of about $21,000) to make his first million. Then six years later he hit his second million. And he’s going to talk about it today on Your Turn.

It’s only a matter of time before somebody writes a book or does a TV interview saying he or she predicted most of the events of 2020 well in advance. To qualify as visionary of the century this combination of Nostradamus, Pinocchio and your favorite tarot card reader would have had to go on record as saying 2020 would mean. That there would be a once in a lifetime worldwide pandemic. That vaccines preventing it would be produced in record time. That America would lead the world with more than 300,000 reported deaths. And so on… Of course nobody actually did that. Nailed 2020 in that way. But just wait, they will. Somebody will claim they foresaw all this long before it actually happened. Those those who, long after the fact, warned of JFK’s assassination. Or the 9/11 attacks. Meantime, reality check. I asked financial planner Arthur Stein to review the past year. Many of his clients are current or former feds. A couple of them TSP millionaires. Congress has invited him to Capitol Hill to keep congressional

The start of a new year, any new year, is a logical time to take stock, reflect and look ahead. The fact that we are the midst of a deadly, frightening pandemic this time around makes self-reflection all the more important. A lot of things, many we never even considered important, have changed. Maybe forever. As individuals we certainly have. And its not a matter of debate or opinion. It’s true. By now most of us have figured out we are not immortal. We’ve seen parents and family members age — some better than others — and know that some things are inevitable. Ignoring them is an option, but not a very good one. As the end of the year approaches, a common question directed to an estate planning lawyer is, “What should I do to update my estate plan before year end?” Tom O'Rourke is a D.C. tax attorney and estate planner. He's my guest on today's episode of Your Turn to help us answer that question.