Your Turn with Mike Causey

For many career feds and postal workers the best date to retire is simple! You haul assets ASAP. You leave a soon as you are eligible to receive an immediate annuity. Period. Maybe you hate your job. Or your colleagues. Or the boss. Or all of them. Maybe you are ill. Or want to travel. Or not have to fight rush hour traffic anymore. Simple, right? Well, not necessarily. Retiring as soon as you can may seem like a good idea now. But what about then, which always follows now? How will it impact you financially 10, 20 or 30 years into retirement when inflation has nibbled away at (or gobbled up) your FERS annuity? When your TSP balance shrinks either due to inflation or to a recession? That might not be the right way to approach it. In fact, benefits expert Tammy Flanagan says there are two other factors: The future forecast: How you can (and should) set and control the actual NET value (after taxes and deductions) of your annuity. And mandatory or voluntary TSP withdrawals. Also, the impact of retiring ea