Thursday, June 10, 2021

Veterans Who Join the Civil Service Are Eligible for Valuable Service Credits

Title: Veterans Who Join the Civil Service Are Eligible for Valuable Service Credits

Article Snip: "...Let's take a look at how you can apply your military service toward FERS, see how the military service credit buyback program works, and discuss why this makes sense for many veterans..."

Reference: www.military.com
Veterans and FERS, CSRS and Veterans,

Thursday, May 20, 2021

How much does Social Security increase each year after 62?

Title: How much does Social Security increase each year after 62?

Article Snip: "...If you claim Social Security at age 62, rather than wait until your full retirement age (FRA), you can expect up to a 30% reduction in monthly benefits. For every year you delay claiming Social Security past your FRA up to age 70, you get an 8% increase in your benefit..."

Reference: www.fidelity.com
How much does Social Security increase each year after 62?

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

What taxes can federal employees expect to pay after they retire from federal service?

Title: What taxes can federal employees expect to pay after they retire from federal service?

Article Snip: "...The only taxes that do not follow federal employees into retirement are payroll taxes. Payroll taxes are taxes you pay out of earnings in order to fund future benefits. Social Security tax (6.2%) and Medicare tax (1.45%) are only taken out of gross wages and net self-employment income (with a few exceptions, most notably for farmers). In addition, a retiree will not be making contributions for their pension. FERS pension contributions are 0.8%..."

Reference: www.fedsmith.com
What taxes can federal employees expect to pay after they retire from federal service?

Avoiding A Tax Bite When Receiving A Pension Distribution

Title: Avoiding A Tax Bite When Receiving A Pension Distribution

Article Snip: "...Employers of most pension plans are required to withhold a mandatory 20% of your lump sum retirement distribution when you leave their company. However, you can avoid this tax hit if you make a direct rollover of those funds to an IRA rollover account or another similar qualified plan. Failure to rollover the entire amount of your lump sum distribution may result in your paying unnecessary taxes on all or a portion of your retirement payout. The 20% withheld from your lump sum retirement distribution is a federal income tax prepayment similar to the federal income taxes withheld from your pay check..."

Reference: benefitslink.com

Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC)

Title: Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC)

Article Snip: "... What Is a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC)? A qualified longevity annuity contract (QLAC) is a type of deferred annuity funded with an investment from a qualified retirement plan or an individual retirement account (IRA)..."

Reference: www.investopedia.com
Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC)

Provisional Income and Calculating Taxable Social Security Benefits

Title: Social Security and Taxes

Article Snip: "...Most retirees do not have to pay federal income taxes on their Social Security benefits, but for those who receive substantial income in addition to Social Security, up to 85 percent of the benefits may be taxable. According to the Social Security Administration, about one third of benefit recipients pay federal taxes on their Social Security benefits. The Social Security benefits may become taxable when retirees’ “provisional income” exceeds certain limits...combined income is greater than $44,000, then up to 85 percent of your benefit may be taxable...U.S. citizens who live in Canada and certain other countries (Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Romania or the United Kingdom) are exempt from U.S. tax on Social Security benefits regardless of their income. A lump sum death benefit is not subject to tax either..."

Reference: www.aarp.org
Provisional Income,Calculating Taxable Social Security Benefits, tax

Is a retirement pension considered income?

Title: Is a retirement pension considered income?

Article Snip: "...Pension payments, annuities, and the interest or dividends from your savings and investments are not earnings for Social Security purposes. You may need to pay income tax, but you do not pay Social Security taxes..."

Reference:
Pension Payments,social security,earned income,Taxes in Retirement,

What Is the Savers Credit?

Title: What Is the Savers Credit?

Article Snip: "...Depending on your adjusted gross income and tax filing status, you can claim the credit for 50%, 20% or 10% of the first $2,000 you contribute during the year to a retirement account. Therefore, the maximum credit amounts that can be claimed are $1,000, $400 or $200..."

Reference: intuit.com
Savers Credit

Monday, April 12, 2021

Retirement claims backlog continues to rise, exceeding January’s 8-year record

Title: Retirement claims backlog continues to rise, exceeding January’s 8-year record

Article Snip: "...Lackluster processing numbers and longer average processing times in the second half of 2020 helped set the stage for this loss of ground in early 2021. OPM said its “steady state” inventory of retirement claims is 13,000. Processing times rose significantly during the early months of COVID-19, and still haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic lows..."

Reference: federalnewsnetwork.com
OPM Retirement Processing,

Friday, April 9, 2021

How Unpaid Leave Impacts Your Benefits

Title: How Unpaid Leave Impacts Your Benefits

Article Snip: "...You won’t earn any annual or sick leave for a pay period in which you reach a total of 80 hours of LWOP. However, you will earn annual and sick leave during the following pay periods until you once more accumulate 80 hours of LWOP. Then your ability to earn sick or annual leave will end. If you are a part-time employee, the amount of leave you earn will be proportionately less..."

Reference: www.fedweek.com
How Unpaid Leave Impacts Your Benefits,Retirement benefits and LWOP, Retirement,

Thursday, March 25, 2021

How to Navigate Taxation When Retiring From Your Government Job

Title: How to Navigate Taxation When Retiring From Your Government Job

Article Snip: "...High-three average salaries are used for the first basic annuity when considering retirement. If you are under the age of 62 at the time of retirement, you will get 1% of your high-3 average salary. If you’re older than 62 or have more than 20 years of service, you will get 1.1% of your high-3 average salary. There are exceptions to these general guidelines. For example..."

Reference: www.kake.com

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Nalcrest Florida and The Former Fedhaven Florida (Retirment Communities for Feds and Postals)

Title: Nalcrest Florida and The Former Fedhaven Florida

Article Snip: "...All residents of this community have to be retired members of the National Association of Letter Carriers. A funny thing about NALCREST is that mail is not delivered to individual apartments; residents have to walk to the local post office to get their mail. Nearby Lakeshore was called FEDHAVEN for most of the years since it was built. It is about one mile east of NALCREST and was developed as a retirement community for retired federal employees..."

Reference: www.florida-backroads-travel.com
Nalcrest Florida, Fedhaven Florida, Postal Retirement Community, Federal Employee Retirement Community,

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Lessons Learned Growing a TSP Balance Beyond $1M

Title: Lessons Learned Growing a TSP Balance Beyond $1M

Article Snip: "...FERS retiree and one of those TSP investors who have accumulated at least $1,000,000 in their TSP account while working as a federal civilian employee. In his article published February 28, 2020 in FEDweek (Becoming a TSP Millionaire: Don’t Try to Time the Market) Dallen Haws noted that “becoming a TSP millionaire is simple” and that at the end of 2019 there were nearly 50,000 federal employees with at least $1,000,000 in their TSP. I’d like to share with you..."

Reference: www.fedweek.com
TSP Millionaire Tips

Thursday, March 4, 2021

5 Benefits of Serving in the Civil Service After Your Military Career

Title: 5 Benefits of Serving in the Civil Service After Your Military Career

Article Snip: "...Joining the federal civil service is a great way to continue serving your country while earning a respectable living and valuable retirement benefits. And if you formerly served on active duty, your military service can provide you with additional benefits..."

Reference: www.military.com

Pandemic prompts some feds to delay or reconsider retirement plans

Title: Pandemic prompts some feds to delay or reconsider retirement plans

Article Snip: "...A total of 92,008 federal employees retired in 2020, the fewest in nearly 10 years, according to a Federal News Network analysis of monthly data from the Office of Personnel Management. By contrast, OPM processed 101,580 retirements in 2019 and 107,612 in 2018..."

Reference:

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Cash flexibility in retirement: Pros and cons of the TSP

Title: Cash flexibility in retirement: Pros and cons of the TSP

Article Snip: "...many federal and postal workers pull their retirement nest egg money out of the Thrift Savings Plan. So is that wise? Short answer..."

Reference: federalnewsnetwork.com

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Special Military Social Security Rate: Here's How It Works...

Title: Special Military Social Security Rate

Article Snip: "...Under certain circumstances, veterans who served between 1940 and 2001 can be credited for special extra earnings for Social Security purposes. These extra earnings may help you qualify for Social Security or increase...Social Security doesn't add these extra earnings to your record until you file for benefits..."

Reference: www.military.com
special extra earnings for Social Security

Friday, January 29, 2021

Didn't Retire from Active Duty? You Can Still Use Your Service Toward a Pension

Title: Didn't Retire from Active Duty? You Can Still Use Your Service Toward a Pension

Article Snip: "...your active duty military service puts you in a better position to earn a pension, even if you count yourself among the 83% (roughly five out of six) of active duty veterans who didn't remain on active duty long enough to retire from the military to earn military retirement pay..."

Reference: www.military.com
Buy Military Service Credits with the Federal Civil Service

What is Social Security’s 'special earnings limit rule'?

Title: What is Social Security’s 'special earnings limit rule'?

Article Snip: "...The special earnings limit rule is an exception to Social Security’s earnings limit...The reason for the rule is that Social Security bases the earnings limit on a full year’s income, but it recognizes that most people retire at some point mid-year and by then may have already earned more than the limit. Rather than count that income and reduce your benefits accordingly, Social Security applies a “monthly earnings test”: Once you claim your benefits, you’ll get your full payment for any month that Social Security considers you to be “retired” (doing limited or no paid work), regardless of your total earnings for the year. Here’s how it works..."

Reference: www.aarp.org
special earnings limit rule (Social Security),

CSRS vs FERS: Bill Would Remove Discriminatory Federal Retiree Annual Increases: Equal COLA Act (H.R. 304)

Title: Bill Would Standardize Federal Retiree Annual Increases, and More

Article Snip: "...The Equal COLA Act (H.R. 304), introduced by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., would ensure that federal retirees in the Federal Employee Retirement System and the Civil Service Retirement System both receive the same annual percentage cost of living increase each year..."

Reference:
Equal COLA Act (H.R. 304)