A news and educational resource pooling excerpts from various news and information sources from the web for the Federal Retiree.
Article Excerpt: "...If you have some extra cash at the end of the month, you may choose to put it toward one of your financial goals. There are advantages and disadvantages to both saving for retirement and paying down debt, but in some cases, it pays to choose one goal over the other..."
Article Excerpt: "...For starters, not everybody can sign up for the Federal Employees Retirement System. It – as the name implies – is for federal employees. More specifically, it’s for civil servants. They are the non-military civilian workforce that forms government departments and agencies. There are millions of such workers across the country. They system includes Federal Reserve employees and covers the congressional pension program. Those working for the National Security Agency, staff members of the White House, CIA agents and nearly 500,000 postal service workers qualify for the Federal Employees Retirement System..."
Article Excerpt: "...even though you’ve stopped working and are no longer being paid a salary by your agency, once you retire and start receiving your pension retirement, it’s as if you’re still receiving a salary from a tax perspective. This is because the money that you’re receiving from your pension is considered fully taxable..."
Article Excerpt: "...let's examine the average payout by age. Below you'll find a payment breakdown provided by the SSA as of June 2020 (rounded to the nearest whole dollar)..."
Article Excerpt: "...If you plan to pay off your loan by taking a withdrawal from a 401(k) or IRA, you may want to reconsider for tax purposes. For example, if your current income puts you in the 12% tax bracket and taking a large distribution puts you in the next tax bracket (22%)..."
Article Excerpt: "...it's a good idea to figure out how much you can expect to receive each month. Although everyone's benefit amount will differ, here's how much the average retiree earning a salary of $50,000 per year can expect to collect..."
Article Excerpt: "...To make matters worse, constantly worrying about money is hazardous to your health. And considering health expenses tend to go up with age, this is doubly problematic. The assumption is that healthcare costs go down once folks are eligible for Medicare. But this is far from true. ..."
Article Excerpt: "...Who is eligible for the SRS? The SRS is paid to FERS employees who retire on an immediate, unreduced annuity before reaching age 62, when they become eligible for Social Security benefits—if you retire at 62 or above, you are..."
Article Excerpt: "...Say you're married filing jointly and your $42,000 in provisional income includes half of your $12,000 in Social Security benefits. Your provisional income exceeds the $32,000 base amount by $10,000. The amount of benefits that will be included in your taxable income is either half your benefits ($6,000) or..."
Article Excerpt: "...Before you file for your Social Security benefits, you'll want to make sure you know these four facts so you can make the right moves to maximize your chances at getting your checks on time and shoring up your financial security throughout your later years..."
Article Excerpt: "...One misconception that I see is that some feds assume that traditional TSP distributions will be taxed at capital gains tax rates, but this is not the case. These distributions are simply added to your income in whatever year you take the money out. It is also important to note that the TSP is required to withhold 20% of any traditional TSP distributions to cover taxes..."
Article Excerpt: "...plan hinges on imposing the 6.2% Social Security tax on earnings above $400,000. Employees and their employers are taxed on earnings up to $137,000 under current guidelines. If enacted next year, Social Security would collect 7% more in revenue in 2021, 12% more in 2040, and 16% more in 2065..."
Article Excerpt: "...The CPI-E tends to grow more quickly than the CPI-W in most years, because it more accurately accounts for the percentage of income that retirees spend on healthcare and housing costs. Those two categories tend to increase several times faster than inflation, and tend to take a bigger share of retiree income. The CPI-E tends to give less weight to items like gasoline and consumer electronics which have fallen significantly in recent months and helped drag down the COLA for 2020..."
Article Excerpt: "...Feds that served in the armed forces, Peace Corps and Volunteers in Service to America will no longer be on the hook for agency miscalculations of their retirement deposits under a proposed rule issued by the Office of Personnel Management Nov. 5..."
Article Excerpt: "...The general rules regarding the federal income taxation of withdrawals from the Thrift Savings plan are: A) All withdrawals from your traditional TSP balance are fully taxable as ordinary income..."