Mike Causey

Work/Retirement Tipping Point

Are you working for peanuts, even if you have a good, high-paying job? Benefits expert John Elliott says that for some, maybe many, feds the best financial move...

Federal News Network Staff

September 9, 2009 4:00 am

2 min read

Many feds whose long-time game plan had included retiring by now are still working. The decision to stick around (for another year or two) reflects the hit many TSP accounts took, or the poor job market outside government and/or general concerns about the state of the economy. Also, they may have decided they like their job better than the prospect of joining a shuffleboard league.

If the keep-on-working issue is money, ask yourself this question: Are you actually “losing” money by continuing to work?

Some experts say that long-time feds under the old CSRS retirement system (about 20 percent of the total federal workforce) are working for (relatively) peanuts! Barely making more than the minimum wage, regardless of their grade level.

Wait.

What?

Federal benefits expert John Elliott says that in some cases, maybe a lot of them, long-time federal workers would be better off financially if they retired. Like right now!

Elliott, is retired fed (OPM, DEA, Agriculture, Defense and Customs) who does pre-retirement seminars for the National Institute of Transition Planning. He’s crunched the numbers and says that for many people there is a tipping point when it doesn’t pay to work any longer.

He also says that many feds fail to maximize their valuable benefits package because they don’t know the rules, or learn them too late.

Things that too many feds don’t do, he said, include using Flexible Spending Accounts, purchasing Long Term Care Insurance, using retirement calculators and joining NARFE while they are still working. He wrote about these in Missed Opportunities and Missed Opportunities Part Two earlier this year.

Today, on our Your Turn with Mike Causey radio show, Elliott will go over his checklist and be available to answer questions about the mysteries of the federal benefit package.

Listen if you can, call in if you like and/or e-mail me your questions at: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Pay Raise, FERS Retirement Credit, NSPS

Our leadoff guest on the Your Turn show this morning (10 a.m. EDT) is Jacqueline Simon. She’s director of public policy for the American Federation of Government Employees union. She’ll talk about the 2010 federal pay raise, the future of the National Security Performance System and give us an update on five pro-fed, pro-retiree proposals in the pending Defense Authorization bill.

If you have questions and comments for her, or me, call in or e-mail them to me at: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

Measuring 32.2 inches from nose to tail and weighing around 3.3 pounds, a new species of giant rat has been discovered in Papua, New Guinea. In case there’s any confusion, Kristofer Helgen, a biologist from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History describes the rodent thus: “This is one of the world’s largest rats. It’s a true rat, the same kind you find in the city sewers.”

(Insert Washington joke here.)

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com