American Benefits Exchange – Why We Do What We Do

American Benefits Exchange - Why We Do What We Do.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

American Benefits Exchange - Why We Do What We Do.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Federal Retirement Show. I'm your host, Val Majewski, with American Benefits Exchange. And as always, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to view our content, because that's what it's here for. It's for you, the federal employee, that's looking for accurate information when it comes to your benefits and retirement situation. And today we get asked a lot of times, you know, what exactly do you do? Because I know you give out information. You like to say that you're an expert. And I, I tend to think I'm an expert in this area. I'm not ever going to claim to know everything, but we get asked a lot of times, what do we do? What exactly can we help federal employees out with other than just giving this information out? And I know I talk about going to our website, going to federal retirement show.com, and filling out the form. And one of our experts across the country will be reaching out to discuss your benefits and retirement situation and what does that look like? So I want to clear it up. I want to give you a high level view, but then also dive into a couple details of ways in which we help federal employees, because the idea is, first of all, you've got to get educated on your benefits and retirement. That's what this podcast, that's what this show is all about. It's about giving out information to federal employees that are looking for it and answering questions along the way.

Speaker 1:
And that's where these episodes have come from. It's a lot of times it's your questions, things that have come in or situations that we've run across that we know will help other federal employees. If it if it works with one, it's definitely going to work with with others. But we get asked all the time again, what exactly do you do? How do you help federal employees? What is the the main goal? What's the end result? What what what what. So I'm going to peel back the, the peel the curtain back a little bit so you can see inside, but really you're never going to experience it entirely until you, uh, do a personalized benefits and retirement review. I'll get into that here in just a second and share more about what that is. But the first part is about education and training. So just so you know, who is American Benefits Exchange and, and what exactly do we do? Well, as I've said, I'm a subject matter expert. This is what I've done for the last 14 years is specialize in educating and training federal employees on benefits and retirement information. As I mentioned earlier, I'm never going to claim to know every single thing, but we want to make sure that we are fully up to speed on what's going on with your benefits, your retirement situation, all of those things.

Speaker 1:
And that's what we specialize in now, not just the education part, but offering also solid insurance and financial solutions. Any issues within the benefit structure? I mean, that's there. And I'm going to go over a couple examples to show you. So people would think, oh, so you're just trying to sell me something? No, that's not the case. There are ways in which we can put you in a better situation. Again, I'll go over that in just a second. And what we do. We partner with a lot of unions, associations of different groups that federal employees are a part of. And we go speaking across the country, whether it's virtual or in person. There's a number of events that we have coming up, and this is who Abe partners with in order to reach more federal employees. So the federal retirement show. Yeah, this is my virtual platform to get out this information and, and say, look, we need to sit down. We need to go over your personal deal. We need to look at your personal situation. But the overall goal of the show is to, to provide information. Right. Just to give you a glimpse of what it is you do not know. And why is that? Because you want to make sure 100% that you're going to have a great retirement. I asked this question when I give presentations, when I'm talking in front of groups, are you 100% sure you're going to have a great retirement, or do you have some doubt? And retirement involves the entire situation.

Speaker 1:
You and I may. What I mean by that is your working career and then into retirement. I can't put that all in one slide because I just try to sum it all up into retirement. When I say retirement, I mean your current benefits situation, your pathway as you're nearing retirement and then into retirement. The ultimate goal, right? The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Are you 100% sure you're going to have a great retirement? Or do you have some doubt? And chances are, if you're looking for information out there, if you want to validate something, if you want to confirm something or you just want to get your question answered, you might have some doubt. And I do not want you to live the I hope so retirement. Like, if I ask you that question, are you 100% sure you can have a great retirement? He said, oh, I hope so. I think so. Maybe it's a possibility. That's not a good answer for me. Hope is not a strategy. We've talked about this before. So you want to make sure 100%, you know, all the variables or as much of it as you possibly can, so you can make the right decisions. Know all the information, lay it all out and you know 100% that you're set up properly heading in the direction that you want to.

Speaker 1:
I do not want any federal employee to get to the end of their career and be like, ooh, I wish I would have done this five, ten, 15, 20 years ago. That would have been very helpful. So do me a favor. If this is ringing a bell for you, if this is, you know, raising a red flag, if you're saying, oh, light bulb went off, I need to do something. I've never done this or I need to get my check up. Go to the website, federal retirement.com, fill out the form. One of our experts, as I've mentioned, if it's not me personally, we'll be reaching out to schedule your personal benefits and retirement review because you don't know what you don't know. And this is not your fault. I've mentioned this before. We talked about it the last couple of times when we were going over early career and late career. If you if you watch our previous episodes, but you don't know what you don't know, and I've said that it's not your fault. You just weren't educated and trained on this properly. You got hired, filled out some paperwork. Hey, get to work, do your job. And this kind of goes to the the wayside. It just kind of it gets thrown on the back burner and maybe it's in the back of your mind, but it's like, oh, I've got other things that I need to do.

Speaker 1:
I'll get to retirement later or I'm so far away from retirement, I don't need to be thinking about this now. And that's not the case because there's a lot of other things that you need to take care of along the way of your or during your working career. So why, why should you get a personalized benefits and retirement review? And this is something that we, we give out. It's a complimentary service. It's free. People always ask what nothing's free. Well, this is a, a free service. Uh, benefits and retirement review. We want to give you a comprehensive, holistic look at your situation going over things like your insurance, federal employee group, life insurance, making sure you understand what you have, what you don't have, what the costs are, how those costs change over time, what you can continue with you into retirement, things like that. Then we'll go into your your pension system, whether you're CSRs or fers, and we'll go over all the ins and outs. What are your contributions? What are the minimum requirements for retirement? How do you calculate your high three? How do you calculate your pension? What deductions are going to be coming out in retirement. What is that. The net number look like when it comes to your pension. How do you increase the pension. Lower the whatever it is. Then on top of that we're going to add survivor benefits.

Speaker 1:
What are your options with survivor benefits. Is it beneficial for you to do that? Is it beneficial for you to take a survivor benefit or do you do you want to keep as much money as you can, and you're not going to give a survivor benefit to a surviving spouse or loved one. We'll go over Social Security and and the changes that are going on and what your estimate looks like. And if you retire early and you're not yet eligible for Social Security, hopefully you're eligible for the first supplement. And how does that affect your pension? And well, how do you calculate that number and what does that look like as it's added in to the retirement income scenario? Then when you get Social Security eligible, how does that increase your benefit or your total benefits, your total income in retirement? Lastly, we'll talk about TSP. And when we talk about TSP, it's your contributions to government matching. You know, what, uh, strategies are you utilizing? What's the history? If you look@tsp.gov, you can look at all the history and performance and all the things, all the resources that are there for you there. And then what are the, what are the options? How do you set yourself up properly for retirement? What do you want to use that money for? Because most federal employees do a great job of, of stockpiling this money and setting it up, but not really having a clue of what they want to do with it or how to set it up properly for retirement.

Speaker 1:
So you get a chance to see exactly where you currently stand and how you're trending as you go through your career and get towards retirement. I equate this all the time. You may have heard me say it if you've seen our previous episodes, but this is like getting a checkup at the doctor's office every year. Hopefully you get your annual physical and you get your blood work done, and they do all the analysis and all that stuff, and you just want to know where you stand. What is my overall health look like now? And if there's a problem, we're going to fix it. If there's no problems, the doctor gives you a thumbs up, pat you on the rear end, you head out and says, hey, keep doing what you're doing and come back. Next year, we'll do it all over again. Hopefully you're doing that. And why do you do it? Because you want to make sure you're in good health. Well, what about the health of your retirement? You need to be looking at that like a checkup every year at the doctor, you go to somebody that's an expert or a group that are experts, like American Benefits Exchange and us here at the Federal Retirement Show, and you get your benefits and retirement analysis performed. We open it up. We look at everything, run all the numbers, make sure you understand even what does it look like on your paycheck stub on your leave and earnings statement.

Speaker 1:
What are all the codes on there? What does this mean? What are these deductions. We clarify all of that. So you get a full understanding because most people don't look at their leave and earnings statement anymore. Scrutinize it like they used to. You just want to make sure that that direct deposit hits your bank account. And if it does, great, everything else, it doesn't matter to me what's coming out and what the codes are, what these costs are. Has anything changed over time? Maybe I'm not looking at that so we can show you what that looks like. Then put all of your your information down, gather it. We produce a couple different reports for you and it goes over all the things I just mentioned. Your Fegley are, are Ah! You set up properly there. Do you have enough life insurance? Do you have too much life insurance? Are you paying too much for your life insurance? Are there better options out there for you? Ways you can save money. You don't. You don't understand. Like I can go through these examples and there are so many times, so many times. And I've gone through the, the top ten mistakes. One of them was paying way too much for your fegli. Option B how do we find that out? We we expose that in the benefits review.

Speaker 1:
Some people don't even realize that they signed up for option B, and they're paying so much for it. And the cost has increased every five years over the course of their career. What if there is a way that you can save tens of thousands of dollars over the course of the rest of your career and into retirement? Would that be attractive to you? Would that be something you want to know about? Absolutely. What about spouse and child insurance? How much coverage do you have? Is it enough? Are there better options out there? Just looking at everything, making sure you're properly aligned. And that's just, that's just your, your fegli insurance, right? Then it comes to your pension in retirement. I do not want you to have this false sense of security that, hey, I'm just going to work my time. And I know that the government job, it's a good job. I'm going to get a pension. I'm going to get Social Security. I've got my 401k, my TSP, and I'm going to be set. No, you need to know what your estimate looks like. You need to know how much income you're projected to get, not just from your pension and how to calculate your pension, but what is Social Security going to look like. And oh, by the way, did you see the Social Security changes that have been proposed this past year due to the Congressional Budget Office report and also the Social Security Trustees report, the projections that are coming down the pike? I hope they don't happen, but it's real.

Speaker 1:
It's what they're telling us. There could be cuts up to 28% in Social Security benefits. You want to know that and factor that into your overall retirement income scenario. Then adding TSP or other retirement accounts that you've saved up outside the government, maybe from a previous job or whatever. How does that all add together, and what does your future retirement income look like? So you can track if you're going in the right direction. So you can say, oh, it is I'm I'm projected to make X and I'm going to be taking home Y in retirement. There's a gap there. I need to fill it. I still have time. How do we correct this? How do we make those numbers closer together? That that's not a problem. I want you to discover, you know, one year, two years, three years from retirement when you don't really have a whole lot of time left to make corrections. The earlier you can find this stuff out, the better. That's what our episode about early in your career, it's never too early to start planning for retirement, and it's never too late. Also, to get this done. I just want to make that clear. Even if you don't have much time left, it's still never too late to learn this stuff to make any corrections that are necessary.

Speaker 1:
So that's with your pension, with your retirement. There are so many federal employees that that we assist when it comes to making sure they are planning properly for retirement, making sure they're saving enough money for retirement, running an estimate, and then looking at it going, oh, I can't live on that in the future. Okay, well, how do we make that change? How do you make that adjustment? What do you have to do? It's not a magic trick. We can't, you know, wave a wand and be like, Abracadabra, boom. The money's going to be there. You have to take action. You have to do something different. And finding ways to help them to do that. Uh, that way when they get to retirement, they're thanking us. Hey, thanks for helping me out. When you when you did. Because without it, I wouldn't have been properly prepared. That happens all the time. So I mentioned, you know, Fegley that's saving money on your life insurance, making sure you're set up properly, if that's money that you don't have to pay to, you know, MetLife and the Fegley program, it's money that you can keep in your pocket and that can be put towards your your future. You can better use that money instead of putting it towards something that is going to increase in cost and cost you more than it should, than with retirement planning properly, making sure you have enough money in the future.

Speaker 1:
You need to run the estimates. You need to know where you stand. Survivor benefits there are so many federal employees that agree with me and think that the survivor benefit plan is a bad piece of life insurance, but they go with it anyway because they don't have any alternatives. They want to leave their spouse something, but they don't know of any alternatives or any ways to to create a better plan. There are better plans out there if if it's suitable, if it's specific for you and your situation. If the numbers work out, you just need to know what those options are. And that's the big thing. Again, with getting a benefits review is we lay out all the options you pick. It's like a la carte menu. I want, I want this, I want that, I want this, and we put the plan together. But you need to know all the variables. You need to know all the options. You need to know the areas where there are issues within your structure, what I'm talking about, your benefits and retirement structure. And you have to want to notice that you have to want to, uh, say that there is a problem and have to want to fix it. And then we can show you and, you know, guide you towards different solutions and ways that you can fix it.

Speaker 1:
But that's, that's a big area. Um, survivor benefits survivor benefit alternatives was able to help a federal employee recently. They were going to save money on the survivor benefit cost and provide a much better solution for their spouse. More options, more flexibility, a better solution. So these things are out there. They're just not advertised towards you. So I want to make you aware. With today's episode, I'm going to reiterate again, kind of pause in the middle here and say, this is why you need to get a benefits and retirement review done. It's just fill in the blanks of what you do not know. Lay all the options out so you can make the best choice. So I talked about survivor benefits. Now we talk about TSP. How does it work with TSP. What are the options that you have. Well TSP if you call them they're going to tell you only what's available within TSP. Only what you can do with those funds within TSP and the distribution options or the the fund choices, whatever it could be. It's only what TSP has available. They're not going to talk about all of the different options that are available outside of TSP and how you can set yourself up with your own IRA or Roth IRA, uh, to do what you want to do. You can customize this plan. And for some, maybe sticking with TSP is the right thing. That's a totally, uh, useful tool that you can have.

Speaker 1:
You can keep it in TSP. But you need to know all the variables. What are your options outside? So you know, you're making the right decision. If ultimately you look at everything, you lay it all out on the table and you're like, yeah, I think staying with TSP is still my best option then great. You understood all of the other options and you made the best choice. But having a lack of information and not knowing all the variables and still sticking with TSP, you might be missing the boat with a much better option that was available for you. Just because you didn't know it wasn't given to you, it wasn't provided to you. Nobody showed it to you. And that's why we want to open up your eyes. I said, take a look behind the curtain here. Uh, dive into your situation and and map it all out. The last thing that we've, we've helped a lot of federal employees out with. And this was something that we talked about in the early of your early career. And then as you get to retirement, is planning for debt and getting rid of debt. Uh, I'm not talking about debt consolidation. That's not what we do. But we, we put people on a committed plan to pay down their debt, if not pay off all their debt before retirement, reduce what's going out the door. And that's not something that a lot of federal employees focus on and think of.

Speaker 1:
There's there have been a few. Now, trust me, it's not everybody, but there have been a few that I talked to that had a very solid plan in place. And they were paying down the debt. They were going to be completely debt free, including their mortgage, well before they retire. That's rare that I see a lot of folks are okay with the payments. They're okay with making this car payment and this, uh, student loan payment and this mortgage payment, and they're okay with having a credit card balance because they're making some payments on it. And next thing you know, you're going to end up paying a lot more in interest than you should. And that's money that's just going out the door. We've talked about this. What is interest? Interest is money that you can light on fire. You can throw in the trash. It doesn't make you any money. It makes somebody else money. So having a plan to pay off debt, reducing the volume of interest that you're paying is a great thing for you. And if you can retire as close to, if not completely debt free, then those are payments and extra interest that you're not going to be paying. It's more money that you keep. And that's ultimately what we want to do. We want you to spend less money when it comes to your benefits.

Speaker 1:
Optimize your benefits, enhance your situation as best as possible, but spend the least amount as possible. Have the least amount going out the door, saving as much as you can for retirement. That way that your income is going to be as high as possible, and even maybe even be one of those folks that makes more money in retirement. There was one federal employee that I talked to. Uh, she was so well set up with, with paying off the debt, uh, optimizing and making sure that she, her, her benefits were, were perfect as far as her health insurance choice and her life insurance choices and all of those things. Survivor benefit choice that she would have. She was losing money by still working. So when we, when we ran the scenario, she was just making her salary, which is fine, but running the numbers she was, if she just retired, she'd start making more money because when she retired, she then turn on her Social Security. She'd get her pension and if she needed money from her TSP, she can take that. And the total income was more than she was currently making. So it wasn't benefiting her to continue to work. Good news for her. She liked her job so she can still stay. But some of those scenarios, uh, happen and it's awesome. I want more of those. I want you to be planning properly, uh, along the way. So you're saving money while you're, you're working, saving as much as possible, not paying more than you have to.

Speaker 1:
Saving more for retirement. Reallocating those monies that you're saving towards your future. And then you're providing more benefits for your family, making sure that you're properly insured and covered. Not just you, but we're also talking about spouse and kids, and we're not leaving them a liability because we're going to have a plan to pay off debt, and there's not going to be this burden. What if something were to happen to you? We're taking care of that. So these are all of the things that we'll do in the benefits review. And as I mentioned before, it's complimentary. It's free. The advice, the reports. We can create 100 reports for you. None of it will cost you a penny. It's going to be your information. And us diving deep and just making some recommendations based on what we see. This is, again, our area of expertise and what we do on a daily basis. And I love talking to federal employees and hearing the questions and, and, and seeing the different scenarios. But my best, my best or the best thing is when people say, man, I. I feel so happy that I've talked to you. I talked to one federal employee. She said, I feel so empowered at this point. Thanks for sharing all this information. I feel I feel more alive now on this when it comes to benefits and retirement than I did.

Speaker 1:
And I'm so excited that we got a chance to talk and go through it. And this was a person that heard me give a presentation to a group. And that presentation was pretty generic in nature, right? There's only so much you can say in in a half hour, 45 minutes. So she signed up. Same thing I'm talking to you about on a, on a weekly basis when we record is make sure you get your benefits review done, go to our website, fill out the form and we'll be in touch. She had filled out one of the benefits review requests at the event. We followed up afterward, went through, and she was so excited, so happy to get all this information, to get a clear understanding of where she is now and how it's looking as she moves towards retirement. She's within a, you know, several years of that. So just understanding, uh, This information not just to know it, but to understand it and comprehend it. That's what we can do as well. And in real time, answer your questions. This isn't just we create our reports, we hand it to you and that's it. We're going to go through it and review it with you and go line by line. Make sure you understand everything, answer any additional questions, clarify if necessary. Um, make suggestions, listen to your suggestions, whatever it could be, because we're in this together to ensure and I said that you are properly set up.

Speaker 1:
You're optimized with your situation. It's your optimal setup. You're maximizing the benefits of government gives you, you're, you're optimizing your setup and you're ensuring 100% that the answer to your question that I asked at the beginning, uh, are you 100% sure you're going to have a great retirement? Or do you have some doubt is going to be, I am 100% sure I am planned properly, I am planning properly. I'm set up properly. So when we do this, uh, I always recommend, look, go to our website. It's federal retirement Dot com fill out the form. One of our experts will be reaching out to do a full benefits and retirement review and answer your questions. If you do have questions, you can reach out to us as well. We'd love to answer them. It gives us ideas for for future episodes because if you have that question, others probably have it as well. So really, again, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to view this and look forward to speaking to each and every one of you. And if you have not gotten it, getting your personal benefits and retirement review completed. Well, again, you've been listening to the federal retirement show. My name is Val Majewski, vice president at American Benefits Exchange, and I look forward to seeing you on a future episode.

Speaker 2:
Well, pretty much everything is expensive these days, from the grocery store to the gas pump to everywhere in between. And so finding ways to save really is a very good thing, to say the least these days. And joining me to talk more about that and some ways that you can save is Stephen Perrine with AARP, is actually the executive editor of AARP, The Magazine and AARP bulletin. Stephen, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 3:
I appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 2:
Well, so talk about this, okay. You've got the 99 Great Ways to save from AARP bulletin. And I feel like, you know, every year really it I think it's in its 17th year now. Every year it seems like, oh, this is great. There's, you know, there's some great tips in here, but in a year like 2026, when we're, you know, inflation has been wreaking havoc for a while now. It's a really great thing to have. What are some of the biggest tips that maybe stand out for you when it comes to, you know, I mentioned, say groceries, for example, like some great ways to save there.

Speaker 3:
Sure. I mean, groceries are definitely where we're feeling maybe the most stress of all right now. So, uh, one of the things is that grocery stores are really great at getting you to buy extra stuff. You go in with a list of five things. You come out with five bags full of groceries. So do this. Use those online or in-store apps where you can order your groceries ahead of time, have them bagged up, and you just pick them up in the parking lot. That way, you don't have to go in the store. It saves you time, but it can also save you a lot of money because you don't have to fend off all those sales pitches. Another good idea is to try to move around at different stores. Don't just shop in one place. Go to the big box stores for that stuff you can save in your pantry, but then to go to some specialty stores or or discount grocery stores. Well, make sure you look for the, uh, the store brands, which can be exactly the same as bigger brands, but could save you pennies or even dollars. By the way, if you're ordering a lot of stuff online. Here's a tip that can save you a ton. Go ahead and whatever realty retailer you're on, go up and go ahead and fill up your grocery, your cart. But before you press purchase, take a breath. Close your browser and step away from the computer. Now, chances are in the next hour or two, you're going to get one of those emails that said, hey, did you forget about us? Most people don't open those emails, but in about a third of cases, they contain discount codes that you can then use to apply to your cart and wind up with the same stuff you were going to buy in the first place, but a substantial savings.

Speaker 2:
Well, that is wonderful. You know, I am one of those people who does not open those emails. I'm like, oh, you're just bothering me now. I'll get around to it whenever I can. And I love that. I love that tip. Um, one of the big things too, you know, we talk, talk about inflation being one of the big things that are It's on people's minds. Obviously, the, you know, makes this interview very apropos these days. But also AI is becoming a much bigger part of everyday life. Um, are there any ways that people can actually utilize AI to help them save money?

Speaker 3:
Well, you can use AI to help plan things like trips or what have you. Ask it to find you the cheapest deals. It's pretty effective at that. But here's a great idea. We're all dealing almost on a daily basis, fighting with utilities, insurance companies, banks, credit cards. What are these late fees? What are these weird charges? Why am I being why am I spending money on this? But talking with customer service, it can be a little stressful. So do this. Go to your AI. Type in exactly the charges that you're trying to fight, why you're fighting them, and let it create a script for you. Now, when you call customer service. Not only do you have all your points in front of you, but you have sort of a digital coach over your shoulder coaching you on what to say and helping you to claw back those fees and charges.

Speaker 2:
I love that an actual, you know, good positive use for AI. One thing that's very expensive this year as well due to, you know, the rising and highly fluctuating gas prices has been travel. Are there places, you know, when planning travel that people are really, you know, overspending maybe without even realizing it?

Speaker 3:
Well, if you're road tripping this summer, uh, if you have any sort of an added roof rack on your car, like a bike rack or storage rack, go ahead and get that off before you head out on the highway. Those can add up to 25% to your fuel costs because of the drag they create when you are on the highway. Uh, don't do what I do, which is wait until the needle gets down to E and then panic. Instead, get off the highway early on and go a mile or two off. Out of your way. Uh. Gas stations right off the highway can charge as much as $0.40 a gallon more than stations just a mile or so down the road. So you can make real savings and also save yourself a lot of stress.

Speaker 2:
Yeah, definitely. So. Well, um, just about time for us to wrap things up here, Stephen. But is there somewhere people can go now? Once again, this the publication is a 99 great Ways to save from AARP bulletin. Um, where can people go to see all of those 99 ways?

Speaker 3:
Well, you can find a lot of tips. All of these tips really, plus offers for all kinds of discounts@aarp.org slash 99 ways to Save.

Speaker 2:
Very good. Stephen Perrine, executive editor of AARP, The Magazine, and AARP bulletin. Thank you so much for taking some time for me. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 3:
Thank you. Really appreciate it.

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