In this episode, Val is joined by Federal Benefit Counselor, Tim McCleskey Jr. Together, they discuss the importance of receiving a retirement analysis to help you avoid financial pitfalls in retirement. Plus, they share strategies to help you create tax-free income for your future, and tips you will want to hear about your TSP. 

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4.19.24: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

4.19.24: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Well, welcome back to the federal retirement show. I'm your host, Val Majewski from American Benefits Exchange. And today I'm lucky to be joined by a very special guest, Mr. Tim McCluskey. Uh, Tim has been one of our regional representatives, uh, assisting federal employees all over the country for a number of years. I mean, that over a decade has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the federal benefits and retirement realm. And I thought we would have a conversation today about the, you know, the temperature out there, what we're seeing, what's been a concern with the federal employees that he's been talking to, you've been hearing from me as to some of the things that I'm seeing with the federal employees, just like you and some of the issues that they're dealing with, some of the concerns, some of the things that we believe, uh, federal employees like yourself need assistance with. So, Tim, I really appreciate you. I know you've got a very busy schedule, but just want to thank you for joining me, taking the time to be on the federal retirement show.

Speaker2:
Absolutely. Uh, I appreciate the opportunity to come and help as much as I can.

Speaker1:
Well, I want to dive right in and just say, look, uh, there's things that that our employees are concerned about, you know, issues that we're seeing. So our conversation today. Right? We're just. What what are you seeing out there? You know, what are the the bigger concerns, the questions, the things that you believe federal employees that are listening, watching this show, maybe watching a recording sometime down the road. What do you think that they're one of the biggest things or the areas that they're needing assistance with now more than ever?

Speaker2:
You know, it's an interesting, uh, question. Um, one of the things that I see post-Covid is a lot of people still asking that question, well, when can I afford to retire? When can I retire? Um, and then people are saying, I need to be safe. I need to be safe. Why? Well, because in the TSP, a couple of years ago, there were so many challenges with the market dropped. Right. And then last year it came back. So that was exciting. But then I had to remind people that though it came back, it really just recovered. What you lost, did you really make an effect. And so it was not to deflate people, but to give them the reality of what's going on in the world so they could truly be prepared? Well, one of the greatest challenges I'm seeing is that people are so, so frightened that they're putting a lot of their money in this safe spot in the G, in the G fund, in the G fund. And I get it, I get it. You're not sure what the market's going to do. We got some major things happening in the world today and even in our country, a major election that's coming up. And we know some of these things can affect the market. We just don't know which direction it's going to go.

Speaker2:
So be safe. So we have to really contend with what are your goals? What's really the plan of when you want to retire and why? You know, one question I tend to ask people when they say, hey, Tim, I'm retiring at this date, or I got 25 years in and I'm ready to go. And I always ask the question, great, so what are you going to do when you retire? And people will come out and give me these grandiose things? You know, I want to travel. I want to visit family. I want to spend time with my grandkids or children, things of that nature. And I say, great. What are you going to do after that? And then I get the deer in the headlights look like. What do you mean after that? Well, I mean, you're going to travel, but you're not going to travel every day of the week for the next 20 years. Uh, you're going to visit family. But sometimes we need to take a break from Bethany. Right? Um, if you want your grandkids, you love them. But it's nice because you can give them back when you need to. But what's the plan for your life? Every single day, once you separate. And then there's that quiet moment. Because most people really don't think that piece through. Sure.

Speaker1:
Well, when it comes to that, you're right. I mean, you got to do something. I mean, you said you can't travel every single day. Um, I haven't seen anybody yet that I've dealt with that I've talked to that has retired and said they wanted to do that and did that every single day. But you got to have some kind of purpose in retirement or that why in retirement it will get old pretty quick if you're doing absolutely nothing every single day. But once they figure that out, right, if we get to that question and the deer in the headlights look goes away because now they figured out an answer, how? How do we help them prepare? Because you said, hey, even even nowadays, people are still concerned about when can I retire and how much am I going to receive. And then when it comes down to the amount that they're going to receive, we want to make sure that they're prepared and they're not just on a wish, a prayer, thinking, hey, I just I know the money's going to be there. I don't know how. I just I just believe that it's going to be there. They want to be 100% sure the money's going to be there. So how can we better help them? Uh, better prepare them for that day. They separate so they can do whatever it is that they want to do. What are some of the things that that you've been helping folks out recently with?

Speaker2:
So doing a federal benefit review and analysis of your benefits, I think is so vital and so key. And what an analysis does is in layman's terms, it snapshots where you're projected to be in a retirement now. So you can see how you're trending. Now. What that means is you're going to get an idea from your own living earning statement what your pension is going to look like at the point of separation. Because we don't look at your present high three. You know, if you have five years left, ten years, 15 years left to work, you're going to have a future high. So we look at what that projected number may be based on your present grade and step and potential promotions. So we'll look at that number, that future number put together what your pension may look like. And also add in Social Security. Then we add in what it is. Your TSP income may be based on that volume that you may hang up. Yeah. Then one of the things that nobody really thinks about is we look at your tax bracket and we take out your taxes. And if you happen to live in a state where you pay state taxes, we'll go in and look up. Well, what's the average state tax for that? That particular state.

Speaker2:
We'll take out your state tax. And they will divide that number by 12 and then ask the question, can you live on that? Because most people really don't think that peace through and from that. I love to actually ask people, what are your debts? What are you living expenses? And then we start subtract, subtract, subtract. Because now is the time to get an idea of what do I need to change before I separate. Am I going to have enough money just to continue to buy groceries at the same grocery store? Now, we might think that's far fetched, but just a few years ago I would go and buy a dozen eggs for $1.49. But then during Covid, eggs were $7 for a carton of eggs. Guess what? We didn't eat for a year. Eggs. And you have to be prepared. Now. Are we going to have inflation at 9% again? You know, no, it didn't happen in the 80s. But can you imagine being retired for 10 or 12 years and something happens. You have to be prepared and you want to know up front is that income going to sustain me. So doing that analysis is vital and so key to ensure you are preparing yourself.

Speaker1:
On in the same way that you're saying, hey, we're projecting what your high three is going to be and projecting what your income amounts are going to be in the future. We want to project, hey, this this money's got to sustain you in case there is a price increase for goods or for your living expenses and things like that. You know, if they're making X amount of dollars day one in retirement, if if that never increased over time, then that X amount of dollars is not going to go as far ten years into retirement, 20 years into retirement, right, just due to natural inflation, forget about, you know, high inflation. So we want to make sure and if I'm gathering this correctly, Tim, that they're over prepared, that they're not just stretched to the limit right at retirement. So how can we help them over prepare. You mentioned the analysis it subtracting the debts things like that. But how can we make sure that folks are over prepared and they're thanking us in the end being like, look, I'm glad I planned ahead and I've got this surplus of money or I, I what I thought I was going to live on, you know, I ended up not being enough. So I'm glad I over prepared. How can we help them do that? What are some of the the guidelines that you give federal employees?

Speaker2:
So there are a couple of things. One, I always have to give this disclaimer. I can't tell people where to put their money in. Sure. But one of the things I enjoy doing is going to the TSA website and showing them what the different funds look like based on what they've done over time, and to give people an opportunity to gain insight on, okay, am I in the correct funds? And then I'll just pull up a compound interest calculator and say, if you stay where you are, here's where you're projected to be. Now, is that a guarantee? No, but it's a good segue into, hey, am I in the right space or do I need to make adjustments? And then there are opportunities now to go ahead and pay taxes on these monies so you can have tax free income in the future. I mean, just imagine having to take money out of your TSP knowing you have to either pay 20% withholding if you keep it in the TSP or anywhere from 10 to 15% every single time you pull money out. But that doesn't feel good, right? You gotta pay taxes just to live. What if that money's already been taxed? What if it's tax free? There are opportunities for you to live and not have to pay taxes on certain vehicles in retirement. So we talk about those opportunities and a way to maximize the income stream now. So you can have more than enough in the future. So you're not just going to the grocery store.

Speaker2:
Maybe you're traveling and doing some other things that you want to do when you choose to. But here's the bigger piece. Right now, the IRS projects you're going to live 20 to 25 years retired. I love people say I'm not going to live that long because longevity doesn't come into my family. Why? I say, you know what? I love that because you're going to be left here on purpose because you thought you were in charge of life and death. And, you know, people laugh at that notion. But the reality is we don't know how much longer we have. Sure. And if you're going to be here, I'd rather you have more than enough. Then find yourself in a position where you're 78 and your income drops. That's a spiteful feeling. And here in a retirement, many people, there was actually a a survey done on retirees. And the survey asked one question what should greatest fear in retirement? The response, I thought, might be death. I mean, people are closer to passing away, but that wasn't the greatest fear that people have in retirement is running out of money. So if you happen to live longer than you anticipated, will you have more than enough? And imagine taxes don't go backwards, right? Right. They go forward. They they tend to get get higher. So you need to be prepared to have that tax free. So we talk about those opportunities so people can have more available cash flow.

Speaker1:
Well and you mentioned a number of risks that people don't think of in retirement. Right? I mean you look at the the national debt, you know, over $33 trillion or whatever the number is. Now, that's a a ridiculous number, a number of commas that I wish was in the paycheck that we were getting and not not in the debt. But look at that. There's so there's risk of always taxes going up because how are they going to try and recoup some of that money, um, or even start to make a dent into that. Uh, so there's tax risk. You mentioned you can take tax risk or a good amount of tax risk off the table. You can take, uh, longevity risk off the table because you just said if the biggest fear for retirees, based on surveys that were conducted, uh, just about, uh, within the last several years, you can take longevity risk off the table. If they're afraid of living too long and running out of money. Yeah. Take the longevity risk off the table. Don't have that be a concern? If they were banking on dying sooner and they didn't. Well, good news is they're still alive. Bad news is, yeah, they didn't prepare properly for that and can run out of money.

Speaker1:
So take the longevity risk off the table by being over prepared. I mean, you said we don't have a crystal ball to know what's going to happen. So you can't tell somebody exactly what to do. But you can give some general guidelines and, and look at what history has done and be prepared for all of these different scenarios. So let's say let's say I'm a federal employee. Yeah. And and what you're saying I'm concerned about that. I want to make sure that my numbers are correct. So I get a review done. Uh, I see what my projected retirement is going to be, my Social Security. Whenever I'm going to take that, if I take it right away or I take it later, um, I can see what my TSP is looking like, and I can project out what my retirement income is, and I'm comfortable with that number, but but I want to make sure I'm over prepared as we're talking about. So what are some of the things that a federal employee can do to get more income, or the potential for more income in retirement?

Speaker2:
There are opportunities to create tax free income vehicles for for you. Um, and I think that's so important because even though TSP is a great component, you know, we got to pay taxes on that money. So if we could eliminate the opportunity to have to be forced to pay taxes on that money just to use it because we've created other vehicles that segue into retirement, makes us feel a whole lot more comfortable because we have another source of cash flow. Here's the other piece, too. How do I create an increase that opportunity for cash flow, building TSP or building a tax free income stream? Eliminating debt? Sure. Uh, wrote a book that teaches people how to eliminate debt, and 20% of the time with money they already have. And there are so many ways for people to eliminate debt. But that's the greatest challenge that keeps people from walking away from the job. It always pains me when somebody says, well, I'm working to pay this off first or I gotta pay my house off first, then I can retire and they're already 65. What if there was a way for you to eliminate your debt faster, so you create more cash flow that you can put into a tax free vehicle and put into TSP as well? Now you're in control of when you walk out of the door and not somebody else that's beholding you to the job because you own it. And that is what the greatest things that I love to present to people is helping them to see their opportunities to take the cash. You have put it in the right vehicle so you now can be in control of that cash flow in the future. And that's what we spend some time talking.

Speaker1:
Well, I like that part of it. Right. Because you're not just taking care of the front end, but also what's going out the door on the back end. Uh, and you'd be surprised, you know, a lot of federal. Boys don't realize, um, how much is coming out, how bad that's going to negatively affect them. Because not only are you paying debt, you're paying interest on that debt. And we've talked about this several times. There's numerous episodes. We've gone over the debt part of this. So I appreciate you bringing that up, Tim, because, yeah, that's, uh, a big thing that people don't take into consideration. They look at all the numbers on the front end, like, all this income looks great, or this future retirement looks great, but forgetting about those payments and the interest that's attached to those payments, what if you could eliminate that, like you said? And and for those of you that didn't catch what Tim said, he wrote a book on eliminating debt. Uh, we'll talk about at the end how they can get a copy of the book if they want it. But on eliminating debt in a fraction of the time, using money that you already have. And also, like you said, building tax free wealth. So, I mean, you can help prepare, but what do you do with that by by eliminating debt, I mean, but what do you do then with those payments you free up, you get them out of debt in a fraction of the time. Now they've got this money that was going to debt service. Why for can they put that then to, you know, save more for retirement rather than just putting it in their bank account of their pocket?

Speaker2:
I love it, I love it. In fact, I was just on a call with a young lady that was, uh, talking about what she wanted to retire and how she wanted to retire at a certain age. And we talked a little bit about what what her goals were. But she had debt, and she had just paid off credit cards, and she had $2,000 that was now available each month. After paying off that debt, I said, wait a minute, $2,000? And she said, well, I got a car note that's $500 a month. I showed her how to pay that car off in six months instead of two and a half years. Yeah. Now here's the thing. What do we do with all this money? Now it's $3,600 available, and she's like, what do I do now? That's the beauty of it. Yeah. We take a piece of that and put it into a tax free vehicle. So you can have after tax money ahead of time. So when you walk out the door and you're waiting 3 to 6 months to get your first full pension paycheck, because that's the time frame and it could be worse later, right.

Speaker2:
But more than likely it's going to get worse. You have cash flow and you can live from month to month as you're waiting on that pension to start. Here's the other thing. You can create your increase your TSP. And then when it's time to to really separate, you can take that TSP money, move it into a vehicle where you have control and you need to have control of your own resources. You need to be able to take income the way you choose to, and not somebody else telling you how much you can take. You want to have value in your own money. And then the third piece is having the money. You can just say in the most effective way. I mean, can you imagine having three pieces of resources coming to you? And it's not including your pension, it's not including your Social Security, all because you knew where your money was going and you decided to control who was getting. And he spent a lot of time talking about it.

Speaker1:
Yeah, that's it's true. Right. We we're used to making payments. I'm just going back to the debt part. We're used to making payments. Hey, I'm comfortable with this payment. I'm comfortable with this monthly payment. I'm okay with this and not realizing that. Yeah, that's that's money we're paying somebody else, right? Somebody else is making a profit. They're making money off of the fact that, you know, we're we're making those payments to them. And the more we pay them, if they want us to pay the minimum payment for the entire duration of that loan or of that debt, because we're going to maximize the amount of interest and profit that we pay that. But if you can help them, Tim, in your in your scenarios here, paying off that car in a fraction of the time, how much interest is saved compared to those, uh, regular car payments that would have been going on for another two and a half years. You know, same with a mortgage or high interest credit card payments or student loans or things of that nature. You get all that off the books. Not only are you freed up the cash flow, but then there's that that money you don't see necessarily because it's money that was not going to interest that's back in your pocket, right? It just didn't come out.

Speaker1:
It stayed there. And then as Tim said, you can put that towards TSP or another vehicle. I'll go back to the tax free side of it real quick, because when you said, you know, tax free vehicle and making sure you have tax free dollars, a lot of people don't see that that silent partner in retirement is Uncle Sam, you know, and we don't know which way taxes are going. They could change the rules at any point. Hopefully they don't get as high as they were in the 40s where they had a a 96%, you know, highest marginal tax rate. But they can go where we don't think they're going to go right. They can go high, they can go low. Chances are they're going to go up. But if we can we can take care of that tax risk. Um, that's going to be a big benefit for us. We keep more money in retirement, right?

Speaker2:
That's correct, that's correct. And I think it's vital that people understand that on the front end. Unfortunately, a lot of people believe that because their income may be less in the future in retirement, the assumption is they're going to pay less in federal taxes. Well, dollar for dollar. Just to give you just a quick example, most of us. May be in the same tax bracket, or one of the things you're not going to have in the future are deductions. And you may not have those dependents unless you're Ted and you have two under two in your 50s. Right. But most of us are not going to have those deductions, and you're not going to have those dependents. So where you are getting those those benefits tax wise while you were working, you're not going to have that same opportunity in retirement. And if you find yourself in the same tax bracket, great, because the income's there. But Uncle Sam is getting a bigger piece of the pie. Yeah. As you had deductions on the front end. Well, what if when your income is higher, you decide to go ahead and pay those taxes on the front end at a lower tax rate with the higher income? Now you take this money that's already been taxed, put it into a tax free vehicle. So once you separate, imagine having an extra 50, 100, 150, $200,000 in resources that's already been taxed. Now that puts you in control. Now you don't have to look at TSB and say, okay, I got to take an income every month now because I'm still paying my mortgage, I'm still paying for the car, all of these different things because there was a plan upfront. And when you one of the things I love about numbers, numbers don't lie. They have no emotion. They're going to tell you the truth. And so what we try to do is give you the truth based on your own leading earning statement. So these are your numbers. So you're going to know where you are now based on the choices you're making and how you're projected to look in the future.

Speaker1:
I like I like the tax side of it. Look, I just I look logically at things when when the government sets stuff up. Um, a lot of times, you know, they know what they're doing from a tax revenue standpoint, whether whether we pay taxes today or I get a I put all my money in the traditional portion of TSB or traditional IRA. You know, they know that I'm going to take some risk, that money's going to grow most likely over time, and they're going to get a bigger tax, uh, payment from me down the road because that money grew and they know what they're doing when they give me a tax deduction today so I can pay more tax in the future. And the same thing with tax free accounts, right. Traditionally you're looking at Roth IRAs and they they limit the amount of money you can put into a Roth IRA. Um, there are other tax free vehicles too, like, you know, the Roth portion of your TSB where it's got a greater contribution. But those are there still limits on things that you can do. So you want to maximize that, in my opinion, as much as possible. I just give you my personal side.

Speaker1:
I mean, I've I've moved more of my future retirement as well. I'm not a government employee and don't have the luxury of a pension, uh, as well as a matching, you know, TSP like everybody has. But I moved a lot of my personal stuff into tax free type accounts as well, just because I want to get Uncle Sam out of my hip pocket for retirement, I want to prepay him now and I now, I can take, if I take any risk or take a safe route. I see my money grow over time and all that's going to come out tax free. I don't care how high tax rates go in the future, because the bulk of the money I'm putting aside are on a personal level, and just because I do it doesn't mean you do. You have to. But I like the fact that no matter where taxes go, high, low stay the same, whatever. I don't I don't worry about that. That's not that's not something that's concerns me of retirement because I've already taken care of it. That risk is off the table for me. I mean, you you agree with with partner. Most of that.

Speaker2:
I do, I do and and and really when I show people those numbers like okay tax deferred you're not paying taxes on this money that's going into TSP. Well, when I go in and show them that, okay, if you don't pay Uncle Sam now on a higher income, you're going to pay them later on a lower income, and you possibly potentially will pay a higher amount depending on what the tax rates are. Is that where you want to be in the future? Now, when people think about it from that perspective, they're like, no, of course not. But we've been conditioned to think tax deferred tax deferred tax, deferred tax deferred. Um, how is that really in your best interest in the future when you're looking at needing that money later? So when when I show that and explain it to people and show them based on their present tax rate and what they're actually paying in federal taxes, that is really not that much, then they're like, wait a minute, I can afford to do this because if you don't give it to yourself, you're going to give it to the IRS. Well, go ahead and give it to them now at a lower rate so you can have control of it later in the future. So yeah, I agree with you 100%. It just makes sense. But it's helping people to see that with their own numbers.

Speaker1:
Well, when I when I draw the illustration out now this is when we used to meet face to face with folks. I know it's a little different when we're doing things virtually nowadays just for convenience, but I used to use that and somebody gave it to me years ago was, would you rather pay tax on the seeds or the harvest example? And I like that when we're when we draw it out and you show somebody, hey, I can either pay tax on the seeds that I'm going to plant, that hopefully are going to grow and turn into this big field of, of harvest that I'm going to, uh, you know, take in and enjoy. But or would I rather defer the tax on the seeds and then when the harvest comes, pay tax on all of that. And there's still risk that the harvest may not come right. There's a risk that no matter what vehicle I'm putting it in, it may not grow as plentifully as I'd like it. So I'd rather get again, get Uncle Sam out of my pocket today. Take that tax risk, future tax risk off the table or as much of it as I can, because we can't avoid all taxes, especially from the federal benefits or the federal retirement perspective.

Speaker1:
You're going to have tax on your pension. You're going to have some tax, most likely on your Social Security, and some of your TSP is going to be taxable, which I want to talk about in a second. I want to get your opinion on this so we can avoid all of it, but we can get rid of as much as possible. That's what it comes with. Hey, everybody's going to at least have if you're a first employee, some taxable portion of your TSP, right. And all the matching funds and the automatic contribution go into the traditional account. Now when we talks about, hey, how can we get rid of tax on that. That's where Roth conversions come in. And things of that nature. You know, what are your thoughts on on those and people being able to eliminate, you know, tax on, you know, the the traditional portions of their TSP?

Speaker2:
I love the idea of a Roth conversion. In fact, just so you understand, a Roth conversion is like a Roth IRA on steroids. Um, but it doesn't have the same restrictions, so. Well, what you have to do is you have to be in control of your money, so it cannot stay in TSP. You know, you have to move it into an account, uh, that you are in control of. And once you do that every year, you make the decision. You take out a certain portion, um, and pay your taxes on that at a lower rate, right, because your income is lower. But then you take the difference and put it right back into the same account. Now what's happening? You're earning interest on the tax free side and on the traditional side. And it's going to take longer to deplete those funds, which is a great thing for you because you're you're taking money out, but you're earning interest, interest, interest on both ends. So by the time you hit age 73, 74 or 75, when the IRS comes knocking and saying, hey, we want you to take some money required minimum distributions or RMDs, the IRS is going to have a formula. They say, you got this much that you haven't paid taxes on. You still living. So here's how long we think you're going to live. Go ahead and take some money out and pay us some taxes.

Speaker2:
If you put yourself in control of that with a Roth conversion on the front end. So by the time you get to the age five, ten, 12 years, depending on when you retire, by the time you hit age 73 or 75, you may have potentially paid all of your federal taxes and not only pay them all, may back then interest what you paid in taxes. How great is that? That puts you in control of your dollars, but you got to be in your own vehicle to do it. You cannot be in an employer's vehicle, so that puts you in control. You need to know that up front. So that's why you make all these decisions about your debt and paying things off and having tax free vehicles. So by the time you get to separation, we got all this volume. But now we don't need it because we got tax free money. So we move it into an account that you're in control of, and we take out a little bit at a time as we see fit, pay the taxes, maybe play with a little bit of it and put the difference back in. So by the time the IRS comes knocking we could just say, hey, paid in full and that's where you ought to.

Speaker1:
Be I like it. Yeah. We take money from one pocket and move it to the other. Taxable. It's a tax free like a magic trick. One day it's taxable, the next day it's tax free. But you do have to pay the tax on whatever you you switched out. Right. But you've got you prepaid, Uncle Sam. You've got him out of your pocket. You've got him out of your as your silent partner. Not maybe not so silent. It's pretty noticeable partner in retirement, at least for that, uh, part of it. Right. So we can try to eliminate or limit as much liability as you can have in the future. And I keep saying the tax risk because we just don't know which way taxes are going to go. So if you want to get that off the table, have peace of mind. Some of these strategies, these conversations, uh, that you can have with folks like Tim are going to be extremely beneficial. Now, Tim, I know we're coming up on our on our time. So I want to I want to give you an opportunity to tell folks, like, look, uh, if you like the things that I'm talking about, you want to hear more about it, you want to run your personal benefits and evaluation. Um, see all the numbers, see all the strategies. What is the best way for people to get in touch with you.

Speaker2:
So they can shoot me an email at Tim Jr at Federal Benefits co com. And I'm going to do a couple of things for you because a lot of times you sometimes you don't even know what you need to know. Sometimes you don't know what questions to ask. So when I will send you is a link to a briefing that I've already done that explains all the benefits you have, how they change, how they adjust that. I'll answer some of those questions, but from that you'll have a link to my calendar where you can schedule a federal benefit review. And we do your own analysis from your leading earnings statement. So we're going to use your raw numbers, your own TSP statement. We use your raw numbers. And then we'll go into the TSP website together. So you can see here's where you are. Here's where you think you might want to be. And then we'll take a compound interest calculator. And then put those numbers in. And you can decide if that's exactly what's going to make you happy in the future. We want to use accurate information and not hypotheticals. So that way you can discern if you're moving in the right direction or if you need to make adjustments. So Tim Jr at federal Benefit co com, um, or you can reach out and actually send me a text. I know people love to have conversations. My number is (615) 517-0596. Again that's (615) 517-0596. And if you don't find the time on the calendar, shoot me an email. We'll set up something in the evening when it's more convenient.

Speaker1:
Well Tim, I appreciate you sharing that too. And people can also request a copy of the book that you wrote talking about eliminating debt in a fraction of the time. Yes. Yep. Yeah.

Speaker2:
It's called the volcanic eruption of debt. Um, and on my website, fed up Group.com Fdep group. Com you'll see me there talking and moving around, but just peruse it. In fact, just Google. Google. Timothy McCluskey Jr. Make sure you add the JR. Otherwise you get my day and he's going to be preaching. But with me I'm going to be explaining how we can help you to retire with comfort when you want to do it.

Speaker1:
Well, uh, yeah. Tim, for for those of you that are listening, Tim is, uh, well versed in federal benefits and retirement information, has been an expert in this area for over a decade. Um, has devoted his time to helping people, you know, learn financial, uh, proper financial education and specifically when it comes to your federal benefits, retirement prepping, all of the things that we talked about today. So I highly encourage you to reach out to Tim, either via email, text or through his website. Uh, sit down with him, get his perspective, get his guidance, because it is awesome. You know, I learn stuff every time I talk to Tim as well. So, Tim, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule. As you mentioned, you've got some some young kids at home. Um, hopefully they're keeping you useful, keeping your, your energy up, but really appreciate you taking the time, uh, to join us here on the federal retirement show.

Speaker2:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it, and you're welcome.

Speaker1:
Anytime. We'll do it again. Uh, we'll appreciate you all taking the time out of your schedules. I know you're busy with the things you do for the federal government, so thank you for that. Uh, that there are topics, things that you want us to discuss, questions that you have do reach out to us at Federal Retirement Show.com. Uh, be sure to go back and look at our previous episodes and view all of the content that we have out there for you guys. Uh, again, thank you for your time, and we'll see you on a future session.

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