Scheduling Your Free Retirement Check-up with Our Team

6.23.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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

Val Majewski:
Well, welcome back to the Federal Retirement Show. I'm your host, Val Majewski, with American Benefits Exchange. Thank you for joining me. And again, I want to thank everybody who's tuning in to these episodes, taking the time out of their busy schedule to learn more about their federal employee benefits and learning more about how to plan properly for retirement, as we say, maximize or optimize your situation. So, you know, without a shadow of a doubt that you're heading in the right direction when it comes to retirement and your future. So today I want to share with you some some of the things that I've been talking to federal employees just like you and the topics or the questions that are coming up, the the items of concern that they're having with the conversation. So I'm going to back up a second. If you're not aware if this is the first episode that you're listening to, Set American Benefits exchange, myself and the representatives of our company all across the country, we specialize in educating and training federal employees just like you, with regard to your benefits and retirement information, we want to fill in the blanks with what it is that you need to know so that you can plan properly. And there are so many different ways in which we do this. Most of them, though, are done by creating benefits and retirement reports. And when we review those reports, we share the good, the bad, the ugly.

Val Majewski:
Let you know exactly where you currently stand and then take a look into the future. Take a peek behind the curtain to see how you're trending as you get closer and closer to retirement. And it does not matter if you just got hired yesterday or if you're going to retire tomorrow. There's something in there for everybody. Now, when it comes to conversations I've had lately, you know, we are in some interesting times with the way the markets work. Interest rates, it's it's definitely leaving some uncertainty when it comes to retirement, especially when people are talking about Social Security and the issues they may have there. What are the right decisions to make? What are the warning signs? What are the things that you can. Kind of lean on in order to know if you're heading in the right direction. Now, unfortunately, we don't have blinking red lights. We don't have red flags that go up. We don't have people that normally will check on us. Now, you've probably seen something like this while driving in your car. Hopefully you have not. But our car is a big piece of technology nowadays. Right. And usually it gives us a warning that something is going on. What is this? This is a check engine light. The dreaded check engine light. And you certainly don't want to see this while you're driving. You certainly at least I don't want to drive my car too much further once I see this, because this means that potentially something bigger could be going on if I do not take care of whatever's going on right now.

Val Majewski:
So this is a warning sign. This is a blinking red light. You know, this is that dreaded check engine light that we have in our car to let us know something's wrong. And if we don't take it, good care of it. Now, something worse or something even bigger could happen down the road. When it comes to your career as a federal employee, you do not have a check engine light. You do not have a warning sign. You do not have a red flag, a blinking red light that tells you warning, danger ahead. If you don't take care of this problem now you're looking or facing a bigger problem down the road. So we want to talk today about making sure you get a regular maintenance just like you would on your car. I'm going to make an analogy with your car just as you'd go into your mechanic or to the dealership and you'd get regular or regularly scheduled maintenance on your vehicle to make sure you avoid this check engine light from coming on. You need to get regular maintenance done on your benefits and retirement situation. You need to avoid the check engine light. You need to make sure that everything is as healthy as can be, that you are trending in the right direction and that, you know, without a shadow of a doubt that you're going where you want to go.

Val Majewski:
Because I've had recent conversations with federal employees who thought they were going in a certain direction, thought they were heading to the Promised land. They thought they were going to retirement bliss, and they found out that it is not the case. We ran the numbers. We got the estimates. We confirmed it with the information they were getting from OPM and their estimates. And it was not as fruitful. It was not going to be as plentiful as they thought it was going to be when they finally got to that day of retirement. So what are we left with doing at that point? You can stick with your same retirement date and just try to live a lesser lifestyle because you're going to be making less money or you might be forced to work longer. So how do we avoid the check engine light? How do we avoid running into problems that could have been avoided? I said regularly scheduled maintenance. How do you do that as a federal employee? First of all, you need to attend a benefits and retirement seminar. Now, my previous episode I talked about one that I recently performed in front of hundreds of people at a national convention for a federal employee Association. Awesome questions came out of that. We've had great conversations since then myself and again, our representatives across the country answering those those hard to tackle questions when it comes to your benefits and retirement situations.

Val Majewski:
Trust me, not everybody is the same. They're very unique. You are probably very unique when it comes to your situation and what you need. But attend one of those if you don't have any that you know about, seek one out. If you don't have any scheduled, call us. We'd love to schedule it not only for you on a one on one basis, but if you have a team of people that you're over, that you manage, that you are a responsible for or an office or a group that we can come and see, we would love to do that and share all this information with you, whether it's 30 minutes, 45 or 2 hours, we can share with you as much or as little as you allow us to. And this way, you know, if there are any warning signs now we say this also. You don't know what it is. You don't know, right? You're not sure. You may think everything is great, but there can be, you know, a really big problem lurking down the road because you just did not know that your check engine light when it comes to retirement is on. And you should see some of the oohs and ahs and gasps and eyes wide open when we talk about some of these scenarios during our benefits and retirement briefings.

Val Majewski:
And people are shocked to see some of these things. And now all of a sudden they've realized, uh oh, I've got a bigger problem than I thought. And I didn't realize that my check engine light on or my check engine light is on. We might just be driving all along and never notice it because you can't see it when it comes to your benefits and retirement situation, it has to be brought to your attention. So I would highly recommend, number one, that you attend a benefits and retirement briefing if you do not have the opportunity to. You can schedule a one on one consultation. You can do so by visiting our website and requesting some information. Go to federal retirement show.com and you can fill out the form and we'll be in touch to schedule your one on one consultation and answer all the questions and hopefully you do not realize that your check engine light was on this entire time or has been on for years. You know, it's kind of unsettling. Don't know if it is for you, but when I set sit in somebody else's car and they're driving along and their check engine light is on, it makes me a little nervous. I don't know why I look at their dashboard. It's almost like when somebody's gas light is on, right? You're like, are you going to stop? You know, here's a gas station right there.

Val Majewski:
Are you going to pull over? You're going to fill it up, You know, are we going to the mechanic shop? Are you going to go get this checked out? Are we going to break down on the side of the road? It's right there in front of it. It's that annoying. I'm looking at it right now, that annoying yellow check engine light symbol that everybody recognizes as soon as it pops up. But what if what if we were just driving along and had no idea that a major breakdown, a major problem was going to get thrown our way just because that light was not showing up, we couldn't see it. I just said it makes me nervous. It makes me uneasy. It gives me anxiety. If I see somebody check engine light or even gas light because I know something has to happen. We have to pull over. We have to take care of this. We have to find a solution. But when it comes to your retirement, you may not realize that it's on. You may not realize you're running out of gas. You may not realize you're due for a major breakdown because you haven't taken care of. The problem now may not be your fault because again, you didn't see it. But I'm here to tell you that a lot of you that are listening to this episode, you have a huge check engine light that is on that you just don't even know exists and you need to get it taken care of.

Val Majewski:
You need to talk to a professional, an expert, just like you'd go to a mechanic shop that specializes in whatever kind of car you operate or whatever kind of vehicle you drive. You're going to go to an expert to tell you what's wrong, to diagnose the problem and then find the proper solution so you can get back on the road. Same thing here. You need to talk to an expert, somebody who is knowledgeable and experienced in helping federal employees with benefits and retirement information to review the situation. Right. Put your entire situation up on the car lift. I'm using this analogy and I'm I'm beating it to death. Right. But put it up on the lift and take a look and diagnose any problems. Look for any leaks, any areas where you can improve and maximize your situation. Set yourself up a little bit better that way. You know that when you get back out on the road that you are good to go. You can drive straight towards retirement and you're not going to be veering off to the side going in the wrong direction because you weren't prepared. You're going to go directly where you want to go. So what is what's the point? Why do we talk about this? We're talking check engine lights. Why are we talking about car maintenance compared to my federal employee benefits? Because the situations I've had recently, people didn't understand some of the decisions they were making.

Val Majewski:
And luckily, we had enough time to modify the choices that they were making or alter their course, change the direction they were going in so they'd be better prepared. I'll give you a couple examples. We were going through this is a federal employee who's going to retire in a couple of months. We are going over his situation and also talking to his spouse and discussing the survivor benefits. And the spouse thought that the best way to go, same with the federal employee, was to provide the maximum survivor benefit. Thought that that would be the best choice because this federal employee, this future retiree, wanted to make sure that his spouse could continue receiving some sort of benefit in the event that the federal retiree died first. Also wanted to make sure that, you know, they were going to get enough money. Well, when we broke down the costs and broke down the fees that are associated with the reduction of the pension associated with the survivor benefit election and broke down how it works in the event that the federal retiree died first. There's it's a taxable benefit. There's no guarantee of how much the spouse is going to get, although they will get a check for the rest of their life. There's no lump sum option. And again, it's it's a taxable benefit. They decided that this wasn't the right choice and they made a different choice and they were setting themselves up on a better path.

Val Majewski:
Another federal employee that I talked to was really looking at utilizing the lifetime income with TSP said, Hey, I need to use TSP. I've saved up money in this my entire career because I want to use this as a or an income source in addition to my first pension, in addition to Social Security or the first supplement that they were going to receive. This person needed to turn into an income stream, and they were looking at that number that was on their annual statement saying, Yeah, this sounds good on a monthly basis, I want to get this, but did not realize the consequences of that choice and how the money is not accessible anymore. They don't own or control the money. They don't have access to that money. If something happened to them and they chose that maximum life only payment that the rest of the money is kept by the insurance company MetLife, who operates the lifetime income annuity with within TSP. So once we explained all that and laid out all the options, they were able to make a better choice. They did not realize because they were just going with what they knew what was in front of them. They did not see the blinking light. They did not see the check engine light coming on in those situations.

Val Majewski:
Another federal employee did not realize they were 66 years old and did not realize that they'd been getting a giant increase in their fegli Option B costs over time, especially after turning 65. There was another jump and after getting the biggest jump there is at age 60. They just saw that that paycheck, that direct deposit was hitting their bank account and they didn't see what was coming out of their leave and earnings statement. They didn't see the deductions had increased from their fegli. They just saw that they got paid every two weeks and didn't scrutinize or see that there was a bigger deduction than there used to be. So we were able to explain that to them. They were in relatively good health and helped them save money on their insurance and put them in a better situation because they didn't need those rising costs with option B. So understand, your situation may not be exact or exactly the same as these couple examples that I just gave, but you need to understand also that you may not realize you have a problem and you need to talk it out. Well, another federal employee I talked to yesterday and this is just awesome, very knowledgeable employee, very knowledgeable as far as benefits, a long way for retirement. Another 20 years until they're going to retire. But. Knew a lot, which was awesome. Was like very impressed. And I complimented this person, said, you know, a whole lot.

Val Majewski:
You've educated yourself. Did you go to any retirement classes? Were you able to sit in on any benefit briefings? Nope. This was all self-taught information. Just looked it up on his own, on OPM, dot gov and other various websites. But there were still a few things that I was able to bring to light and clarify so that this person knew what they were going to expect when it came to retirement. So that stemmed or that brought out a few other questions on top of that. So we were able to dive deeper into some new information, even though this person was extremely knowledgeable, one of the most knowledgeable folks that I've ever talked to as far as just straight benefits and retirement info, we were still able to dig deep into a certain issue and bring new revelation to them, and they learned a whole new section that they didn't know about before. When it comes to, again, benefits and retirement information. And that's why we do what we do. You know, you may not realize again, I'm going back to the check engine light. You may not realize that there's a problem. You may not realize that there's a speed bump or there's going to be a breakdown soon. It seems like it's smooth sailing right now. Everything's running on all cylinders until it's not. Until you realize that it's not set up properly, until you realize that you hit a major speed bump and then it may be too late.

Val Majewski:
Hopefully it's not. Hopefully you talk to somebody like us and we can not only diagnose the issue and correct. You turn off that check engine light for good, make sure that it is never coming on again because you have everything you need to diagnose your own problems and prepare properly because we've educated you and given you everything that you need to know when it comes to benefits and retirement information. So I hope you understand the analogy that I'm trying to make here, right? When we're saying, Hey, there's a check engine light and good thing in your car that it's visible, that it pops up to let you know that there could be a bigger problem ahead. Unfortunately, in your retirement situation, there is not there is not a warning sign. There is not a person at OPM that's going to call you and say Mr. or Mrs. Federal employee, have you been doing this, that and the other thing. Have you been taking care of this? Have you gotten regular maintenance on your situation? Have you had a checkup lately? Have you done a benefits and retirement review? No, they're not going to be calling you. You're going to have to talk to somebody like us. Talk to an expert and hopefully you decide, you know, our company, American Benefits Exchange, you know, for those needs. If it's a one on one situation or a group presentation or a seminar that you want to do for your entire team, we can assist.

Val Majewski:
We can provide the information and the expertise so that check engine light, if it's on, we'll turn it off. And if you don't have it on, great, It's never going to come on because you have everything you need and you're prepared to make the best decisions as you go through your career as a federal employee and near retirement so that when you retire, when you submit that paperwork and you step out of your office or that area or you put your headset down for the last day, you know, with confidence that you're going to walk out with your head held high and you're going to retire how you want, when you want, with what you want, with the amount of money you need to live on and live the way you want to in retirement. So I really do appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to view not only this episode, but also go back and view the other ones. There's a ton of information. We have a library of knowledge for you to dive back into and learn about various topics that we believe are extremely important to you. The Federal Employee. Again, my name is Val Majewski. You've been watching the Federal retirement show and look forward to seeing you on a future episode.

Producer:
Two years of high inflation could warrant cutting back on entertainment costs. I'm Jim Tarabukin with the Retirement.Radio Network. Powered by AmeriLife. Inflation in times like these have triggered Americans to be more cognizant about their spending habits. A recent survey done by CNBC found Americans from all income brackets have begun to cut back on spending. Washington bureau chief Bankrate Mark Hamrick explains.

Mark Hamrick:
People need to have a sense of hope when the economy is working for them. There's a greater likelihood that people will have hope that they can accomplish their basic personal financial objectives.

Producer:
And despite past recessions and examples of inflation, Americans have never been timid about spending money within the entertainment sphere. Sporting events and concert tickets have always been a hot item, but lingering inflation and impacts from the Covid 19 pandemic have shifted consumer priorities. According to Morning Consult Economic Intelligence data. Entertainment was among the categories that posted the sharpest year over year spending decline as of March 2023. The purchases of books and movie theater tickets underwent the steepest spending drops at a combined 58%, and about 1 in 4 US adults said they're either spending less on or have stopped paying for media and entertainment expenses altogether. So what are some ways you can cut back on entertainment costs, start sharing or cancel unused streaming subscriptions? Or you can research cheaper alternatives to sporting events and concerts in your area. Cutting back on entertainment costs. Part of our 23 cost cutters for 2023 for the Retirement.Radio Network Powered by AmeriLife.

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