9.16.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

9.16.22: 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, vice president at American Benefits Exchange. And I really appreciate you joining me and being a part of this show and learning about your benefits and retirement information and the things we believe you need to know about and some of the information that we believe in our experience. You need to see, you need to hear. And today is not without exception. We're going to be talking about h.r. Human resources and what is their role within the federal government and what have we found in our experience is lacking there. So as we dive into our discussion today, I want to just fill you in on some big well, not some, but a big misconception that we see when it comes with H.R. and the things that we believe federal employees need to know when it comes to your benefits and retirement information. So what is that misconception? The misconception is that the HR professionals that are working within your agency are experts when it comes to your federal benefits and retirement information. And I'm not going to say that's entirely incorrect, but if you talk to your HR department, you would be surprised to see that they are not experts when it comes to this area of your federal employment. Now, that's not a knock against HR. Trust me, I love the folks that work at HR. But let me step back and tell you why I'm discussing this today, because our company, we were partners with and we're a vendor and a sponsor at a recent event, federal employee event, where the attendees were HR professionals from various federal agencies across the country.

Val Majewski:
Everybody there was in the HR department of their certain agency, and I got a chance to talk to several of them over the couple of days and talk about their benefits and retirement expertise. And I came to find, as I expected, going into it, that they are not experts and they were admittedly so, that they're not experts in these areas. They're not up to speed. They're not properly educated and trained when it comes to their own benefits and retirement information. Because remember, even though they work in HR or for the federal government, they are also federal employees themselves who have these certain benefits and retirement areas that they need help with. Well, what do they specialize in? And what is your H.R. person really trained and experienced to deal with now on a daily basis? There's a lot of issues that go on. There's personnel issues, hiring issues, equal opportunity, there's harassment, there's complaints, there's things that go on within each federal agency that take the bulk of your HR departments day and their time is is spent dealing with all of these issues and all of these things. Again, I learned this recently by talking to all of these HR folks as they came over to our area, as they sat down and chatted with me explaining their own situation and wanting answers to their own federal employee benefits and retirement situation.

Val Majewski:
I learned a lot more than I previously knew about what your HR department does. In fact, there are times when we talk to federal employees and they're nearing that retirement stage and they're going to have their meeting with their HR department, they're going to go over maybe their retirement process, what everything's going to look like because HR is going to end up helping them or maybe even helping process their retirement paperwork just depends on where you work. But federal employees would ask us, would ask representatives of American benefits exchange to be a part of those meetings, to be a part of the retirement process, to make sure that they fully understand everything that's going to be going on as they move forward. Now, again, why is that? Because as I said earlier, your HR department is not and this is not their fault. This isn't just not their job description, their job title, but it may be assumed by the federal employee, by you even that they are supposed to be experts in your benefits and retirement information. Sure, they can help you fill out the paperwork to elect these things when you first get hired, or maybe help process paperwork if you're making changes to your benefits. But they may not be experts in those particular areas. Now, I'm not saying that every HR professional knows nothing about benefits and retirement.

Val Majewski:
Trust me, I'm not trying to make that claim. And as I said earlier, I love the HR folks. There is so much they have to deal with on a daily basis. It can be extremely stressful, as I hope you imagine, because of the issues, because of the things they're getting on both ends. Right. They're trying to help out the agency, but they're also they're about the employees and the things that they're going through and maybe even employee disputes or employee issues, they're caught in the middle. So their day and their job is filled with a lot of things, but the bulk of which is not just benefits and retirement information, which is why you need to talk to somebody who is an expert in this area, who can help you, who can guide you, who can give you the proper information. H.r is awesome and they do a lot of things that are great for each and every one of your agencies said love the hr folks love talking to them at this recent, recent event that we went to great experience for myself and for our company, but eye opening when i was talking to these employees about what they're doing on a daily basis and even what they were there to learn at this conference, it didn't have anything to do with benefits in retirement. It was all the other things that I've previously mentioned.

Val Majewski:
So when you look at HR and you're looking for answers in this this area, do not be surprised when you're not getting the proper answers that you're looking for. You're not getting the information that you're going to or want to or desire to receive, because that is not their area of expertise. Again, not to their fault. It's just not what their job description is and what they were trained to do. So where do you go? Who do you turn to? Now, as I said earlier, this is our area of expertise. The Federal Retirement Show. If you look at our previous episodes, you can see all of the things that we're here to discuss, all of the information that we want to provide to you, all of the areas, the ins and outs regarding benefits and retirement that we consider ourselves subject matter experts on. The folks at the Federal Retirement Show and American Benefits Exchange want to provide this information to you. We want to be your personal H.R. department. Yes. You have an HR department at your agency that can help you with all of those things I previously mentioned. But if you need assistance on your personal situation when it comes to benefits and retirement, that's where we at the Federal Retirement Show and American Benefits Exchange want to be your personal HR department. I said earlier that we are subject matter experts. We have years and decades of experience when it comes to benefits and retirement.

Val Majewski:
As things change over time, where are you going to go for answers? Come to us, we can make sense of it all. We can look deep into your situation, not only give you the general overview, but if you have specific questions that are really honing in on your specific situation, we can dive in deep and there are times, look, I'm not going to claim to know everything and I'm not going to say that all of our reps across the country know every single thing. But we will do our best if we do not. If we get one of those less than 1% questions, we'll do our best to find the answers for you. Get the information that we know you're looking for. Why? Because we understand that it's important to you and to your family and to your future retirement. Now. Not only do we know the information, but we have tools that allow us to do personal benefits and retirement analysis. We can dive deeper into your situation, create different reports for you so that you can see exactly where you stand. So not only where you stand today, but we can project how you're going to be in retirement so you can see how you are trending and if you're trending in the right direction. You'd be surprised to know how many federal employees and I'm not going to list how many because it's probably a lot higher than you think.

Val Majewski:
But you'd be surprised to see how many federal employees we talk to that thought they were on the right track, thought they were doing the right things, and when they saw the numbers, they were shocked and surprised and said, that's all I'm going to get. That's what I've been doing, because they were not properly trained on how to do this. And as the subject is, it wasn't like HR sat and had a class with them on how to prepare for retirement. A federal employee has told us and my special guest that was on, if you go back to our previous episode where we talked to one of our regional reps, Brandi person, she said retirement starts on day one. The first day you get hired is where retirement starts and you need this information. Where are you going to get it from? If you don't do your own homework, your own digging, you're going to need somebody like us to be that personal HR department so you can guide through the maze that is your career and going towards retirement. I said, find answers for you. You're going to have questions. Now, the two biggest questions that we get asked and you may have those on the top two of your list is When can I retire and when can I retire with full benefits? So when's my earliest day that I can leave? And what am I going to get? Well, what if you want to leave at the earliest time? But what you're going to get is not what you need.

Val Majewski:
Along the way, we can help you make some changes. We can point you in the right direction as a result of our experience in ways in which we've helped our employees over the years. We can do this for you. This is this is what we'd love to do. This is our bread and butter. This is our area of expertise. So we help you prepare not only today because you want to make sure you're in the right spot today, but we also look forward towards tomorrow, towards the future. Now, let's look at today. What does that mean? So if I looked at your situation today and you're thinking, okay, well, I don't even know what's on my pay stub, that's usually the first place we start. We'll review your pay stub with you, your leaving earnings statement, and go over the different deductions. Make sure you understand what's going into your check and certainly what's coming out of your check. Maybe help optimize that a little bit might help save you some money so less is coming out. It's tough for us to we can't put more in. It's tough for me to do that. I can't make the government give you a raise, but we can help with what's coming out. Maybe reduce that, optimise that, and then in the future. So not only are you saving money today as far as getting more into your your pocket, then in the future, make sure you're putting enough aside so that you have what you want to have when all is said and done tomorrow.

Val Majewski:
So preparing today, make sure you're optimised and then hoping you're maximising all the benefits and all the opportunities you have along your working career. So you sit in a prime position come retirement, you can walk out that door head held high, knowing that everything that you've been working for is right in line with what you want. And there have been people, there have been federal employees that I've talked to that have had 30 plus years of service in and still can't retire because they're not financially ready. They weren't properly prepared. They didn't get the right advice along the way. And there's a number of things, number of factors that can lead to that. But when we list out the things that you want in retirement and then we go over the numbers, if those things don't line up, you have two options. You either retire on a lesser lifestyle, then you want it, or you have to work longer to get to that point where you can retire on your terms. Ultimately, we want both things to happen. We want you to retire at the right time with everything that you need to have when it comes to retirement. And that's where you get us being your personal HR department is such a huge thing for you because if you had the proper guidance from day one and there's no chance that you're going to miss out on any of the the landmines or the shortfalls or the mistakes that we see federal employees make, because you've had all the information you need to make the right decisions, then you are going to retire that that can be as close to a 100% guarantee as possible that you're going to retire on your timing, your terms.

Val Majewski:
Again, barring anything that is unforeseen or some emergency or something like that, I can't 100% guarantee it. But I can say with pretty certain percentages that you'll have everything you need at your disposal and you'll have all the information you need to make the right decisions so that you are retiring on your terms. So let american benefits exchange and the folks here at the federal retirement show be your personal h.r. Department. Now. How do you do that? What are your next steps? Well, if you want to take that next step and say, you know what, I need a personal HR department, I need somebody to guide me through this process. I need this information. I need to know where I currently stand and that I'm trending in the right direction. First of all, you're probably thinking, how much is this going to cost me? And I'm here to tell you nothing. It's free. This is a service that we give out to federal employees.

Val Majewski:
This is a service that we do on a daily basis, is providing this information. The previous slide said that we are subject matter experts, so we don't hold this information in. We don't say, hey, you put a dollar in the machine and we're going to spit something out. No, we want to give this to you and give you all the choices and options that you have available to you so you can make the right decisions. A lot of times we find when we when we talk to federal employees, there's just a lack of information. There's a lack of understanding. They just weren't exposed to this. It's not your fault or not. The person that works next to you is fault. It's just. You were not. Given this info, you weren't exposed to it. It wasn't properly explained to you. So when we talk and people say, Wow, I didn't know that, or I didn't realize this, or I didn't know that I had this choice. It happens more often than you think. Also, it happens more often than you think. When I talk to people, they say, I wish I would have met you ten years ago, 20 years ago. The good news is you're talking to me now, but I wish I could have talked to you then to give you the right guidance, the right instruction. So why talk to us? Why reach out to the folks at American Benefits Exchange and the folks at the Federal Retirement Show? To go over your personal situation, get your answers or get your questions answered, get your personalized benefits and retirement view.

Val Majewski:
Why is that? Well, you just want to know exactly where you stand, right? You want to know exactly how you're trending. So step one, you have to schedule, schedule time for your review. How do you do that? Well, if you go to federal retirement show dot com, there's a form to fill out. Limited amount of information. Just your name, email, phone number, submit. And one of our representatives and we have representatives all over the country. One of the representatives in your area will reach out to you to schedule time to do your review. And during that review, you're going to get a couple of different reports that can be printed out, which will explain exactly where you stand, what the cost of your current benefits are, how things can change over time. And then ultimately, what is your future look like if you've got three years from retirement or 30 years until retirement, we can project out what that's going to look like so you can make sure you're on the right track. So you go to again, federal retirement show dot com, fill out the form. And schedule your personal review. As I said, you see where you currently stand. We're going to outline all of your information. And the biggest thing, like I said earlier, is reviewing your pay stub.

Val Majewski:
You'd be surprised. And I've said this a lot today, and hopefully you're not surprised. Hopefully you're saying, Val, this is easy information. I know this already, but you would be really surprised to know that most federal employees that I talk to either do not understand their their pay stub entirely or they don't even look at it on a bi weekly basis. When they get it, they just make sure that the money hit their account and the direct deposit and they don't really look at what's coming out or what's going in. They just look at the bottom line. Number one, if you do look at your pay stub, do you understand everything that's on there? Do you understand what it looks like, the money coming in versus the money coming out and all the codes and all the things on your pay stub? If not, we can help decipher. Are going to be reflected in those codes, and we can reverse engineer it to tell you exactly what you've got. We can decipher those codes and decipher your pay stub for you to show you exactly what you have on the other end. If you don't look at your pay stub at all, I highly recommend that you schedule your review so we can go over it together. So the first time you look at it is going to be a time where you can properly understand it and see what everything's doing with regard to your situation.

Val Majewski:
And then ultimately you want to ensure that you're on the right track. You want to make sure that you know exactly what's going on currently and that everything that you're doing currently is leading to where you want to be. Leading towards an effective retirement. Because I said earlier, the two top questions that we have are when can I retire and what am I going to get? And most folks that I talk to want to retire as early as they possibly can. Now, imagine this. If you're saying I want to retire as early as I can, but I want to have everything that I want to have in retirement and live the same lifestyle that I'm living now. That takes some preparation. That takes some work. I said earlier that the misconception was that your HR department, they're experts in federal benefits. There's another misconception out there that I put in my time with the federal government and I'm going to be taking care of. I'm going to be set. I put in my 30 years. I check out. The government is taking care of me. I'm going to be fine. Well, if you didn't do any work along the way, you didn't do any of the legwork to get yourself properly prepared. Trust me, the government is not completely taking care of you at that point. Yes, you'll get a pension. But the pension alone is not going to be enough.

Val Majewski:
Yes, you should get Social Security, but those two alone will probably not be enough. There's other things that you need to do to make sure that you are set. This report, this sit down with one of our local or regional reps will ensure that you are set up properly and that you're on the right track as you're going closer and closer or getting closer and closer to retirement. The worst thing I'd want to see is you get to the end thinking everything was okay because you never got a review just to find out that it's not what you thought it was. There have been a lot of federal employees, and I've had to have these tough conversations with them where we looked and said, Hey, where do you want to be in retirement? And they thought they were going to retire, say, at the end of the year. And we found out it's going to take at least five more years, at least five more years. And the shock on the face, the disappointment, the anger. When this could have been resolved, that they would have sat down with somebody like us years prior to make sure that they were set up properly. So take the time, go to the website, fill out the form, get your complimentary benefits and retirement review. Make sure you are on the right track. Make sure you have all the information that you are educated so that you can make the best decisions and retire on your terms when you want to.

Val Majewski:
How you want to. So as I mentioned, we've done a lot and we've given you a lot of information on here. I've said that a lot, too, today, as I mentioned earlier. Right. But that is true. I refer back to all the things that we've talked about prior to this episode and all the previous episodes that we've had on the Federal Retirement Show. I encourage you go back and view those episodes, get a lot of the general information that we want to provide to you. Ultimately, your specific information is going to revolve around that personalized benefits and retirement review. But you can get a general understanding by going back and looking at our previous episodes, seeing all this information that we've already provided, allow the folks at the Federal Retirement Show and American Benefits Exchange to be your personal HR department said It doesn't cost anything. We just want to be a helping hand and assist you along the way so you can retire on your terms the way you want to. I really appreciate you listening today and joining us for this episode. Check out our previous episodes. As I said, like subscribe, whatever it is that you need to do to make sure that you get a notification every time that we are sharing a new episode with you and more information. Thank you again. My name is Val Majewski and look forward to seeing you on a future episode. And.

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