Starting the Year Right – 2026 Retirement Checklist

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Speaker1:
Welcome back to the Federal retirement Show. I'm your host Val Majewski with American Benefits Exchange. Happy New Year and welcome to 2026. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to view our content, to see what we have to say when it comes to federal employees and their benefits and retirement situations. That's what we're here for. We're here for the federal employee, just like you, that's looking for accurate information when it comes to their benefits and retirement situations. You might have questions. You might have things you want to find the answer to. And hopefully this podcast, this show will provide the answer to you. We have now. This is episode 160. So we have 160 episodes for you to go back and do all of our content. I highly recommend you do so because chances are we've covered a question that you want to ask, or we've covered a topic that you're looking for information on, and it's all there for you at your fingertips. You can find us on YouTube or SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at our website. Federal retirement Show.com. You can view all the content that we have there. So that being said, today's episode is entitled your 2026 Retirement Checklist. And there's a lot of folks that have recently retired, you know, December 31st, 2025 or any year is a very popular time or a very popular date of separation for federal employees. Just helped out two federal employees that are, uh, doing this exact same thing.

Speaker1:
And we've got a couple others that we're walking through the pipeline that are going to retire shortly into 2026. But so for those that have already retired, yeah, this is not necessarily for you because we want to do this pre-retirement have this retirement checklist. But through my conversations that I've had with these federal employees and their experiences and the things that are going on with OPM. You want to make sure you're doing these things right so that your retirement application gets processed in a timely fashion. Now, I've said this before, hopefully the online application that the government came out with, the Aura Online retirement application will speed things up because it's not going to be filed via paper. There's not going to be as many mistakes. Hopefully that's the idea with this and hopefully things will run smooth and speed up retirement processing times. That being said, there are still issues that they're working out, but the concept of having a retirement checklist, making sure you've got your ducks in a row is for a number of reasons. You want to ensure that your retirement is going to be the way you think it's going to be. You're not going to be shocked by when you start getting paid, that it's going to be less or whatever, that that all of these things are not taken care of. Two, You want to ensure that your retirement application gets processed and a smooth and orderly and timely fashion.

Speaker1:
Now, there's no guarantee of this because I've said this before, OPM is very understaffed compared to the number of federal employees that are out there. There's only so much that they can do with the amount of people they have, and the influx and volume of retirement applications that are received, especially at the time of the year. We're talking the end of the year. But if you're looking to retire at the end of this year, at some point in 2026, take these steps to ensure that you're going to retire. Again, the way you want, how you want with the lifestyle that you want. We've talked about that before. So first thing, do you have a retirement date in mind? Do you know when that's going to be? I know a lot of federal employees that I talk to. They fluctuate. I think it's going to be at the end of January. Maybe I can push it back until March. If you do have a retirement date Eight in your mind, set that in stone. And I know sometimes it's flexible and you might push it back, but. But if you have a date in mind, here's why. This is important. Because you want to start this process as soon as you know what the date is. And it culminates with putting in your retirement application in a timely fashion. But this allows you to get your ducks in a row. And what do I mean by that? If you're going to retire at some point this year, you wanted to have an estimate done.

Speaker1:
You want to have a review of your benefits and retirement situation done. That way. You've got an idea of what your pension should be at least a ballpark within a few dollars. You'll have an idea if you're eligible for the first supplement. If you're going to retire prior to age 62, you'll have an idea. If you're going to retire at 62 or later, what your Social Security amount is going to be, and you can just decide on a strategy of when to start taking Social Security. You can design a strategy for your TSB, whatever that might be, whether it's income or some other form with your TSB. There's a lot of different directions that federal employees can go in, and we've talked about a lot of those directions on this show. Do you have an idea of what you're going to do in retirement? Now that's a big thing as well, because a lot of federal employees that I talked to, uh, just kind of wishy washy about that. There's nothing wrong with it. But you want to ensure that you know what you're going to do now, what you do, maybe nothing at all. It could be a lack of something, but at least there's a plan for that. What do I mean? Let's say you said, hey, I've worked my time. I've worked 30, 40 years.

Speaker1:
It's time for me to do nothing. Now, I don't normally see that because a lot of federal employees, a lot of retirees do something that might be get a part time job or they want to travel, they want to play golf, they want to do X, Y, and Z. They have a plan to do something. It's not normally nothing. It is there is a something involved with that. A recent federal employee that I talked to. You know, they they want to take care or they're going to, uh, take care of their parents in retirement. That's part of the retirement plan. Um, another is going to get a part time or full time job. Another wants to travel to see kids, grandkids, whatever. Another doesn't have, uh, much family and wants to cruise around the world and, and do those kind of things. Right. That that's a plan. That's something that they've come up with and they've planned for that. It's not just going to be, uh, I'm going to wing it in retirement. So what you're going to do and why do I say most don't do nothing, right? They don't just sit around and do because you need some sort of simulation in retirement. You do. You need to keep the mind fresh. You need to keep working on on something. Now, it may not be a paying gig, but it might be a new hobby, a new, uh, thing that you want to accomplish, whatever it might be.

Speaker1:
So what are you going to do in retirement? Have that as your plan. That's why I say retire when you want, how you want. Because you want to make sure that you have enough money to do it. And. And do what? What? The lifestyle that you want because it's gonna count for. Or you're going to also have that what you're going to do part of retirement. Now that's a long explanation. But everybody's situation is a little different. And like I said, I talked to a lot of recent retirees and they're giving me their plans of what they want their retirement to look like. Timing of when you're going to submit your application. I normally recommend at least two months in advance and make sure that it's filled out properly. Now, that's what the old school method of using the paper form for Fers employees at the 3107 form, and filling out all the supplemental forms that go with that. When it comes to your, uh, your election or survivor benefit election or your your tax withholdings, all of those things you want to make sure you've done right now with the new online application that that should eliminate as many blank entries, right? If you should be filling something out, the online form should tell you yes, you've missed this spot or this is incorrect. You've left this blank. You need to do this before moving forward. The old school method with the paper app.

Speaker1:
You had to do that yourself. And if you unfortunately, if you filled something out incorrectly or you miss something altogether and you sent it in, it would just delay your process because opium would have to get back to you. Now, I say two months in advance because it allows them to start your file. It allows them opium to work through the process and and understand what your ultimate number is going to be as far as your pension calculation, everything you're entitled to. Okay, great. But I'm still hearing and seeing that opium has had a lack of communication, a lack of proper, let's say, response time to getting back to recent retirees or those that are looking for answers, whether the the phone line is busy or whether the the website is down. Um, you've got to take it upon yourself to be diligent and dedicated to staying on top of OPM. This is your retirement, so don't assume anything. Don't assume that your file is correct. You want to make sure that your employment record is correct in advance. I'm going to back up a second because I just went in a different direction. So this is even before you file your your retirement paperwork, you want to make sure your employment record is correct. If you bought back military time, you want to ensure that that is in there, that the payment is accounted for, the deposit is accounted for so that when the time gets credited, that's that's something that, um, you want to request from them to ensure, again, from OPM or from your employing agency to ensure that those records are correct and all of your time is accounted for.

Speaker1:
It's not something you want to have to go back to in the end. Oh, I assumed I thought I just, uh, I figured everything was going to work out and everything was going to be, you know, accounted for, and maybe it wasn't. Um, those are all things, again, getting the estimate done. I mentioned that earlier. The estimate is going to show you what your income is going to look like in retirement. Can you live off of that? Is that what you were expecting? Is it high? Is it low? How does the survivor benefit election take, uh, effect in there? How do how does it reduce your pension? What are you ultimately going to take home when you take taxes and other fees and other deductions into consideration? Are you going to take Social Security at a certain time, um, or right away? Are you entitled to the first supplement? What's that amount going to look like? What's the plan for your TSP? All of these things you should be doing well in advance of your retirement date. Now if your retirement just happened, if you've retired December 31st of this, this past year, 2025, is some of these things you're out of your control at this point. I just I talked to a recent retiree.

Speaker1:
You know, I just mentioned OPM. Response times are very slow and things like that. And this federal employee told me, yeah, I can't get in touch with TSP or sorry, OPM. I can't get in touch with them to know where we're at. I got the only thing I got was notification when my paperwork was sent in that they received it, but no communication after that. I can't get in touch with him on the phone. They're not responding to the email. All of these things, even though that's what it says on Opm's website. Hey, call us at this number. Send us an email at this address. Response times have been very, very slow, right? The response time has been long. It's taken a long time for these people to hear back. So it's important for you to not only be proactive, but yes, uh, give yourself enough time in advance of your retirement to ensure all of this is taken care of. But even once your, uh, application has been submitted, you've done all the due diligence. You've done all the things on the front end. You have to be diligent still on the back end to ensure that it's being processed in a timely fashion. Hopefully that's not going to be your case when you do retire, but I'm just telling you stories that I've heard from other federal employees, people that have recently retired or are thinking of retiring and filling out their paperwork and getting it in.

Speaker1:
This is what I'm what I'm seeing. Okay. Things could change and hopefully they do improve. And OPM does a better job of improving their time frame and reducing the backlog. But I will tell you, in my 13 plus years of working specifically with federal employees, there has always been a backlog when it comes to processing retirement applications at OPM. Always. It just depends on how big that backlog has been. And in recent years, especially this past year with the deferred resignation and people taking early buyouts and all this, plus the normal influx of retirement applications that comes in at the end of the year, OPM is as backlogged as ever. So it's important again to make sure that your retirement application is filled out correctly, that all of your information is in there. So when they do receive it, even if it takes a long time to process, it doesn't take longer because of some mistake that was made. Let's reduce the amount of mistakes. It improves the chance of your application going through effectively and efficiently. So you know everything on the front end. You know what to expect. Uh, on the back end. The time frame, the timeline. Talk to other people that have recently retired. View our other episodes. When I've answered those kind of questions, even if the time frame is pretty specific, right? Opm, or just the first system in general, states that when you separate from service, your effective retirement date is the first of the following month and then your first pension check.

Speaker1:
Your first annuity payment should be due the first of the month after that. That has not always been the case. And when now they're putting you in this thing called interim pay, it's going to pay you 60 to 80% of what you should get. And that can go on for 3 to 6 months, if not longer. So understand the time frame. Learn as much as you can about the retirement. That's part of that checklist that I'm talking about learn as much about the retirement process and the timing of everything. Even if the timing is stated at opengov, the timing has been altered through actual experiences. It has not proven to remain true, even though in theory you should. If you're going to retire December 31st, your effective retirement date January 1st. Your first annuity payment should be due February 1st. That timeline has not remained true in cases that I've seen recently. It's taken longer than that to get the first interim payment and then taken longer still to get your first full payment. So have a plan in place to make up for lost income, because you're not going to be getting paid the full amount that you're expecting right away. So you need to have a plan in place. I'm telling you now, this is part of that checklist to prepare. Have an emergency fund set in place, have extra funds on hand to pay bills and living expenses and everything during those months when you're not getting paid or not getting paid the full amount that you should be getting when you're fully retired.

Speaker1:
So just those expectations, expectations for OPM to to do the things that they're supposed to do. Yeah, we got to lower the expectation a little bit and over prepare for retirement. Now other other checklist items I mentioned TSB what's your plan going to be for TSB? Do you need TSB for income sources on top of pension and retirement? You should plan ahead for that. That's not something that you should do after the fact. Now it's never too early. It's never too late to have a plan. So if you even if you've recently retired like I didn't do this ahead of time, it's never too late. But I'm going to say it's going to give you better peace of mind if you plan ahead. What am I going to do with my TSB? What function, what purpose? We've talked about TSB in length on this show have a plan of attack. If you don't know what the plan needs to be, you have to talk to an expert, somebody like myself or one of our our reps across the country that can guide you through that, show you the different options and the things that are available. Because if you talk to TSB, they're only going to be able to tell you about what's available within TSB and they may not even know what all those options are or mean.

Speaker1:
It's nothing against TSB, it's just not what they're specialised in, in sharing with you all the options, especially the options that are available within TSB. So that's a big part of your retirement checklist. What are you going to do with it? What function, what purpose do you want it to serve? Family members also let them be involved in this process. So it does. Does your spouse understand how all this works? Is your spouse involved in the planning process? Uh, communication is key. Full disclosure is key. That way, they can be involved in some of the choices that are made, and they can be involved in that process with you. And it's not just one sided. Allow them to understand. I talked again, federal employees all the time. People that are retiring, uh, we bring the spouse into the conversation. The spouse is involved in the retirement process. The spouse is involved in that communication. They can help take some of the stress off. They can help answer questions and sort through all of this. Just give a different perspective because they are part of this retirement process. Whether it comes to the survivor benefit choice, the federal employee health benefits, your family, um, the TSB, Social Security decisions, all of those things should involve your spouse. Get them involved in the retirement process. And in this retirement checklist I already mentioned, what are you going to do in retirement? That should be something that they're involved in also.

Speaker1:
So going back right. How do you properly prepare. What is what is that checklist. Get an estimate done and understand what that retirement process is all about. The step by step. What am I going to be doing? How am I going to walk through this when the time is right? What's my time frame to get the retirement application in? What is my expectation as far as my retirement income? Where are all the incomes going to come from? What are my choices? Get that full estimate done from a federal employee benefits and retirement expert. There are a lot of times where people go to HR and think that they're experts. Now nothing. If you work in HR, I apologize. I'm not knocking you, but there have been a lot of times where I've even talked to HR professionals about their first retirement, right? This is an HR person that works for Social Security, IRS, VA, whatever, you name it. And I've had to walk them through the retirement process because that's not their area of expertise. Their area of expertise might be, um, you know, onboarding and personnel issues and, and complaints and dealing with, you know, things of that nature. They may not be the expert when it comes to benefits and retirement. So talking to HR professional can be great. But talk to an expert in federal benefits and retirement information to go over again that retirement estimate.

Speaker1:
Go over the process understand what that process is. So estimate and process. What does the retirement process look like. The retirement timeline. What does that look like? Both before I fill out the retirement paperwork. When the retirement paperwork is submitted. And once I'm separated from service. What do all those time frames look like? So that way I have a proper expectation of what things are going to get completed and done. That's important. Now I want to again lower your expectation because OPM unfortunately is backlogged, as I said, and that those time frames are not exact. But if we go over that with you, you can prepare properly. And that's where developing your plan for separation. And that's got to be extra money. Set aside emergency funds, um, money that's going to be there to pay the bills when you're not getting paid by the government anymore, and you're not yet collecting your full pension check or Social Security, your first supplement, whatever it might be. And then the what are you going to do in retirement? Big, big question there. Okay. What are you going to do? That's part of the checklist. And it's got you have to answer that. And I just say have to must do, but it's encouraged to when I'm talking to federal employees and we're going over that, have a plan for it. You don't want to wing it, because now you need to know if you've got all the resources to properly retire.

Speaker1:
If it is travel the world and you have, uh, you know, enough or, um, you know, a 500 mile trip and one night in a hotel that's not necessarily lining up with what you want to do in retirement, and you want to ensure you've got enough income to support the lifestyle and what you want to do in retirement. And I wouldn't want you to have to be forced to. And I've seen this a lot to talking to federal employees who did not retire with a plan, had to go back to work, not because they wanted to, because they had to. And I want to avoid that now, if you choose to work in retirement, that's a different thing. If that's part of what you want to do in retirement, that's a different thing. But I do not want to be or have you be forced to go back to work if that wasn't part of the original plan? The last thing, last part of the checklist is and it revolves around debt. Debt. Do you have a plan for your debt in retirement, or do you have a plan to be debt free in retirement? That could be another big one. A lot of federal employees that I talk to want to retire as debt free as possible. Normally, the only acceptable debt that I'd want to say to carry into retirement would be a mortgage. But if you got that, that new car, let's try to pay it off.

Speaker1:
Credit cards, personal loans, student loans. Let's try to pay those off. So that's not a deduction for you. That's not something that's dragging you down in retirement. You eliminate have a plan to eliminate all of your debt prior to retirement, if not all, at least up to the mortgage up to the the home loan. That's a big part of retirement, right? Because especially if things can fluctuate, if it's credit cards with high interest rates or if it's things that can get out of control because you're not going to, chances are you're not going to be making as much money in retirement overall. And now you've got these these debt payments that are increasing or at least remaining the same, and that's dragging you down. If you can have a plan put in place to be debt free as possible before you retire. Awesome. If you don't know how to put that plan in place again, talk to us. Talk to the experts. Talk to those that help other federal employees plan for retirement. And we can walk you through step by step on how to do that. It's not easy. There's no get rich quick scheme for retirement. There's no cramming for retirement at the last minute, and there's no super secret to paying off debt other than just being dedicated and diligent to doing so before retirement. Your future self is going to love you for it, but you got to have a plan in place.

Speaker1:
So hopefully, um, you've got some good information here from this retirement checklist. If you're going to retire in 2026, uh, you've got to start now, right? You've only got 12 months left if you're going to retire at the end of the year, if you're retiring in the middle of the year, there's less. So more of an incentive for you to reach out to us, go to our website, fill out the form and get in contact with one of our better employee and benefits experts somewhere across the country. If it's not me talking to you personally. Um, the other thing if you're not retiring at 2026, it doesn't mean that this message isn't for you. It just means you've got a little more time in your hands to properly prepare. So take advantage of that time I just mentioned. Retirement is not something you can cram for, like, it's a, you know, a history exam that you're having tomorrow and you're going to pull an all nighter and stay up for it. It's not something that you can do in the last minute. So take advantage of all the time that you have prior to retirement to properly prepare for retirement, okay? The more time you have, the easier that process is going to be. I said, it's never too early. It's never too late. So if you're thinking, hey, retirement's forever away, it's never too early. If you're thinking, ah, I'm retiring soon, there's not enough time to take care of it or make a dent in any of these things.

Speaker1:
It's never too late either. So never too early. Never too late to properly prepare for retirement. So hopefully you got something out of this episode. I just wanted to welcome everybody to the 2026 say Happy New Year from the Federal Retirement Show and give you a checklist if you're planning on retiring this year. But like I said, if you are not retiring in 2026, if it's 2027 or beyond, there's time for you to utilize this checklist to the best of your ability and prepare. Or if not, over prepare for your future retirement. I said your future self is going to love you for it. So if you found this content helpful, if you liked our episode, if you if you want to go back and view the other, uh, 159 episodes we have in addition to this, like subscribe, get notified when we have a new content, and do me a favor, share it with a colleague. If you stumbled across this or you're an avid listener, share this content with your colleagues. They need to hear it just as much as you do, and we want to spread the word and help as many federal employees as we can in 2026 and beyond. So thank you for viewing the Federal retirement show. Again, my name is Val Majewski and I look forward to seeing you on a future episode.

Speaker2:
When most of us think about retirement, what comes to mind is dollar signs. How much we've saved, how much we'll spend. But there's another factor that may matter just as much. Where to retire. I'm Jim Terrebonne here for the retirement radio network powered by Amara Life. A recent study done by CNBC gives the American Retirement System a C-plus grade professor and director of Pension Research Council for the Wharton School of Business, Olivia S Mitchell, weighs in.

Speaker3:
Every country's retirement system is a product of the path that it grew on.

Speaker2:
Between the cost of living, individual state tax laws and possible Social Security insolvency. It's as important as ever to choose the right location of where you'll spend your golden years. But where to go? According to a comprehensive WalletHub report, the states that make your retirement dollars stretch without sacrificing care, comfort, or community tell an intriguing story at the top of the list. Florida. It's no surprise the Sunshine State boasts no state income tax and generous funding per senior through programs like the Older Americans Act. Don't forget the miles of shoreline, golf courses and lifestyle perks that many retirees dream of. But Florida isn't the only shining star in Minnesota. Access to world class healthcare facilities and home health services helps it land at number two on the list. Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota come in at three, four, and five, respectively, all offering low cost of living and a slow pace of life amid big skies and wide open spaces. Let's not forget the affordability and low crime. So as you look toward the golden sunset or help someone you love, plan for it, consider this do you want tax relief, medical peace of mind, or scenic freedom? Pick your priority, weigh it against your budget and let the data guide you. Because when it comes to retirement, the best place to live isn't just where you can afford, it's where you can thrive. For the Retirement Radio Network powered by Molife, I'm Jim.

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