The Importance of Educating Yourself About Retirement Benefits

6.16.23: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

6.16.23: 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, vice president here at American Benefits Exchange. And today I wanted to share with you a story of a recent federal employee event that I worked, that I attended, that I spoke at. And, you know, the reaction of the federal employees, federal employees, just like you, to what we had to say, the questions that were coming out of that, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly that I'm seeing when it comes to federal employees and their benefits and retirement. Now, if you're new to the show, there's a lot of information on here regarding specific benefits, specific items that you should look into. It's information that we believe you need to know when it comes to benefits and retirement. And that's what we specialize in. We specialize in educating and training federal employees just like you with regard to your benefits and retirement situation. Now, why do we do this? We do it because we find most federal employees are lacking in these areas. And this is information that you need to know. And it was not information that was provided to you when you first got hired. And that leads me into the story that I want to talk to you about, because I've been saying that for years, that, yeah, I wish the federal government did a better job of educating and training you, the federal employee, when you first get hired with regard to benefits and retirement.

Val Majewski:
So that way you know all the information at the beginning and you're not left to figure it all out on your own and put it together piecemeal like I've seen other federal employees tell me that they've been doing. So let me set the stage to our story time today about this federal convention that I recently attended. Now, American Benefits Exchange. We are a national corporate partner with a lot of government associations and unions. We attend events on a local, regional and national level. These. This was a national event. There were over 4000 attendees, federal employees. And people were there to learn. It was a learning experience and a lot of different ways. But us as American benefits Exchange, we came in to specifically give two different sessions on benefits and retirement, and we were the only folks in this event that did present on benefits and retirement information. And because of that, and this is a change of pace. This is information that this particular group is not used to getting in this setting. It's been very popular over the years and well attended actually in one case, standing room only. But our sessions really focused on benefits, retirement, the information that we believe you need to know now, they were limited in time. So there's only so much that I could have shared which left people wanting a little bit more having questions in the end.

Val Majewski:
But let me back up and kind of start at the beginning. So we attend this event as a sponsor and an exhibitor. So for the first part of this event, we have a table set up a booth and people were coming by grabbing information. I've got pamphlets on our our table for the top ten mistakes that federal employees make. You know, those pamphlets are being grabbed left and right. I've got a few books that I'm giving out if you if you have not seen in our previous episode or episodes. I wrote a book called There's No Excuse Your Guide to Maximizing Your Federal Employee Benefits. People are asking about the book. They're wanting more information. They have questions about the book. So, you know, we're just talking to folks and making sure that they're aware that later on during this event, during this convention, that we are going to be providing two breakout sessions to talk about benefits and retirement. There were so many people that I met that said, I can't wait to go to your session. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm already signed up. You know, your session is top of my list. I put stars next to it on the agenda. And the reason why, again, that I saw this and I was asking them. So this wasn't just, you know, the feedback I was receiving. I was asking them questions. On top of that, you know, why why are you looking forward to attending this? Why is it so important? Why did you put stars next to it on the agenda? And the common answer that I got, and I'm paraphrasing and generalizing, what a lot of people said is because this is not commonplace, this is not information that they are getting on a daily basis.

Val Majewski:
Now, these are very intelligent people that work for the federal government. They work in budgeting, finance, auditing their numbers, folks, and they still did not have a good grasp or handle on everything when it came to their benefits and retirement situation. They did not know all the options. They didn't know all the calculations. They didn't know all the costs that are involved when it comes to these areas. And it is eye opening on my side because for me, this is the language that I speak. As I said, I wrote a book. I consider myself an expert when it comes to federal employees and their benefits and retirement. So when I meet people that have been working for the government for ten, 15, 20 plus years and they do not have a great handle or grasp on this information, it breaks my heart to a certain degree because I wish that the federal government did a much better job of educating and training them when they first got hired, then they're currently doing now. If that were the case, then I wouldn't have the job that I do have.

Val Majewski:
So I'm grateful for this opportunity, but I wish I could get to everybody when you all first get hired. So you come through the door, you get hired, you fill out your paperwork. This is your first day on the job. I suggest that everybody goes to a benefits and retirement seminar to learn as much as they can about the choices that they're making and ideally do that before they make the final choices when it comes to their life insurance, their health insurance, how much they're going to put aside towards TSB, etcetera, etcetera. We had a guest on our show, her name was Brandi Pearson, and you can go back and watch her episode. But she had said that you are planning for retirement. Whether you know it or not, from the first day you get hired and some people do a better job than others of properly using that time to plan and plan completely. The reason why you want to go to a benefits and retirement seminar, an educational session early on when you first get hired is so that you can maximize optimize everything that the government gives you. You don't want to find out down the road that you could have been taking advantage of something that they give you or you don't want to learn. The opposite is you're paying for something or you had money coming out of your paycheck that you could have avoided all those years.

Val Majewski:
And now you can make the change, but you can't get any of that money back. So the things that I was hearing from the folks at this event and why they were anticipating our session was because this is valuable information. This is information that they believe. Should have been provided to them, but is not. But what are they tasked with? They're tasked with filling out the paperwork, making decisions without knowing all the variables and all the information, and then just getting to work, doing their job. And again, I wish that people were properly educated at the beginning. So you knew 100% that you're making the right decisions. So let's go to the sessions themselves. So once we finally got through the week and we got through the part about we were an exhibitor or sponsor, we're making sure people are aware of the sessions that we were given. We go into the first session and I must tell you, it was an awesome scene. You know, we had over 500 people registered. It was standing room only in the room that we had. There were some virtual attendees as well. It was being recorded a great audience, great crowd, very attentive. People were were hooting and hollering, laughing. We had some some good job. You got to keep it light, right? So I can't just go through all this serious information and do it monotone. I have to bring a little bit of personality.

Val Majewski:
I have to try to make you know, your family, your life insurance, your retirement calculation as enjoyable and informational but enjoyable as possible. I don't want people sleeping. And trust me, if people do fall asleep in my sessions, I will call them out and try to bring them back to life. But luckily nobody did fall asleep. That being said, the crowd was awesome and they were really into the information. Had a ton of people wait after. Afterward, when we went over everything to sit and ask questions, gave everybody an opportunity to request their own benefits review. We used to do this the old fashioned way where we had. Forms passed around the room. Kind of like you were in elementary school again. Take one. Pass it down, take one, pass it down, and people would hand fill a form and submit that at the end. And then we would follow up with them to book their their personal benefits review and go over their own situation. Well, now with the the ability to do things virtually, I simply was just able to put a QR code on the screen and it was awesome. You'd see the QR code go up on the screen. I did it multiple times during the session and all the phones popping up and people really interested in booking time with us to go over their individual review. Why? Because the information that we gave is extremely general.

Val Majewski:
I say extremely because there's only so much I can present in just over an hour. I can't go into too much detail and it's certainly not going to be specific to your individual situation. So it's very general. People want to find out more about their own personal situation, so they want to request a benefits review. Now you can do so Also, if you're interested in this kind of thing, you can go to federal retirement. Show.com the link is in listed on the bottom, but you can go there, fill out our form and we'll be in touch and we can schedule a time to go over your personal benefits and retirement situation. Well, the feedback that I got after the session so I said it went well. The information was awesome. At least I think so because I was presenting it. But people were telling me that this was the best session that they had been to all week. Now they had been through so many different trainings. They'd been through so much information throughout the week. This was the last day of the event. So they've just been beat up in classrooms all day. I had to keep it fun. I had to keep it informative, but we had to make sure it was entertaining. And people came and said, Hey, this is great. The information was awesome. You presented it in an easy to understand manner. I want to learn more. I want a copy of your book.

Val Majewski:
Please send me this, that and the other, and let's schedule a time to go over my own personal benefits and retirement situation. So many people came back in. The emails that I've gotten since then have said this was the best session of the week. Really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'm not doing it to pat ourselves on the back. I'm not doing it to gloat or boast. I can't. You know, that's not my purpose. The reason why I'm sharing that with you is just to show how valuable this information is, regardless of how simple or basic it's presented, how general it is, it's eye opening for federal employees. And for me to see federal employees just drooling over this kind of information because they don't get it, As I mentioned earlier, on a regular basis, this is not something that is commonplace that you're getting on your day to day. Why is it important, though? And why do I think you need to have this in front of you? More than just once a year or once in your career, you have to constantly be re-educating yourself and staying up to speed on benefits and retirement changes. Constantly getting reviews done and analyzing your situation because your retirement is important. It's what you're working for. You want to make sure you as you are, as prepared as possible. You don't want to get 20 years down the road and think, Man, I wish I would have talked to you 15 or 20 years ago when I was just starting out.

Val Majewski:
And I heard that a lot, you know, during the feedback at the end, during the questions, I wish I would have gone to something earlier. I thought this was only for people that were nearing retirement. I did have one person say to me, you know, they don't even allow us to go to a benefits or retirement seminar until we're at least five years from retirement. And I think that's ridiculous. You know, if there is some kind of regulation that says, hey, we're not going to go to or we don't want you to attend a sponsored benefits or retirement presentation if you're not close to retirement, as I mentioned, you're planning from day one. So knowing this information earlier is extremely beneficial. Why wouldn't you want to know more so you can make the best decisions along your career? Now, I did bump into a lot of people at my table that said, Well, I'm not going to go to your session or I'm not signed up for it because I'm nowhere near retirement. And that's where I had to dispute them for a little bit and say, look, I think it's something you should attend. You should think about changing it, changing and going to one of the sessions that we're giving because it's beneficial. It's something you need to plan for now and not wait until you're closer to retirement.

Val Majewski:
So the feedback that I got was amazing. Now, what was the purpose of telling you all that? Because the eyes that were opened, the spinning of the wheels, I can see it. When I was talking to folks, they saw that they needed to do something. They saw that there was a problem that they weren't aware of. And that's the thing that you may not even realize that there is an issue. There is a problem. There is something that you need to discuss. I'll give you an example. So say you're driving along in your car. Right. And the check engine light comes on. And you're thinking, Oh, I need to get this to the mechanic. I need to go to the repair shop. I need to get this checked out because I want to avoid something worse happening to my car. Now, there are some of you out there that would say, ah, it's just a it's an automatic, you know, light that comes on and I'm just going to let it ride. That's certainly up to you. But I know the bulk of us, the majority would probably want to get that checked out, figure out what is going on with my car for the check engine light to come on. Unfortunately, unfortunately, there is no check engine light when it comes to your retirement. You may be just driving along throughout your career and there may be major problems going on behind the scenes, major problems with your retirement preparation.

Val Majewski:
But no one and nothing is warning you. There's no alarm that goes off saying, Hey, you need to be saving more. You need to eliminate this cost from your paycheck. You need to look at these other options. There are no warning signs. There are no check engine lights that are going to give you a heads up that a bigger problem lies beneath the surface or could develop if this initial thing is not taken care of. So my warning to them was like a big check engine light, right? It was like a big hey, you need to come see us and get your situation checked out. Go through the maintenance and if we tell you everything's great, then awesome. You have peace of mind knowing that your situation is perfect, that your situation is trending in the right direction, and that you are more than likely going to hit the goals that you've set out to achieve in retirement. Now, does that mean you are good to go forever? No, just in the same way that you're going to go get regular maintenance on your vehicle or just in the same way that you're going to go to the doctor on an annual basis hopefully, and get a physical or an annual checkup. You need to consistently get a checkup when it comes to benefits and retirement, because your situation may change.

Val Majewski:
You may have another child, you may have gotten married, something else may have happened, You may have moved to another location. Cost of living may be higher, taxes may be higher, whatever it is. So to consistently and I don't mean to do it every month, but at least, let's say every year, every couple of years, go back and get a checkup. Right. The light is not going to pop back on. Like I said, there's no check engine light, no warning to say, hey, time's up, let's go get this taken care of again. You need to put it on your calendar to make sure you are gathering as much information as you can about your situation so you can ensure you're making the right decision. So let's go back back to the event. And the second session was a little lighter. We had about a 150 people signed up for that one. They added this one last minute because the first one was was sold out, so to speak. And we had a lot more questions, a lot more interaction because the room was smaller. A lot of the questions revolved around things like what's in my high three is locality included in my high three? How is leave taking care of in retirement? All these questions we've answered in previous episodes, by the way, what does it mean if I've got, you know, a military time that I want to buy back? Should I buy that back? What if I'm getting a military pension? Should I buy that time back? That answer would be no.

Val Majewski:
Stick with your military pension. Right. But there are a lot of unique questions that are asked, too, about the first supplement. When does the first supplement kick in? Who is eligible for that? Can I delay the first supplement? The answer to that is no. That's automatic. It's an entitlement. But the questions were coming through left and right. In my mind, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I wish I wish somebody would have taught you this earlier. And these were people that have been hired or working for the government for ten, 15, 20 plus years. And they did not yet know this information. They were asking me questions. And for me, it seems very simple. But for them, this was extremely eye opening because they had not heard this stuff before. So I'm saying to you, if you're listening to this again. Get your checkup right before your imaginary check engine light goes on. And for some reason you can't see it because you just don't know any better. Get your checkup, schedule your benefits review. Fill out the form on our website, request some information, schedule your review so that way you can get all of your questions answered. You can make sure you're trending in the right direction. And, you know, without a shadow of a doubt, you have that peace of mind that your retirement is going to be the way you want it.

Val Majewski:
And you can retire when you want, how you want. So when you go to different places, you go to different websites, you go to different things to find information, that's great. But come to the experts, come to the folks that have been doing this for 30 plus years, and we consider ourselves again, experts in this area. We speak the language and we're just here to help and provide the information, just like I did to the hundreds of people that were recently in attendance at the breakout sessions I did at this national convention. So I hope you enjoyed kind of our story time today and the reason why, you know, we're doing what we do and just some of the the awesome interactions that we're having as a company. Again, it does break my heart that this information is not readily available for you on a daily basis. You have to go finding it yourself. So come to us, allow us to sort through all of it, make dollars and cents, put it into plain English for you so that you again know that you're heading in the right direction and you are maximized and optimized properly. Your situation is properly set up. Well, thank you for joining me for this episode of the Federal Retirement Show. Again, my name is Val Majewski, Vice president with American Benefits Exchange, 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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