Income planning for federal employees can be overwhelming. Yet many federal employees are left underserved without a solid plan. We are commited to helping your retire and maintain the lifestyle you desire. If you haven't started creating a retirement plan, it's time to get a detailed plan in place. Consider your various options to retire your way so you can spend decades in retirement with no stress.
Why Federal Employees?
About 12 years ago, I was sitting in my office after finishing with a client who had your regular retirement vehicles I dealt with all the time: a 401k, IRA, some stocks, and cash in the bank. My next client was a federal employee referral, which I didn’t think too much about, but boy, was I about to realize just how different this would be.
This woman started talking about her FERS pension plan, her TSP, and FEGLI and how she was so confused as to her retirement; she didn’t even know if she could retire…I kept a straight face and didn’t panic, but inside, I was like, what the world is she talking about? I had been in the finance industry for 13 years at that point but had never heard these terms and had no idea what they meant.
I politely excused myself and went to another office and started googling, only to find sites like opm.gov that seemed to have everything written in Greek; it was worse than reading closing documents for a mortgage. Lots of ya-di-ya-di-ya jargon. Now I was panicked; what would I say to her? I had never been in a position where I didn’t feel I could help someone better their retirement.
I walked back into the office and said sure, I can help you with your retirement. Just give me a week to get some ideas together for you. She gave me all her information, scheduled her follow-up meeting, and left. I then pace around my office with my hand in the air, screaming, “What on earth did I do to myself and why?
Well, the why was the easy part. I have always wanted to help people, and she needed help…. now I just had to figure it out. I spent that whole next week reading OPM, FEGLI, and TSP websites, and while wanting to pull my hair out several times, I survived. During our next meeting, I reviewed her pension numbers, how to use her TSP efficiently in retirement and her best options for her FEGLI life insurance.
I realized that these Federal employees weren’t getting much help and that she could have benefited from her retirement even more had I met with her earlier in her career. This led me to dive deep into their benefits and focus my business more on federal employees, as I felt I could make a difference there.
I started digging into the nooks and crannies of the federal employee benefits that HR didn’t go into but could make such a difference in their retirement.
I firmly believe that I can help all federal employees by presenting their benefits in a manner that is easy to understand and with a plan that is easy to implement.
In the last decade I have helped thousands of Federal employees just like you understand their FERS pension, TSP and FEGLI and how to use them with outside investments to create tax- free and guaranteed increasing income in retirement.
If you are a federal employee who needs assistance or a guide to retirement, then schedule a Retirement Strategy Session with Jen Trowbridge.
