With the Fork-in-the-Road memo asking every federal employee to consider resigning, lots of feds are suddenly thinking of retiring. Don't let the weirdness of the situation push you into a hasty decision, though. I went over this in detail with federal retirement expert Tammy Flanagan of Retire Federal.

Plus, the government barely avoided a shutdown last month. Anything could happen in March though, when the latest continuing resolution expires. Federal employees will get paid. But they could face an interruption in pay deposits for the duration of a furlough. For those who live paycheck to paycheck, that could be tough. I got some practical advice from federal retiree Abe Grungold of AG Financial Services.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.