Your Turn with Mike Causey

Listen to the final Your Turn with Mike Causey show. It’s a special tribute to Mike, who passed away in late September 2022, hosted by Federal Drive anchor Tom Temin and executive editor Jason Miller.

Current and former Federal News Network colleagues and long-time guests of Your Turn will join this hour-long, commercial-free discussion about Mike’s impact on the federal community, share stories and memories of a man who impacted all of us with his wit, his knowledge and his desire to share and explain the intricacies of the federal world.

Guests include:

FNN General Manager Joel Oxley

WTOP Program Director and former FNN Web Operations director Julia Ziegler

FNN reporter Jory Heckman

Tammy Flanagan

Jessica Klement

Art Stein

Abraham Grungold

Former FNN Editor-in-Chief Lisa Wolfe

Former In-Depth anchor Francis Rose

Former Federal Drive co-host Jane Norris

Former Your Turn producer Lauren Larson

In many ways, the way you handle your final affairs will determine how your family and friends remember you. So it’s important to get it right.

Years ago, my uncle died and left his large, 700-plus acre farm (for comparison, New York’s Central Park is about 840 acres) to his daughter.

Not his wife.

On purpose. Or so he thought!

He knew exactly what he was doing! That is, he thought he knew what he was doing. But instead of making a postmortem point, he messed up. Big time.

It was not his first will. Nor (maybe) his last. That’s because he wrote wills all the time. Sometimes to punish some individual or group. And that may have made him feel good, or at least satisfied. But in the end it created a mess. Why? Because the only will that counts is the last one you wrote (or that your family finds) that was done properly. The notarized copy his wife found became the official one. It cut her out of the farm. Or so he thought. What apparently happened is that my uncle, acting as his own attorney-estate planner, managed to leave the farm (as in land, creek, trees, etc.) to his daughter but somehow all the property on the farm — several houses, some barns and other buildings — went to his wife. Cut to the chase. Bottom line is the will that took effect was the only one (or most recent one) found. It left his daughter the land and his wife the buildings on that land. Probably not what he had planned!

After a bitter period of time his daughter bought the property on her land even though she was in debt for years paying for it. His wife got something. But nobody, including my uncle (who was a great guy), got what was intended. Lesson (if there is one): be careful who does your will. And your estate plan. And your trust. Do you know what you need? What’s best for your family? One of the first things to consider is do you have an estate? Many, if not most, career feds and retirees do. Worth more than they think. So what do you do?

We tapped Washington attorney Tom O’Rourke for some estate planning help. He’s a former IRS lawyer who specialized in taxes and estates in private practice. He’s going to be the guest on today’s Your Turn radio show.

In many ways, the way you handle your final affairs will determine how your family and friends remember you. So it’s important to get it right.

Years ago, my uncle died and left his large, 700-plus acre farm (for comparison, New York’s Central Park is about 840 acres) to his daughter.

Not his wife.

On purpose. Or so he thought!

He knew exactly what he was doing! That is, he thought he knew what he was doing. But instead of making a postmortem point, he messed up. Big time.

It was not his first will. Nor (maybe) his last. That’s because he wrote wills all the time. Sometimes to punish some individual or group. And that may have made him feel good, or at least satisfied. But in the end it created a mess. Why? Because the only will that counts is the last one you wrote (or that your family finds) that was done properly. The notarized copy his wife found became the official one. It cut her out of the farm. Or so he thought. What apparently happened is that my uncle, acting as his own attorney-estate planner, managed to leave the farm (as in land, creek, trees, etc.) to his daughter but somehow all the property on the farm — several houses, some barns and other buildings — went to his wife. Cut to the chase. Bottom line is the will that took effect was the only one (or most recent one) found. It left his daughter the land and his wife the buildings on that land. Probably not what he had planned!

After a bitter period of time his daughter bought the property on her land even though she was in debt for years paying for it. His wife got something. But nobody, including my uncle (who was a great guy), got what was intended. Lesson (if there is one): be careful who does your will. And your estate plan. And your trust. Do you know what you need? What’s best for your family? One of the first things to consider is do you have an estate? Many, if not most, career feds and retirees do. Worth more than they think. So what do you do?

We tapped Washington attorney Tom O’Rourke for some estate planning help. He’s a former IRS lawyer who specialized in taxes and estates in private practice. He’s going to be the guest on today’s Your Turn radio show.

Many people consider Michelangelo’s statue of David to be the most perfect sculpture ever. It was done in the early 1500s and stands 10 feet tall. Pretty impressive.

Yet a friend of mine, Bill B, claims that his brother in-law, who has seen it in the flesh, thinks the masterpiece is overrated. After studying it for a few minutes, he concluded that virtually anybody could have done it.

“All you have to do,” brother-in-law-said, “is get a really good piece of marble, then chip away all the pieces that don’t look like David.”

Of course he’s right. Up to a point! But he’s leaving out some important details. The sort that face federal, postal and military personnel deciding how — and how much — to invest in their Thrift Savings Plan accounts. For some, TSP (with its generous government match) will provide one-third to as much half the money they have to spend in retirement. Regardless of the percentage, it’s a lot. So how do you become a TSP millionaire? We asked D.C.-area financial planner Arthur Stein if there is a magic formula. Several of his clients are TSP millionaires. The recent stock market nosedive reduced that number. And it has many investors rethinking their situation. Which is the subject of today’s Your Turn radio show with Art Stein.

Have you got what it takes to make the final cut, and maybe become a contestant on the popular TV show Jeopardy? Maybe become a millionaire? Interested? Take this test.

If you dare…

What weighs 990 million pounds, is worth $743 billion and has 6.6 million units found in every country of the world, every U.S. state, as well as Greenland and Antarctica. Oh, also in outer space.

Correct answer:

What is the federal Thrift Savings Plan, Uncle Sam’s in-house 401k for active and retired civil servants and government officials, and members of the military?

The TSPs’ governing body, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, met yesterday for its monthly meeting. Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman covered it. She’ll be my guest today on Your Turn.

After one of the best, longest bull market runs in history, the continuing downhill trajectory of the stock market has lots of investors wondering what — if anything — they could and should be doing. At a time of an evolving pandemic, an expanding European war and major climate concerns, at first glance the answer is: probably not much!

For many investors, the Thrift Savings Plan will provide anywhere from one-third to half their income in retirement. Assuming, of course, there is income!

So what should you do, or not do? We’ll find out today on our Your Turn show with guest host Arthur Stein. He’s a Washington-area financial planner whose clients include many active and retired feds, including several self-made TSP millionaires.

If an IRS agent calls you at home or office and asks you to send him or her a gift card, don’t do it! Even if you owe money, that is not the correct (or legal) way to get back in Uncle Sam’s good graces!

By the same token if someone from a nature fund or a save-the-kittens group asks for a donation, check them out BEFORE you send a check.

When a company advertises it can reduce your tax bill by tens of thousands of dollars put a cold cloth on your head and lie down until the urge to respond is gone.

All of the above, plus some things you wouldn’t dream up, are part of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen list. It’s part of the agency’s effort to protect taxpayers, tax preparers and corporations from scams ranging from the incredibly stupid to brilliant. All designed to take you for all they can get. Even if it’s all you got!

And if you think some of the long-distance scams you see on the Dr. Phil show: She (or he) wires money to soulmate they’ve never met so they can pay kidnapper’s ransom, get their mother a new body part, or repay a small debt to free millions of dollars from frozen account. The fact is it happens every day. Sometimes to otherwise savvy people. Like you, maybe?

So what are the scams and schemes on the Dirty Dozen list? Could you spot them? Or have you ever been had?

To talk about the ploys used to trick people we’ll be talking to tax attorney Tom O’Rourke. He’s a former IRS attorney, and he’s my guest today on our Your Turn radio show.

If you are working, retired, building a nest egg or living off one, these are tough emotional times. If you want good news, you’ve learned to avoid the financial news or stock market reports. Also national news, international news and, if you are a baseball fan in certain cities like Washington, D.C., you avoid the sporting news, too.

Hopefully you have a good cable package and a personality that lets you sort and live with the good news vs. the not-so-good-news. Which is the purpose of today’s Your Turn radio show: It’s a double-header on the good, the bad and the ugly. We are going to try to cover the waterfront. First up, financial advisor Arthur Stein will talk about the future course of your TSP account, and the pros and cons of investing heavily in the never-has-a-bad-day G fund. Many consider it the “safest” investment. But that begs the question: How do you define “safe” when building a retirement nest egg? Federal News Network reporter Drew Friedman will talk about the very latest on the federal pay raise. Then we’ll get into the prospects for a large retiree COLA. Last, but definitely not least, the issues TSP investors are having with the new system.

When is the last time you and your significant other took a romantic weekend to rekindle the fire? And spent most of the time, at the beach or in the mountains, talking about the pros and cons of an irrevocable trust?

Wild guess: How about … never?

Although vitally important in some cases, irrevocable trusts are sort of like heel spurs or picking kitchen paint colors as a topic of extended conversation. And yet …

There may come a time in your family’s life when having the should-I-have-a-trust conversation is critical. Whether you did it, or especially if you didn’t do it but should have!

All this is a sneaky way to lead into today’s Your Turn radio show. And while the subject doesn’t automatically draw your attention, in many cases it should. What such a trust is, and whether it is vital or useless for you and yours is something you have to deal with while you are still around. It won’t wait until after you’ve gone and mourning — maybe fighting — loved ones are dealing with your estate which, by the way, even the most modest feds have. Today we’ll be talking with Tom O’Rourke, a Washington area tax and estate attorney.

When Social Security was launched in 1935, the average life expectancy for men was 59.9 years and 63.9 for women. Full benefits started at 65, so do the math! It sounded almost like a safe, government-guaranteed Ponzi Scheme, minus the scheme part.

But times have changed. The bad news, from an actuarial basis, is that we are living longer. A lot longer. A growing number of people are and will spend more time in retirement, getting Social Security, than they did working and paying into it. Again, do the math!

Optimists predict Congress will fix it. Maybe make millionaires pay Social Security taxes on all of their income. Maybe raise them for everybody. Others, including many young people, say it’s too late, or soon will be. That there won’t be anything for them 99 years after the program began. For an update on the fate of your Social Security, we invited Tammy Flanagan to be on today’s Your Turn radio show.