Your Turn with Mike Causey

By Federal News Network | Hubbard Radio

What's Your Turn with Mike Causey about?

Federal News Network Senior Correspondent Mike Causey discusses everything of interest to federal employees, from pay, benefits and retirement, to buyouts, COLAs and pay freezes.

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Your Turn with Mike Causey episodes:

10.05.2022
Final Your Turn episode to pay tribute to 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...
09.14.2022
Your estate plan: How to secure (or tarnish) your legacy
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...
09.14.2022
Your estate plan: How to secure (or tarnish) your legacy
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...
09.07.2022
Wanna be a TSP millionaire: Have you got the right stuff?
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...
07.27.2022
TSP Jeopardy quiz: Do you dare take it?
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...
07.20.2022
TSP returns: Who hit the down button?
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...
07.06.2022
Gift cards for the IRS? Probably not!
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...
06.29.2022
Pay Raise, COLA, TSP troubles and the G-fund
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,...
06.22.2022
Today’s subject: Irrevocable trusts … zzzzzz
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...
06.15.2022
Social Security: On life support?
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...
06.08.2022
New TSP options: Road to riches, or paralysis by analysis?
Retirement benefits for career feds and military personnel will be based on their length of service and salary. Unlike the vast majority of private pension plans, the federal-military programs are protected from inflation. Benefits will come from three sources: The...
05.25.2022
The TSP in troubled times: Go long!
It’s hard to think about next summer’s vacation at the beach in February when there is a blizzard outside and your roof is groaning under the weight of all that ice and snow. There are times when it is important...
05.04.2022
Your retirement trifecta
For many career feds and postal workers the best date to retire is simple! You haul assets ASAP. You leave a soon as you are eligible to receive an immediate annuity. Period. Maybe you hate your job. Or your colleagues. Or the boss....
04.27.2022
Can you afford not to have a trust?
If you can afford to leave your spouse, kids or significant others a very large pile of money to spend when you are no longer around, you might want to skip the expense and inconvenience of making a will or...
04.13.2022
TSP tactics: Are you managing the market? Or is it playing you?
Many investors know the conventional thing to do when times are good. But when things go south, which they do regularly, the fight-or-flight instinct kicks in. Times like now. So we ask D.C. area financial planner Arthur Stein what he’s...
04.06.2022
5,000 new TSP options: Cheer, or choke?
What if the menu at your favorite/only eating place jumped, from 15 items to more than 5,000 new choices? Could you handle it? Would you welcome the option, or find it confusing? Maybe choke on your choices? Prepare to find out... Today’s...
03.30.2022
How (and why) to avoid probate: A slap at your family!
If you don’t have a will and an estate plan, probate is an after-you’ve-gone legal struggle. One which could last months, if not years, in a battle over what you intended your family (or friends) to have: your estate! And...
03.16.2022
Safest place for your nest egg: With 7% return!
With a hot war in Europe, galloping worldwide inflation and growing shortages on the home front, many investors are looking for the nearly impossible: A ‘safe’ place to stash some of their retirement nest egg, with Uncle Sam, at an...
03.02.2022
Status update: Your future health premiums, Social Security’s ‘evil twins’
Politicians, lobbyists and special interest groups on Capitol Hill often disguise very important or controversial bills they’re pushing by giving them dull or misleading names. Or when a proposal is both complex and potentially explosive they may bill it as...
02.23.2022
Ukraine, COVID, $5-a-gallon gas: Time to time the market?
Given the current world situation, many TSP investors are bound to be having second thoughts. That makes this the perfect time to have financial planner Arthur Stein back on our Your Turn. He’s a well-known D.C. area financial planner (and...
02.16.2022
Wanna be a TSP Trillionaire? Ask one!
There are lots of ways to become a millionaire. Some of them are even legal. You can invent something, like fire, Scrabble or potatoes, although those have been taken. Or you can write a book, then buy TV airtime, then...
02.09.2022
Don’t turn your home into Bleak House!
If you belong to a book club, whether Oprah’s or one in the neighborhood, chances are “Bleak House,” by Charles Dickens, will never be on your reading list. Ever. As in never! For one thing, “Bleak House” is really old. Written...
01.26.2022
The ‘Phantom’ COLA and other retirement mysteries
The good news about the federal retirement programs — FERS or CSRS — is that they have many moving parts. The downside is you need to do some homework — preferably starting from day one on the payroll — to...
01.19.2022
Time for a reality check
Today’s Your Turn show is about the kind of thing he could be very good at: Taking care of his family. Hopefully it will help you in important ways, like taxes and investments. Subject that are not fun, but are...
12.15.2021
Looking for a safe 7.1% investment?
So today we’ve got a double-header for you on Your Turn. My lead off guest is financial planner Arthur Stein, who specializes in managing finances of active and retired feds. Today he’s going to talk about the pros and cons...
12.08.2021
Open Season: Shop online and on company time for your health plan
If you work for Uncle Sam there’s a 50/50 chance you do. That is, your agency has pre-paid so you can shop from home, office or home/office using the popular Checkbook’s Guide to Federal Health Plans. Many people use it...
12.01.2021
Hidden gems (and time bombs) in your health plan
Federal workers, retirees and their surviving spouses are fortunate in many ways. They have a large number of health plans to choose from. The government will pay much if not most of the premium. No one can be turned down...
11.24.2021
Want a Roth IRA on steriods? Check your health plan.
Tired of shelling out thousands of dollars each year for your federal health plan? Confused, irritated or both by the multiple-choices available under the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program? Why not consider picking a health plan that pays you?...
11.17.2021
Would you buy a Medicare Advantage plan from Joe Namath? Or anybody else?
Before you answer, your first question might be “what’s a Joe Namath?” or “what’s this Medicare Advantage thing?” If you are of a certain age, and like (or hate) professional football, you will know that Joe was a very famous, successful...
11.10.2021
Last chance to blow $2,000
Federal workers and retirees have little time to miss another deadline and lose, as in overpay up to $2,000, on next year’s health premiums. All they have to do to ensure loser status for insurance premiums is nothing. Ignore open...
11.03.2021
C, S and I funds: How long can the boom last?
Despite the life-altering impact of COVID-19, international tensions and unprecedented political divisions in the country, the stock market keeps on going up and up. The experts give us lots of after-the-fact explanations. But, how often are they right? For many long-term...
10.27.2021
4.9% COLA and 2.7% pay raise: What’s not to like?
With a 4.9% cost of living adjustment (COLA) set for Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) retirees, and a 2.7% pay raise on track for January, many working feds and retirees have got to be breathing a sigh of relief. This...
09.29.2021
So you have an estate: Now what?
With good pay, maybe a house, insurance, a retirement plan, and a Thrift Savings Plan, many feds are better off than they thought. And they may need to readjust their thinking about things like do-I-have-an-estate and if so, what’s the...
09.22.2021
FERS + COVID = retirement tsunami?
Have your career plans changed some, a lot or completely since the COVID pandemic? Has the retirement tsunami, first predicted in the 1990s, actually started? What if another recession is just around the corner? Lots of work-related questions for lots...
09.15.2021
TSP investors: Brace for impact!
During the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the S&P 500 index lost 50% of its value. The C fund of the federal Thrift Savings Plan tracks the S&P 500. The Great Recession (which was a brief 17 months as recessions go) followed...
09.01.2021
Is your son-in-law a jerk? Armor plate your estate.
Even if you’re young and have only been with Uncle Sam for a short time, odds are you already have an estate. If you have been around for awhile, it may be a sizable one. Maybe worth millions because of...
08.11.2021
Are you investing your TSP nest egg, or just parking it?
Financial planner Arthur Stein believes that millions of active and retired feds — anyone with money in the treasury securities G fund, or F (bond) fund — are not investors in the true sense. They are, in a sense, putting...
08.04.2021
Don’t hide, or lose, your estate!
Do you know the difference between a will and a trust? And what different types of trusts do? Are you up on tax law changes involving estates? Are you familiar with the relatively new SECURE Act, which probably covers your...
07.21.2021
What to do when the stock market tanks
Investors in the TSPs stock index funds (C, S and I) have done very, very well for a long time. The market has had its ups and downs (but mostly ups) since the end of the Great Recession in mid-2009. Most...
07.14.2021
Are you a lifer with Uncle Sam? Maybe not!
It is possible to work for Uncle Sam long enough to get and qualify for benefits and an annuity, but still leave government earlier. Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan thinks that may be about to happen.
07.14.2021
Are you a lifer with Uncle Sam? Maybe not!
It is possible to work for Uncle Sam long enough to get and qualify for benefits and an annuity, but still leave government earlier. Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan thinks that may be about to happen.
06.30.2021
Taxes target your estate: And yes, you have one!
Changing estate tax rules and laws need to be understood, and if necessarily, dealt with, if you want your estate handled the way it should be handled. And that means being aware of what Congress and the White House have...
06.23.2021
Sticking with the TSP: To be or not to be?
Oversight of the TSP is 20/20. Its participants include members the House, Senate and occupants of the White House — as well as members or staff of the Supreme Court, FBI agents, IRS auditors, astronauts, SEC attorneys and CIA agents....
06.09.2021
Avoiding life’s big three threats!
Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do,...
06.09.2021
Avoiding life’s big three threats!
Turns out there is not a lot one can do to avoid some of the perils of adulthood. In the case of the IRS audit, the numbers are on our side. Relatively few people get audited. But when they do,...
06.02.2021
Pay raise: Not if or when, but how much!
This year, many of the old demons that haunted them simply won’t be around. Even better, the question isn’t whether there will be a January pay raise, but rather how much that 2022 hike will be. The only question —...
05.19.2021
Best date to retire? How about never!
Working longer, retiring slightly later, can have a big time payoff. And it’s particularly true for federal workers. Most are under the Federal Employees Retirement System, which offers them benefits based on a civil service annuity (for life and partially...
05.12.2021
Cruising along or penny pinching in retirement? Your call.
While the majority of current retirees are under the CSRS or Offset system, the vast majority of people working for the government right now are under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). When they retire under a less generous formula,...
04.21.2021
Is your estate due (or overdue) for its 36-month checkup?
Most people who have been through a death in the family know that being prepared and doing the best for your loved ones and friends is more than a will you downloaded or instructions that your favorite nephew gets your...
04.14.2021
CEO Switch: Trump To Biden, now what?
For millions of current and retired feds the “evil twins” that reduce or eliminate their retirement benefits are the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Office. NARFE and other groups have been working for years to modify them without...

What's Your Turn with Mike Causey about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Your Turn with Mike Causey episodes:

Final Your Turn episode to pay tribute to Mike Causey

Your estate plan: How to secure (or tarnish) your legacy

Your estate plan: How to secure (or tarnish) your legacy

Wanna be a TSP millionaire: Have you got the right stuff?

TSP Jeopardy quiz: Do you dare take it?

TSP returns: Who hit the down button?

Gift cards for the IRS? Probably not!

Pay Raise, COLA, TSP troubles and the G-fund

Today’s subject: Irrevocable trusts … zzzzzz

Social Security: On life support?

New TSP options: Road to riches, or paralysis by analysis?

The TSP in troubled times: Go long!

Your retirement trifecta

Can you afford not to have a trust?

TSP tactics: Are you managing the market? Or is it playing you?

5,000 new TSP options: Cheer, or choke?

How (and why) to avoid probate: A slap at your family!

Safest place for your nest egg: With 7% return!

Status update: Your future health premiums, Social Security’s ‘evil twins’

Ukraine, COVID, $5-a-gallon gas: Time to time the market?

Wanna be a TSP Trillionaire? Ask one!

Don’t turn your home into Bleak House!

The ‘Phantom’ COLA and other retirement mysteries

Time for a reality check

Looking for a safe 7.1% investment?

Open Season: Shop online and on company time for your health plan

Hidden gems (and time bombs) in your health plan

Want a Roth IRA on steriods? Check your health plan.

Would you buy a Medicare Advantage plan from Joe Namath? Or anybody else?

Last chance to blow $2,000

C, S and I funds: How long can the boom last?

4.9% COLA and 2.7% pay raise: What’s not to like?

So you have an estate: Now what?

FERS + COVID = retirement tsunami?

TSP investors: Brace for impact!

Is your son-in-law a jerk? Armor plate your estate.

Are you investing your TSP nest egg, or just parking it?

Don’t hide, or lose, your estate!

What to do when the stock market tanks

Are you a lifer with Uncle Sam? Maybe not!

Are you a lifer with Uncle Sam? Maybe not!

Taxes target your estate: And yes, you have one!

Sticking with the TSP: To be or not to be?

Avoiding life’s big three threats!

Avoiding life’s big three threats!

Pay raise: Not if or when, but how much!

Best date to retire? How about never!

Cruising along or penny pinching in retirement? Your call.

Is your estate due (or overdue) for its 36-month checkup?

CEO Switch: Trump To Biden, now what?