Your Turn with Mike Causey

For many years experts have predicted that the government was facing an immediate brain drain. A "retirement tsunami" that would leave Uncle Sam without institutional memory and operating without the help of long-time experts and specialists.

But the tsunami hasn’t happened.

Federal News Radio has been tracking the outflow of government workers on a monthly basis. And the numbers are interesting and surprising to lots of tsunami predictors.

Following the November 2016 election and the Inauguration — both of which were supposed to trigger a mass exodus of feds — the number of retiring feds actually dropped most months compared to previous years. It was less, not more, than in the past even though 31 percent of the workforce could leave today and 45 percent of the federal workforce will never see age 50 again.

While more feds filed for retirement in 2017 than in 2016, the larger retirement surges —100,000 plus per year — took place in 2011 through 2014 when the government was undergoing shutdowns, furloughs without pay and three years without the regular statutory January pay raise.

Those numbers clearly mean something. The question is what? Federal News Radio reporter Nicole Ogrysko has been tracking the tsunami. She’s our guest on this episode of Your Turn with Mike Causey. Your Turn airs Wednesday’s 10 a.m. ET at Federal News Radio or WFED 1500 AM.

In addition to a proposed pay raise freeze in January 2019, the White House and Congress are recommending that Congress do away with cost-of-living adjustments for both current and future retirees under the FERS program, which covers most feds still working.

They also want to, among other things, reduce the rate of return on the Thrift Savings Plan’s Government Securities Investment (G) fund, and base federal pensions for new retirees on the average of the highest five years of salary instead of the highest three.

So what do these proposals mean? What are the odds that any (or all) of them will be enacted into law this year? Or at some point in your career? Jessica Klement, staff vice president, advocacy; and Jill Talley, deputy director, public relations, from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association discuss. So what do these proposals mean? What are the odds that any (or all) of them will be enacted into law this year? Or at some point during your career? We’ll find out when we talk with Jessica Klement, staff vice president, advocacy; and Jill Talley, deputy director, public relations, from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association on this episode of Your Turn with Mike Causey. Your Turn airs Wednesday’s 10 a.m. ET at Federal News Radio or WFED 1500 AM.

Did the recent stock market nosedive send you moving money from the stock indexed C and S funds into the G fund for safety? If so, was that a smart move?

And what’s next? Are you waiting, as in sweating, a much bigger correction that many experts say is long overdue?

We asked Arthur Stein, a Washington-area financial planner who tracks the Thrift Savings Plan what he thinks is going on. Did the recent stock market nosedive send you moving money from the stock indexed C and S funds into the G fund for safety? If so, was that a smart move?

And what’s next? Are you waiting, as in sweating, a much bigger correction that many experts say is long overdue?

We asked Arthur Stein, a Washington-area financial planner who tracks the Thrift Savings Plan what he thinks is going on. He’s our guest on this episode of Your Turn, a radio show (Wednesday's at 10 a.m. EST) streaming on Federal News Radio or at 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

The 2017 Tax Act: How does it affect you?

Big changes are coming to the Thrift Saving Plan. Kim Weaver, director of External Affairs for the TSP, joins host Mike Causey on this week's Your Turn to talk about the changes, which include making it easier for participants to make withdrawals from their accounts.

We have a triple-header on this Your Turn radio show. Reporters Jory Heckman and Nicole Ogrysko will talk about plans to decentralize federal operations based in the D.C. area and the outlook for feds in 2018. Morning Drive anchor Tom Temin will give us his take on President Donald Trumps State-of-the-Union address.

Now that things are back to normalfor three weekspro-fed politicians are explaining why they voted to continue this weeks government shutdown even though they profess to hate them. Democrats and Republicans are each claiming victory which seems to be the point of most shutdowns.

Meantime people in federal centers around the country are watching the calendar to see if we are going to go through this again. Maybe for a more extended period. Or if maybe, just maybe, career politicians have learned that shutting it downwhile they continue to get paidis not the way to run a government.

What next? So what happened this time? And whats likely to happen when Congress revisits the shutdown threat in February? Today on Your Turn, Greg Stanford, director of Government Affairs at the Federal Managers Association will talk about what led to the shutdown and the quick resolution and whats likely to happen in three weeks.

You can listen live at 10 a.m. EST at www.federalnewsradio.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area.

This week on Your Turn, certified financial planner Arthur Stein joins host Mike Causey to talk about the Thrift Savings Plan and how to grow your retirement nest egg.

He said returns were excellent for all the TSP stock funds last year, but the not-so-good news is that stock markets are overdue for major and even minor stock declines.

Jessica Klement, staff vice president for advocacy at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, talks about the save-the-benefits effort and what you can do about it. She also gives us background on what was threatened but didn't happen last year and talks about why 2018 may be different. And not as forgiving.

This week on Your Turn, Federal News Radio reporters Nicole Ogrysko and Jory Heckman join host Mike Causey to discuss what happened in 2017, what didn't happen but could have, and why. Also what might (as in M-I-G-H-T) be ahead for federal workers, postal employees, retirees, spouses and federal contractors in 2018.