AUTHOR ARCHIVES

Tammy Flanagan

Tammy Flanagan has spent 30 years helping federal employees take charge of their retirement by understanding their benefits. She runs her own consulting business at www.tammyflanagan.com and provides individual counseling as well as online training for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, Plan Your Federal Retirement as well as the Federal Long Term Care insurance Program. She also serves as the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc., which conducts federal retirement planning workshops and seminars.

For more retirement planning help, tune in to "For Your Benefit," presented by the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc. live on Federal News Radio on Mondays at 10 a.m. ET on WFED AM 1500 in the Washington-metro area. Archived shows are available on NITPInc.com.

Results 351-360 of 574

At Your Service

August 13, 2010 A few weeks ago, in a column titled "Before Your Time," I wrote about federal employees who have reached the age when they could retire, but might not have as much service under their belts as they'd like. The column attracted quite a few questions from readers, so I thought...

Checks and Balances

August 6, 2010 A recent story by David Evans of Bloomberg Markets magazine, "Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit," has drawn a lot of attention. It described what are known in the insurance industry as "retained-asset accounts," in which benefits are paid not as a lump sum, but held in an...

From Military to Civilian

July 30, 2010 Last week, we began looking at retirement options for people who have not spent their full careers in the civil service. A large portion of people in that category started a second career in the civilian federal service after completing a career in the military. In this situation, employees typically...

Before Your Time

July 23, 2010 Not everyone spends their entire career in the federal civil service. Some folks have worked in the private sector, others have served in the military and others have taken a break at some point to spend time at home with their children. So what happens when you are old enough...

Your Money and Your Life

July 16, 2010 In the summer heat, my thoughts have turned to cold, hard cash. I've already spent a few weeks writing about the Thrift Savings Plan -- including discussing the handful of people who've amassed $1 million or more in their accounts. So this week I thought I'd address the federal employees...

Setting the TSP Record Straight

July 9, 2010 For the past few weeks, we've been looking at the Thrift Savings Plan and the role it plays in planning for a comfortable retirement, especially for those under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Not surprisingly, those columns generated a lot of comments. After reading the responses, I wanted to share...

How to Become a TSP Millionaire

July 2, 2010 Steve Martin used to have a routine that went like this: "You can be a millionaire, and never pay taxes! You say, 'Steve, how can I be a millionaire, and never pay taxes?' First, get a million dollars." That's pretty much the answer to the question of how some people...

Thinking the Unthinkable

July 1, 2010 What will happen to your survivors when you're gone? According to an Office of Personnel Management report, in one recent year more than 66,000 claims were filed under the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance program upon the death of government retirees. More than 7,200 were filed for active federal employees....

TSP Payday

June 25, 2010 Figures recently issued by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the Thrift Savings Plan, show that 75 participants in the TSP currently have accounts valued at $1 million or more. And one savvy investor has at least $3 million socked away. All told, more than 10,000 TSP participants...

Upgrading the TSP

June 18, 2010 A year ago this week, President Obama signed a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. What does that have to do with federal retirement planning? The measure also contained some very significant changes to the Thrift Savings Plan that are now in the...