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 566

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...

Thinking the Unthinkable

June 11, 2010 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. At the end of 2006, more than 30,000 people...

The List

June 4, 2010 New federal employees are overwhelmed with so much information that the retirement benefits portion of their orientation program sometimes gets short shrift. It would be nice if agencies could make time for a full benefits presentation for new hires so they'd be aware of what they have to take care...

Uncertain Times

May 28, 2010 This week, the Office of Personnel Management announced that 43,649 full-time permanent federal employees retired in fiscal 2009 -- 27 percent less than projected. The number of retirees hasn't been that low since 2002. Clearly, the uncertain economic times have many federal employees rethinking their options. Witness this recent comment...

Spring Cleaning

May 21, 2010 I think it's time for a little spring cleaning. So I'm going back over some recent columns to answer some questions that have come in. What I love about your questions is they give me an opportunity to explain a retirement topic in a way that might help people understand...

Financially Independent Women

May 14, 2010 According to the Census Bureau, 43 percent of all U.S. residents 15 and older are unmarried. More than half of the singles are women. Nationwide, there are 86 unmarried men for every 100 unmarried women. AARP says there are several reasons for this: Not only is the divorce rate high,...

Question Time

May 7, 2010 It's time again to take a look at some questions generated by recent columns. I read an earlier column of yours about retirement pay being based on what you would have been earning at the end of your actual time, counting leave you sold back. I understood that if I...

Best Dates to Retire 2011

April 30, 2010 It's a good idea to start making plans to retire at least a year in advance of when you actually want to go. Here's why: You can request a final retirement benefit computation from your benefits office to verify all your federal service is being credited and to make sure...

The Magic Date

April 23, 2010 Through the years I've been able to explore some complicated subjects to help employees understand the complex federal retirement benefits system. The one topic I cover year after year that continues to draw high levels of interest is how to pick the best date to retire. (Here's a link to...