retirement
Retirement is the process of hanging up your boots and predominantly ending your employment tenure. Many people retire when they fail to find the energy and the enthusiasm to work anymore.
CEO John Harder charged after a fraud of 130 million
A recent news has emerged in relation to the former CEO of the retirement centers’ chain. John Harder has been announced a sentence of 15 years in prison for committing fraud against his investors of an amount around 130 million dollars.
John Harder charged for fraud:
According to the prosecutors, Mr Harder has been undergoing the steps that are required to commit a fraud of such stature for over 10 years now. He has been getting money from investors that considered his actions to be completely beneficial to their cause. He didn’t even leave banks out of the equation and has been reported to have taken money from banks as well. This all happened while the Sunwest management chain saw a dramatic collapse; this included around 300 assisted-living centers.
John Harder agreed to have committed this crime and pleaded guilty during the month of January. He formally accepted that he had “engaged in financial transactions relating to property that involved unlawful means”
Judge Michael Simon during the past week announced the sentence that the prosecutors were after. The attorney that was hired by the defendant kept pleading for five years but he couldn’t get them; much to the delight of the prosecutors and the victims.
The prosecutors have got no love to show for Harder and they have since the past few months been revealing facts about him that further add to his notoriety. They even mentioned that during 2006 to 2008, Harder was responsible for committing fraud involving around 1100 investors. Victims like Harder deserve no other place than a jail and behind the bars is where they need to contemplate whether they are going to improve their performance as a citizen of the US and as a human being generally or continue to visit the place after they complete their sentence. Here’s hoping that actions like these never cease to take place.
A Shift In Focus In Retirement Reports Made By OPM
OPM has always been considered prone to making and inculcating changes and this month, as a federal employee you can expect your monthly retirement report to look a little changed from what it appeared to be last month.
Mr. Zawodny who is the retirement services’ spokesperson and associate director said that the organization has somewhat altered the focus of its monthly reports and now will focus more on highlighting the information that the feds and the potential retiring officers would need to know in order to make some prudent decisions about their retirement plans.This information will bring about a stark difference and will provide them with the options that they might have in case they are considering opening their retirement funds or changing the type of programs that they fall under.
Details like “When will my first retirement fund check reach me?” or “How much money would I end up saving” will also be made part of the updated reports that are going to be dispatched at the end of the following month. This would mean that many of the details like the number of claims and other rudimentary figures will be left out and only the most important stuff will be presented to the employees.
The employees would also be able to get to know how much time it’s going to take for their applications to get registered, processed and in the longer run approved too. The monthly rates of contributions that will be required to make will also be put to paper.
This is one step that was thought of quite some while ago and the OPM’s body was trying to make the change as soon as possible but it will be somewhat striking to the employees that have been seeing the same monthly retirement reports for quite some time now.
Fraud Protection For Retired Federal Officials
Fraud protection is something of paramount importance in the skeptic and cynical world of today and where social security and other veteran benefit policies are protected against fraud, federal retirement benefits is not.
This is something that was always in the attention of the law forming bodies and now courtesy a bill put forward by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and James Lankford is possibly going to rectify this issue once and for all.
Mr. James Lankford is the head of the governmental affairs committee on regulatory affairs and federal management and the homeland security department of Senate. He has in strong words emphasized on the fact that once this bill of his gets passed, strict penalties will be carried out against any financial over lookers who are found guilty of committing fraud against a federal officer. He further said that the current rules are not clear nor firm and it was high time somebody changed that.
The payee fraud prevention act encompasses both the FERS and the CSRS retired officials. James said that he was made aware of the issue by several retiree advocate groups that were constantly trying to make things right. During this period, he was trying to reduce the retirement wait tenures. On average, a federally retired officer has to wait around eight months (if not more) before first being able to enjoy their benefits and this is definitely something in demand of attention.
The recent OPM data security breach has stolen the main spotlight inside the agency and in the eyes of media as well but Lankford believes that even though security vulnerabilities need to be removed and data centers be made a lot securer, he can’t let millions of employees suffer because of fraud.
Seeing such positive efforts made by senators only proves to us that there are in fact people striving to make this nation a lot more prosperous one. Here’s hoping that it continues.
Get Your Hands On Retirement Benefits Sooner
Get Your Hands on Retirement Benefits
With the passing of every year, you see your old age draw closer to you and if you haven’t got yourself covered with a fancy retirement plan, the years are going to be very hard for you to foresee. The federal officers can know play a part in lessening the time it takes to get their retirement benefits applications processed. The person that is overlooking the whole process has long been stressing on the fact that the soon to be retirees should start looking at their whole work experience and history before they actually consider retirement.
The last thing you want at the time of retirement is to realize that your documents are not complete and that your records are not substantially astute. Ken Zawodny, the director of the retirement services at the commission further said that if he were to retire within a year, he would be lagging behind the curve. He said that a prospective retiree should be paying heed to their records for more than 3 years ago even and trying to make sure that none of their service years are found missing. This includes letting the HR of your company has a hold of all the information that they would need.
Apart from the usual retirement benefits, the employees should do well by giving some thought to insurance coverage and other such matters. Thrift savings plan funding and benefit issues are to be given special attention before you decide on commencing your service.
A study that was released a few weeks ago shows that 75 percent of the time, the employees that have recently retired will get their applications processed within a period of 60 days after sending it to OPM but strikingly, agencies haven’t been able to completely be able to approve even 90 % of all the applicant’s records.
Upon retirement of federal officers, the agencies are responsible for forwarding the applications and records to OPM where all the benefits are calculated. So, it’s highly recommended that you start considering your post-retirement life by looking at your records straight away.
Set Up Your Own Retirement Plan
How to Set Up Your Retirement Plan
We strive all our lives to make money that we spend living our lives in the best way we can. Preparing for the future is something that most of us fail to do because we lack prudence and that is the reason why almost 60 percent of American employees that are still in service have got no retirement funds registered against their names. Thankfully for all of us though, the government has something in store for us.
The myRA plan is a free savings benefit plan that is completely devoid of any type of risks and is destined to help the people that have no other retirement plans like the IRAs. This particular plan can be opened by all of the government employees without having to spend a single dollar, it’s also portable from one job to another and there is no fee whatsoever associated to it either.
The account holders that have an accumulative income of less than 130 thousand annually can pile up to 6000 annually for 2015 with just 1 percent contributions. This account is going to prove as a step in the right direction and could be used as a stepping stone. There are some things about it worth noting down though: You can have a maximum of 15 thousand deposited and it will last for 30 years before you would have to transfer your funds to another bank account.
Many critics and magazines have regarded this as an excellent step taken by the government because post-retirement poverty has always been an issue in our country and it was high time that it got taken care of. A point worth raising here is that the employees that already have excellent retirement plans can also benefit from this retirement plan if they desire although the options available to them are a lot better.
Federal Employees Would Pay More For Pension Benefits
Federal Employees Would Pay More For Pension Benefits
A newly raised House bill will make the federal employees of the state pay a considerably larger amount for their future pension benefits. This has received polar critiques from different members but its aim is to relieve the employees of getting their assets confiscated and in turn adding strength to their Medicare and social security.
Scott Rigell is the person who has raised voice and legislated the bill that would help in the restoration of around 3/4th of the spending cuts that get added to the non-defense as well as the defense budgets. This will also ensure that a substantial amount of money is added to the pays that get contributed to the pension funds of the feds that attained office before 2014. Put in simpler and clearer words, once this bill gets passed (which is more than likely) the percentages of contribution that the federal officers (hired in 2014 or later) have to currently give to the federal workers that come under the Federal Employee retirement system will get applied to everyone.
Many federal employees are in support of this bill even when they would now have to pay more towards their pension benefits. The majority pays around 0.8 percent but now it’s expected to go to as much as a staggering 4.4 percent.
The Bipartisan budget act was drafted by Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray in 2013 and according to it, the federal employees of 2014 or later would have to part with 4.4 % of their incomes to accumulate as later pensions and the ones that got employed after 2012 would have to pay a little less i.e. 3.1 percent. The rest would just have to pay 0.8 percent.
Now, after Scott’s bill gets passed, all of the employees would have to pay around 4.4 percent to get included in their pension funds. Whether this move is going to end up being positive or not, we shall wait and see.
Six Steps to Retirement Implementation
The journey to federal employee retirement requires us to dig in our heels and do what we are used to doing — Getting the job done with precision and excellence. Your things to do list is your visual task of letting you know the level of readiness and needed preparation to ensure your goals are reached. We are in this place because retirement is in our not too distant horizon. If you are thinking about retirement in the next 5 years plus, we have a reasonable amount of time to put plans in place. Below is a list of 6 steps you must take within 5 Years of Retirement as part of your Short Term Retirement Planning goals. Retirement is an emotional experience as is starting a new job, getting married, having your first child. These are all major life events and there is no denying that they can be stressful. However, if we approach any one of these events, as prepared as we can be, success is in our hands.
6 Steps to Implement Now!!!!
- Increase your cash reserves
- Pay down your debt
- Estimate how much money you need to retire
- Assess and evaluate tax consequences
- Diversify your investments
- Educate yourself
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Recommended Articles
For Postal Employees – LiteBlue and the TSP
Federal Retirement Benefit Analysis
Is The Pension Survivor Benefit Best For You? by Todd Carmack
A Little-Known Opportunity Can Increase Your Retirement Income. by Mark Sprague
Plan Building: How Do I Get Started?
~~HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH A PLAN?
By now you are probably asking – How do I get started setting goals that are SMART and putting a plan into action? You get started by first simply writing down what you desire your retirement picture to reflect. Write down your goals, evaluate and analyze them so they fit your circumstances and values.
Create a strategy that is doable with short, intermediate and long-term goals with time horizons that are based in reality. Make certain that the plan you create can be put into action without causing undue stress on your emotional and financial well-being. Lastly, make room to monitor and track the movement of your plan, leaving time and space to modify the plan as circumstances and conditions change in your life both for you and your family.
A plan that starts out SMART ends with giving you in retirement the lifestyle you desire and deserve.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Building A Flexible Federal Employee Retirement Plan
Building a Flexible Retirement Plan
In order to make anything work from the simplest to the most complex venture, one must have a plan. One of the most important components of the plan is flexibility. Life changes, people change, and as we know – the world and what makes it run – the economics of supply and demand – impacting the way we live also changes.
Getting ready for retirement requires tremendous personal investment, both financially and emotionally. There is a laundry list of things we need to do in order to move closer to our retirement goals. As we construct our laundry list of things to do, we will compare the list to what we have already done and what we need to do going forward.
Obviously, one of the first things we need to do is develop a plan, a sort of action plan for our lives. Developing an action plan requires no real technical expertise or fancy charts and drawings. It is your own personal plan whose primary criterion is to develop a plan and stay with it. No matter how wonderfully constructed your plan, if you simply toss it aside, it is useless.
We emphasize the need to be flexible in your retirement plan, so that if you have to change some things, rearrange some items or redo it altogether, not to worry. Just don’t abandon your plan. Having a retirement plan is like having a roadmap to your desired destination. You may discover that you can take a number of alternate routes to your destination, but nonetheless, you have a roadmap that you know most emphatically leads you to where you want to go.
When you are building a PLAN for your retirement future, always remember what FLEXIBLE means to help you stay on track. F – Financial literacy is a must. You gain that literacy just as you gain any other body of knowledge – read, inquire and ask questions. L – Liabilities – know what they are and work on eliminating as many of your liabilities as possible before you retire. E – Earnings – know that your earnings will be lower than when you were an active employee, respond accordingly. X- Xceptions – there are none. We don’t get to make Xceptions to the importance of having a plan and say ‘I don’t need one”.
Everybody needs a plan in order to successfully get where they need to be. I – Invest in your future by prioritizing what your goals are and sticking to a plan that will help you reach them. B – Budget – if you have shied away from living on a budget in the past, as you move into retirement, living on a budget is your best bet to making sure your resources outlast you.
If you very temporarily step-off the train, you must immediately make plans to get back on board, it is your future. L – Lower – E- Expenses. Lower your expenses by taking advantage of services offered to seniors – eating out, travel, hotel accommodations, and grocery shopping discount-days for seniors, senior home repair programs, and homestead exemption programs for seniors.
FLEXIBLE might only look like an 8 letter word, but it packs a whole lot of punch for getting ready to retire well.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
For information on your TSP.gov and how it will impact your retirement – Click HERE
