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Once Your Federal & Postal Retirement Plan Is In Place
Federal and Postal Retirement Planning
After you put your federal retirement plan in place, the biggest challenge is implemnting it. It takes discipline to stick to your retirement plan. It is not a bad idea to find a person you trust to encourage you to stay the course. Handling money responsibly and respectfully can be a challenge. However, it is a lot easier when you do. When money is involved, you have a choice. Staying on track to meet your financial retirement goals can be achieved by following these tips:
Federal / Postal Retirement Plan Tips
- Write down your goals and place your written reminder where you can see it everyday.
- Tell somebody you trust about your retirement goals and who understands what you are doing. Ask them to check in with you about your progress. Knowing that someone will be inquiring about your progress can be a good source of motivation.
- Review your financial plan regularly so that you can gauge where and when you need to make adjustments. Keep working to stay on track.
Monitor Your Federal / Postal Retirement Plan
After putting your federal retirement plan in place then you must be ready to monitor and modify the plan. This is a very critical step in the financial planning process. Once you have developed a retirement plan, you will need to monitor it closely at regular intervals to stay on track. A financial plan is meant to be a living document that evolves over time with changes in our lives. You will inevitably run into unexpected obstacles and roadblocks, but the strategies you employ to over come those hurdles will help you to stay the course.
Your goals may change and your resources may deviate. You might have to spend money you didn’t expect to spend. Conversely, you may receive money you did not expect to receive. Life is a work in progress and unexpected changes are a part of life. Because of this very dynamic, it is always prudent to closely monitor and review your plan whenever there are major changes in your life.
When you reach a goal, applaud yourself and cross it off your list. Now is the time to revisit your list of goals and query yourself:
- Is it still valuable to achieve my existing goals?
- Are there any new goals to be added to the list?
- Do I need to delete or amend an existing goal?
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
LiteBlue; Online Access to More Than Just Your USPS Earnings Statement
Postal LiteBlue and Open Season
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
Changing Your LiteBlue / PostalEase Password Through ssp.USPS.gov
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
Royal Post Office vs U.S. Postal Service
Post Offices in the United States are cutting staff through offering voluntary early retirement and other means of attrition. The Post Office is also considering closing many facilities and cutting back on the hours and days facilities are open. For Postal Employees, early retirement was offered to managers and supervisors initially with no monetary incentive to leave the service. The next round of early out offers to supervisors and managers came with a $10,000 monetary incentive.
The Post Office’s 500,000 employees have already been cut by 200,000 with plans to trim another 100,000. There are many changes slated to take place in the Post Office to create efficiency by incorporating technology that will answer the growing needs of customers.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Mail services will open up about 100 facilities on Sunday afternoons. The program will initially start off as a pilot to evaluate its effectiveness. Most of the Royal Post Offices are open six days a week. The Royal Mail service is also anticipating a Sunday delivery for online shoppers. The Royal Post will begin Monday delivery for online purchases made on Saturday and Sunday.
The Service is also experimenting with a number of new ideas to increase efficiency and services to its customers. While U. S. Post Offices are scaling back the United Kingdom is revving up.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Other LiteBlue Related Pages
LiteBlue; Online Access to More Than Just Your USPS Earnings Statement
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
Changing Your LiteBlue / PostalEase Password Through ssp.USPS.gov
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
LiteBlue Honors Its Own
I want to share something else humane the Post Office did recently. As a matter of fact, it is done annually. The Richmond, Virginia District Office, not far from where I live, honors postal employees who served in the military. They also pay homage to active duty employees and deceased civilian coworkers who recently passed away.
The Richmond District Office has an annual celebration where employees and family members attend. The Richmond office adds bricks to a memorial walkway around the flag pole at the District’s entrance each year to honor members who pass away.
The walkway honors the mail carriers and the important work they do to carry out the mission of the Post Office. They move the mail. I recently found out about a pretty special mail carrier during a ceremony honoring women. The woman’s name was Mary Fields, the first African American female mail carrier. Ms. Fields did not become a mail carrier until age 61. She drove a covered wagon carrying the mail in the old West. During inclement weather she walked. She never missed a day carrying mail. She was respectfully called “Stage Coach Mary” because if the stage coach was there so was Mary and the mail.
The Post Office has a long history of serving the nation. Carrying the mail has not always been easy. Many carriers had to carry rifles and pistols to ward off stage coach robbers. Mary Fields knew how to handle a gun. Fortunately laws have been made to protect Mail Carriers and the mail. There are more than 200 Federal Laws that have been enacted to protect and secure the safety of the U.S. Mail.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
LiteBlue Heroes
I read something recently that made me rethink how important Letter Carriers are. We always think about them delivering the mail just like a habit that will never stop. We absolutely never think about the possibility that the mail will not be delivered. Mail Carriers are a constant in the lives of most Americans. We know our carriers and we depend on them to deliver the mail.
A customer in New York can add something else to her list of what we depend on Mail Carriers for – SAVING HER LIFE. Yes, saving her life. The carrier in Yorktown Heights, NY noticed that his customer had not collected her mail for several days. The carrier knew that was not her usual behavior. He got very concerned and contacted Emergency Responders (ERs). The ERs went to the woman’s home and found she needed medical attention. The woman was transported to the local hospital where she was able to get additional care and as a result, fully recovered.
What a story. The carrier didn’t simply determine that the mail pile-up was not his business but acted in a most humanitarian manner. The Good Samaritan’s name is Robert Womascko. The ERs credited Mr. Womascko for saving the woman’s life. I think Mr. Womascko needs more than a thank you from the ERs and the woman, he needs a hero thank you from the Postal Service and from the Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Womascko did something that was more than humane, he did something that was honorable to the highest degree. Mr. Womascko cared about another human being’s life. He didn’t just look at a condition and walk away. He cared about the life of a woman who could have died had he not thought quickly to get help.
Letter carriers don’t just deliver mail, they save lives. So if you read this post join in a letter writing campaign to the Commander-in-Chief-the President of the United States, the Post Master General and see that something of noteworthiness is done to recognize this Good Samaritan, this Honorable Man.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
LITEBLUE’S July 17th
July 17th is an important day for the Postal Service. July 17th is the last day to submit ideas about what the next generation of Post Office vehicles will look like and how they will need to function. Let’s give the Post Office a big round of applause for including the people in the process who know it best.
Many organizations make decisions in a vacuum and use individuals in the organization who have absolutely no hands-on knowledge about the process. The best folks to tell a baker whether his cake is good is not the baker, but those who eat the cake. The best individuals to give input about Postal Delivery vehicles are the ones who drive them, repair and maintain them. They are by far the very best authority to assist in designing the next generation of mail service delivery trucks.
The Post Office has an aging fleet of vehicles and are by all estimates not getting the efficiency of more modern vehicles. Postal carriers and Vehicle Maintenance personnel have been asked by their supervisors and managers to submit ideas and thoughts about what is needed in the Post Office’s next generation of service vehicles. Postal carriers and Vehicle Maintenance personnel will submit their best suggestions in a number of categories by July 17, 2014.
The Post Office got it right – by including its people in the strategic planning process.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Other LiteBlue Related Pages
LITEBLUE, Shared Services and You
Who can you trust to get your retirement documentation right? Recently that question was posed to Postal Workers about their retirement. The Postal Service uses HR Shared Services as their pre-retirement, all things human resources information and advice arm. Upon retirement the go-to-gurus will be the Office of Personnel Management?
The question posed is one of those rare life-line questions. OPM handles the business of all Federal employees when they are active and inactive (retirement). The mere premise is mind boggling and sometimes things get mixed up and you might have to wait longer than you’d like to get your benefits or at least your correct benefits. In a past article, we talked about getting your house in order, taking care of the things necessary to make your transition to retirement smooth and complete.
The question posed simply reiterates and underscores the need to do just that. It is recommended that Postal Employees download a copy of their eOPF (Electronic Official Personnel Folder). You can print out the information or save it to your computer. Once you separate from the Post Office you will no longer have access to your information on LiteBlue. Pay a visit to the LiteBlue website and follow the download and print instructions so that you will have all the information that is in your folder at your fingertips when you need it.
Downloading your folder and setting it aside is not enough. Prior to OPFs becoming electronic, they were paper. Hopefully your agency passed on your paper folder to you. Further, over the years you might have kept copies of your information in your at-home file. Always as a rule of thumb, keep your end of the year W-2s. Each time you choose or switch health insurance carriers, keep a copy of your records. Make certain that the service computation date (SCD) shown in your folder matches what you have. Most of us remember the exact date when we started to work. Agencies, even OPM, make mistakes or are subject to an oversight.
Take care of your business. Be in charge of the business of your life because no one cares about your business as much as you do. Many Postal Workers will be eligible for incentive payments. Make sure you submit PS Form 3077 to your employing agency so where you want your incentive payment mailed will be on record. If you are attempting to use any electronic means to transmit information to HR Shared Services or your employing office and the mechanics are not responding, pick up the telephone and notify the appropriate entity right away.
Stay in charge of your business now so that you can relax, enjoy and retire well.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
LiteBlue Trims Again
The United States Postal Service is being hammered by the Congress and its stakeholders to do something highly innovative with its Financial Management System. Is it the financial management system that needs fixing or is the Post Office being killed off by technology? As more and more eTechnology takes over every single aspect of our lives, things will change and what we used to know as the “norm” will be outdated and extinct.
The Postal Service offered voluntary early retirement (VERA) last year to about 15,000 employees. They are again offering 3,000 postmasters the opportunity to retire early, this time with an financial incentive of $10,000. Post Offices are cutting back on hours across the country thereby needing fewer workers to cover the one-time around the clock effort. Postmasters and high-level supervisors have until August 18, 2014, to accept the offer. If the offer is accepted, the employee must separate from service by the end of September. The employees who are eligible for retirement can decline the offer and seek reassignment somewhere else in the system.
If the voluntary early retirement does not achieve the numbers intended by the Postal Service, they might move to a Reduction-in-Force by mid-October and separate employees by January 9, 2015. A USPS spokeswoman stated that if the postmasters do not accept the early retirement, take another postal job or resign, they would be laid off. I am drawn by that statement to a lesson from the late poet, Maya Angelou. She said, “When you learn teach and when you get give.”
Before I continue with the post I want to help the USPS spokeswoman restate her statement and I do that with the greatest amount of respect. That is what HR Leaders do, massage statements so they engender respectability. Often when people are under pressure to achieve a goal in a fishbowl, they may speak without their otherwise diplomacy. This is how the statement might have been said, “The Postal Service has been very fortunate to have a significant number of dedicated men and women to carry the mail and the many other duties we gladly accept. The Post Office is not exempt from the economic turbulence the nation has faced and is still facing. We are hoping that our employees who are eligible for retirement will seriously consider taking early retirement so that we will not have to entertain a Reduction-in-Force or a possible layoff. The Post Office is a family and we have always worked together to provide one of the best services to the nation I know. I am confident that our Voluntary Early Retirement efforts will be successful. Thank you.”
The Post Office has reduced the number of employees at facilities across the country significantly via attrition absent of a layoff since initiating the Postal Plan in 2012. I am sure they will continue the effort with much success and diplomacy. The nation appreciates the Postal Service.
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Other LiteBlue Related Pages
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
Use LiteBlue to Manage your FEHB
You can use LiteBlue and PostalEase to manage your Allotments
Requesting Duplicate Postal Employee W-2 Forms Using LiteBlue
The Inevitable
Some of our posts have focused on postal employees in general. We have not dedicated any of our posts specifically to those men and women who actually carry the mail through towns, cities, states and rural areas across the United States. These fine men and women are called Letter Carriers.
We call them our post men and women and we know them personally because we have gotten used to seeing them on a regular basis. My carrier’s name is June just like the month and she is as pleasant as a Summer day. We all stop to chat with her just long enough not to interfere with her work and then we move on knowing we will see her tomorrow.
But what happens when an Active Letter Carrier Dies is the name of a pamphlet put out by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). It is a neatly compacted pamphlet filled with information to assist family members through a most trying time.
Individuals who have lost loved ones in service know all too well the pain of having to fill out forms and notify the appropriate personnel of a family member’s death during an absolutely traumatic period in any family’s life. Becoming familiar with the information in the pamphlet will help to lessen the pain of dealing with the death of a loved one.
Planning for the business of the end of our lives is inevitable. Talk to your family members about your end of life plans. Read and become familiar with information made available to you through your employer or member organization. Also make sure the information you are reading is current as laws, policies and regulations change that might impact the way your family members and survivors handle the business of the end of your life.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Other LiteBlue Related Pages
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
Use LiteBlue to Manage your FEHB
You can use LiteBlue and PostalEase to manage your Allotments
Requesting Duplicate Postal Employee W-2 Forms Using LiteBlue
LiteBlue and Other Tools For Planning
The question of having enough money to live in retirement always looms over our heads. Is over-planning equivalent to under-planning? I am not sure if the degree of planning is what is at issue. Rather, it is the act of planning period that should come into play.
The Postal Service, along with LiteBlue, provides many tools to its workforce to begin the process of moving into retirement with confidence. The Postal Service has structured a National Retirement Counseling System (NRCS) that enables all employees eligible for retirement to receive in-depth training on retirement benefits, how they work in retirement and what to expect. NRCS wants every employee to receive all the information necessary to make the best decisions possible to turn the years they have worked into a satisfying retirement future.
The NRCS allows persons eligible for retirement to ask all the questions necessary to assist them in the process of transitioning from work to retirement. Twice a year an annuity estimate is mailed to the homes of those persons currently eligible for retirement. The computer-generated estimate allows postal workers to assess and evaluate their financial picture and to make changes where needed in their plans for retirement.
Most organizations begin to counsel employees within a fews years years of retirement. These employees are able to get annuity estimates that will assist them in the planning process. Organizations tend to concentrate on retirement during this period because the likelihood of things changing significantly in the work profile of these employees is fairly remote. Generally, in calculating an annuity estimate, the high-three average salary is key. Therefore, if you are about to retire in 3 – 5 years, your salary may not change significantly.
Remember these are only your annuity estimates and what your numbers will really look like depend solely on when you submit your application for retirement and the actual process begins.
Start planning early so that when the actual time comes, both you and your spouse will have more than a basic understanding of how your benefits work in retirement.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Other LiteBlue Related Pages
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
Use LiteBlue to Manage your FEHB
You can use LiteBlue and PostalEase to manage your Allotments
Requesting Duplicate Postal Employee W-2 Forms Using LiteBlue
Postal Employee – STAPLES® Survey
Postal Employee – YOUR OPINION MATTERS
The USPS has opened over 50 ‘Test’ USPS locations inside of STAPLES® locations throughout the Country. Your opinion about this event matters – Our results will be published and we will be forwarding our findings to the USPS for review and consideration.
www.PSRetirement.com is conducting a Survey of USPS employees.
PSRetirement.com, through the ‘Postal Employee – STAPLES®‘ survey is requesting feedback from Postal employees about the USPS’s decision to open USPS locations in over 50 ‘test market’ STAPLES® stores.
If you were selected to participate in this survey please do so –
If you have NOT received your survey and would like to participate please request your survey by submitting your email address in the comment section below – we will promptly send one to you.
Your opinion matters – Make it count.
* To say ‘Thank You’ for the time you spend filling out the survey PSRetirement.com is offering survey participants a Retirement Benefit Analysis free of charge.
Postal and LiteBlue Related Pages
What Is LiteBlue?
PostalEase / LiteBlue
What Postal Employees Should Do On LiteBlue Before Retirement
eRetire for Postal Employees – Retirement Applications on LiteBlue
Use LiteBlue to Manage your FEHB
You can use LiteBlue and PostalEase to manage your Allotments
Requesting Duplicate Postal Employee W-2 Forms Using LiteBlue
Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney
Living Will and the Power of Attorney
A Living Will is an advanced directive giving doctors and hospitals expressed instructions regarding how you want your health care treatment handled. In the event of incapacitation or an irreversible coma and you are unable to articulate your desires, a Durable Power of Attorney can act on your behalf, while you are still alive, ensuring your wishes are carried out. These types of documents are an incredibly important part of your financial plan. The Living Will is generally focused on whether or not an individual wishes to have his or her life sustained by life support systems. Hospitals and physicians are more and more supportive of patients having a ‘living will.’
Whether to sustain life or not by artificial means is such a personal and highly emotional encounter that doctors and hospitals are not eager to bare that responsibility or to have to make such a crucial decision. It is very important that we put plans in place when our capacity to do so is fully intact not leaving painstakingly difficult decisions to be sorted out between family members and loved ones.
For clarity, let’s distinguish between the roles of ‘Power of Attorney’ and ‘Durable Power of Attorney’. Power of Attorney is a fairly well-known concept which is generally invoked for carrying out financial matters when the principal cannot be present. However, when the principal dies the power of attorney also terminates.
Durable Power of Attorney may be a more useful tool when dealing with the elderly and the informed. It allows individuals who can no longer conduct their own financial affairs and affairs otherwise, to continue doing so through the Durable Power of Attorney arrangement. There are no hearings or court proceedings to appoint someone Durable Power of Attorney. It is a simple matter of signing a legal document.
Once again, doing your homework is the key ingredient to success. If you are considering moving in this direction in your planning process, be as certain as humanly possible, that you choose someone you can trust who will always have your best interest at heart.
You may also find it necessary to have both a Medical and Financial Durable Power of Attorney. The Medical Durable Power of Attorney would only be able to handle and speak for your medical treatment and care; while the Financial Durable Power of Attorney would only be able to handle your financial concerns and matters.
In planning your estate, one of the best approaches is to talk to your family about what you plan to do. Open communication with family members and those involved in your life’s achievements concerning how you want to divide your assets is part of implementing an action plan that will help you retire in comfort and security.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
For information on your retirement plan and your investments – check your TSP.gov Account regularly.
For postal employees – your PostalEase LiteBlue account is your portal to much more than just your earnings statement
FEHB and Surviving Spouses
If I pass away, will my spouse be able to retain FEHB coverage?
Surviving spouses are able to keep FEHB coverage and pay the same competitive costs as active employees as long as eligibility criteria is met. Meeting the 5 year requirement can be achieved in a number of ways: the time you are covered as a family member under another’s enrollment (in this case, under the federal spouses enrollment) and the time you are covered under Tricare for Uniformed Services personnel covered under FEHB at the time of retirement.
Your spouse, including former spouses under certain conditions, may be eligible to participate in a benefits plan under FEHB. It is good planning to understand eligibility requirements to continue FEHB coverage for you, your spouse or former spouse, and available benefits to your survivors in the event of death.
Take the opportunity to discuss your package of benefits and how they work with your family members so together you can organize questions you need an answer to and present them to your human resources office. Planning now eliminates the stress of not knowing in the future. Retiring well means gettting your questions answered so both you and your family members will be well informed and protected.
Transporting FEHB
Transporting FEHB
What Could Prevent You From Carrying your FEHB coverage into Retirement?
There might be some other conditions that prevent you from carrying your FEHB into retirement. If something happens that prevents you from carrying your FEHB into retirement, your coverage will still be active for 31 days at no cost to you. When that time expires, you either must drop the FEHB coverage, continue for a period of time or convert to an individual policy.
There is also a Temporary Continuation of Coverage (TCC), known as COBRA, which allows you to carry your coverage for 18 months. You must, however, pay your cost, the agency cost and the 2% administrative fee, totaling 102%.
There are so many changes that have taken place around Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) that individuals who find there are circumstances that might prevent them from transporting FEHB into retirement, now have a number of choices to secure health coverage.
Military or Uniformed Services retirees may elect to cancel their FEHB during open season and opt for ChampVA Tricare or Tricare-For-Life These plans cover Medicare’s coinsurance, deductible and prescription drugs very much like the FEHB plan.
Be sure to check to see what your plan covers and if it allows transporting FEHB, opting always to choose the plan that offers the best benefit to you and your family.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
You can always learn more about how FEHB and Medicare work together
About FEHB (Transporting your FEHB)
Can I Take My FEHB into Retirement?
Federal employees represent the largest workforce in the world. They also have some of the best benefits on the market with very competitive rates. The federal workforce is so large making it easy for the federal government, acting as representative agent, to negotiate rates that work in the best interest of the federal workforce and their families. Buying in large quantities can drive down costs making the rate for premiums paid by employees for health insurance some of the most competitive you will find.
The Federal Employees Health Benefit program (FEHB) is open to all employees who wish to participate. Employees can choose from a number of different health plans that fit their personal and family needs. As federal employees you get to take your health insurance into retirement if you have met the requirement of being enrolled in FEHB five years or from the earliest opportunity to enroll prior to retirement.
Although, as a retiree you get to enjoy the same low premium benefits in retirement, instead of paying those premiums bi-weekly, they will be deducted once per month from your Annuity. You also have the same opportunity to participate in open season just as you did while working.
It does not matter how often you change plans, as long as you meet the five year or first opportunity to enroll requirement, you can transport your FEHB into retirement.
Social Security is also a key component for eligible Federal and Postal employees
Postal employees can access their FEHB accounts HERE
How do your Medicare elections fit with your FEHB elections?
P.S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D
Medicare Part D is an option that you may want to consider as you become eligible. Medicare Part D eligibility is based on the standard eligiblity factors associated with Medicare but the Medicare Part D coverage has more expansive benefits for those recipients who have larger prescription drug costs.
Medicare Part D was;
- Implemented in 2006 as a voluntary prescription benefit.
- Premiums averaged approximately $32 per month with a $250 deductible for Medicare Part D plans.
- Is a cost-sharing benefit, with Medicare paying 75 to 95 percent based on drug costs.
- Individuals with lower incomes may be exempt from the cost-sharing and instead pay small co-pays per prescription.
- Managed by private health insurance companies for a monthly premium.
- Open to everyone on Medicare without income consideration.
- Generally includes low co-payments or co-insurance for brand and generic prescription drugs.
- Can be chosen as a stand-alone drug plan or it may be a part of your Medicare Advantage Plan.
- There are many plans available, comparison shopping is a wise choice to find the proper fit for your budget.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Because of the unique health benefits that Federal and Postal employees receive in retirement you may wish to consider some additional reading on your FEHB coverage.
If you are a Postal employee click HERE for your LiteBlue account
