Q&A – How can you avoid the Social Security earnings test, and minimize taxes using an S-corp? Question How can you avoid the Social Security earnings test, and minimize taxes using an S-corp? Answer Using an S corp may provide at least two benefits: Avoiding FICA tax (15.3%) Avoiding the earnings test Here’s an example
New Webinar: Secure 2.0: What is it & How does it impact your TSP and other retirement accounts? There are many new rules contained in the the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act 2.0. Many of them impact retirement accounts, including your TSP. Join me in a crash course webinar where we’ll explore
Key Milestones in the Career of a Federal Employee – Updated I’ve seen it many times. Federal employees who thought they would only spend a few years as a Fed and move on, only to find themselves still a Fed 20+ years down the road. This unintentional floating along in a Federal job can be
Unusual things to know about retiring December 31st December 31st is always a popular retirement date, but this year, 2022, it’s especially popular – because this year December 31st is also the last day of a pay-period, and last day of the month, and the last day of the leave year – a trifecta! What’s
Webinar: How to create investment income in retirement without killing your portfolio We spent a career squirrelling away money for retirement, expecting our portfolios will be able to carry us thru our golden years. But are our expectations unreasonable? How long will our portfolios last? Is there a certain amount of portfolio income that is
Should you accelerate payments towards your mortgage (or any other debt)? Should You Accelerate Your Mortgage Payments? I see people do this all the time, especially in the pre-retirement group. Many people are uncomfortable having any debt, including their mortgage, and they are driven to enter retirement “debt free.” To rid themselves of debt they
Retire early in the year, and get free money from FSA I admit – I get a guilty feeling when I share this one. Health Care FSA has this interesting feature – it reimburses you for your medical expenses even with money that you have not yet funded into your FSA. See here: https://www.fsafeds.com/support/faq/all/1003 “If you
Q&A – Funding & Replenishing the 10-year bucket Question Hi Stephen, I set up the 10-year conservative bucket, as you instructed. It represents 10-years of investment income. I love the idea! I just had some questions: When do I draw income from the conservative bucket, and do I need to replenish the conservative bucket as some point? If yes,
Q&A – Which retirement account should I take money from? Question Dear Stephen, We have identified a house which isn’t on the market yet but will be soon. The asking price will probably be 1.5 million and I want to put $650,000 down on it. My question is where/how do I take my money out
How will my Social Security impact my CSRS Offset Pension? CSRS-offset has got to be one of the more obscure, challenging areas of federal retirement. CSRS-offset retirees have a retirement benefit which combines CSRS and Social Security. The CSRS portion, however, will be reduced by the amount of Social Security earned while employed in CSRS-offset.The
