Latest / United We Scan / Retirement and TSP

Transcript

Retirement and TSP · United We Scan

• 0:34
  Welcome back, everybody. Surprise, surprise, we are back.
• 0:38
  We haven't permanently left episode 152.
• 0:45
  We're going to touch on some retirement and TSP stuff.
• 0:50
  Again, we're not financial advisors, so please no, don't
• 0:55
  listen to us about that. Again, you know, this is just
• 0:57
  kind of get you familiar with how the system works.
• 0:59
  I do believe they're going to run with the show with that.
• 1:01
  But I know I've had a couple people reach out to me in the
• 1:04
  very recent asking if we were done or, you know, if we were
• 1:09
  going to put out any more episodes.
• 1:11
  And you know, as I said in the past, I know it's probably been
• 1:13
  about six weeks, guys, but it's been, yeah, you know, I am.
• 1:20
  Still doesn't seem like it's been that long, but yeah.
• 1:22
  Yeah, it's. Been a while.
• 1:24
  Yeah, I am still very much working and concentrating on
• 1:29
  Mom. It's at the point now that our
• 1:32
  dear Ruby and little man are now taking care of my mother 24/7.
• 1:37
  So I have been going down on the weekends to give Ruby a break
• 1:42
  and I not all very rarely do I get home before the time that we
• 1:47
  would normally record. I actually, this was my first
• 1:50
  break outside of my spring booster and yes, I did make it
• 1:55
  to mid states that I haven't been down at my mom's, but I'm
• 1:59
  going down tomorrow after work. So that's I, you know, I told
• 2:02
  Ruby, I said there's no point in me coming down Friday to turn
• 2:05
  around and drive home Sunday, only to turn around and drive
• 2:08
  back down Monday night. So I which is fine.
• 2:11
  I had some other things going on this weekend that I had to do.
• 2:13
  So that kind of worked out. Plus trying to get some rest,
• 2:17
  It's been, it's been a crazy several months and it's just
• 2:22
  going to be crazy. So, you know, if we don't get an
• 2:24
  episode out for 23456 weeks, it's kind of hard to do when
• 2:30
  schedules are conflicting. So, I mean, because we've had a
• 2:33
  lot, we've had annual meetings, we've had area conferences, you
• 2:37
  know, there's been a lot going on just in the last six weeks
• 2:41
  anyway. So scheduling got to be a little
• 2:44
  crazy when we're all this would direction that direction and out
• 2:48
  and about. So how has your last month and a
• 2:51
  half been, Josh? Quite ducky, our vehicles are
• 2:57
  dropping like flies so we have people sitting waiting hours.
• 3:03
  Luckily mine's still running, but I had to write it up
• 3:06
  Saturday because it stalled out on me 4 times.
• 3:10
  So come Monday morning I might not be with a vehicle and have
• 3:13
  to be 1 of the ones sitting there waiting.
• 3:16
  We'll see then. I put in a 120 letter a couple
• 3:23
  weeks ago. Week or two ago and yesterday
• 3:27
  when they finally gave us our 42 forties for the week for this
• 3:30
  pay period, I noticed there's a new name on there 'cause there
• 3:32
  was a name that nobody knew anything about who they were,
• 3:36
  where they're from, if they were even actually employed or
• 3:38
  throwed up or anything. So fingers crossed that that'll
• 3:41
  work out. Meow, how has your life been?
• 3:45
  That's a good way to, I guess, summarize it up, huh?
• 3:49
  My, my last six weeks have been very, very busy.
• 3:53
  I feel like it's kind of been an eternity since I've talked to
• 3:57
  Kristen. I've talked to Josh more
• 3:58
  recently, but just been really busy.
• 4:03
  My mattress is also broken. My air conditioning slash heater
• 4:09
  will not work. And I'll, I'll say this, I know
• 4:12
  people are that are, are air conditionings are a luxury item,
• 4:17
  but you know, LOV at least has a fan and you have a little bit
• 4:23
  more of the, you know, air flowing around your legs so that
• 4:29
  you can at least feel some of that.
• 4:32
  So it's been kind of also having my almost 6 year old chaotic
• 4:41
  running around end of school year stuff going on.
• 4:44
  And then to top it off, my managers in my office have been
• 4:53
  not great. And so there's been a lot of
• 4:57
  little issues that have now like added up.
• 5:00
  Yeah, yeah, that's, that's the word.
• 5:02
  They, I think that all of us kind of have that going on, but
• 5:08
  they just the, their, their mood is just so much.
• 5:13
  They don't care. They don't care.
• 5:16
  They you give them a a, you have a problem that's going on.
• 5:21
  Hold on one second guys. I'm so sorry.
• 5:23
  Kristen, how was your? I know you pretty much just told
• 5:27
  us, but. Well.
• 5:29
  Any work? Do any things?
• 5:32
  I have a new sub for my row and got him.
• 5:35
  Trying to be. Doing OK from what it seems like
• 5:39
  now, I've been fairly pleased. Now it's just, you know, fine
• 5:43
  tuning, tweaking a little bit here and there when you catch
• 5:46
  something that needs attention. But other than that, you know,
• 5:49
  he's really good about that when you tell him, OK, you know,
• 5:52
  double check this, make sure that CB us close properly, you
• 5:55
  know, stuff like that. Yeah.
• 5:58
  Don't forget to pull that hardship card because she hasn't
• 6:01
  gotten her mail and it got sent back.
• 6:02
  No mail receptacle. Yeah.
• 6:05
  You know, little things like that, but you know, we fix
• 6:10
  those. Those are fixable.
• 6:11
  So that's pretty much, you know, been like I said, work and going
• 6:16
  down to my mom's and I didn't make it to mid states.
• 6:20
  Mid states went to pretty good, pretty good.
• 6:24
  You know, had a had a good time. I was able to find somebody to
• 6:28
  come stay with my mom for that weekend.
• 6:30
  So I did get Ruby and little man away for a few days, but and
• 6:34
  they joined me. That's good.
• 6:35
  Mm hmm. Yeah, they joined me from Mid
• 6:38
  States and hung out, you know, during the meet and greet, the
• 6:40
  banquet and whatnot. But yeah, no, it's been, it's
• 6:44
  just been hectic. I've been tired.
• 6:46
  I'm about right to buy a T-shirt that says being tired.
• 6:49
  It's just part of my personality now.
• 6:53
  I I it's I can I can vibrate that.
• 6:59
  You know when you fall asleep on the couch sitting up?
• 7:04
  Been there. I you know, I had like I can get
• 7:07
  Oh my gosh, I'll be home. I can get this done I can get
• 7:09
  this done. I can get this done yeah, no, I
• 7:13
  I did sleep though, so I guess that that's good.
• 7:16
  That's something I don't do as much anymore, but you know, it's
• 7:19
  been you know, working in between.
• 7:21
  I mean that's literally work. Go to mom's work, come home, go
• 7:24
  to work, go to mom's. It's I guess, like I said, pre
• 7:27
  show. I mean, and I'm going to include
• 7:29
  mid states but just with all the travelling I've done since mid
• 7:32
  January, I've 15,000 miles on my car so if that tells you
• 7:36
  anything. I I agree with that 100%.
• 7:40
  Yeah, the comments, been there, done that.
• 7:44
  It was not fun. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:47
  But other than that, it hasn't been too bad.
• 7:50
  I think we touched on many mail survey back before.
• 7:53
  My route stayed the same. I stayed a 46.
• 7:55
  Ki did go up a few minutes. I'm actually 30 standard minutes
• 7:59
  away from being a 47. So I'm back in that comfort zone
• 8:04
  where I like to be. But yeah, other than that, it's
• 8:07
  just been, I mean, Friday with me though, Friday was horrible
• 8:12
  for me. IA lot of my hotels, I have a
• 8:15
  lot of the mom and pop resorts and hotels and stuff along my
• 8:19
  route. And they're starting to stock up
• 8:20
  for summer season. That's just, you know, literally
• 8:23
  a week, two weeks away. And, you know, where do they get
• 8:25
  their supplies from? Amazon.
• 8:29
  So, you know, I, I, I had 14 trips to door on Friday.
• 8:37
  Yeah. I had.
• 8:39
  And it's funny is because out of I, I had 15 packages in my truck
• 8:44
  for the, the North End of my route, which is usually the
• 8:47
  first hour, and I could only fit 15 packages in there.
• 8:51
  So some people, oh, you could have done this, that yeah, yeah,
• 8:53
  I get it. But the way my route split up,
• 8:56
  it was just easier to put those 15 in there.
• 8:59
  And even with the out of the two stops, it was 4 stops between
• 9:04
  two stops. Even with the hand cart I had 7
• 9:08
  trips to the door. Yeah, I had.
• 9:12
  Saturday I had. The clerks kept bringing around
• 9:15
  the large packages and I had like 7 or 8 for my apartment
• 9:19
  complex, five of which were for the same apartment.
• 9:23
  Luckily, it was on the first floor.
• 9:25
  Yeah, so you know, Friday whipped me and so I was cuz then
• 9:28
  after I come back from my North End, I literally drive right
• 9:31
  through town past the post office.
• 9:32
  So I was like, you know what, I'm just going to stop after I
• 9:34
  do the North End and reload for the rest of the row.
• 9:38
  And yeah, so I was already wet from the morning, just loading
• 9:43
  up the first stuff. But Friday was a long day for
• 9:45
  me. But, you know, I got through it
• 9:47
  and tomorrow's Monday and that'll be even more fun.
• 9:50
  Yeah. Like, how exciting.
• 9:53
  Yeah, I'm not looking forward to working tomorrow.
• 9:55
  Yeah, me either. I just don't want to, I just
• 9:57
  don't want to be with my by my managers.
• 10:00
  Like I just want to like if they were like they just bring the
• 10:04
  mood down, you know, like once I get out on the street, it's OK.
• 10:07
  But like, it's just, I don't know, like it, it goes I guess
• 10:11
  every year or every few months. It's like the ebb and flow of
• 10:16
  how they react and the frustration of just how much
• 10:22
  they don't give a shit. And it's like, we should all
• 10:26
  give a shit. Like part of me saying that, but
• 10:30
  like. Yeah.
• 10:32
  It's it's ridiculous. But so tonight I know who is it.
• 10:38
  Somebody had asked about TSP specifically and we all kind of
• 10:42
  discussed and thought maybe we could do an episode in regards
• 10:46
  to retirement and TSP. But like earlier, we're not
• 10:52
  financial advisors. We're not, we're just some some
• 10:59
  some rule carriers trying to give you, you know, some basic
• 11:03
  knowledge behind it and you. In the right direction to get
• 11:07
  the proper information. Yes.
• 11:09
  And we would always, we would always recommend talking to a
• 11:13
  financial advisor with if you with any of any, especially for
• 11:21
  your retirement because that's when you're going to need the
• 11:23
  money that you have. So as just like a basic overview
• 11:29
  of all of it right now, there's people who get confused,
• 11:33
  especially with what just happened with the Postal Service
• 11:36
  not paying their portion of the retirement.
• 11:39
  There's a lot of discussion regarding that.
• 11:42
  Our retirement. You got to think about it as
• 11:46
  like 3 different pots. One of the pots is Social
• 11:50
  Security through the government. The second part is your pension
• 11:58
  retirement through the Postal Service directly.
• 12:03
  And then the third part is your Thrift Savings Plan or TSP, so
• 12:10
  that you know, you know, there's each one there.
• 12:14
  The one that's affected right now is the retirement ones with
• 12:18
  the Postal Service not paying their contribution.
• 12:21
  And that's a whole nother story that we can get into in another
• 12:24
  time. But the two that we're gonna
• 12:27
  kind of talk about tonight are the pension slash retirement and
• 12:33
  TSP. Now your pension retirement fund
• 12:39
  is automatically taken out of your check when you become
• 12:44
  regular or if you become APTF and the Postal Service matches,
• 12:52
  what is it, 3%? And it goes into its own fund on
• 12:58
  your pay stub, on your paper pay stub.
• 13:00
  And then on your online light blue one, you'll have like a set
• 13:04
  amount that's on there and it'll show you an amount, but that
• 13:10
  amount on there won't change until the end of the year when
• 13:16
  it contributes all of it there. Does that make sense?
• 13:19
  So the number that you'll see on the bottom of the check, it
• 13:22
  will, it's what you have already from the years prior, but you're
• 13:28
  still contributing to it, but it won't be reflected until the end
• 13:32
  of the year like the first paycheck come January or second
• 13:37
  pay period in January. So I always recommend, you know,
• 13:42
  keeping copies of your pay stubs, especially the ones at
• 13:48
  the beginning and the end of the year.
• 13:51
  Or if like you, you know, it's like you're, you should be
• 13:55
  keeping them with your Form 50 if you're somebody who gets the
• 13:58
  paper copies just so that you know how much that you've
• 14:02
  contributed to that retirement. And it's, I mean, it's kind of
• 14:08
  it just is a living thing that sits there by itself.
• 14:11
  So, you know, it's just know that it's there and it is a
• 14:15
  different entity than your TSP. And then I'm going to pass it to
• 14:20
  you, Josh, so you could talk about TSP.
• 14:22
  OK. I will say before I get into TSP
• 14:25
  real quick, with Social Security every year, I believe they send
• 14:29
  a statement to you or you can go to ssa.gov S S as in
• 14:36
  socialsecurityadministrationssa.gov. And if you don't already have an
• 14:42
  account registering it yourself and it will give you that.
• 14:46
  You can look at any time at that and it'll tell you at age 6265
• 14:52
  and 70, I believe it breaks down if you work at your current
• 14:57
  trajectory of in of earnings, This is about what you'll make.
• 15:05
  So that's something to keep in mind and, and in consideration
• 15:09
  with your Social Security and when you decide you want to
• 15:12
  start withdrawing it and about how much you'll make.
• 15:15
  They don't. Send.
• 15:16
  So you have to opt in for them to send you that stuff because
• 15:19
  I've never I've actually never even logged into there.
• 15:22
  I've never even received that e-mail so.
• 15:25
  OK, All right. I apologize.
• 15:27
  I could, I must have years ago then.
• 15:30
  But yeah, if you go to ssa.gov, you can, and that'll tell you
• 15:35
  about what you will make each month depending on when you
• 15:39
  start drawing off of it. All right.
• 15:44
  Maybe they. Don't send it because.
• 15:45
  It's probably going to be gone by the time.
• 15:50
  Maybe I don't know I that I don't know.
• 15:53
  I just know, you know, on occasion I do get that
• 15:56
  statement. The the s s, the Social Security
• 15:59
  website alsoithasa.gov login. So make sure that you have all
• 16:05
  of that up to date, which you have to use a.gov or was it the
• 16:10
  theyeahthe.gov for for your postal health insurance stuff
• 16:14
  too. So hopefully you've saved your
• 16:17
  password. So just be ready to enter your
• 16:20
  credentials and stuff into there for if you're trying to log into
• 16:24
  there. OK.
• 16:26
  TSP, the thrift savings, the way that's set up is the Postal
• 16:31
  Service will match 5% for 5%. They will match dollar they
• 16:36
  automatically whether you contribute or not.
• 16:40
  Even if you say I don't want it, I don't need it, I'm going to
• 16:43
  put in zero. They give you 1%.
• 16:45
  So what is? What is TSP?
• 16:47
  The TSP is Thrift Savings Plan, which is the federal employees
• 16:52
  version of a four O 1K. It is in investing your money
• 16:58
  into a retirement plan. You can opt to do traditional or
• 17:05
  Roth. The really absolute makes most
• 17:08
  basic difference between traditional and Roth is when you
• 17:12
  pay the taxes. Traditional it is tax free out
• 17:16
  of your paycheck, but you have to pay the taxes when you
• 17:20
  withdraw it. Roth, if you pay the taxes now
• 17:24
  up front out of your paycheck and anything you withdraw is tax
• 17:30
  exempt because you already paid the taxes.
• 17:31
  So you have to this again, that's where talking with the
• 17:36
  financial advisor would come into play.
• 17:37
  You have to decide, is it going to be in your best interest to
• 17:41
  go Roth or traditional? Do you feel that you're going to
• 17:44
  pay more, a higher percentage of taxes in retirement than now?
• 17:51
  There are through postal ease, through light blue going to
• 17:57
  post, you know, my HR and then postal ease.
• 17:59
  You can set either a dollar amount or percentage of your
• 18:03
  check of how much you want. Because you know, as I
• 18:07
  mentioned, the post office automatically gives you 1%, The
• 18:11
  1st 3% that you contribute, they will contribute a dollar, dollar
• 18:15
  for dollar, 4th and 5th percent that you contribute is $0.50 to
• 18:20
  the dollar. So that that's 4% plus the one
• 18:23
  free one is five, 5% for 5%. So right off the bat, if you put
• 18:28
  in 5%, you're getting 10% of your annual salary going into
• 18:32
  the TSB. The more you can afford to put
• 18:37
  into it, the better off you'll be in the long run, which means
• 18:40
  you'll have more money to last longer.
• 18:42
  I. Do know that?
• 18:44
  As a newer as a newer, newer career employee that it is
• 18:49
  automatically 5% across the board.
• 18:52
  OK. When I started, I believe it was
• 18:55
  3% is where they started you and then you had to change it from
• 18:59
  there. It is 5% OK and that's a good
• 19:04
  thing to. Log into your your light blue
• 19:07
  and log it or look at your pay stub and it'll tell you the
• 19:11
  percentage next to it and I'll say TSP, it'll be under the
• 19:15
  deductions line, especially on light blue and it'll show you
• 19:19
  the amount and the percentage that is being taken out.
• 19:22
  OK. And then if you go to psp.gov,
• 19:27
  that is where you can make any changes to where it gets where
• 19:35
  your money goes. And I'm going to.
• 19:38
  So the, the, the first thing I would do is anybody who's a, a,
• 19:44
  a career employee. I've been told and I've been,
• 19:48
  it's been recommended to me that you make sure that you set up
• 19:52
  your TSP dot Gov login information so that you have it
• 19:57
  for the future just in case anything happens.
• 20:00
  And even if you don't work for the Postal Service anymore, like
• 20:03
  that account still gonna exist there.
• 20:06
  TSP also has their own advisors that you can speak with off of
• 20:11
  the TSP website and they can recommend other different,
• 20:15
  different things. I know like at some of the union
• 20:17
  meetings. At the area conferences and at
• 20:20
  National, they will have a TSP person come and they can talk to
• 20:24
  you a lot more about a lot of this.
• 20:26
  But the number one thing that I would say is make sure that you
• 20:30
  set up that login information and then you can also link your
• 20:36
  bank account information in there so that they have it just
• 20:40
  in case. Like when, when, especially if
• 20:43
  you're close to retiring, just make sure that it gets in there
• 20:46
  'cause it takes it some time and you'll be like sitting there
• 20:49
  waiting for your money and not have that account link so.
• 20:54
  Yeah, I believe it has to be on fly.
• 20:56
  Any any changes or additions that you make have to be on file
• 21:01
  in their system for a minimum seven days for it to be
• 21:04
  effective. And they will they also will
• 21:07
  mail you information about how much money that you have in the
• 21:11
  account. It's, it's just a good, not
• 21:15
  another like thing for you to, to keep track with.
• 21:20
  I guess I have a long ways away before I can retire.
• 21:24
  And so I, this is actually one of the things that I am least
• 21:28
  versed in, in regards to the Postal Service.
• 21:31
  But that is one of the things that I have personally done was
• 21:36
  made sure my TSP account information was correct and I
• 21:41
  would still go in there and view it and verify things in case
• 21:45
  things need to change or if you're moving around your funds
• 21:50
  or anything along those lines too.
• 21:53
  OK, I'm just going to give a quick overview of what the
• 21:59
  different funds are. Again, not a financial advisor,
• 22:04
  not making any recommendations for you know, it's whatever you
• 22:10
  I feel and it's all what is your comfort level on how
• 22:15
  conservative or aggressive you want to be with your with your
• 22:19
  retirement money. The first is the G fund, which
• 22:22
  is government securities investment fund, which is invest
• 22:26
  in short term U.S. Treasuries securities is 100%
• 22:31
  principal pro protection with low risk stable returns, which
• 22:35
  basically means you're not going to lose any money.
• 22:39
  But on the same note, you're not really gaining any money.
• 22:43
  The F fund is fixed income index investment fund.
• 22:48
  Invest in a broad index based portfolio of investment grade
• 22:52
  bonds. So again, it's bonds, you're
• 22:55
  not, there's not much chance of loss, but then again, it's
• 22:59
  there's not a lot of return on it, a little bit more return
• 23:04
  than the G fund. But the C fund is common stock
• 23:08
  index investment funds, which tracks the S&P 500 index
• 23:13
  covering large and mid sized U.S. companies.
• 23:16
  That's going to be one of your most aggressive and the most
• 23:21
  risk reward fund. You have the greatest chance of
• 23:25
  of earning, but you also have the greatest chance of losing
• 23:28
  too. The S fund is small
• 23:30
  capitalization stock index investment fund.
• 23:34
  It tracks the Dow Jones, Sorry, I have to switch to the next
• 23:37
  slide. The Dow Jones US completion
• 23:40
  total stock market index covering small to mid sized U.S.
• 23:44
  companies not in the C fund. So it's not as aggressive as the
• 23:51
  C fund, but it's still stock market.
• 23:54
  I fund is international stock index investments.
• 23:58
  It tracks the MSCI EAFE, which is the European and Australian
• 24:04
  and Far East index of international stocks.
• 24:08
  And then you have the life life cycle funds.
• 24:12
  Life cycle funds are to target a retirement date within five
• 24:17
  years. So you have now you can go from
• 24:21
  2030203540455055 I believe out to 2065.
• 24:27
  At this point it will start, it will automatically adjust as you
• 24:33
  get closer to be a little more aggressive now and then a lot
• 24:38
  and then a less aggressive and a lot conservative by the time you
• 24:44
  retire. Those are the different funds
• 24:47
  that you can get that you can choose from or you can mix and
• 24:51
  match it any way you want as long as it's up to 100% when you
• 24:54
  go in there to change the funds. And then you can, you can have
• 24:58
  it as when you, if you wanted to change the percentages you
• 25:03
  there's two options. There's the option of what's
• 25:07
  currently in your account and future payments.
• 25:12
  So as long as you're still working for the federal
• 25:14
  government and contributing to TSP, that's the future
• 25:18
  contributions. Once you retire, you will no
• 25:21
  longer have future contributions.
• 25:22
  You'll just have the current balance.
• 25:25
  You know, as I've mentioned, as we said before, you do want to
• 25:28
  talk to a financial advisor in some capacity just to say this
• 25:33
  is my unique personal situation. What is going to be best for me
• 25:40
  or make your you know, or you have to make your own decisions
• 25:45
  on what you feel is going to be in your best interest.
• 25:48
  Yeah, it could be different for everybody to you know, you might
• 25:52
  have already had a career, you might have a four O 1K already,
• 25:56
  you might have already worked for the another federal entity
• 26:00
  and had already contributed to your TSP.
• 26:03
  So or you might be closer to retirement than other people
• 26:06
  are. So you're financial makeup is
• 26:10
  going to be a little bit different.
• 26:12
  And then the biggest one that I know personally is if you're
• 26:16
  table one versus Table 2. We've, we've talked about that
• 26:23
  like I, I have someone told me and I suggested to people, if
• 26:28
  you can, every time you get a pay increase, raise your TSP by
• 26:33
  1%. You're not going to miss it out
• 26:36
  of your check because it's already, it's, you're already
• 26:39
  going to get, you're already making the same money.
• 26:43
  So you're just going to lose on the additional wages.
• 26:47
  But as the two of you have mentioned in conversations we've
• 26:49
  had in the past, I can't afford what I'm getting right now.
• 26:54
  I need every every cent I can get.
• 26:57
  Yep. So, and, and I understand, you
• 27:01
  know, I understand that. And actually I'm at the point
• 27:04
  where I was debating whether or not to reduce my, because I'm
• 27:08
  right now I'm at 22%. I'm debating reducing that down
• 27:12
  just to give me a little bit more back in my paycheck.
• 27:16
  Yeah, there's some people who they might be closer to
• 27:20
  retirement and they're contributing a lot more.
• 27:24
  And I think there's a maximum that you can contribute.
• 27:27
  I can't remember what the percentage is and.
• 27:30
  There is a there's a dollar. Let me see if I 2 per year, it
• 27:35
  is a dollar, yeah. I want to say hold on, I've got
• 27:42
  35,000 but I'm going to. I'm double checking that right
• 27:46
  now. The annual elective deferral
• 27:49
  limit is 24,500. OK.
• 27:52
  And then if you're over 50, there's the ketchup, which
• 27:57
  allows you to put additional funds in.
• 28:02
  Yes, age 50 and older. Let's see 8000 age 50 and older.
• 28:06
  11250 higher catch up limit for ages 60 to 60.
• 28:10
  OK. And you said, what was it,
• 28:12
  24,000? Yep, 24,500 all.
• 28:16
  Right 24,500 if you wanted to Max out would be $942.31 out of
• 28:24
  your paycheck each paycheck. I mean it doesn't.
• 28:30
  That doesn't work for me either. I, I wish I wish I could, but
• 28:37
  that doesn't work for me either. What I'm just saying if, if you
• 28:42
  can, if you're in a situation where you can afford that,
• 28:45
  that's going to be it's putting more in now so you have it
• 28:49
  later. One do one thing you do want to
• 28:53
  make sure if you're going to if you know you're going to Max
• 28:56
  out, you want to make sure that you do not Max out before the
• 29:00
  last pay period adds. Because let's say you Max out
• 29:06
  and what I say that was 924. Let's say you decide you can
• 29:10
  afford 1200 a check. God bless you if you can, but so
• 29:16
  you put 1200 a check in. Well, that's going to give you,
• 29:22
  you're going to cap out, Max out probably in September or
• 29:26
  October. Well, if you don't contribute
• 29:28
  anything, you're not going to get the agency match.
• 29:31
  So you're losing money that way you're.
• 29:33
  Just let the post office leave money on the table.
• 29:36
  Yep, you're you're losing money but by doing it that way.
• 29:40
  So you want to make sure if if you see you're getting close to
• 29:44
  that cap, reduce your thing so it'll extend through to the last
• 29:49
  paycheck of the year. All right.
• 29:51
  Is there anything else? No, I was just.
• 29:54
  You want to figure the. The print out that I had from
• 29:57
  mid states for the retire from Joni, Joni Montroy was one of
• 30:02
  our guest speakers And, and honestly, if you're really
• 30:05
  looking for somebody for to help you from step through all the
• 30:10
  way through for your retirement paperwork and everything, Joni
• 30:13
  is definitely one to contact with key retirement solution.
• 30:17
  She, she knows her stuff and she used to work for the post
• 30:20
  office. So she's familiar with with
• 30:22
  everything and she's good. I, I mean, honestly, if I was in
• 30:27
  a position to retire and I had all that stuff to look for and
• 30:30
  assets and all that stuff to go dig through and I had the money
• 30:33
  to pay her, I'd probably be contacting her myself.
• 30:37
  I've got a long ways to go for that for me so.
• 30:40
  Yeah, I know there are some organizations that will do it at
• 30:43
  that I've seen advertised and I've they do seminars every now
• 30:47
  and then around the country that I don't believe they charge,
• 30:53
  but. Just be weary of them.
• 30:55
  Like, yeah. I mean also retirement
• 30:58
  questions. You can contact our retirement
• 31:01
  specialist at National Headquarters.
• 31:03
  John is his name, right? Great guy.
• 31:05
  Yeah, yeah. Used to be a rural carrier.
• 31:08
  He's a really good guy. I mean, you can always contact
• 31:11
  him with questions as well. He'll definitely be able to
• 31:15
  assist you with what you got to. Do his information is on the
• 31:18
  union website. If you go to nrlca.org and you
• 31:22
  go to the retirement tab, all of his contact information is on
• 31:25
  there. And it's in the national
• 31:27
  magazines, too. Yep, he can't necessarily file
• 31:30
  your paperwork for you, but he can help you with a lot of the
• 31:33
  questions. Yeah, men, you know, you have to
• 31:37
  be a member of the union to contact him, but if you're
• 31:39
  looking for somebody to help you with filing paperwork and stuff
• 31:42
  and you want to pay somebody that's going to do a great job,
• 31:45
  I definitely recommend Joni and I pretty pretty much.
• 31:50
  She's endorsed by the national board for the most part too, so.
• 31:54
  Yeah. Yeah, I think she's come to our
• 31:56
  state convention a couple years ago.
• 31:58
  I've seen her at state convention, I've seen her at
• 31:59
  National Convention, I've seen her at mid state.
• 32:02
  So, so, yeah, you know, she's she's she knows her stuff.
• 32:05
  Yes, she does. And I know people who have
• 32:07
  retired that used her and we're like, thank you for giving me
• 32:10
  her contact information. Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:13
  Anything else? Not.
• 32:16
  Oh, if you want more information regarding TSP, there's like a
• 32:20
  group on Facebook. What's it called, Josh?
• 32:25
  Give me one moment. It's thrift saving something,
• 32:29
  Thrift Savings Plan, Thrift Savings Plan and secondary
• 32:35
  investments. Is this.
• 32:37
  So let me just make sure this is a yeah.
• 32:41
  And they, the woman that runs that page, she will quarterly,
• 32:46
  she will reassess what she thinks the markets are doing and
• 32:52
  adjust what her suggestion is for your contributions.
• 32:59
  Some people will tell you if you have like for example, the two
• 33:03
  of you, you have years to go, put it all in the C fund and let
• 33:06
  it ride. Because yes, the C fund is the
• 33:10
  most risks for losing, but it also time after time has
• 33:15
  recovered tenfold. So long term it's the the
• 33:19
  highest reward, but sometimes short term it's not so great.
• 33:25
  Yeah, I haven't even gotten into my TSB at all.
• 33:29
  It should probably do that eventually.
• 33:31
  Yes, you should. Yes.
• 33:33
  Yeah. I did it like 2 years ago
• 33:36
  finally and I was like oh I should have done this a long
• 33:38
  time ago. Yeah, I had them.
• 33:42
  They sent me a pin and then the pin disappeared before I got
• 33:47
  logged into it. I think they do it differently
• 33:49
  now too. Yeah, that was that was shortly
• 33:51
  after I went regular. So it's been a couple of years.
• 33:54
  Because they have like, I don't know if they're a login.gov now
• 33:56
  too. I can't remember.
• 33:58
  I haven't logged I mean. Either login.gov or ID me or
• 34:02
  both, yeah. I mindset so I just I you know,
• 34:08
  with the secondary authentication, so they send me
• 34:11
  a text with a verification code and it just goes, you know, for
• 34:16
  me it just goes through. They also do have a app daily
• 34:22
  TSP, which is a free app or there is the professional
• 34:29
  version, which is a one time fee of I think 299 or 399, which
• 34:36
  gives you live market updates. And also we'll actually track,
• 34:42
  sync to your TSP account and track your, your balances for
• 34:46
  there. So you know, even if you do the
• 34:49
  free one, it'll, it'll give you a balance, but it's, it might be
• 34:53
  delayed. It's it you know it might not be
• 34:55
  completely 100% accurate. So also to add, I know I think
• 35:00
  we kind of said this too, Rcas and Arcs cannot contribute to
• 35:06
  either of these things to the TSP or pension, the retirement
• 35:10
  pension. And that's why like we try and
• 35:12
  contact Congress to do that federal and put the federal
• 35:17
  employee buyback, the buyback bill.
• 35:19
  So that this Retirement Fairness Act.
• 35:22
  Yeah, the Retirement Fairness Act.
• 35:24
  Excuse me, I'm choking on my SO that's why we try and contact
• 35:29
  Congress to get them to do this because the Postal Service isn't
• 35:34
  doing anything for them. Those, some of the some of the
• 35:37
  Subs are working 40 plus hours working.
• 35:40
  Some of them are working more than regulars are and they
• 35:42
  aren't contributing to any retirement plan.
• 35:45
  So when they're still, they're still Subs.
• 35:49
  There's still people out there who were RC As for 10, 2025
• 35:58
  years and they recently went regular and now are finally
• 36:04
  contributing to these things. And so we would just encourage
• 36:08
  you to contact your congressperson to, to tell them
• 36:11
  to please sign on to those bills because this is a benefit that,
• 36:15
  but This is why because they, they're not, they're not as as
• 36:20
  lucky as some other people have been.
• 36:23
  What's, what's good about some of the having us having PTFS now
• 36:27
  is that the PTFS are actually contributing to their retirement
• 36:31
  and to their future. And one of the biggest reasons I
• 36:35
  ended up working at the post office was, and I almost didn't
• 36:39
  go take my test, but my dad looked at me and said, the
• 36:41
  Benny's, the Benny's you got to, you got to get in there.
• 36:45
  And these are the benefits that we have.
• 36:50
  And that's why like when union stewards settle grievances for
• 36:54
  people, they end up putting the union asset management make the
• 36:58
  grievant whole for lost wages and benefits owed.
• 37:02
  And so that would include these benefits.
• 37:06
  And I hope that there's that question that's here in the
• 37:08
  chat. I don't know if you want to
• 37:10
  answer that, Josh. One moment.
• 37:15
  I can read it to you. Yeah, please.
• 37:18
  If the USPS poses a letter of demand or some restitution is
• 37:24
  required, they can take back their portion of the TSP.
• 37:27
  But if you do a dollar amount set of per of a percentage, they
• 37:32
  can't. That I don't know, that I don't
• 37:35
  know because it's I would, and again, this is speculating.
• 37:42
  If you put a dollar amount, let's say your annual salary,
• 37:46
  just to make the math easy is $60,000 and you put a dollar
• 37:51
  amount that equals $6000 for the year, that's 10% of your salary.
• 37:57
  Does that make sense? I think so.
• 37:59
  So even if you put it again, I'm not sure I, but if you say I
• 38:05
  want to put this much money versus this percentage, it's on
• 38:10
  the back end, it's still going to convert it to a percentage.
• 38:13
  Yeah, yeah, OK. You know what I'm saying?
• 38:16
  Because you may not know you personally don't know.
• 38:19
  All right? I want to match out that $924 a
• 38:23
  paycheck. Yeah.
• 38:24
  So you want to go in there and say I want to put $924 a
• 38:27
  paycheck in? I don't know what percentage 924
• 38:31
  dollars is of my check. Is it 10, twenty, 30%?
• 38:36
  You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
• 38:38
  So that on the back end it's good you know it'll, it'll so
• 38:45
  they because they still are going to not contribute 5% for
• 38:49
  5%. Yeah, but there's also, and this
• 38:51
  is kind of speculatory too on my part, there's the carriers that
• 38:55
  don't get paid for a paycheck, right, right.
• 38:58
  And it just says 0. Yep.
• 39:00
  So nothing got contributed then, but when they do the adjustment
• 39:05
  and you do get to pay one or you know that that mis pay one or
• 39:10
  two checks from now, one of the deductions is going to be the
• 39:15
  TSB. So you've lost potential gains
• 39:20
  during. When you show the adjustment,
• 39:23
  you'll show the percentage in the adjustment.
• 39:26
  Right. And, and the what the dollar
• 39:28
  amount is, yeah, I'm going to presume if you put the dollar
• 39:31
  amount, it's going to show that dollar amount and then what
• 39:34
  they, you know, what they contributed in addition.
• 39:37
  So you know, unfortunately you've missed the gains during
• 39:41
  that time. If there were gains, if you're
• 39:43
  lucky, it was when the market was going down.
• 39:47
  So you lost you, you missed on the losses.
• 39:49
  But as a lot of people say, when it's down, you're just buying
• 39:54
  your shares at a discounted price.
• 39:56
  Oh, I want to get back over to the, I forgot with the
• 40:00
  retirement part. The first part, you were saying,
• 40:03
  you know, with it, it shows you that dollar amount that you've
• 40:06
  contributed versus what they contribute.
• 40:09
  And someone had told me with what they contribute is actually
• 40:12
  for 10 years in the future. So what they're putting in now
• 40:16
  is for 2036 is what the post office is contributing, but the
• 40:21
  way that works. Pull out right now.
• 40:23
  Right. The the way that works is your
• 40:26
  high 3 which is your high three years, which is a rolling 36
• 40:31
  months. So the 36 months that you have
• 40:34
  the highest average salary during your whole career is what
• 40:39
  bases off based off of your retirement, your pension.
• 40:44
  It is you vest in 1% per year of service.
• 40:51
  So again, to make the math easy, if you were, if you make 6, if
• 40:56
  your high three average is $60,000 and you have 25 years
• 41:01
  credible service, it is, it will become that'll be thirty $15,000
• 41:08
  a year is your pension, which is roughly 12 hundred $1250 a
• 41:15
  month. And I forget what the magic
• 41:18
  numbers are, but if you get with a, you know, get a full, and I'm
• 41:23
  using finger quotes here, full retirement, it'll act.
• 41:27
  And then I and I believe it's after so many years of service
• 41:31
  and a certain age, that 1% becomes one point or converts to
• 41:37
  1.1%. So you're getting a 10%
• 41:40
  increase, you know, bonus on that if you make it to full
• 41:44
  retirement. Other thing to add to what you
• 41:48
  were saying, there is two different retirement systems
• 41:51
  that the Postal Service functions under. 1 is called the
• 41:55
  Civil Service Retirement System and that's for people who
• 42:00
  started with the Postal Service in the 80s or before.
• 42:03
  There's only like 2% of the entire Postal Service still on
• 42:07
  that system. And then what most of us are
• 42:10
  under is called the Federal Employee furs federal Federal
• 42:17
  Employee Retirement System. And that's what most most of us
• 42:22
  are under. Now the other thing that we've
• 42:26
  been trying to also get Congress to sign on to is that money that
• 42:30
  we are contributing to furs and the civil service is just
• 42:35
  sitting there in low yielding bonds.
• 42:38
  Like the Postal Service just has it just chilling.
• 42:41
  And we're trying to get Congress to sign on and let them invest
• 42:47
  them into more things so that they're able to earn some money
• 42:52
  on on money that's just sitting. So I know the Union put
• 42:56
  something out on that too, but I just wanted to kind of briefly
• 42:59
  touch on that because Postal Service going broke.
• 43:03
  But I know where they could cut some of the fat, but we're not
• 43:06
  going. To go there, I do too.
• 43:08
  Yeah, we're, we're, we're. This is.
• 43:12
  We're not going to go there. We're going to keep this clean
• 43:18
  and pretty. Absolutely.
• 43:22
  Yeah, the simple solution. Yeah, the simple solution and
• 43:26
  we, I think everybody, everybody that has their boots on the
• 43:30
  ground will agree what the simple solution is.
• 43:33
  But but we're, we're, we're going to be nice.
• 43:38
  We're going to play nice. What else?
• 43:42
  I'll save that for after we're done.
• 43:44
  Yeah, but yeah. But yeah, I mean, I would
• 43:49
  recommend going to any of those retirement seminars if you can,
• 43:53
  even if, like, you're somebody who just went regular it it, it
• 43:57
  does not hurt. So that you are investing in
• 44:02
  making smart decisions so that when it comes to, you know,
• 44:06
  you're a few years away from retirement and you're not
• 44:09
  screwed. You know you want to set
• 44:12
  yourself up so that you're successful into the future even
• 44:15
  if you're on Table 2 like. Yeah, I mean, I can't, I can't
• 44:19
  count how many I sat through as an RCA going OK, you know, it's
• 44:25
  at that point it's like, OK, but yeah, now it's you pay attention
• 44:31
  a little bit more in one year career.
• 44:34
  Yeah, I would say it doesn't hurt because it also helps you
• 44:38
  to start planning and figuring out what you want, what you what
• 44:43
  you want your life to look like after the post office.
• 44:45
  Exactly. Ideally, you want to be out of
• 44:49
  debt, you want to have the house and cars paid off.
• 44:52
  You want to be able to live the same, at the same comfort level
• 44:57
  you're living now or better if you can.
• 44:59
  I would prefer better, you know, like I said, well.
• 45:05
  It could be a snowbird and live in Arizona in the winter or
• 45:09
  Florida in the winter. But yeah, I want to say that
• 45:14
  too. My house.
• 45:15
  What house? Yeah, what house?
• 45:19
  Just give me an RE just get, just give me an I'll just, you
• 45:22
  know, get, get a, a, a used Class A motorhome.
• 45:28
  And there we go. That that'll be my retirement
• 45:30
  home. Hey, I'm just saying you want to
• 45:34
  get all your debt taken care of before you go.
• 45:36
  Oh, I. Know.
• 45:38
  If possible. And maybe own a house by then.
• 45:42
  Maybe I have paid that. The only way I'm going to end up
• 45:47
  owning a house is when I inherit 1, so yeah, see how that goes.
• 45:53
  Which is still paperwork. I got man.
• 45:55
  We went dark. We got dark.
• 45:58
  Yeah, well, you know. My life is not the brightest
• 46:01
  right now. Sorry guys to go take it dark,
• 46:03
  but it's you know. Kristen, to quote an old
• 46:07
  supervisor of mine years ago, he says I see the light at the end
• 46:11
  of the tunnel. I'm just praying it's not a
• 46:14
  locomotive. Right.
• 46:18
  Yeah, that's it's, it's been a crazy time here.
• 46:22
  You guys got anything else to add on tonight or we?
• 46:25
  All I would Nope. I was just going to ask.
• 46:27
  All righty, Josh. Closing remarks for this
• 46:29
  evening. Oh wait, I wanted to add one
• 46:32
  more thing. OK, go ahead.
• 46:33
  Yes. The union filed the Step 4
• 46:36
  regarding coverage factor and it's amazing.
• 46:41
  I know there's been a lot of people talk like, what does that
• 46:43
  mean that the union has filed a Step 4 grievance because they
• 46:47
  think that there is something wrong with the coverage factor.
• 46:51
  And that's based off of all kinds of information regarding
• 46:57
  disputes that have made it on all the way up.
• 46:59
  And there's just been countless people across the whole country
• 47:03
  saying, hey, look, something something's wrong with the
• 47:06
  coverage percentage. But I just, I like got like
• 47:11
  emotional when I saw the push notification come through.
• 47:14
  And because I knew I've been saying it for a long time too.
• 47:18
  I've been, I've had countless people tell me that.
• 47:21
  And so it was just like the highlight, I guess of the week.
• 47:25
  And it just. Yeah, you had to pull over and
• 47:30
  read it twice. Because I, yeah, it's like a six
• 47:34
  page document on the union website.
• 47:37
  I know that there's some people who are still like think that
• 47:40
  Step 4 grievances are worth where issues go to die.
• 47:43
  I do not personally think that this one is going to sit as long
• 47:47
  as the others have because the union has so much documentation
• 47:52
  based off of that grievance filing letter.
• 47:55
  So I'm hoping that we get a resolution on it pretty soon.
• 47:59
  But John Adams is a gem and we're really lucky that he's our
• 48:05
  director of Labor operations right now.
• 48:09
  I mean, that's all I can really say on that.
• 48:11
  Like it's, it was, yeah, it's amazing.
• 48:14
  So I'm just, I'm very happy to see an R I'm, I'm happy right
• 48:18
  now to see RX Step 4 grievances being filed.
• 48:22
  So we'll, we'll end it on a high note.
• 48:25
  But other than that. All right, Joe, I'll show while
• 48:28
  you're there. All right, Well, it's starting
• 48:33
  to get warm out there, out there.
• 48:35
  So hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Hopefully you at least have that
• 48:41
  fan in your vehicle and hopefully yours gets fixed
• 48:44
  sooner than later. Ma'am, stay cool.
• 48:51
  You know, get yourself like I know they have like the cooling
• 48:54
  shirts, the cooling hats and best of them.
• 48:57
  Get yourself a small cooler bag to bring your waters in.
• 49:01
  I know what I do a trick I do is I keep put one in the freezer
• 49:05
  and one acts as a ice pack for the first part of the route.
• 49:09
  And if I take it out and leave it on the on the mail tray
• 49:13
  through the route, by the end of the route, it's not cold, it's
• 49:17
  not hot. It might be slightly warm, but
• 49:19
  it's still drinkable. Yep.
• 49:22
  Like someone just said, sweating.
• 49:23
  If you stop sweating, call 911. Don't get overwhelmed.
• 49:29
  If you do, take a step back, take a deep breath and step back
• 49:33
  in. And if that doesn't work, meow
• 49:35
  and. If that doesn't work, I actually
• 49:38
  wasn't going to say call EAP, but.
• 49:42
  I thought you were going to do that every week I.
• 49:44
  Wasn't I was going to say, call Congress?
• 49:50
  Sorry. I kind of like that idea.
• 49:55
  Right, Congress. Tell them hey.
• 49:59
  You can call it. Yeah, we need.
• 50:01
  Yeah, Yeah, seriously. No, there's a lot of postal
• 50:06
  issues and a lot of things going on right now and we honestly
• 50:10
  don't need any more on our plate.
• 50:12
  But we're here, we're quasi government entity and we really
• 50:18
  honestly need Congress's help for a lot of things that are
• 50:22
  going on, including the RCA buyback one.
• 50:26
  Just call Congress and urge them please to Co sponsor the buyback
• 50:32
  one, the Protect our Letter Carriers Act and what it was the
• 50:37
  buyback ones, Federal employee retirement Fairness Act and the
• 50:43
  anti privatization one. And they're just simple
• 50:47
  solutions. They're just, I'm not saying
• 50:49
  it's the end of the world or anything.
• 50:50
  It's just we're trying to build up Shields for ourselves and
• 50:55
  make sure that we, you know, are protected and everything that
• 51:00
  like millions of people have come before us have done to
• 51:05
  protect the Postal Service, to protect the union, to protect
• 51:08
  rural carriers, to protect the their customers and who we are
• 51:12
  delivering to. Just please call on them.
• 51:19
  They don't want to hear from like one person higher up.
• 51:22
  They want to hear from their constituents in their area.
• 51:26
  They don't want to just hear, you know, yadda, yadda, yadda
• 51:29
  going on from Joe Blow over here.
• 51:31
  But and also it seriously do if you get overwhelmed and you
• 51:36
  can't figure it out, please call the AP.
• 51:39
  They're there for you. They can help you.
• 51:41
  And and sometimes it's nice just to talk to somebody who's
• 51:46
  outside of the realm of all of the BS that's going on, like
• 51:51
  your manager's being stupid, you know, something along those
• 51:54
  lines. But on that note, I will pass it
• 51:58
  over to you, Kristen. And have a good week guys.
• 52:01
  Thank you guys. You know, it was great to get
• 52:03
  back on here. When we're able to again, we
• 52:06
  will. I mean it's right now schedules
• 52:10
  are crazy. My travel schedule is going to
• 52:13
  be crazy for quite a while. So you know, if we get a moment,
• 52:17
  we will. We'll hop on.
• 52:18
  If we can get on the live stage, we will like we did tonight.
• 52:22
  Otherwise, you know it's just going to be here or there and
• 52:26
  you know, we should take this downtime meow and really start
• 52:29
  putting together that history of that we've been wanting to do
• 52:34
  forever. So maybe we'll eventually get
• 52:38
  our history one done. So, but on that note, guys, yes,
• 52:41
  weather is changing all around and getting warmer out there and
• 52:45
  those of us that are still in those Easy Bake oven on wheels,
• 52:49
  we all know how that going to be.
• 52:50
  So make sure you keep yourself hydrated and vigilant and all
• 52:56
  that good stuff. And we'll be back when we're
• 52:59
  back.