Paul,You are still a member.
Posted by: Paul Hallerberg <pdhallerberg@gmail.com>
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Soft Skills Development & Training
Paul,You are still a member.
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The National Association of Realtors publishes monthly data on the number of existing-home sales in the U.S and four U.S. geographic regions. The data includes condos and co-ops in addition to single family homes, and existing-home sales account for 85-90% of total home sales in the U.S. The chart above shows total existing homes sold over the past year.
Total sales for July 2018 were 5.34 million units, below the consensus estimate of 5.40 million units and the fourth straight month of decline. July 2018 sales were down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. The median price for an existing single-family home was $269,600, up 4.5% from July 2017. According to NAR, July's price increase marks the 77th straight month of year-over-year gains. Average monthly sales from July 2017 through July 2018 were 5.47 million units, and a total of eight months were below that average for the period. Economists noted the impact of rising interest rates, increased prices, and a shortage of existing home listings as factors in the recent decline.
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By Tammy Flanagan
August 23, 2018
They say time flies when you're having fun. To me, it seems like yesterday that I was first learning about the Thrift Savings Plan and how it fit into the three-tiered Federal Employees Retirement System. That was in 1987, when investing for retirement was a new concept for most federal employees.
A lot has happened since then.
For many federal employees retiring today, the income generated in retirement from FERS, Social Security and investments in the Thrift Savings Plan will fully replace the net income they earned while employed.
While that probably sounds great, remember that there is a big difference between your gross salary and the net income that you spend every two weeks. Similarly, there is also a difference between your gross retirement income and the net. Each of the three components of your retirement is subject to a variety of withholdings, and your FERS benefit may also be subject to various reductions. Consider the following:
Although you may have to do some homework to determine the tax withholding from your various sources of retirement income, it is possible to compute your net retirement income. This is important to be sure you will have an adequate income stream to meet your requirements as well as unexpected future expenses.
Considering that many people spend their net income, it might be important to generate the same net income as you receive in your biweekly salary. Think about it. What expenses will go down when you retire? Maybe none:
Any good financial plan is going to start with some common sense. You'll need to prepare for potential future health care costs and the possibility of requiring long term care. You may need to do some estate planning and even some mental preparation to be sure that you are truly ready for the next chapter of your life.
Estimate Your Retirement Income
It is pretty easy to compute your likely income from the old Civil Service Retirement System or FERS. In most cases, you may ask a retirement specialist in your HR division to prepare an estimate for your possible future retirement date.
To get a good idea of the income you will have from Social Security, you may visit www.ssa.gov to request a personal benefits statement. These statements are available online if you establish a "mySocialSecurity" account, or you may request one by mail, by phone (1-800-772-1213) or at your local Social Security office. The Social Security Administration currently mails Social Security statements to workers age 60 and over who aren't receiving Social Security benefits and do not yet have a my Social Security account. The Statements are mailed three months prior to your birthday.
It's a little trickier to estimate the amount of income will you receive from your investments in the TSP. There are three basic ways to create income from your TSP investment. The first is to simply determine how much monthly income you need to supplement your FERS and Social Security benefits and withdraw a specific dollar amount on a monthly basis (remember to allow for taxes). The risk is that you may withdraw too much too early and eventually run out of money.
One rule of thumb is to never withdraw more than three or four percent of your account balance in a single year. To lessen this risk, the TSP offers a second option—to withdraw monthly payments computed on your life expectancy. The younger you are, the smaller the payments, but as you get older (and your life expectancy is reduced), the payments will increase. Whatever withdrawal option you choose, your balance in the TSP will continue to be invested and you may elect interfund transfers while receiving payments.
The final way to receive income from your TSP account is to purchase a life annuity to provide a stream of income that will continue over your lifetime. The annuity option has a variety of features that provide increasing payments to offset inflation, a cash refund or a 10-year certain feature to allow the balance of your original investment to be paid to your beneficiary should you not live long enough to recover your original investment.
There are two drawbacks to the annuity option—loss of control over your investment, and you will no longer be able to receive partial withdrawals or change your investment options once the annuity is purchased. In addition, annuities purchased today will be computed based on a three percent annuity interest rate index that is locked in for the life of the annuity. If interest rates increase in the future, well, too bad. The benefit, of course, is a sense of security that your money will never run out over your lifetime. And if you elect increasing payments, the payout will be adjusted annually up to 3 percent to offset future inflation.
You don't have to settle for one withdrawal option—you may elect a combination of monthly payments and annuity. To learn more about these options and to estimate the payments, the TSP has an online retirement income calculator as well as a booklet outlining the details of each withdrawal option.
You may also transfer some or all of your TSP investment to an individual retirement account (IRA) so that you can make other types of investments or purchase other types of annuity products. Be careful before electing to move your savings out of the TSP, however. It is prudent to do financial planning on your own or with a trusted financial adviser. Before moving your money, review these TSP resources: Stay with the TSP; the Don't Movebrochure; and Don't Move video.
For those of you just starting out in federal service, I can assure you that you will someday look back and think about how quickly the years have gone by. Just don't wait too long to take advantage of your opportunity to invest in your future.
By Tammy Flanagan
August 23, 2018
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I think we use to have to go to yahoo groups and change it yourself, maybe that would work.
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