By the same token if someone from a nature fund or a save-the-kittens group asks for a donation, check them out BEFORE you send a check.

When a company advertises it can reduce your tax bill by tens of thousands of dollars put a cold cloth on your head and lie down until the urge to respond is gone.

All of the above, plus some things you wouldn’t dream up, are part of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen list. It’s part of the agency’s effort to protect taxpayers, tax preparers and corporations from scams ranging from the incredibly stupid to brilliant. All designed to take you for all they can get. Even if it’s all you got!

And if you think some of the long-distance scams you see on the Dr. Phil show: She (or he) wires money to soulmate they’ve never met so they can pay kidnapper’s ransom, get their mother a new body part, or repay a small debt to free millions of dollars from frozen account. The fact is it happens every day. Sometimes to otherwise savvy people. Like you, maybe?

So what are the scams and schemes on the Dirty Dozen list? Could you spot them? Or have you ever been had?

To talk about the ploys used to trick people we’ll be talking to tax attorney Tom O’Rourke. He’s a former IRS attorney, and he’s my guest today on our Your Turn radio show: 10 a.m. EDT on www.federalnewsnetwork.com or in the D.C.-Baltimore area on 1500 AM.

Most of us think we are too smart to be conned. But even geniuses have fallen for a ploy. Full disclosure: For three consecutive years on my first job I joined a bottle club. All I had to do was buy three semi-expensive Bourbons. Pass them on to the bottle club chain and wait while dozens, potentially hundreds of bottles, arrived at my apartment door. It cost me nearly a week’s pay, but the payoff was worth it. Almost. The thing is I’m still waiting for the happy clinking sound of a mass delivery! And I’m beginning to think I was had. Maybe. In any case Tom is an expert on what the scams look like and how to avoid them. Here’s his lead in to today’s topic, The Dirty Dozen:

The IRS has been publishing “the Dirty Dozen” for much of the past twenty years in an effort to advise taxpayers and tax preparers of scams and schemes that are in some way related to taxes. It is a list of questionable (or fraudulent) transactions designed to gain access to your money.

In recent years, the items on the dirty dozen lists have included bogus calls, texts, emails and online posts. A common scam during the past two years includes online text messages or emails about your entitlement to stimulus payments that often include a link. The link promises to help you get all you are entitled to under various stimulus programs. Accessing a link in such a message may compromise any security measures of your computer system.

Phone scams often include threats that the IRS or local law enforcement agents will arrest you if you do not immediately remit payment by way of a gift card. The IRS cautions that it always initiates contact by mail and never demands payment by gift card. You always have an opportunity to appeal any determination that you owe additional tax.

The dirty dozen also lists strategies that are many times fraudulent that offer to help you avoid taxes. Some of the more common tax avoidance schemes identified in the current list of the dirty dozen include:

• Captive insurance arrangements.
• Charitable remainder annuity trusts.
• Offshore pension arrangements.
• Monetized installment arrangements.
• Conservation easements
• High-income taxpayers who simply do not file tax returns.
• Companies that promise to settle your tax liabilities for pennies on the dollar.

All of these schemes involve transactions that on the surface involve legitimate transactions. They typically offer very significant tax benefits, but little else in the way of economic benefits.

Always exercise caution in investing in any transaction that promises benefits that sound too good to be true.

If you are working, retired, building a nest egg or living off one, these are tough emotional times. If you want good news, you’ve learned to avoid the financial news or stock market reports. Also national news, international news and, if you are a baseball fan in certain cities like Washington, D.C., you avoid the sporting news, too.

Hopefully you have a good cable package and a personality that lets you sort and live with the good news vs. the not-so-good-news. Which is the purpose of today’s Your Turn radio show: It’s a double-header on the good, the bad and the ugly. We are going to try to cover the waterfront. Our show begins at 10 a.m. EDT on www.federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Washington-Baltimore area. First up, financial advisor Arthur Stein will talk about the future course of your TSP account, and the pros and cons of investing heavily in the never-has-a-bad-day G fund. Many consider it the “safest” investment. But that begs the question: How do you define “safe” when building a retirement nest egg? Federal News Network reporter Drew Friedman will talk about the very latest on the federal pay raise. Then we’ll get into the prospects for a large retiree COLA. Last, but definitely not least, the issues TSP investors are having with the new system.

Hopefully this has something for everyone. Here’s a preview from Arthur Stein on the place of the G-fund in your TSP portfolio:

There are two advantages to the G-fund: Zero volatility and all holdings are guaranteed by the government.

However, G (and F)-fund investors need to recognize that, historically, long-term investments in the G and F-funds lost purchasing power. G-fund annual returns have gradually declined since it was introduced in April of 1987. In 2021, the return was 1.4%, 84% lower than in 1988. The cost of living (inflation) more than doubled over this period.

That leaves TSP participants with a dilemma. Should they invest for:

• The lower volatility and lower chance of losing principal (“safety”) offered by the G and F (bond) funds, and accept the higher chance of declines in purchasing power; or
• The higher potential growth historically offered by the stock funds, accepting higher volatility and market declines for the opportunity to increase purchasing power?

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Daisy Thornton

Source: Sci News

When Social Security was launched in 1935, the average life expectancy for men was 59.9 years and 63.9 for women. Full benefits started at 65, so do the math! It sounded almost like a safe, government-guaranteed Ponzi Scheme, minus the scheme part.

But times have changed. The bad news, from an actuarial basis, is that we are living longer. A lot longer. A growing number of people are and will spend more time in retirement, getting Social Security, than they did working and paying into it. Again, do the math!

People who get Social Security — or hope too someday — got some good news recently. Sort of. The good news is that Social Security will not run out of cash reserves until 2034. Some earlier estimates said it would go broke sooner. So where is it going?

Optimists predict Congress will fix it. Maybe make millionaires pay Social Security taxes on all of their income. Maybe raise them for everybody. Others, including many young people, say it’s too late, or soon will be. That there won’t be anything for them 99 years after the program began. For an update on the fate of your Social Security, we invited Tammy Flanagan to be on today’s Your Turn radio show. This is one you can’t afford to miss. Listen live at 10 a.m. EDT on federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Washington area. Or listen to it later by clicking on our home page. But please listen. If you have questions for Tammy shoot them to me before showtime at mcausey@federalnewsnetwork.com. In the meantime, here’s an overview, including possible changes to save Social Security, she prepared for today’s show:

Is Social Security really going broke?

The reserves of the larger trust fund (OASI), from which retirement benefits are paid, were nearly depleted in 1982. No beneficiary was short changed because the Congress enacted temporary emergency legislation that permitted borrowing from other Federal trust funds and then later enacted legislation to strengthen OASI Trust Fund financing. The borrowed amounts were repaid with interest within 4 years.

As Congress did in 1983, it is apparent that Congress will need to enact changes to Social Security in the near future to avoid the problems that are foreseen in the annual trustees report.

According to the 2022 Social Security Trustees report, lawmakers have many policy options that would reduce or eliminate the long-term financing shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare. Taking action sooner rather than later will allow consideration of a broader range of solutions and provide more time to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare.

By law, there are six trustees, four of whom serve by virtue of their positions in the federal government: the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Commissioner of Social Security. The other two trustees are public representatives appointed by the president, subject to confirmation by the Senate. The two public trustee positions have been vacant since 2015.

Part of the problem is that there are a lot of us who are eligible to receive, are becoming eligible to receive or are already receiving benefits. We’re called the baby-boom generation. There are 71.6 million boomers.

Using their own definition of baby boomers as people born between 1946 and 1964 and U.S. Census data, the Pew Research Center estimated 71.6 million boomers were in the United States as of 2019. According to Census Bureau projections, older adults are projected to outnumber children under age 18 for the first time in U.S. history by 2034. And we’re living longer, despite the many deaths that occurred as a result of the pandemic.

Many policy makers have developed proposals and options to address this long-range solvency problem, and we will talk about them today.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Robert O’Shaughnessy

Source: Arizona State Library

It’s hard to think about next summer’s vacation at the beach in February when there is a blizzard outside and your roof is groaning under the weight of all that ice and snow. There are times when it is important to live in the moment and focus on how to minimize your losses. But that is not always the best plan for ordinary people who are investing for a retirement that could last 10, 20 or 30-plus years. Like now!

After decades of mostly good — often great — news, the stock market is wobbling. For good reason. Thrift Savings Plan investors have grown accustomed to big returns with hiccups replacing bear markets. Generally speaking, things have been good-to-excellent since May 2009, the end of the Great Recession. The TSP is critical to federal/postal workers under the FERS program. It could provide anywhere from one-third to one-half of their total income-for-life in retirement. Their federal retirement annuity and Social Security are the other parts of that three-legged system Congress designed in the 1980s. The changes, while excellent in many respects, mean that FERS employees must work harder/plan smarter and show more discipline in order to match what they would have gotten under the CSRS program. They need to invest smarter and harder (as in more) to match or exceed what they would have gotten under CSRS. But it can be done. Most of the current TSP millionaires are FERS employees/retirees who maxed out on their contributions (ensuring the 5% government match) and who continued to invest in the stock indexed C, S and I funds during the Great Recession when the market tanked, producing a scary buyer’s market for investors.

It’s easy to talk about long-haul, no-panic investing during good times, like we’ve just experienced for an unnaturally long time. But when the going gets tough, and markets decline — sometimes rapidly — it is harder to stay the course and sleep at night.

Now we’ve got Russia in Ukraine, China and the Taiwan problem, a seriously divided nation here at home, big-time inflation and record high gasoline prices. Oh, and a continuing pandemic that has altered the world and killed at least one million Americans. And a critical shortage of life-or-death infant formula. What next, monkeypox?

So what if this period, right now, turns out to be the good old days?! What if things get much worse before they get a little better? So who did we call for advice? How about Arthur Stein, a well-known Washington-area financial planner. Most of his clients are active or retired feds. Several are TSP millionaires, in some cases because-not-in-spite-of the Great Recession. He’ll be my guest today on our Your Turn radio show (10 a.m. EDT) on federanewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Washington-Baltimore area. If you have questions for him, send them to me before showtime at mcausey@federalnewsnetwork.com/alert. Meantime he’s written an introductory column of his own explaining what we’ll be looking at and talking about today.

Longer return periods make everything look better

Through May 20, 2022, returns for 14 of the 15 TSP funds were down. Down a lot.

So where can you find some good news? It’s easy, just look a little further back and, like magic, all those negative returns disappear.

And you don’t have to look back too far. Just three years.

The stock funds (C, S and I) all performed well over the last three years, even with the recent declines. Well enough to produce average annual rates of return that were much higher than the bond funds (G and F). And the horrible F fund declines, probably the worst ever, disappeared.

This should be a reminder to TSP participants that allocation decisions need to consider when funds will need to be withdrawn to supplement annuities and Social Security. For instance:

• The G fund is an excellent choice for funds that will be withdrawn in the next 1-5 years.
• F is a good choice for funds that will be needed in the next three to ten years.
• The stock funds make sense for funds that won’t be needed for ten years or more.

The L funds work differently. They began with 80% to 99% invested in stocks (C, S and I) and the remainder in bonds (F and G). Over time, the percentages in stocks decline as the percentages in bonds increases. When they reach their target dates, L funds close and investments transfer to the L Income fund, which is currently 75% bonds, mostly G.

That doesn’t protect from losses. Current returns are negative for all L funds, including L Income.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

There are only about 25 blimps still in existence.

Source: Reader’s Digest

As a kid growing up in downtown D.C (locals rarely say Washington) we didn’t have much money. But my pals and I had the best playground anywhere. We had at our disposal dozens of museums, galleries and other venues. They were also — most still are — free! Even when we skipped school we often headed for one of the Smithsonian museums, or the National Geographic. So even while playing the truant and goofing out it was hard not to learn stuff. One of my favorite school week vacation spots was the National Archives on Pennsylvania Ave. Chock full of interesting, historic documents. And a great gift shop.

One thing that puzzled me was the giant words “What’s past is prologue” chiseled in front of the building. Weird. At the time! It was years before I learned it was Shakespeare (what isn’t?) or its very deep meaning. That is, people and events tend to repeat history. This is definitely true year-after-year in the federal workforce. Now back to reality, the 2023 federal pay raise and the January inflation-adjustment for retirees…

By law retirees get COLAs (inflation catch-ups) each January. Working feds usually get a pay raise based on political and fiscal conditions. This coming increase, for both feds and retirees, could be the biggest in years. And retirees are likely to score a bigger percentage increase than active duty folks. And every time this happens, dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of about-to-retire feds try to figure out how they could get at least some of the new COLA even while their unused annual leave and final salary includes some or all of next years’ raise. So we asked the world’s leading authority on federal benefits, Tammy Flanagan. She agreed to be on our Your Turn radio show (today at 10 a.m. EDT) to explain why it is impossible to get full shares of both, but possible to get a piece of the action, if your timing is right. She sent us this preview of what’s happened in the past. The prologue part is up to you. Here’s how she explains it using this year’s COLA and raise, as an example:

The difference between the raise and the COLA most years prompts some workers to put in their retirement papers in December. The idea was to tack some or all of the COLA onto their starting annuity benefit while getting paid for unused annual leave (vacation time) at the new higher rate. Great in theory. But it falls short in practice. In fact, if you think the 2023 COLA will be much bigger than the proposed pay raise, there is still time to act. But not much time. And the longer retirement is delayed the less the reward. In fact, to get the full 2023 COLA you should have left months ago.

Here’s the deal:

While people retiring at the last minute can and do get some (or all) of their annual leave payment at the new higher rate, they can’t (and won’t) get credit for being retired while they were still working. In fact, to get the full amount of the January COLA, either 5.9% or 4.9%, they would have had to retire no later than December of 2020. When the final numbers came out, we heard from half a dozen angry or perplexed workers who learned, too late, they couldn’t turn back the clock. One said “…why does it matter when you retire? If inflation is up they are going to have to live with it, so they should get the COLA that reflects it.”

Regardless of what people think should happen, the law is the law. So how does it work?

For more on the pay raise vs. COLA issue we turned to Tammy Flanagan. She is the ultimate federal benefits expert (after years with Uncle Sam) who now advises federal clients on how to get the most from their benefit package. She’s also a columnist for Government Executive. She can be reached at: Tammy@retirefederal.com. Here’s the timetable chart she provided:

She provided us with this chart showing how the COLA is pro-rated, based on when an individual retires. It isn’t the year that matters, but the month of the year that you decide to retire. So if you’ve got a friend hoping to take advantage of a higher COLA tell him or her that the clock is ticking. Here’s the magic formula:

*Your FERS annuity will be increased for cost-of-living adjustments, if:

• You are over age 62; or
• You retired under the special provision for air traffic controllers, law enforcement personnel or firefighters; or
• You retired on disability, except when you are receiving a disability annuity based on 60% of your high-three average salary. This is generally during the first year of receiving disability benefits; or
• Your retirement includes a portion computed under Civil Service Retirement System rules.
• FERS retirees under age 62 who do not fall into one of the categories above are not eligible for cost-of-living increases until they reach age 62.

If, and this is important, you’ve been receiving retirement benefits for less than one year and are eligible for a cost-of-living adjustment, you’ll get a percentage of the cost-of-living increase. The percentage depends on how long you were receiving your annuity before the effective date of the increase.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Checking your phone is contagious, for the same reason yawning is.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Sometime this summer the TSP, Uncle Sam’s in-house 401(k) plan on steroids, will offer investors — from Senators and Cabinet officers to national park rangers and IRS auditors — the option to invest in 5,000 new funds. The TSP is worth about $750 billion. It is the optional retirement nest egg for current workers and retirees. For most employees it offers a generous total 5% agency match for those who invest 5% or more. By some estimates TSP accounts for current FERS employees will supply one-third or more of the money they have to spend in retirement.

Right now, TSP investors are limited to a handful of options: the stock-indexed C, S and I funds, the bond-based F-fund and the special G-fund invested in Treasury securities. Because of the market downturn the G-fund’s 3% return leads the investment pack.

When the changes are made, investors will be able to transfer some of their current TSP balances (with a minimum deposit of $10,000) into any of the new fund options. They can transfer up to 25% of their total balance. Those who do make the change will pay special administrative fees. Investors who remain in the TSP will continue to pay fees that are among the lowest in the business.

While many of the changes are likely to catch many investors by surprise, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has published them, in detail, in the Federal Register. To read them, find a comfortable chair and click here.

Some retirement investment experts opposed the investment options expansion. They say that the current menu allows investors to invest in both the large cap (S&P 500) market via the C-fund, and to be in the rest of the U.S. market plus a limited international option via the S and I funds. There are also half a dozen self-adjusting target date investment options. Plus the bond and special Treasury fund options. Giving the average person — which is most of us — more choices will only confuse people. Or permit them to put money in funds-with-a-cause goals that will pay little or nothing over the long haul. But most pros who have eyeballed the pending changes say they are well conceived and thought out. And that the low-fees (which can add tens of thousands of dollars to your available retirement cash) will continue for those who stick with the regular program.

For a sneak preview, listen to today’s Your Turn radio show. My guest is Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the board that runs the massive TSP operation. The show is live at 10 a.m. EDT over at federalnewsnetwork.com or at 1500 AM in the Baltimore-Washington area.

For many career feds and postal workers the best date to retire is simple! You haul assets ASAP.

You leave a soon as you are eligible to receive an immediate annuity.

Period.

Maybe you hate your job. Or your colleagues. Or the boss. Or all of them. Maybe you are ill. Or want to travel. Or not have to fight rush hour traffic anymore.

Simple, right? Well, not necessarily. Retiring as soon as you can may seem like a good idea now. But what about then, which always follows now? How will it impact you financially 10, 20 or 30 years into retirement when inflation has nibbled away at (or gobbled up) your FERS annuity? When your TSP balance shrinks either due to inflation or to a recession? That might not be the right way to approach it. In fact, benefits expert Tammy Flanagan says there are two other factors:

• The future forecast: How you can (and should) set and control the actual NET value (after taxes and deductions) of your annuity. And mandatory or voluntary TSP withdrawals.
• Also, the impact of retiring early, or waiting several years on both your FERS annuity and, just as important, your Social Security benefit.The difference between taking Social Security as soon as you can (age 62?) and waiting until age 70 is huge. Check out what that delayed financial gratification would be for you.

So how do you figure your retirement trifecta? Easy, listen to our Your Turn radio show today at 10 a.m. Benefits and retirement expert Tammy Flanagan will be my guest. She’ll talk about how you can figure your best retirement date, and why those factors can add tens of thousands of dollars, both in FERS benefit and Social Security, to your lifetime retirement nest egg. The show will stream live at 10 a.m. EDT on federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Washington-Baltimore area. It will also be archived on our home page so you can listen later, listen again or alert a friend or coworker. Meantime, here’s what Tammy says about the potential dangers of retiring as soon as you can. She writes:

Just because you’re eligible doesn’t mean you have to retire.

Example:

Current salary and Service: 20 years at age 57 with a salary at $100,000 and a high-three average of $95,000

Leave now: 20% of $95,000 = $19,000 payable at age 60 or $14,250/year payable at age 57 (REDUCED BY 5%/YEAR UNDER AGE 62). Eligible to keep insurance now or postpone retirement and insurance to age 60.

Stay to age 60: 23 years of service (using the same high-three to maintain example in today’s dollars): $95,000 X 23% = $21,850 + FERS Supplement payable to age 62 worth approximately 23/40 of the age 62 SSA retirement benefit. No age reduction and insurance may continue immediately.

Stay employed to age 62: 25 years of service (using the same high-three to maintain example in today’s dollars): $95,000 x 25 x 1.1% = $26,125 + Social Security retirement. The combination of 27.5% replacement from the FERS retirement and around 30% replacement from the Social Security benefit leaves the TSP to replace the remaining income needed to retire comfortably. If you will need to withdraw more than 4% of your TSP balance to make ends meet, then you may need to delay retirement a little longer.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Honeybees exhibit pessimism, which may indicate they have emotions.

Source: Wired

If you can afford to leave your spouse, kids or significant others a very large pile of money to spend when you are no longer around, you might want to skip the expense and inconvenience of making a will or setting up a trust. But that’s probably not your best move. Certainly as far as your beneficiaries are concerned. But if you leave them with a substantial cash stash to spend after your demise they may get by fine, while the courts decide what’s what and who’s who in your financial life. If you leave enough, they will probably get by until the courts take over and handle the matter. In six months if you are lucky. Maybe a year if your affairs are complicated, which most are. If you have a house, car(s), debts and credit cards some would say you have an estate.

Eventually a court will settle your estate according to your state’s laws on the subject. Some are better than others. Not having a will and estate plan means some court, a judge or minor officials who know nothing about you will divide your goods according to their guidelines. Maybe not the way you would have done it. In fact, almost certainly not the way you intended.

Although some find it a grim subject, most of the people we leave behind will know what you wanted. A will and an estate plan can reduce or mitigate hard feelings among survivors. Maybe prevent decades-long feuds among children, siblings or spouses over what you wanted. To the question “should you have a will and an estate plan,” the answer, especially if you work or retired from the federal government, is usually yes! Which is why our Your Turn guest today is Tom O’Rourke. He’s a former IRS attorney who now specializes in tax and estate law. The show is live at 10 am EDT on federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in the Baltimore-Washington area. It will also be archived on our home page, so you can listen later, listen again, or pass it on to a friend. Or all of the above. If you have questions shoot them to me before showtime: mcausey@federalnewsnetwork.com. Meanwhile, Tom has drawn up a preview of what we’ll be talking about:

Trusts are often thought of as tools for the rich, but are frequently used by individuals with more modest assets. All trusts are vehicles for managing and distributing property or assets. A trust can be used to accomplish any legally permissible goal.

All trusts have three parties. The grantor (also sometimes referred to as the settlor or trustor) is the person who establishes the trust and specifies how assets in the trust are to be held, managed and distributed. The trustee is the person or entity who manages assets held in the trust. The beneficiary or beneficiaries are the person or persons for whom trust property is managed.

There are several broad categories of trusts. A revocable trust is one that can be revoked or changed during the life of the grantor. It is not a separate taxable entity. Rather, it uses the grantor’s social security number as its tax ID number. An irrevocable trust may not be revoked or changed once established. It is a separate taxable entity with its own tax ID number and must file its own income tax return every year. Living, or inter vivos trusts take effect during the life of the grantor. A testamentary trust is one that takes effect following the death of the grantor.

Some of the more commonly used trusts include the following:

1. A revocable trust is commonly used to avoid probate.
2. A children’s trust: A trust for the benefit of a minor designed to hold assets for the child’s benefit until they are sufficiently mature to manage for themself.
3. A special needs trust: Typically used to provide for a handicapped individual who may be receiving government benefits.
4. A spendthrift trust: This trust protects assets from the claims of a beneficiary’s creditors.
5. A pet trust provides for the care of a pet after the death of the pet’s owner.
6. Trusts used to help minimize or avoid estate taxes. Since the federal estate tax laws have been changed to increase the estate tax exemption ($12,060,000 at present), these tax planning trusts are no longer needed unless the value of your assets exceed the exemption amount. Because the estate tax exemption is scheduled to drop to $5 million, persons with assets above this level may still find these tax saving trusts to be useful. Moreover, these trusts can be used to help minimize state estate taxes in states that have an estate tax. Some of the more common types of tax planning trusts include:
   • Charitable trusts.
   • Marital trusts.
   • Residence trust.
   • Life insurance trust.

The law is sufficiently broad to allow a trust to accomplish any legally permissible goal. If you can clearly identify your goals, you can structure a trust to accomplish these goals.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Fluid dynamics researchers at MIT have determined it’s nearly impossible to twist an Oreo cookie and split the cream filling equally in half.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Whatever your plan and goal, there are many cases where people don’t get the best deal for themselves. That’s because they don’t know all the rules, or the questions to ask, about their annuity, and the timing to get the best deal. There are a number of “best dates” to retire. Mostly for tax purposes or to get a piece of the new pay raise. Days like Dec. 31 or Jan. 3 depending on your retirement plan. But in addition there are definitely best times to retire, based on the answers to what seem — to we laymen — simple. But aren’t. By a long shot.

Example: Recently, a reader/listener sent us a “simple” question about retirement. Like most “simple” questions it turned out to be complex. So we passed it on to Tammy Flanagan. She’s a retired fed who now makes her living advising clients on retirement, and other job-related issues. Tammy will be my guest on today’s Your Turn radio show at 10 a.m. EDT. And we’ll talk about general retirement questions. Meantime, here’s an example as to why many people should get help in planning their retirement. The question is seemingly “simple.” The correct answer, anything but! The Defense civilian writes:

I am a federal employee with DoD and currently have 30 years of service but am 52. I’ve invested in TSP since 1992 at max allowance. I believe my retirement age eligibility is 57 — five years. Is there any benefit to taking an early retirement? I am married with two sons, currently 13 and 11, so by the time I am eligible to retire they will be entering/preparing for college.

Simple, right? Turns out not so much. Here is Tammy’s professional answer:

There are three main options to consider for this employee to plan her retirement.

1. It is important for her to run estimates of all three parts of FERS (FERS Basic Retirement benefit; FERS Supplement or Social Security retirement; various TSP distribution options).
2. Consider that all three benefit streams will be subject to federal income tax and depending on the state, also state income tax.
3. She will continue paying premiums for her insurance on a monthly basis in retirement using after-tax dollars.
4. If she is married, a spousal survivor election must be considered that will result in a 10% reduction to her FERS basic retirement benefit.
5. It is also important to plan for long term care so that future needs for care won’t derail her financial plan.
6. When planning for TSP withdrawals, be conservative with projecting future rates of return as the market will fluctuate over time and may not provide returns that have occurred over the past years of a bull market.
7. Years of lower returns can be devastating and stressful if her FERS retirement and Social Security retirement benefits aren’t adequate to stand up to these fluctuations in rates of return.

Here are the three options along with some considerations to keep in mind for each one:

• Resign before her MRA and apply for a deferred retirement at her MRA.
  • Her future benefit will be based on her high-three average salary at the time she separates from federal service.
  • She will not receive any cost of living adjustments to her FERS retirement benefit until age 62. The benefit will be the same value for 10 years if she leaves federal service at age 52. Consider what your salary was 10 years ago. How much different was it from today? If high inflation continues, this will substantially erode your buying power of your FERS benefit and may cause you to deplete your retirement savings too quickly.
  • It is going to be difficult to stop working and not receive income for the next five years. Life expectancy payments from the TSP based on $500,000 starting at age 52 with a 3% future rate of return would provide a starting monthly payment under $1,300 / month. Use the TSP payment and annuity calculator to run different scenarios (remember that these payments will be subject to federal and possibly state income tax withholding, depending on what state you live).
  • Payments other than life expectancy payments or a life annuity will result in a 10% early withdrawal penalty tax.
• Continue working to age 57 (MRA)
  • This is her first eligibility for an “immediate” unreduced retirement.
  • The FERS retirement supplement will be payable to provide another source of immediate income in addition to the FERS Basic Retirement Benefit.
  • There are no cost of living adjustments on the FERS supplement and the FERS basic benefit will be a level payment until age 62 when cost of living adjustments will commence.
  • There will be no 10% early withdrawal penalty on TSP distributions, allowing more flexibility in the type of withdrawal option selected.
  • Depending on the TSP balance, this may be the first realistic opportunity for retirement with enough income to replace your net income while employed.
• Continue working to age 62
  • Eligible for the 1.1% annuity computation factor for the FERS basic benefit which is a 10% increase besides having more service and a more generous high-three average salary as a result of continuing to work.
  • Eligible for Social Security retirement which is more tax friendly than the FERS supplement.
  • FERS and Social Security retirement receive annual cost of living adjustments.
  • There is a better chance of having TSP distributions that will be adequate to last for a 30+ year life expectancy that will allow for future market fluctuations and years of higher inflation.

Age	Length of Service	Retirement Option	Computation of benefit (using $80,000 high-three average salary)
52	30	Not eligible for immediate retirement; resignation with deferred retirement payable at age 57	30 x 1% x $80,000 = $24,000; Social Security payable at age 62*; May take TSP withdrawals without penalty at age 59 ½ or life expectancy payments at any age.
57	35	First eligibility for immediate retirement	35 x 1% x $80,000 = $28,000; FERS Annuity Supplement = 35/40 of age 62 SSA benefit*; eligible to withdraw payments from TSP without a 10% early withdrawal tax penalty.
62	40	Eligible for immediate retirement and higher calculation factor	40 x 1.1% x $80,000 = $35,200; Eligible for Social Security*; eligible to withdraw payments from TSP without a 10% early withdrawal tax penalty.

*www.ssa.gov estimate SSA benefit at age 62 – 70.

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/stopwork.html

Your Retirement Age and When You Stop Working

Your retirement age is the age you begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits. For many people, this is not the same age you’ll stop working.

The age you stop working can affect the amount of your Social Security retirement benefits. We base your retirement benefit on your highest 35 years of earnings and the age you start receiving benefits.

If You Stop Work Before You Start Receiving Benefits

If you stop work before you start receiving benefits and you have less than 35 years of earnings, your benefit amount is affected. We use a zero for each year without earnings when we calculate the amount of retirement benefits you are due. Years with no earnings reduces your retirement benefit amount.

Even if you have 35 years of earnings when you stopped working, some of those years may be low-earning years. When you file for retirement benefits, those years are averaged into your calculation, creating a lower benefit. However, if you continue to work, your low earning years are replaced with your high earning years. Higher earnings increase your benefit amount.

If You Stop Work Between Age 62 and Your Full Retirement Age

You can stop working before your full retirement age and receive reduced benefits. The earliest age you can start receiving retirement benefits is age 62. If you file for benefits when you reach full retirement age, you will receive full retirement benefits.

If You Stop Work After Full Retirement Age

If you choose to work beyond your full retirement age, you have two options:

• You can work and get full retirement benefits no matter how much you earn.
• You can delay getting retirement benefits and earn credits that increase your benefit amount.

Imagine if that had been a complicated question? Gulp!

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

The sound of Darth Vader’s breathing is trademarked.

Source: Gizmodo

What does a Las Vegas gambling expedition have in common with timing the stock (or bond) markets? Often the same thing: In many/most cases people let their emotions rule whether at a casino or home monitoring Wall Street. Nervous folk zig when they should have zagged. They were lost before they left the starting gate.

So how should you handle what counts most — your retirement nest egg, the TSP — during these, uh, interesting times? A time period of unknown duration. A series of situations, from the war in Ukraine to record inflation and rising gas prices, are likely to get worse before they get better. Maybe lots worse! And for most feds, their TSP account is most vulnerable in troubled times. Remember, it could provide anywhere from one-third to one-half of the money you have to spend in retirement. And the bigger the amount, and the later you start spending it, the better.

The 100,000-plus TSP millionaires (as of December, 2021) had a couple of things in common:

• Most, except for some politicians, political appointees and federal judges, were NOT already millionaires.
• Most spent an average of just under 30 years investing regularly in the TSP’s stock funds, especially in hard times (2008-9) when the markets were down. Market timers sold low, as it turned out, while those steady-as-she-goes investors bought stocks at bargain prices.

Many investors know the conventional thing to do, when times are good. But when things go south, which they do regularly, the fight-or-flight instinct kicks in. Times like now. So we asked D.C. area financial planner Arthur Stein what he’s telling active and retired clients these days. Several of them are self-made TSP millionaires, which is a very good sign. He’s going to be my guest today at 10 a.m. (EDT) on our Your Turn radio show. That’s 1500 AM locally or on our home page. So you can listen live today or catch it later. As usual we asked him to write-up a sneak preview of today’s show which he did. Here goes:

The TSP Has a double dose of down

By Arthur Stein, CFP©

All the TSP funds — except G — fluctuate in value. That means down as well as up. And last quarter was a double dose of down as both the stock and bond funds — except G — declined.

How bad was it? Here are the first quarter returns for the five traditional funds:

Also, all L Funds declined in the first quarter, including L Income.

According to the April 1, 2022 Wall Street Journal, bond markets declined at a rate not seen in over 40 years and stocks suffered their worst quarter in two years. Reasons include:

• Interest rate tightening by the Federal Reserve,
• Inflation surging to its highest level in forty years,
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and
• A slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Both bond and stock markets continued declining during the first week of April.

So that’s scary. But what does it mean for TSP participants?

It means that participants need to concentrate on longer-term returns for funds they will need to spend five years and more in the future. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance but longer-term returns for the U.S. stock funds strongly outperformed bonds and international stocks.

For employees who are not near retirement, the declines are a reminder of two investment risks: volatility and market declines. But the declines are also an opportunity to “buy low” with bi-weekly contributions.

Retirees withdrawing from the TSP to supplement their Annuity and Social Security payments should try to withdraw from their G Fund balances until the other funds recover. Unfortunately, the TSP does not allow participants to withdraw from just one of the funds where they are currently invested. Withdrawals are made from each of the funds a participant owns, in the same proportion as their current allocation. If you have 50% in G and 50% in C, half of a withdrawal is coming from G and half from C.

There are several workarounds to this, which I will discuss on the show.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Dolphins do not possess vocal cords.

Source: PBS

What if the menu at your favorite/only eating place jumped, from 15 items to more than 5,000 new choices? Could you handle it? Would you welcome the option, or find it confusing? Maybe choke on your choices?

Prepare to find out:

Starting later this year the federal Thrift Savings Plan will expand — as in astronomically increase — the number of funds and options active and retired federal and military personnel will have as investment choices. By later this year, TSP investors could have as many as 5,000 new investment options.

So what next?

The TSP is Uncle Sam’s in-house 401(k) plan equivalent. It currently is worth $770 billion. With a B! It’s one of the biggest investment vehicles in the world. And one private groups and firms have wanted a piece of since Congress set it up.

With its 5% match for most investors and tight oversight, it is considered the jewel in the crown of investment options. The TSP covers everyone from park rangers to astronauts to SEC lawyers, and includes ambassadors, members of Congress and the Supreme Court. Currently they are limited to five funds — three stock index funds plus a bond and treasury securities — plus 10 self-adjusting Life Cycle (target date) funds. In other words, Bernie Madoff, stay away!

Many of the new investment options will include funds that are environmental, social or so-called governance (ESG) options. That will please investors who, for decades, have demanded more ESG. Investors will be able to take up to 25% of their TSP balance and move it into one (or many) of the approved new funds. They will also pay more in administrative fees than those investors who stick with the five basic funds.

After all is said and done, the basic question is should you put some (or the maximum) of your retirement nest egg into new options that have a greater potential for growth. Or going in the tank! By some estimates the TSP will supply one third to one half the income more federal/military investors have in retirement. Assuming they invest wisely and well.

For feds who have been anxious to time the market, predicting high and low points then investing accordingly, the new options will be a blessing. If they excel at buying low and selling high, which is tougher in practice than in theory.

So what will the new features look like? What will they cost investors in added fees? Let’s start at the top: Today’s Your Turn radio show’s guest is Kim Weaver. She’s executive director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which runs the TSP. She’ll explain how the new investment options will work, what they’ll cost and how you can take advantage of them. That’s 10 a.m. EDT here on federalnewsnetwork.com or at 1500 AM in the Washington-Baltimore area. If you miss the show, want to catch it later or refer it to a friend it will be archived here on our home page.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

In 1986, geological investigations in Romania uncovered Movile Cave, which had previously been sealed for 2.5 million years. More than 50 animal species evolved to thrive in its uniquely toxic atmosphere, 37 of which have never been encountered anywhere else.

Source: GESS Lab

One of the things your mother never warned you about, but maybe should have, is probate. As in how, and why, to avoid going through that legal ordeal that Charles Dickens turned into a book whose title says it all: Bleak House! It was supposedly inspired by several real English probate cases, at least one of which took more than 100 years to settle. So how much time do your prospective heirs have?

If you don’t have a will and an estate plan, probate is an after-you’ve-gone legal struggle. One which could last months, if not years, in a battle over what you intended your family (or friends) to have: your estate! And while that sounds a bit posh to many, the fact is most of us are worth more dead than alive. And that’s especially true of long time federal/postal workers. Most have life insurance, lifetime survivor benefits, maybe a home or other investments, including TSP or other 401(k) accounts. Who gets them and when depends on what you have done, or should do, sooner rather than later. That is, learn what you need to legally protect your family/friends and be sure they get what you want them to get.

So today’s guest on our Your Turn radio show (10 a.m. EDT) is attorney Tom O’Rourke. He’s a veteran of the IRS and a long-time specialist in taxes and estate planning. Some of his clients are TSP millionaires. Most aren’t. But all recognize they needed legal help to insure that their wishes will be fulfilled in a timely fashion when they are no longer calling the shots, dead or alive! If you have questions for Tom, send them to me (mcausey@federalnewsnetwork.com) before showtime. Meanwhile here’s an intro Tom wrote about why you need to avoid probate and what we’ll be talking about today:

How to avoid probate

A common goal is to simplify your estate plan to make the administration of your estate as easy as possible for your loved ones. This often involves structuring your plan to avoid probate. While probate in most cases is not unduly burdensome, it does take time and does involve certain costs. For many individuals, probate is easy to avoid.

Common tools that will allow you to avoid probate are jointly owned property arrangements, beneficiary designations, and the use of a revocable trust. Two of these, beneficiary designations and joint property arrangements, many times do not require the involvement of a lawyer.

Many individuals hold title to property in joint names. Property held jointly, or as a tenant by the entirety with a spouse, passes by operation of law to the surviving owner upon the death of the first owner. This always avoids probate and supersedes the terms of a will or a trust. A third form of joint ownership is a tenancy in common and property held as tenants in common does not avoid probate. Rather, the distribution of such property is governed by a will, if you have one, and if you do not have a will, by state law. It is always subject to probate.

A word of caution for persons using joint property arrangements — the property may be subject to the claims of the creditors of your joint owner.

Beneficiary designations provide a simple way to transfer property. The designations may be in the form of a POD (payable on death) or TOD (transfer on death). Federal employees can designate beneficiaries for all of their job related benefits including their annuity, TSP, accumulated leave or salary, and life insurance. In addition, virtually all types of financial assets allow the designation of a beneficiary. Some states (Maryland) allow the designation of a beneficiary for a motor vehicle

If you have designated a beneficiary, any assets covered by the designation pass to the beneficiary at death. They are not subject to probate and supersede the terms of any will or trust.

If you have assets other than joint property or assets that allow a beneficiary designation (most commonly real estate) and want to avoid probate, you may establish a revocable trust to hold this property. The trust must own property for it to achieve the goal of avoiding probate. In most situations, you should enlist the assistance of a knowledgeable estate-planning attorney to establish a revocable trust.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Source: Wired

Until they don’t! Like me.

I got two Facebook posts/messages this week about three old friends. A married couple and a former work buddy.

The couple’s posts are often interesting. Lots of travel. Visiting grandkids, etc. He worked for the Public Health Service for 30 plus years. She had a little less time with the World Bank. They retired in their early 60s. With good, and good-for-life monthly retirement benefits, and health insurance with the employer paying most of the premium. Now they have His and Hers Volvos. Beach home. This week they’re in West Palm Beach watching the Washington Nationals trying to regroup in spring training. But that’s another story…

The other Facebook item was from a former coworker asking about someone we worked with for years. Now he’s dropped off the grid, at least to us. Maybe intentionally. He retired about 20 years ago on a decent but fixed (no inflation adjustments, ever) pension from our old employer. He took his 401k with him (about $200k I think) and devoted full time to managing his portfolio. Day trading. He apparently lost everything within a year. Then a series of jobs in big box stores. Then nothing.

The couple did their homework, understood their annuity and TSP, and crunched the numbers. They are living at least as well in retirement. And not working.

My former buddy took another route. He left with a smaller (noncontributory) fixed pension benefit. He counted on it, and building his portfolio to provide for him in retirement. Except when last heard from, in his 80s, he was still working.

So, you want Palm Beach? Or peanut butter? Or something in between, but comfortable. Important consideration: Know when to quit! And often later is better, even if you could get by leaving the job earlier. So how do you maximize your retirement income? We asked benefits expert Tammy Flanagan who plans fed retirements for a living. She’ll be my guest this morning at 10 a.m. on Your Turn (www.federalnewsnetwork.com or 1500 AM in D.C.) talking about how relatively easy — and smart — it is to boost your retirement income. Meantime, she sent this outline of what we’ll be talking about at 10 am. In this example it shows how it would work for an employee making $80,000:

Length of Service at age 60: 19 years
19 x $80,000 x 1% = $15,200 x .90 = $13,680 (10% reduction under the MRA + 10% retirement because employee didn’t have 20 years of service at age 60 to qualify for an unreduced retirement)

Length of Service at age 61: 20 years
20 x $80,000 x 1% = $16,000 + $12,000 = $28,000 (The extra $12,000 represents a FERS supplement of $1,000 a month payable to age 62 when retiree could file for SSA and get an even larger SSA benefit based on their lifetime of FICA taxed wages)

Length of Service at age 62: 21 years
21 x $80,000 x 1.1% = $18,400 + $24,000 = $42,480 (The $24,000 represents the SSA benefit payable at age 62 of $2,000 a month from their lifetime of FICA taxed wages)

Of course the person who left at age 60 could claim their SSA benefit, but the gap would still be close to $5,000 a year or $600 a month in their FERS basic retirement benefit — for life! They would have benefited from two more years at their presumably highest earning years added to their SSA record, and two more years of contributions and growth to their TSP account.

They could withdraw $24,000 a year from their TSP account so that they could receive $43,000 a year by delaying claiming SSA to age 70, and then take much smaller payments from the TSP so that they will satisfy the required minimum distributions at age 72.

So is it worth considering working longer to protect your buying power in retirement? Or is that too horrible a concept? Many will probably conclude it’s worth putting it high up on their retirement planning checklist. And passing on to a younger FERS friend who is living with the thought he or she may leave sooner than they should.

Tammy Flanagan works full-time-plus as a retirement consultant. She’s helped lots of feds make life-improving decisions. And she can be reached at Tammy@retirefederal.com.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Source: Cool Cosmos

With a hot war in Europe, galloping worldwide inflation and growing shortages on the home front, many investors are looking for the nearly impossible: A ‘safe’ place to stash some of their retirement nest egg, with Uncle Sam, at an eye-popping current rate of return of 7.1%. When investors cash in their Treasury I-bonds they pay federal (but no state) taxes on the interest only.

The program is open to everybody. But it’s especially attractive for federal Thrift Savings Plan investors. Many TSP investors feel that the TSP’s treasury securities G-fund is their safest harbor in tough times. The problem is the G fund year to date return has been less than 1%. That’s better than the short-term losses of the C, S and I stock-indexed funds. But over time, inflation would eat away those low returns, especially for civil service retirees who get so-called diet COLAs when the rate of inflation exceeds 2%.

During the Great Recession (2008-9) many investors moved their retirement nest eggs from the stock indexed C, S and I funds into the G fund. Many also bought G-fund stocks rather than the stock indexed funds even though, as it turned out, they were only down briefly — in effect “on sale” — by nearly 55%. They missed getting the stock funds at sale prices and also missed its record rise during the comeback years.

Virtually all of the TSP’s self-made millionaires got to that exalted level by investing — and holding stock index funds — for the long haul (average 29 years). And they continued to buy shares when the markets were down. But the new world situation has revived and intensified fears of losing money for retirement years. But financial planner Arthur Stein, who has a large number of federal-retiree clients, says there is another option for them — or anyone else — who may want to invest some of their emergency funds or excess cash in a super-safe option. He’s my guest today on our Your Turn radio show (10 am EDT). Listen if you can, or catch the show (archived on our home page) later. Here’s his outline for what we’ll be talking about today:

A government guaranteed bond paying 7.1% interest? Yes, it’s real.

If you are tired of the low interest you receive from bank accounts, it’s time to think about Series I Savings Bonds (“I Bonds”) from the U.S. Government, sold through TreasuryDirect. These bonds are currently paying 7.12% in interest.

I Bonds are 30-year bonds issued and guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury. The I Bond interest rate is guaranteed for six months and then adjusts for inflation over the last six-month period.

The current, 7.12% rate will be adjusted in April for the next six months. It could be higher or lower than the current rate. It depends upon whether inflation over the previous six months has increased or decreased.

If you hold the bond for at least five years, when you cash in (redeem) the bond, you receive all the interest the bond has earned plus the amount you paid for the bond. If you redeem after the one-year lock-in but before five years, three months of interest is deducted. Taxes on the interest are only due when you redeem the bond.

Advantages of Series I Savings Bonds include:

• Guaranteed by the U.S. Government and no fluctuation in value.
• Currently, a much higher interest rate than bank accounts, CDs and the G Fund.
• No commissions (to buy or sell) or any other fees.
• Whether you sell an I Bond before it matures or hold it to maturity, you always receive full face value plus interest.
• Taxes on interest are postponed until a bond is sold or matures and there are no state taxes.

Disadvantages:

• I Bonds cannot be sold for 12 months after the original purchase. Don’t invest funds you might need to spend within twelve months.
• The maximum investment is $10,000 per calendar year per social security number.
• There is a penalty equal to three months of interest if a bond is sold less than five years after purchase
• Interest must be reinvested; it cannot be taken as income.
• Purchases and sales can only occur in a TreasuryDirect account; they cannot be purchased, held or sold through the TSP or any other type of account, whether tax deferred or taxable.

More detailed information can be found at Treasury Direct. To purchase Series I Savings Bonds, click here.

Compared to a bank account, Series I Savings Bonds are a great combination of a high interest rate, government guarantee, favorable tax treatment, and zero volatility.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By David Thornton

Source: National History Museum

Politicians, lobbyists and special interest groups on Capitol Hill often disguise very important or controversial bills they’re pushing by giving them dull or misleading names. Or when a proposal is both complex and potentially explosive they may bill it as a “reform.” Who can oppose reform, right? Example:

The so-called Social Security Windfall and Offset laws have been on the books for years. Originally billed as way to keep a handful of feds from gaming the Social Security system, they have, in fact, cost tens of thousands of former feds, police and public employees and their spouses or survivors tens of millions of dollars in benefits. Windfall and Offset are now better known as The Evil Twins. But if they had been billed as that at the time they probably never would have become law. Different groups have been working for decades to repeal or modify one or both. This year they may — just may — be within striking ground.

Another massive and sometimes misleading proposal is the Postal Reform Act of 2022. Postal reform plans have been around almost since Ben Franklin. Some good, some not so good. This year the reform plan has a record number of cosponsors and recently passed the House. One of the things it would reform is health insurance premiums paid by all federal employees, retirees and spouses. As with much, if not most, laws and proposals, not many people know much if anything about the contents. The good news, whether you are (or should be) for Postal Reform or against the Windfall and Offset laws, help is coming. My guest today on our Your Turn radio show (10 a.m. EST) is John Hatton. He’s staff VP for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees. He’s going to talk about the impact of the postal reform plan on premiums, Medicare Part B as well as the financial health of the USPS.

Hatton will also talk about Windfall and Offset a.k.a the Evil Twins. He will bring us up to speed on where the bills are now, what they will reform and their impact on the benefits of millions of current federal, state and local government retirees and their spouses. The show will be streaming at www.federalnewsnetwork.com or on 1500 AM in the D.C. area. If you can’t catch it today it will be archived on our home page.

To prep you on these important bills, and what they do and don’t do, John prepared this outline: If you have questions for John, email me before showtime.

• While most feds may think postal reform doesn’t concern them, the crux of leading postal bills in Congress implicate the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. NARFE advocated persistently over the last year to ensure federal employees and retirees were not adversely impacted by the bill, and secured important amendments. Prior to this Congress, NARFE’s efforts ensured postal bills maintained postal retirees’ choice regarding whether to enroll in Medicare Part B. Last month, the House passed the Postal Reform Act of 2022 with NARFE’s support. In addition to addressing NARFE’s concerns, the bill repeals the burdensome mandate to prefund future USPS retiree health benefits, and codifies six-day delivery standards. Next up: Senate consideration.
• NARFE is also pushing for the repeal or reform the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which unfairly reduce the Social Security benefits of retired public servants and their spouses. NARFE supports multiple bills addressing this inequity, including those that would create new formulas to calculate offsets and offer rebates to WEP- and GPO-affected beneficiaries. Where do each of these bills stand?
• Additionally, NARFE is actively pushing lawmakers to work together and pass full-year fiscal year 2022 appropriation bills before the March 11 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Simply passing another continuing resolution is “wasteful and inefficient.” Will Congress get its job done before the latest deadline?

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Robert O’Shaughnessy

In Switzerland, it is illegal to keep a single guinea pig as a pet as it is classified as a “social animal” under the law. And “social animals must be given adequate social contact with animals of the same species.”

Source: Library of Congress