Retire at 50 and keep working — do you lose the annuity supplement? Not until well after your minimum retirement age, and even then the earnings test runs a full year behind. Here's who gets the supplement, when the reduction actually hits, and how to plan around the DS-5026 timing.
Buried in your retirement paperwork is one election that shapes your spouse's security for life — and you can't undo it once your annuity starts. Here's how to weigh the survivor annuity before the form-signing scramble.
The first $130,000 is tax-free" is the most repeated — and most incomplete — tax advice in the Foreign Service community. The FEIE is real, but the eligibility tests are unusually tricky for diplomatic families, and claiming it can forfeit benefits worth more than it saves: the refundable child tax credit, IRA eligibility, and more. Here's who actually qualifies, why home leave can break the 330-day test, and how to decide whether the exclusion is even a good idea.
FEHB for life is one of the best things a federal career produces — but you keep it only if you clear the 5-year rule going in, and your spouse keeps it after you're gone only if you clear another. Both trip up Foreign Service families.
Bonds lost 13% in 2022. The G Fund didn't lose a cent — it never has. This post explains the TSP's most popular and most misunderstood fund: how special-issue Treasuries make it structurally immune to loss, why it pays long-term rates on an overnight security, what actually happens during those alarming debt-ceiling headlines, and the one risk no guarantee covers — inflation.
Most investors have never heard of the institution that actually keeps their money safe. It isn't your advisor, and it isn't quite your brokerage either — it's a custodian. This post explains who custodians are, how trillions of dollars are safeguarded through asset segregation and SIPC protection, and why the question "who is your custodian?" is one of the smartest things you can ask any financial advisor.