After a year of sitting across from federal employees within a couple of years of retiring — different agencies, different balances, different ages — the same two fears came up almost every single time. And they aren't really two fears. They're one, wearing two coats. This is what retirement planning actually looks like when you get past the account balance.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IN THIS VIDEO YOU CAN LEARN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- The question people ask out loud — and the one they actually mean, about 20 minutes in
- Fear #1: a tax bill on a schedule you don't control, and the IRMAA surcharge with a two-year lookback
- Fear #2: "do I have enough?" — and the arbitrary target most people never chose
- Why these two fears are actually the same fear
- What eleven federal employees said, in their own words
- Why a written retirement income plan is what turns both into arithmetic

Which one is louder for you right now — reply 1 for taxes or 2 for running out 👇

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
START HERE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Apply for a Retirement Consultation:
https://apply.cdfinancial.org/6a694299bad1c9a176cdc79f/

Get the Digital Federal Retirement Guidebook:
https://cdfinancial.org/being-a-federal-employee-book/

Subscribe for Weekly Federal Retirement Planning Content:
https://cdfinancial.com/newsletter

Every name in this video has been changed. The concerns are real; the people are not identifiable.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TIMESTAMPS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 The Two Things Almost Everybody Says
0:45 What They Ask Out Loud vs. What They Actually Mean
1:26 Fear #1: The Tax Bill You Don't Control
2:19 IRMAA — And the Two-Year Lookback
3:30 The Inherited Tax Bill
3:55 Fear #2: "Do I Have Enough?"
4:20 The Number You Didn't Choose
5:55 Why These Two Fears Are Really One
7:00 What People Actually Told Me
8:35 Watch Next

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHO WE ARE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CD Financial helps federal employees and retirees make smarter retirement decisions around FERS, TSP, FEHB, and retirement income planning — where health meets wealth.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Advisory services are offered through CD Financial LLC dba CD Financial, an Investment Advisor in the State of California. Insurance products and services are offered through CD Financial & Insurance Services LLC, an affiliated company.
All names and identifying details have been changed; examples are anonymized composites and are not testimonials or endorsements. Educational only; not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any specific account, product, or target balance. RMD ages, IRMAA thresholds, and tax rules depend on your situation and change over time — verify with the IRS, SSA, OPM, and a qualified tax professional before acting.

#FERS #FederalRetirement #TSP #IRMAA #RetirementPlanning #CDFinancial

Support the show

How much money do federal employees actually need to retire? The White House's 2027 pay plan proposes no raise for most civilian feds, and the question everyone's asking is "why am I still working?" Better question: do you actually NEED to keep working, or do you just not know yet if you can afford to leave?

Charles and Marcus walk through the 5-number test to run before you decide.

👉 Apply for a 15-minute call with Charles: https://apply.cdfinancial.org/6a694299bad1c9a176cdc79f/

In this episode:
• Why your TSP balance alone can't tell you if you can retire
• Your income floor: FERS pension, supplement, Social Security
• The gap years: when the supplement stops at 62 and inflation catches up
• Planning for big-ticket spending (roof, car, helping the kids)
• Why a bad market year early in retirement is the scary one

Chapters
0:00 No raise in 2027. Should you keep working?
1:27 Plan like it's real, but don't decide mad
2:13 "Just one more year": what it costs you
3:01 Is $900K in the TSP enough?
4:36 Number 1: What you cost every month
7:53 Number 2: Your income floor
10:39 Number 3: The gap years
13:53 Number 4: Big-ticket spending
17:14 Number 5: A bad market early in retirement
19:39 The verdict: know, don't assume

The 2027 pay plan is a proposal; final pay tables are set in December. Verify current figures with OPM.

Free resources
Federal Retirement Guidebook: https://cdfinancial.org/being-a-federal-employee-book/
Checklist Challenge: https://cdfinancial.org/checklist-challenge/

WHO WE ARE
CD Financial helps federal employees and retirees build a written retirement income plan. Where health meets wealth.

Advisory services are offered through CD Financial LLC dba CD Financial, an Investment Advisor in the State of California. Insurance products and services are offered through CD Financial & Insurance Services LLC, an affiliated company. This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial, legal, tax, healthcare, or investment advice. Discuss all information with your individual adviser before acting on it.

#FederalRetirement #FERS #TSP

Support the show

The White House sent Congress its 2027 pay plan, and for most civilian federal employees it proposes no raise. Three people asked Charles the same question that week: "if I'm not getting a raise anyway, why am I still working?" It's a fair question — but there's a better one, and five numbers that answer it. This is retirement planning driven by your situation, not by a headline.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IN THIS VIDEO YOU CAN LEARN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- The better question: do you actually NEED to keep working, or do you just not KNOW yet?
- What the proposed 2027 pay freeze does and doesn't change (and why December matters)
- What another year of federal service actually buys you — and what it costs
- The 5 numbers that turn "can I retire" from a feeling into a decision
- Why your spending, your net pension, and your social security retirement timing matter more than your TSP balance

Which of the five is the one you're missing? Reply 1 spending, 2 pension, 3 Social Security, 4 TSP income, or 5 taxes 👇

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
START HERE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Apply for a Retirement Consultation:
https://apply.cdfinancial.org/6a694299bad1c9a176cdc79f/

Get the Digital Federal Retirement Guidebook:
https://cdfinancial.org/being-a-federal-employee-book/

Subscribe for Weekly Federal Retirement Planning Content:
https://cdfinancial.com/newsletter

Want to run these five numbers for your own situation? The Guidebook walks through every one — link above.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TIMESTAMPS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 No 2027 Raise — So Why Am I Still Working?
0:37 The Better Question
1:14 What Actually Happened
1:52 RTO, DOGE, DRP — The Context
2:37 Frustration Shouldn't Pick Your Date
3:22 Is Another Year the Answer?
4:22 The 5 Numbers
5:37 Which One Is Yours?
6:52 Don't Let Washington Pick Your Date
7:30 Get the Guidebook

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WHO WE ARE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CD Financial helps federal employees and retirees make smarter retirement decisions around FERS, TSP, FEHB, and retirement income planning — where health meets wealth.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Advisory services are offered through CD Financial LLC dba CD Financial, an Investment Advisor in the State of California. Insurance products and services are offered through CD Financial & Insurance Services LLC, an affiliated company.
Educational only; not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. The 2027 pay plan described here is a PROPOSAL — final pay schedules are generally set by executive order in December and Congress may act before then. A pay raise is not the same as a retiree COLA. Verify current figures with OPM, SSA, and a qualified tax professional before acting.

#FERS #FederalRetirement #TSP #PayFreeze #RetirementPlanning #CDFinancial

Support the show