Contact your Senator and Congressman - Federal employee pay and benefits

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tsptalk said:
Also, from FederalNewsRadio.com:

Obama proposes $42.5B in cuts to feds' benefits:
President Barack Obama unveiled his plan to slash $4 trillion from the federal deficit over 10 years — including $42.5 billion in savings through reforms of federal employee benefit programs.
Click to expand...

I saw another post the other day where someone said "Why don't we look at Congress' pay, benefits. etc". They pay less than we do into their retiremnt plan and are vested after two (I vaguely remember) terms.
 
jkenjohnson said:
Everyone should go to FedSmith and look at all of the proposals that the super committee came up with. Increasing our potion of the basic annuity to7%, using high five for retirement calculations, eliminating locality pay....... goes on and on.
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jkenjohnson,

It is that basic annuity (FERS) that is invested into the 'G Fund'. Right now, your contribution toward FERS is 0.8% It is not funded. If it were funded via a 7% employee contribution it would still be locked into the 'G Fund'. And, you have to understand that your employer (the Federal Gubmint) is CURRENTLY contributing 11.7% of your salary toward FERS - and thus 12.5% of your salary is heading into the 'G Fund'.

Would it not be better to dump an unfunded promise that is jiggered by politicians and allow us to invest at least some of that 12.5% as we wish within TSP?

I have NO desire to reduce my take home pay by 6% and have the brain surgeons 'invest' it into the 'G Fund'. I still have at least 15 years of equity investing ahead of me.

I offer this deal.
  1. Let the Maw of Congress and this Administration take everything I have in my FERS lock box. Leave me nothing. Nada.
  2. Increase my match limit by 6% and allow me to invest it into TSP (obviously)
That allows the Gubmint a 6.5% annual reduction in liability and wipes out their pension liability.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a 11% match.

Yummy...
 
Boghie said:
jkenjohnson,

It is that basic annuity (FERS) that is invested into the 'G Fund'. Right now, your contribution toward FERS is 0.8% It is not funded. If it were funded via a 7% employee contribution it would still be locked into the 'G Fund'. And, you have to understand that your employer (the Federal Gubmint) is CURRENTLY contributing 11.7% of your salary toward FERS - and thus 12.5% of your salary is heading into the 'G Fund'.

Would it not be better to dump an unfunded promise that is jiggered by politicians and allow us to invest at least some of that 12.5% as we wish within TSP?

I have NO desire to reduce my take home pay by 6% and have the brain surgeons 'invest' it into the 'G Fund'. I still have at least 15 years of equity investing ahead of me.

I offer this deal.
  1. Let the Maw of Congress and this Administration take everything I have in my FERS lock box. Leave me nothing. Nada.
  2. Increase my match limit by 6% and allow me to invest it into TSP (obviously)
That allows the Gubmint a 6.5% annual reduction in liability and wipes out their pension liability.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a 11% match.

Yummy...
Click to expand...

I agree. I just feel like we are being herded to the chopping block because everyone thinks we don't do anything, make to much money for it, and then retire wealthy.
 
Boghie said:
The pension portion of our retirement (FERS) is invested in Social Security bonds. As is the 'G Fund'. As is, obviously, the Social Security 'Lock Box'.
Click to expand...

Do you mean that 66.67% of my future is invested in treasuries? Say it isn't so.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-13/the-risks-lurking-in-treasury-bonds.html

How's this for an investment opportunity: a guaranteed yield of 3.27 percent, with an enormous potential downside. As risky as that sounds, millions of investors are moving money into Treasury bonds as a "safe haven." In early September, the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond sank to a new low of 3.27 percent, while the 10-year note fell to 1.9 percent. If the inflation rate stays anywhere close to its current modest 3.6 percent pace, long-term investors will be guaranteed to lose money after factoring in inflation's toll.
Click to expand...

So with 1/3 of my retirement in FERS entirely dependent on government investing in treasuries and making good on past promises, and another third in Social Security entirely dependent on government investing in treasuries and making good on past promises, then the best I can do with 1/3 of my three-legged stool is put it all in the market and hope I beat inflation? That f***in sucks.

Let's say I pull half of my TSP money (my contributions) out at regular intervals and invest fully in equity plays on the private side, then I've still got only 1/3, 1/3, 1/6, 1/6 for an allocation? But if I get frugal and creative maybe I can up my private witholdings too and just for optomistic fun say it equals 0.25 G FERS, 0.25 G SS, 0.25 TSP allin limited equity plays, and 0.25 private allin fun money. Then I'm still only fully invested halfway and chained to the G return anchor including the 'full faith and credit' guarantee?

Oh sh*t. This is bad.

Now I'm invested all the way in both TSP and outside accounts down to the tune about minus 6% but it's only half of my total future security portfolio so that's really only -3% overall, if my G fund passive investments break even. But they don't so add about, umm, some more negatives to that scenario and I come out losing about 5% overall. Not too bad for being way too reckless and mostly always wrong with my allocation decisions.

You mean I can be way f'd up, consistently, and still only lose 1 out of 20? cool. I'd just as soon be down 5 exercising my choices for a chance than down 1 below break even after inflation cowering in the negative safety of 'safety'.

Thank goodness I've got a hedge of sorts, all this while Mr. Long has been busy protecting myself. Besides, it's not like I'm going to hurt a whole bunch more being only able to buy 19/20 instead of 20/20 of below zero.

And I still plan on getting a free coffee mug in my future.
 
Last edited:
Boghie said:
jkenjohnson,

It is that basic annuity (FERS) that is invested into the 'G Fund'. Right now, your contribution toward FERS is 0.8% It is not funded. If it were funded via a 7% employee contribution it would still be locked into the 'G Fund'. And, you have to understand that your employer (the Federal Gubmint) is CURRENTLY contributing 11.7% of your salary toward FERS - and thus 12.5% of your salary is heading into the 'G Fund'.

Would it not be better to dump an unfunded promise that is jiggered by politicians and allow us to invest at least some of that 12.5% as we wish within TSP?

I have NO desire to reduce my take home pay by 6% and have the brain surgeons 'invest' it into the 'G Fund'. I still have at least 15 years of equity investing ahead of me.

I offer this deal.
  1. Let the Maw of Congress and this Administration take everything I have in my FERS lock box. Leave me nothing. Nada.
  2. Increase my match limit by 6% and allow me to invest it into TSP (obviously)
That allows the Gubmint a 6.5% annual reduction in liability and wipes out their pension liability.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a 11% match.

Yummy...
Click to expand...

I'm just about right there with you Boghie. Don't know how long I have til I retire, may be sooner than later given budget outlooks. I'm gonna holler really long and loud at congresscritters both sides of the aisle if they really try to take the $ I'm currently putting into outside accounts (after tax), so they can stick it in G for me. they're just looking for an excuse to do that so they can borrow more. arg. think I can manage that 6% better than they, even if it does stay part cash til I find something goooood to put it down on in the casino. getting ready-starting to feel like Birch. lots of goodies waiting out there-give it a little more time. getting there. charts are working my way. got my buy list-finally spotted 2-3 ripe for picking last night in the longterm charts I've been waiting on, didn't have time this morning to set up buy orders before had to leave the house. bear market rules-I'm not throwing $ down the well, just waiting til I see the rock hit the water before I take a flyer.
 
Maybe it's just me; but considering the alternatives, I found the President's proposal fairly tame.

That said, I'd rather accept a deal Boghie offered, but I think the problem is that it would disproportionately help the sadly small number of government employees who contribute enough to get the full match. I bet even with an 11% match (like Boghie and I would prefer), most employees would still only give 2-3%.
 
Atarrin said:
Maybe it's just me; but considering the alternatives, I found the President's proposal fairly tame.

That said, I'd rather accept a deal Boghie offered, but I think the problem is that it would disproportionately help the sadly small number of government employees who contribute enough to get the full match. I bet even with an 11% match (like Boghie and I would prefer), most employees would still only give 2-3%.
Click to expand...

The President's proposal was tame. On the other hand, the Super Committee is hunting for bear and we are open season, no bag limit.
 
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