Posted on Friday, 23rd February 2024 by

Print This Post Print This Post
Share

I’ve written hundreds of articles for our newsletters and blogs and updated our Federal Employee’s Retirement Planning Guide frequently over the past 20 years. Even though we update our sites as needed, our blogs, newsletters, and at times our websites are time sensitive.

Due to federal regulations, benefits, and financial planning guidance changes, over time, our earlier released articles become outdated. A good example of this is the recent article titled TSP RMDs & Withdrawals Plus Site Navigation Tip. I’ve written several articles about RMDs over the years; each article outlined major changes.

Our Updating Process

I link to the most recent article on a subject from our retirement planning site’s relevant section. At times I also update the older articles and note the date of revision at the beginning of the article. For example, I wrote an article titled, Medicare and FEHB Options – What Will You Do When You Turn 65? (Part 1) December 12, 2014.

This subject is a critical one for those approaching 65; instead of writing a new article on this subject, I updated the article 10/20/23 on our blog. I annotate that date at the top of the article as noted on the following screenshot. The article posting date remains 2014 with the revised date at the beginning of the article.

If you are reading older articles that haven’t been updated as noted below, be aware that things may have changed and proceed with caution.

Newsletters & Blog Differentiation

All of our newsletter articles are published concurrently on our blog at www.fedretire.net. I link our Retirement Planning Guide’s relevant sections to each blog article where appropriate. When newsletter subscribers send an email about a potential correction or I discover an error, I research the issue and if warranted make the change in the blog, and notify our newsletter subscribers of the correction in the next article I send out.

Currently I’m going through the older articles and either purge them from the article index if no longer relevant, update them, or write another article to cover the subject more thoroughly. All in all, an arduous task that I take on incrementally.

Newsletter Links & Article Listings

I occasionally receive an email from a newsletter subscriber reporting the article links are disabled. Contact your organization’s IT department if the links are inactive, they can remove the restriction after confirming the email is secure.

This happens more frequently with military organizations than others. If the links are not active in your email newsletter, go to our blog at www.fedretire.net, the links will be active there. The blog article has a print icon in the upper left corner of the page if you want a hard copy.

Master Article Listings

We post a master article Index on our site and also provide direct access to all of the articles on our blog from the most recent back to 2009. The master article index is alphabetized to the highlighted text in each article title. You can access all of my articles on our blog by author listing. Click on the title to view and read the entire article.

You will find articles posted for all 12 of the writers listed under the Author’s Listing sidebar on our blog that we worked with over the years.




Retirement Planning Guide 

I developed and launched www.federalretirement.net in 2004, the year I retired. During my last year of service, I attended two agency sponsored retirement planning seminars and came back with more questions than answers.

This site helps federal employees and retirees find the information they need to make informed decisions about their retirement and provides abundant resources targeted to your specific needs. We are constantly updating and adding features to assist federal employees and retirees alike.

A search box is located at the top of every page, use it to find specific information. The search results provided by Google often list advertisers (Sponsors) at the top of the results listings. All of the search results below the sponsor’s links are direct to our site and will provide the information you seek.

Observation

Over the past few years Google and other search engines are placing numerous paid sponsor ads, paid search, listings at the top of most search results. Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI), basically Rich Snippets, completely block the native search results so fewer people can click through to our sites.

Until these changes, our site pages for federal employee’s retirement planning key words and phrases were listed towards the top of page one search results and many found our site for the information they were seeking.

Currently, due to these search engine algorithm changes, the best way for others to learn about our sites and services is through referrals from our site visitors and newsletter subscribers. If you know of others that would benefit from our services, please forward our newsletters or send them a link to our retirement planning website and blog.

Direct links from an organization’s websites or servers, possibly listed under Retirement Planning Resources, would also be much appreciated.

Conclusion

Federal laws and regulations are subject to change. The ultimate resource is your personnel or HR office and of course OPM regulations and federal laws. We often link to critical OPM and other government official guidance on our web site.

Active federal employees should talk with their HR retirement specialist before making critical decisions. Use our site and articles to research options and to better understand the ramifications of your choices

Your HR specialist is the only one who has access to your electronic Official Personnel Folder (eOPF) and can help you with your retirement application and initiate any desired changes.

Download your eOPF before you leave federal service and retain a copy in case you have issues down the road. I didn’t have that option when I retired. Retirees must contact OPM for benefit guidance.

If you are looking for retirement planning information, go direct to the sources: OPM, Social Security, Medicare, our website and blogs, and those of our competitors to name a few.

If you are planning to retire this year review the articles “CAUTION – Do This Before You Retire” to ensure continuity after you leave and follow our Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide to start you on your retirement journey.

Helpful Retirement Planning Tools

Disclaimer: The information provided may not cover all aspect of unique or special circumstances, federal regulations, medical procedures, and benefit information are subject to change. To ensure the accuracy of this information, contact relevant parties for assistance including OPM’s retirement center. Over time, various dynamic economic factors relied upon as a basis for this article may change.

The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation and this service is not affiliated with OPM or any federal entity. You should consult with a financial, medical or human resource professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher or author shall be liable for any loss or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Last 5 posts by Dennis Damp

Posted in ANNUITIES / ELIGIBILITY, BENEFITS / INSURANCE, ESTATE PLANNING, FINANCE / TIP, RETIREMENT CONCERNS, SOCIAL SECURITY / MEDICARE, SURVIVOR INFORMATION | Comments (0)


Print This Post Print This Post