It’s an unfortunate reality that many federal employees sit on the sidelines and wait for retirement to happen or for someone to tell them “how to do it.” Instead, we recommend choosing to take control of your financial future and going after what you want!
Not sure how to take control of your financial planning?
As the developer of our FedImpact Retirement Workshops, I’ve analyzed challenging retirement scenarios for thousands of federal and postal employees—helping them to avoid costly mistakes, and highlighting opportunities for them to gain greater financial security in their retirement years.
I’d like to share with you the three planning commands that federal employees need to be aware of as they prepare to retire from federal service. Think of these as financial planning commands you can give yourself to create the retirement outcomes you envision. Each of these commands will have an impact on how you approach your exit from federal service.
The three planning commands are: sit, roll over and fetch.
Probably not what you were expecting, right? We share this concept in our retirement workshops because you’ll give yourself one of these three commands—consciously or subconsciously—when it is time to take action. For instance, after sitting through a workshop full of good education, what happens NEXT?
Sit
The command of “sit” is the idea that you keep the status quo because change is hard or uncomfortable. It’s simply staying right where you’re at—likely because you’re scared.
You never dig into your financial numbers to see what the real consequences are because it might be a little painful or scary. You cross your fingers, and you hope that everything’ll work out; but once you retire, you look back with a tinge of regret and say, “What should I have done differently to be in a better position in retirement?” Any decision where regret is hardwired in doesn’t sound good at all.
Roll Over
The command of “roll over” is really the same as sit, but it’s where you pretend that you’re making progress so that you feel better. Under the “roll over” command, you go through the motions by saying things like, “I’ll think about it. I’m going to get around to doing that. Yeah, that’s important,” but you never get anywhere because you don’t actually make any decisions.
We assume that what’s worked in the past will continue to work in the future, only to find out in retirement that’s not really the case at all. There’s still regret in this command, but it can be masked because there’s lots of activity in our thoughts, but no real action taken.
Fetch
The third command is “fetch,” and that’s the idea that you make proactive decisions that allow you to get the retirement that you want. In that effort, you have to be honest with yourself about the consequences of your decisions or your lack of decisions, because both have an impact on you. In this idea of fetching your retirement, you take fiscal responsibility for your own future, even if it’s a hard pill to swallow.
Hopefully, you’re not ready to sit or roll over—but ready to go fetch!
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