The Foreign Service Journal, May 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2019 65 AFSA NEWS Visit Our Refreshed and Reset Retirement ServicesWebpage In a recent appointment to discuss his imminent retire- ment, one AFSA active-duty member likened under- standing all of retirement’s ramifications to putting together a complicated puzzle—one with unfamiliar vernacular, with pieces culled from a variety of sources, and with potentially significant consequences if not fully understood. With this puzzle analogy in mind, AFSA staff reviewed the content of the retire- ment services webpage with the goal of putting as much salient, Foreign Service-cen- tered information together in one place for our member- ship, both active-duty and retired, as possible. The reset and refresh include the following: A new name. Retiree Ser- vices is now called Retirement Services. This may not seem particularly earth-shattering, but it does signify that this information is critical not only for retirees, but also for its active-duty members. The first portion of the site, “Getting Ready for Retire- ment,” includes a Department of State cable, for instance, on “Retirement Planning Five Years Out” that every active- duty member should read years before retiring. Up-to-date guidance from authoritative sources. AFSA has collected the most recent information available, for instance, on RAE/WAE bureau coordinators (dated February 2019) and the retirement transportation and travel briefing from A/LM/OPS/TTM (dated January 2019). Are you concerned about retirement plan- ning, or whether to opt for Medicare Part B? You’ll find recent AFSA-produced video presentations by recognized experts in these fields, such as AFSA Retiree Vice Presi- dent John Naland’s seminar on “Reviewing Your Retire- ment Plan,” and American Foreign Service Protective Association Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President Paula Jakub’s talk on “Medicare and Your FEHB Plan: Putting it Together.” “Next Stage” informa- tion. The site will also include information and videos from AFSA’s new “Next Stage” ini- tiative as they become avail- able. These programs are all focused on career options post–Foreign Service. In addition, we will be adding a list of links to the most pertinent articles related to retirement from The Foreign Service Journal archive, including the popular “Life After the Foreign Service” series of stories about what our colleagues do after leav- ing the Foreign Service. Expanded list of resources. Finally, we have expanded the site to include websites that may be of interest to our membership, both retired and active-duty, from those specializing in federal employment issues like fedsmith.com to one on “encore” careers (www. encore.org) . Please check it out at www.afsa.org/retirement and let us know what you think! n —Dolores Brown, Retirement Benefits Counselor Guest speaker Dwayne Jackson answers audience questions. On March 7, AFSA hosted Dwayne Jackson, a certified financial planner and vice president of RPJ Advisors, who spoke to both active-duty and retired members on the topic: “Lifetime Financial Success: A Simple Model to Keep You on Track.” Mr. Jackson, a frequent speaker at the Foreign Ser- vice Institute, showed how inflation can affect retire- ment savings and discussed the different sources of income that Foreign Service members need to consider for retirement. He also discussed the importance of early estate planning, different types of long-term care insurance and TSP growth over time. A recording of the event is available at www.afsa. org/video. n Planning for Lifetime Financial Success