PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - At the end of each month, do you wonder where all the money from paycheck went? When you think about financially planning, do you feel overwhelmed and underqualified?
A recent statistic from the Wall Street Journal stated that 61 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
Picatinny Arsenal officials held a virtual panel discussion on May 22 for installation employees with presentations from several subject matter experts in financial planning and screening, because your financial future depends on what you do today.
Amy Gopel, Picatinny Arsenal’s Army Substance Abuse Program Manager and Employee Assistance Program Coordinator hosted the event via Microsoft Teams with assistance from the panel members.
Jeanne Kelly, a credit coach, author, and founder of the Kelly Group, spoke about the essential steps needed in building and maintaining healthy credit to assist with home ownership or credit challenges.
“You can check your credit every seven days, for free,” Kelly said. “Even if there are some financial difficulties in your life, let’s get it as healthy as possible at that time. It is always important to want to maintain a healthy credit score.”
Kelly said that often people do not check their credit until they are pressed to do so, and then it can be too late to sidestep problems or serious damage has already occurred.
As the Picatinny Arsenal Garrison Security Manager, Joseph Daigler shed light on the importance of reportable activity related to a security clearance, as well as continuous vetting for federal employees who must have a security clearance as a condition of employment.
“Nine out of 10 cases that I handle, deal with financial difficulty,” Daigler said.
Personnel are expected to report changes or incidents that may affect their security clearance eligibility. The continuous evaluation process is designed to identify life events which may negatively impact your ability to retain a clearance, such as blemishes on credit reports, arrests and other court filings.
“Get ahead of the reporting,” Daigler said. “If you know you are going to go over 120 days of delinquency in debt, contact your security manager so it does not impact your security clearance.”
Reporting in and of itself is not a reason to revoke or deny eligibility for access to classified information. It and may go far in receiving a favorable adjudication of the incident and protecting your security clearance.
The goal of self-reporting is to limit risk to national security and to prevent you from losing your security clearance. It is imperative that employees take an active role in maintaining a security clearance.
Your primary point of contact for clearance-related questions is your security manager.
An area of concern in today’s environment is identify theft and the ability for hackers to steal information and open financial accounts in your name.
Anthony DeLorenzo works in a sub-division of the Kelly Group, specifically with programs that help with legal matters and the chaos that can result from identity theft.
“I’m a big believer of protection ahead of time so when something does happen, you have a source to go to and take control of the situation,” DeLorenzo said.
“Having fraud ID protection in this day and age is tremendous,” he said.
Aside from having concerns about the present, employees may also question how they get by when they retire and the familiar, steady paycheck goes away.
Retiring is a big lifestyle transition for many, but planning can help make it a smooth one. No matter where you are in your career, taking time to assess your financial well-being can provide insights into whether you're on the right path or have some areas to improve.
“Life is about choices, and there are options, and buttons you can push to help maximize your benefits during retirement,” said William Finn, Lead Educator, Federal Benefits Information Center (FBIC) Planning, LLC.
With more than three decades in financial services and a deep understanding of federal employee benefits, Finn explained how to maximize these benefits for a secure and prosperous retirement.
A Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a defined-contribution plan for federal civil service employees and retirees. Members of the uniformed services also participate. Through the Thrift Savings Plan, employees can allocate a portion of their pay toward retirement savings. Depending on which retirement system the employee belongs to, their agency may match a certain percentage.
“Your TSP is what I call your wild card,” Finn said.
Today, Federal Employees who came into service on or after January 1, 1984, are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Under FERS, Federal Employees have benefits from three different sources:
FERS basic annuity
Social Security benefits
Thrift Savings Plan
Payments from the basic annuity (sometime called a pension) and Social Security will be in fixed-dollar sums. In contrast, retirement money from the TSP will depend on how well the money has been managed over the years.
Finn’s counterpart, Dennis Edwards, the Chief Executive Officer of FBIC, said that is not a matter of leaving a bucket of money, but making sure that you are receiving care at extended periods of your lifetime.
“We don’t get concerned about you when you’re 60,” Edwards said about various stages of financial wellbeing. “We don’t worry about you when you’re 70. We get concerned in normal mortality tables in our 80s. When you start running out of money and suddenly there is a question about what happens if our health becomes compromised? Or you need the assistance of a nurse or continuous community care.”
Employees who would like to receive more information on financial planning should contact Amy Gopel at 973-724-4357. All calls or screenings are confidential.
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