A group of 110 lawmakers, including 12 senators and 98 House members, sent a letter to congressional leadership on September 21 urging Congress to reject the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 pay ...

If you are 60, 61, or 62 years old and getting close to retirement, a 20 percent market drop is not a hypothetical. It is something that will happen at some point. Most people think the risk is the ...

When federal employees think about where to retire, college towns may not be the first places that come to mind. Retirement searches tend to focus on familiar destinations with warm weather, lower ...

Two unrelated proposals happen to share a comment deadline this month, and federal employee unions have opposed both. An AFGE national officer called the EEOC’s rewrite proof of “assigning the fox to ...

Thank you for reading the series. What I have included for your personal use is an overview of the series. This may be something to read over or share with others. I know most people don’t want to ...

FedSmith.com has a redesigned look and new features built around how you actually use the site. The old site had been running for over five years. We rebuilt it from the ground up: not just a fresh ...

Federal retirement rules are often misunderstood, even by employees who have spent decades in federal service. Three misconceptions in particular come up repeatedly: whether you need to apply for the ...

An important feature for FedSmith readers every year is the annual announcement of the COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) for the coming year. While we keep readers up to date throughout the year on how ...

Federal employees converted into Schedule Policy/Career will not serve the standard one-year probationary period that comes with most federal positions. That might sound like good news, but impacted ...

Nearly 800 federal employees used more than a full work year of paid administrative leave between 2023 and 2025, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $108 million, according to a new Government ...

Beginning January 28, 2026, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) will finally allow participants to complete Roth conversions—the ability to move money from a traditional (pre-tax) TSP balance into the Roth ...

As of August 31, 2026, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) held approximately $1.17 trillion in assets. Nearly 44% of all TSP assets were ultimately invested in the C Fund, an investment fund that tracks ...