My reason for being passionate about helping federal, state, and Postal employees is really a personal story and one I hope to help others avoid.  Before my husband retired, I was inexperienced in everything financial, and that lack of knowledge caused us to make several major mistakes during our retirement process.

My husband is a retired Air Traffic Controller who retired in 1999 under the old Civil Service Retirement System pension plan ( CSRS).  We had many questions regarding retirement, and we searched for answers.  We were simply financially illiterate. Unfortunately, there was no one to answer our questions with any knowledge except for the little information the HR department provided.   The lack of answers and financial literacy caused us to made several mistakes that have affected our retirement to this day that are unchangeable.  As an example, we requested information about buying back military time, Survivors benefits and health insurance.  We were told that it was not worth buying back military time.  That it would be only about 10 or 20 dollars a month a deduction from our pension and not to worry about it.  WOW! When my husband turned 62 – we had a surprise – His pension would be reduced by $660.00 a month for the rest of his life for not buying back military time.  We ended up going to a lawyer and settling out of court-we won- because the FAA did not provide adequate information.  The only good thing that came out of this is all the money the government took from our pension ($660.00) for 18 months was refunded to us in one lump sum.  However, nothing could be done for survivors’ benefits.  We did make the correct choice for our Health insurance but not with the correct information.

Because of my passion for helping other Federal Employees not make the errors we made I started my financial career in 2004 with Primerica. I soon realized investing, customer service, and financial literacy was the direction to follow. Throughout my time with Primerica, First Command Financial Services and then MetLife/MassMutual, the experience and needs of my clients required more than what was offered with the current financial institutions whose only focus was selling insurance and/or products. These reasons led me to join Redhawk Wealth Advisors where I can help clients as a Fiduciary and do what is right for the client in a holistic approach keeping in the forefront what the client’s goals and values are. Redhawk shares the same approach and values for holistic planning. Now, the last phase for helping clients is teaming up becoming a “Benefit Coordinator”  with FEBCnow-This is going to be super for all Federal and Postal employees.