3 Retirement Resolutions for Federal Employees

The new year is a fantastic time to review your financial strength, look over your budget and make big plans for 2026.

Looking to make some financial New Year’s resolutions for the coming year? Here are 3 retirement resolutions to consider.

3 Retirement Resolutions

1. Identify Your Financial Goals

The new year is a logical time to take stock of your current assets, as well as your goals for the future.

Your needs and urgency will obviously vary based on your age. If you’re 25, then you still need to know where you stand, but you have plenty of time to make corrections. Once you hit 40 or so, it’s more time-sensitive to ensure you’re making the right moves and planning adequately for your eventual retirement.

With long-range goals such as retirement, I always encourage folks to take a hard look at the end game. You might want to purchase a new home or travel more during this time of your life. What is it that you want to accomplish at those different stages of your life? To increase your chances of success, be as specific as possible.

Take some real time to review what financial qualities you can improve this year.

2. Push Yourself to Increase Your Savings and TSP Contributions

If you’re looking to put more away for retirement, push yourself to increase your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contributions. You want to make sure that if you’re a FERS employee, that you’re putting in at least enough to get all the free money out of TSP, which is the FERS match. In order to do that, FERS employees must put in 5% of their pay, and their agencies end up putting in 5% of their pay as well.

Every single pay period, you’re going to get that free money as long as you’ve spread out your contributions over all pay periods in the year.

Regardless if you’re a CSRS or FERS employee, can you challenge yourself to contribute more to the TSP? Even 1% more? How can you max out the TSP at $24,500 per year? How can you get the full catch-up contribution of $8,000 per year (available in the year you turn 50) or $11,250 per year (ages 60-63)?

Wherever you are today, how can you step up your game just a little bit and make that work within your budget? Those small increases today can add up to big results in the future.

3. Plan for the Unexpected and Establish an Emergency Fund

Without an emergency fund, you can end up wiping out your retirement savings or running up credit card debt. Having that emergency fund allows you to buffer or cushion your normal household expenses when those unexpected things like car or household repairs come up.

Be sure to only use this bucket of money for truly unexpected and necessary expenses—this is not for vacations, new cars, that big-screen TV, etc. This is only for true emergencies, and you want to ensure it’s there if you need it.

Stay on Track This Year

Chances are at some time in your life, you’ve made a New Year’s resolution—and then broke it. Stay on track by making smaller, realistic goals and sticking to them. Tiny steps may lead to big results eventually.

The same can be said about your retirement planning—even small changes can yield big savings in the long run!

Whatever your plans for retirement, we hope that you’ll enter the new year with a renewed enthusiasm for taking charge of your finances.