Q. What is the difference between “Year-to-date” and “Last 12 months” in the TSP Snapshot? A. Year-to-date covers the period from the last Jan. 1 to the present. Last 12 months covers the most recent 12-month period.
Yearly Archives: 2012
Q. I will become a 49-year-old federal employee this August. I currently contribute the Internal Revenue Service maximum of $17,000 annually to the Thrift Savings Program via bi-weekly payroll deductions. I plan to begin making catch-up contributions Jan. 1, 2013. Once the Roth TSP is available, can I designate beginning Jan. 1, 2013 catch-up contributions to the Roth TSP while maintaining the IRS maximum contributions to the Traditional TSP? A. You may split your pay deferral, including your catch-up contributions, between the traditional and the Roth TSP accounts.
Q. I haven’t seen any discussion on the employer contribution portion as it relates to the new Roth Thrift Savings Plan option. Is their contribution also part of the Roth TSP, or will it continue to be placed in the regular TSP? A. Employer contributions will flow into the traditional TSP.
Q. I have $200,000 in my Thrift Savings Plan and have just been approved for disability retirement from federal service. I’ll be separated from the agency in mid-May. I am 55 years old. I am not sure whether to roll my TSP into an IRA. I don’t want to start withdrawals from my TSP, but I don’t want to pay an investment firm big brokerage fees to manage an IRA. I have no debt but have a daughter in high school for another year. What should I do with my TSP? A. Keep it and manage it for as long…
Q. I retired from the Department of the Interior on Dec. 31, 1997, and left my Thrift Savings Plan intact until 2003, when I rolled it into a traditional IRA. On the paperwork for the rollover transaction, I find no reference to TSP contributions versus TSP account balance. As I approach age 70½ next year, I realize that I need to know what my contribution (or basis) was. I have filed with the Internal Revenue Service for a tax extension in the hope that I can retrieve contribution/basis info from TSP archives and accurately represent the TSP account in my total IRA…
Q. Can a federal employee move a Roth IRA into a traditional TSP? A. No. You may not move Roth IRA money into a traditional TSP account.
Q. TSP explains in its brochure that dividends are already incorporated into the share price. This seems illogical to me, as I believe the definition of a dividend is a cash payout of a certain stock share price at a certain time of the year. Does the Thrift Savings Plan definition mean that the share price of the S, C or I Fund is artificially inflated? A. No, it means the dividends that are paid by the stocks owned by the funds are retained by the fund and increase the net asset value of the fund. The share price reflects…
The latest fad in retirement planning is to know your “number” — the amount of money you’ll need to have saved in order to retire. Is there really such a magic number for your retirement? If there is, can it be determined? If so, how much should you be willing to pay to find it? These are the kinds of questions you should ask every time someone pitches a financial service or product. Think of determining such a number for the value of your retirement savings portfolio as shooting an arrow from a bow. You’re standing in an exposed hilltop field,…
Q. I am a federal employee with more than 34 years of service under CSRS. I am planning on retiring Jan. 3, 2013. The amounts I earn in pay period 26 (Dec. 16-29, 2012) and pay period 27 (Dec. 30, 2012-Jan. 12, 2013) will not be paid to me until after Jan. 1, 2013, and will therefore be shown as taxable income on my 2013 W-2. Can I designate 100 percent of my net earnings for those two pay periods to my Thrift Savings Plan to reduce my taxable income for 2013 and maximize my TSP account? A. You may defer…
Q. My husband and I are federal retirees (both 65). We are buying a second home. We are contemplating withdrawing our down payment (50 percent; $130,000) from our Thrift Savings Plans. We are trying to determine the best way to handle the tax issue. Does it make more sense taxwise to withdraw a large amount (130,000) and incur the 20 percent tax hit, or make a lower down payment (20 percent; $52,000) and request an annuity of $1,000 per month, thereby reducing our yearly tax liability? We are currently in the 25percent tax bracket. A. The only way to answer this question responsibly…