Q: I have five years of military service that I am considering applying to my federal retirement years. I have waited way to long to do this and am hoping I could use my Thrift Savings Plan monies to pay for the military service, similar to rolling over an individual retirement account. Is this possible? A: A rollover to the Federal Employees Retirement System or the Civil Service Retirement System for service is not allowed.
Author Mike Miles
Mike Miles
Mike Miles is a Certified Financial Planner licensee and principal adviser for Variplan LLC, an independent fiduciary in Vienna, Virginia. Email your financial questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com and view his blog at money.federaltimes.com.
Q: Wouldn’t someone have a penalty for taking out Social Security benefits before age 66 such that the person would not be getting $21,000 at age 62? A: No, $21,000 is approximately the maximum Social Security benefit at age 62.
Q: What effect would a government failure to extend the debt ceiling have on the TSP ‘G’ fund? A: It should have no effect.
Q: May I make a partial withdrawal from my TSP account when I retire, if I am 55 years old? A: Yes.
Q: I’m trying to understand the effects of the RMD (at age 70) on a TSP withdrawal scheme if one is using the equal monthly payments method to draw on one’s TSP savings. Suppose one has about 150,000 in a TSP and starting at age 63 in retirement, they choose to withdraw 2 percent per year, almost guaranteeing growth of the fund to continue each year. Once the RMD kicks in, doesn’t that effectively switch the withdrawals over to a “Life-Expectancy” type of withdrawal (unless one elects to increase their withdrawals to exceed the RMD)? A: Yes, once the RMD…
Q: According to two articles in the Federal Times, the U.S. Treasury is now borrowing tens of billions of dollars from the CSRS and TSP to cover government obligations until the debt ceiling is raised. The article indicated that retirees would have nothing to worry about If the debt ceiling is raised. I’m planning to retire at the end of this month. After reading these two articles, I am concerned that if the debt ceiling is not raised (and according to many political pundits, this may be a real possibility given the political climate in Washington), there would be no…
Q: I am approaching 70, close to the 70.5 years of age TSP participation cutoff. I am required to make a decision on where to move my TSP money. I need info on what happens to my thrift savings money, if I choose to move the account funds to Met Life management. I need to know if the TSP fund money I transfer will earn interest. Would the transferred money need to be reinvested so as to earn money ? What are, if any, Met’s management fees? Are there other business fees? Will MET Life REQUIRE use of the IRS…
Q: I had a question in regards to the article in Federal times which is about managing risk by rebalancing accounts. I have all my TSP funds in the L2030. I am 44 and expect to retire around 2030. The article mentions to re-assess your TSP and rebalance your account regularly. Since I have all my funds in the L2030, which is diversified, would it be advisable to move the money around, especially in this market? The market appears to be unstable. Prior to investing in the L2030, I used to move my funds around based on my personal instinct,…
Q: When rebalancing my portfolio to meet asset allocation targets, should I consider retirement accounts separately from currently taxable investments, or lump them together for an overall asset allocation? I am about 12 years from retirement. A: It’s most efficient to rebalance your entire portfolio, as a whole, while positioning assets in the account where they best fit. This approach can be difficult, however, and it may be more practical for you to rebalance each account on its own. There is no “right” answer for your question. The rebalancing approach selected depends upon the methods preferred by the person responsible…
Q: I have asked this question before but now I have been told the answer I received was wrong. Could you please verify your answer? Can one who has retired and is taking a full withdrawal by monthly payments from their TSP stop the payments and have the thrift buy an annuity through Met Life? Your answer was that I could by way of Form 70. A: I’m sorry if I misread or misunderstood your earlier question. You may NOT buy a TSP annuity with a final payment after receiving monthly payments. The monthly payments are requested using form TSP-70,…