Q. I am a retired CSRS employee, and my wife is a retired FERS employee. I am currently 63 and my wife is 61. We are both covered under my FEHB insurance as part of my annuity. I keep reading about whether or not I should pick up Medicare Part B, but there does not seem to be a clear-cut answer. It seems to depend upon your health, current out-of-pocket expenses for medicine, office visits, etc., compared to the annual cost of Part B. I have seen several articles point out the 10 percent penalty for delaying enrollment. My question is, if…
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. If you roll over an IRA to a TSP account, can you use that to pay off your mortgage loan? To be more clear, use it to pay off your TSP mortgage loan, not just any old mortgage.
Q. Can an annual leave lump sum be deposited into a non-TSP Roth account? I retired Jan. 2, 2015.
Q. I recently heard from a FERS Article IV judge in the Judicial Retirement System that they do not get matching in the TSP. I know this is true for members of the uniformed services, but I can’t find anything on someone who will retire under the JRS. I’ve searched the TSP website and OPM’s website but keeping hitting dead ends. Do you know of a good source for this information?
Q. I am under the FERS retirement system. If I retire and choose to buy an annuity with 50 percent of my TSP, will I still be required to take required minimum distributions at 70 1/2?
Q. I am eligible to retire under FERS in January 2016 — at age 56 with 36 years of continuous federal service — and begin drawing a pension. As such, I am able to withdraw from my TSP without incurring the early withdrawal penalty. I am also eligible for the Social Security supplement. If I retire from federal service, begin drawing my pension, and take a job with a private company or start my own business, I understand that I will lose the Social Security supplement if my gross income exceeds a certain threshold, but will I still be able to…
Q. I have inherited my spouse’s traditional IRAs. My spouse died in May 2015 and was not subject to RMDs. Can this type of inherited IRA be transferred to my TSP account? Also, I have already taken my RMDs from my IRAs and TSP account for 2015. Do I now have to take an RMD for 2015 from the inherited IRAs, whether or not they are transferred to my TSP account?
Dollar cost averaging is the term used by the investment industry to describe the effect of making a number of securities purchases over a period of time. The idea is that, if you buy 100 shares of something, say a particular stock, in 10 installments of 10 shares each over 10 months, for example, your cost for the 100 shares you wind up owning in the end will be the average price you paid for all of the shares. This seems pretty simple, and it is. Actually, this is always the case: the average cost per share of…
Q. I am 56 years old and meet my MRA with 31+ years of service for USPS. I’m looking at retiring in February 2016. I went to a retirement seminar, where I was told that I could request a one-time in-service withdrawal prior to separation. There would be 20 percent withholding for taxes. Form 75 states that I must be 59.5 for this to take place, or I could request a hardship withdrawal. If I can take a withdrawal, what form number is it, and where do I find it? Can I take this withdrawal? And what evidence is required to…
Market volatility refers to the extent to which the market price, or value, of investment assets change over a particular period of time. For my purpose here, it refers to the extent of change in share prices, and position values, of the TSP’s investment funds. The wider the range of price, or value, from high to low, during a given period of time, the greater the volatility. In general, the G Fund should be the least volatile of the TSP’s funds, and the S Fund should be the most volatile of the lot. Between them, in order from most to…