Q. If someone in FERS elected to retire on Jan. 5, 2019, and they changed the last TSP contribution to the anticipated employer match maximum, will the employer match to the max for the calendar year, or just to a 12th of that amount? Though the first retirement check would come late (March), there would be a tax deferred federal contribution in the TSP account of some size in the new calendar/tax year. With the open season falling in the mid-Nov to mid-Dec time frame, is there potential to get a kicker/bonus on that last federal paycheck?
Browsing: TSP
Q. I’m 58 and considering retirement in the near future. I’ve got about $420,000 in my TSP and I’m leaning toward taking a TSP joint life annuity, since I’m retiring relatively early and might exhaust my TSP by taking regular monthly withdrawals. I know MetLife is a reputable and well-established company. Is there any federal protection or other kind of guarantee for annuitants in the event that MetLife becomes insolvent in the future?
Q. I am a 41-year-old active duty military member with 24 years of service, retiring in 15 months. I am debating whether or not to apply for a financial hardship withdrawal from my TSP. As all too common in the military, my family and I moved from our house in one location to our new duty station. The home in the first location did not sell, so we rented. When we had issues with two separate tenants, we had to pay our mortgage and our rent. This double payment quickly depleted our savings. When we moved back to the home,…
Q. I retired as CSRS in 2015 and have a TSP account. I’ve recently decided to hire a financial planner and he recommends to “link” my accounts (savings, IRA, TSP) to a financial management tool that consolidates & updates your investments in order to get a total view of your accounts in one location for analysis. This necessitates providing my user IDs and passwords via secure encryption. The tool does not “store” the user ID or passwords. These tools seem rather common in the financial planning profession. I still have hesitation in providing my info via a tool. Would you…
Q. Is the TSP technically a 401(k)? I know all the same rules apply and, for example, when the contribution max or catch-up max goes up for 401(k)s, the TSP max also goes up, but I’ve never actually seen it referred to as a 401(k). If Congress changes the rules for 401(k)s as they are apparently considering, would the TSP rules also change, or would Congress have to address those separately?
Q. I owe for service credit when I withdrew my CSRS retirement in 2000. I did return to the government in 2003 and I’m now CSRS Offset. With interest I owe about $78,000. I have recently started making payment so I can receive the credit. I’m 56 and I hope to work until I’m 60. Since the interest continues to accumulate and I don’t have funds to make very large payments, I’m wondering if it would be wise to take out a TSP loan to pay down some of what I owe? If I do retire at 60 would any…
Q. I retired three years ago and put my TSP funds in the L fund. I will be 70 years old in November. Should I move my money into the L 2020 fund, since I noticed that the rate of return is significantly higher and I will not be needing to take money from the TSP until I am 70 ½ years old?
Q. I am 78, I’ve been with a federal agency for 35 years and have been collecting Social Security for almost five years. Is it beneficial to apply for disability retirement? Will it have any impact on my Social Security? Or any impact my TSP?
Q. I plan on retiring in December 2017. I have $450,000 in TSP. I would like to take out half to purchase a home. Does this make sense? The interest saved by no loan payments would be more than the amount of tax paid.
Q. I am 56 years old, and a widow. I’m working my fourth year as a U.S. Postal Service regular carrier. I worked five years as a rural carrier associate before that, one full year as a sub on my primary sub route, where the regular was not there. As I understand it, I have to work five years in order to be vested in my TSP contributions. True?