Q. I understand the lump-sum annual leave payment at retirement cannot be put into the TSP for deferred tax or matching purposes. However, can you elect to defer to receive the lump-sum payment until the following calendar year, such that it counts as earned income in that following year rather than the year you retire? If nothing else, it would at least count as earned income on the basis of which I can make another year’s worth of contributions to my brokerage Roths.
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Q. Although we are not there yet, it seems the expense ratio gap between the Thrift Savings Plan and Vanguard is continuing to narrow. Vanguard recently lowered its expense ratios considerably on many of its funds. Admiral Share-class expense ratios on some funds are within a whisker of being the same as TSP. Do you think that a firm like Vanguard can now offer advantages to individuals who want to roll over their TSP balances to them? At the very least, it should serve as a wake-up call to BlackRock and TSP management that they need to not let the…
Q. I am a retired federal employee and want to start taking my TSP annuity. I can choose from either a TSP annuity or one through MetLife. Which do most retirees choose? Should I split the amount in my account equally between a TSP annuity and a MetLife annuity? Do most retirees do that, or do they just choose the TSP annuity? What are the benefits and risks of either option?
Q. I plan to retire May 31, 2017, at 51 years old. I am a federal law enforcement employee eligible to retire at age 50 (I have 22½ years as a law enforcement officer and 26 total years). I need to access my TSP immediately to pay emergency expenses. If I request a hardship withdrawal prior to my retirement date, will I be subject to the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty?
Q. I’m going to retire in six months, and I qualify for the special supplement. I understand that that supplement is subject to the Social Security earnings test but that my FERS retirement annuity is not counted toward that test. Is my thrift savings annuity and/or withdrawal subject to the Social Security earnings test? In other words, will my special supplement be lowered if my thrift savings annuity/payments go over the maximum allowed earned income (about $16,000)?
Which way will the market, and the value of your TSP account, go next? If you’re like most investors, you are betting, and therefore hoping, that it moves higher. Or, maybe, lower. Either way, if you have a preference, then that preference makes you vulnerable — vulnerable to the risk of being wrong. As much as you might tell yourself otherwise, the odds that the value of a share in the C, S, I or F funds will go up or down in the short run are about 50-50. If you’re betting that the C Fund will rise in value…
Q. If you retire under FERS disability, at what age can you withdrawal from TSP without penalty?
Q. I am 53 years old and reached 30 years of government service earlier this month. I work for the Environmental Protection Agency and am preparing for the possibility of being offered VERA/VSIP. I am trying to determine if it is possible to make a partial withdrawal from my TSP under VERA. My thinking is that a partial withdrawal would enable me to, at a minimum, have funding to bridge me to the start of receiving the FERS supplement at my minimum retirement age of 56. The only thing that I’ve been able to find is that I have the option…
Q. I’d be interested to know your opinion on Dave Ramsey’s TSP advice of 60-80 percent going to the C Fund with the remainder split between the S and I funds. I know you always say without proper knowledge and analysis to select the closest L Fund to your life expectancy, but for young employees the closest fund (2050) for that only puts them in the mid-50s to 60s age range, which seems slightly conservative. Do you think his advice is too risky for youngsters hoping to be TSP millionaires?
Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified the the tax-exemption characteristic of a Traditional IRA. This post has since been corrected to explain a Traditional IRA is not tax-exempt. Q. I’m retiring at 50 years of age after 22 years in federal law enforcement. I’m considering withdrawing all my TSP funds to a financial institution under a tax-exempt traditional IRA. I understand there’s no federal tax liability; however, I reside in the state of California. Is there a state tax liability for the withdrawal?