Q. I know that I can’t put my wife’s Individual Retirement Account into the Thrift Savings Plan, so we would like to invest it into an F Fund equivalent. Can you identify such a fund that we can roll her IRA into? A. Any fund that is based on the Barclay’s Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index should do — the lower the cost, the better. Try AGG from iShares.
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Q. I worked for DoDDS schools from 1987 to 1990. At that time, vesting was five years with FERS. When I resigned, I believe I had to forfeit my retirement and was made to withdraw my Thrift Savings Plan. Would this have been correct for that time period with FERS? And DoDDS? I came back to work for DoDEA in January 2001. I called to make certain that I was going to get credit for those three years. I wanted to redeposit my TSP money but was not allowed to, and was told there was no provision for repayment. It…
Q. I read your article that Traditional IRA funds can be transferred to the TSP either before or after a person’s retirement. My question is, can I transfer SEP IRA funds into TSP after retirement also? How about 401K-SOLO? A. Yes and yes.
Q. I currently have about $75,000 in a money market at a local credit union — this money market used to belong to my father, but my name was on the account also. When he passed away I moved that money into my own credit union account. May I take $50,000 out of the money market and put it into an IRA and then when I retire (in three years) move that IRA money into my TSP? A. I’m not sure how you’ll get the money into an IRA, unless it’s already in once, since contributions are limited each year.…
Q. Why are variable annuities such a bad retirement option? I have seen this stated many times, but I’m still not sure why this is the case. On the other hand, I’ve almost never seen any investment outperform the TSP stock funds on a long term basis. I have rebuffed the efforts of my financial adviser (and many other advisers during lectures) to get me to roll over the TSP to “more flexible” IRA options. A. Because they are expensive. Keep your money in the TSP. Your financial adviser is a salesperson who wants the big fat commissions you’ll pay…
Q. I’m recently retired from the federal government. I have currently made no changes to my TSP, leaving everything in my account. Is it generally a good idea to leave your funds in the TSP or should I consider rolling it over to an IRA? Also, what is your opinion of a variable annuity? A. It is generally better to leave your money in the TSP as long as possible. It is the best retirement investment environment there is. In my experience, variable annuities are one of the WORST investment propositions you’ll find. Avoid them unless a trustworthy (competent and…
Q: I am a Federal Employees Retirement System employee retiring on April 30, under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority/Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay at age 55. Can I take some or all of my Thrift Savings Plan balance and transfer it to a self-directed individual retirement account? What is the process for doing that? What are the estimated costs and penalties? A: You may roll over your TSP assets to an IRA following separation at at 55 with no penalty. Use Form TSP-77 to request a partial withdrawal or Form TSP-70 to request a full withdrawal of your account assets.
Q: I’m currently contributing to the 2050L fund of the Thrift Savings Plan. Is it possible to transfer my TSP funds to a Roth individual retirement account without getting penalized? I don’t want to touch the money, I just want to invest in precious metals instead of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. A: If you are age 59 1/2 or older, you may take one age-based in-service withdrawal from your TSP account. Check with a CPA (ideally, the one who will be preparing your tax return for the year) for advice on converting it to a Roth IRA.
Q: Both my wife and I contributed to a Thrift Savings Plan and an individual retirement account for the 2011 tax year. We filed jointly. My wife maxed out her TSP contributions, but I did not because I was hired midyear. We both maxed out our IRA contributions at $6,000: her to a Roth, me to a traditional. When using an electronic filing program, the software would not include our IRA, but it did so when I ran a fictitious sample filed as a single. Why did the program not deduct the IRA? Is a simultaneous deduction for TSP and…
Q: I understand that when an federal employee, through a rollover, transfers funds from an individual retirement account to the Thrift Savings Plan that the money transferred can only be pre-tax. My wife has both pre-tax and post-tax contributions in the same IRA. The IRA has grown for 20-plus years, so a lot of its value has had no tax has paid on it. Most of what I have read on the issue seems to indicate that because the IRA has some after-tax money in it, none of the money can be transferred into the TSP even though the amount…