Q. I am a longtime CSRS employee with a pretty good Thrift Savings Plan balance. I plan to retire in two years and move to another city when I retire. My spouse is planning to retire in eight months, and we are planning to buy a house in the new city. We would like to buy the new house and begin the transition to the new city without selling our existing home until I retire. We are looking at a number of ways to finance the purchase of the new home and afford a mortgage payment on that house, a…
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Q. 1. I have $12,000 in student loans at about 6.5 percent interest rates. I had considered taking a loan from my Thrift Savings Plan account to pay off my balance as the interest rate I would pay back on the TSP loan is lower than my Stafford Loans. What is the maximum amount one can take out on loan from their TSP account? What is the repayment time frame demanded by TSP? 2. If I were able to pay off my Stafford loans with a TSP loan, I am not sure that would be the best decision. I am…
Q. I have selected a retirement date of June 28, 2014. I will be 59½ years old with 33½ years of government service. I have been FERS my whole career. I have $365,000 in my Thrift Savings Plan. I will retire with a high-3 at GS-13, Step 4 and a 16.51 percent locality pay. I am debating paying off my mortgage on my retirement home by taking a partial withdrawal from my TSP. The reasons for this are: 1) Escrow of property taxes 2) Flood insurance imposed by Dodd-Frank 3) Desire to be mortgage-free in retirement. I owe $185,000 on…
Q. I am being considered for disability retirement in the coming months. My application is pending consideration from the Office of Personnel Management. I am a GS-14 FERS employee, 54 years old, with about 32 years of service. I have approximately $250,000 in the Thrift Savings Plan, and my allocations are as follows: 15 percent C, 15 percent S and 70 percent I. I realize that is somewhat aggressive, but it has been like that for about seven years or so, and I have been hopeful of the international home run. Regrettably, this hasn’t necessarily come to fruition. I will…
Q. I am taking the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority from the Postal Service and am trying to decide how to withdraw funds from my Thrift Savings Plan. I have about $300,000 in my account and have a mortgage of $150,000 with about 10 years until payoff. Should I take a lump sum and pay off my mortgage and keep the remaining money in TSP? Or should I just start withdrawing approximately $2,000 monthly to cover mortgage payments? I am afraid if I pay off my mortgage, the tax hit would be to great. A. I suggest that, as long as your mortgage…
Q. I turned 62 in December. I am 100 percent disabled from combat wounds. I worked federally for a while and saved $102,000 in a G Fund under FERS. I’m about to start losing my home as my wife will have to retire this year. Without her income, we won’t be able to afford the mortgage (but no credit card or other debt on the house.) What percentage at age 62 does a 100 percent disabled vet have to pay when withdrawing savings in full? I think it’s stating 20 percent, but that doesn’t seem reasonable. Am I reading it wrong? I want…
Q. In 2011, following 18 years of government service at age 60, my excepted service position ended unexpectedly. My retirement pension is small: $589. My first payment arrived February. I had $10,000 in savings with Fidelity but used that to live on, considering the lack of income for two to three months and basic living requirements: mortgage, insurance, car payments, son leaving for college, etc. I paid taxes on that money, approximately $3,000 or more. That money is now gone. When I retired, I had two Thrift Savings Plan loans that were rolled in as income on my taxes. They…
Q. On June 26, I took out a $22,000 loan against my 401(k) plan for major home improvements. That equaled up to $376 per month taken out of my paycheck to repay this loan. Then, Aug. 1, my hours were temporarily reduced until the end of 2012 to 30 hours per week, which amounts to an additional $620 deducted from my pay monthly. This puts a serious hardship on my ability to pay my monthly obligations. Is there a way to legally stop payments to my 401(k) repayment, seeing as I had no idea my hours would be reduced, whereby affecting my ability…
Q. I’m a FERS retiree, age 64, with a $36,000 annual pension. My spouse has a $40,000 annual salary. We have a rental property that brings us $24,000 a year. And we have a home mortgage balance of $500,000. Our living expenses so far do not require me to withdraw my $600,000 Thrift Savings Plan fund. I plan to live until age 85. As I approach age 70½ with minimum distribution, what is the best tax strategy for transferring the $600,000 from the TSP into a private investment account? A lump-sum rollover into a Roth account after paying the taxes? A calculated…
Q. I am 61½ years old. I want to pay my mortgage off. I am losing my contract job and need to lower my debt. I have saved up all but $30,000. If I withdraw that from my Thrift Savings Plan, how much in federal taxes will I have to pay? Would it be better to get a personal loan? A. Your TSP withdrawal will be added to your income for the year and taxed at your marginal tax rate for the year. You’ll need to prepare a pro-forma tax return to estimate the amount you’ll owe. It’s impossible to say,…