Q: I am 47 and recently retired from active duty because of a 100-percent disability. In a nutshell, my financial sitrep: Roth IRA $60K; Uniformed service TSP $38K; debt $450K (house $400K, Credit Card $29K, Cars $21K), retirement and disability income is $6K per month; one spouse; no children. I am considering rolling the Roth IRA into the TSP and taking a partial withdrawal of $50K to pay off credit card and car loans. We’ve cut back but make little headway against the credit card. I am expected to live another 20-30 years but am unemployable per the Veterans Affairs…
Browsing: thrift savings plan
Q. Will TSP participants who have (or take out) a loan be able to make the repayments into the Roth portion of their TSP once the Roth option is established? A. The rules have not been published, yet.
Q. I will be 66½ when I retire with 15 years of federal service. How long can I leave my money in TSP until I am forced to take it out? Will I have to pay taxes on it when I am forced to withdraw, and is there a penalty accessed? A. You must begin taking withdrawals – called Required Minimum Withdrawals – by April 1 of the year following the calendar year in which you reach age 71½. Visit www.tsp.gov for more information.
Q. When I hope to retire in FERS, I will be 62 years old with 28 years creditable service. I will receive TSP payouts, Social Security benefits and a FERS pension. My wife will benefit from Survivors’ Benefits. I’m concerned about what the living costs will be as a retiree. Will I have to pay federal income taxes on all of the above income that I receive. I am told that the tax rate is cheaper after retirement. Is that just because there is less income, or is it also because we are in a lower tax bracket? A. All…
Q. I see that 2012 will have 27 pay periods. In current and previous years I divide the maximum allowable TSP and catch-up contributions by 26 to calculate my payroll deductions. Is the process the same in 2012, but divide by 27? Or should I stick with 26 pay periods because 2012 will run to Jan. 12, 2013 and so pay period 27 will be in both tax years 2012 and 2013? A. Pay and reporting schedules are agency-specific, so you’ll have to ask your payroll or HR officer this question.
Q. I am a CSRS/FERS offset employee with 31 years and I have been offered the VERA/VISP. I would like to know how my retirement would be calculated for a VERA/VISP and how will it affect my retirement. How do I find out what the numbers will look like for a retirement check before I decide to take the buyout? I also have been depositing the max in my TSP account and I see that the government is not required to match it. Is it the agency you work for that decides if the government matches the TSP or not?…
Q. I am 58 years old, in FERS, and plan to retire in two months. I am going to roll over my TSP into an IRA and take a large disbursement to pay some bills and get set up. I understand, at retirement, that this one-time disbursement will not be subject to the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. However, I have an outstanding loan balance with my TSP. I wanted to use part of my disbursement to pay this loan off, but have been told by TSP it will be considered another disbursement — but it will not be subject…
Q. I am taking VIRA/VSIP and am age 53. I have 26 years time in service and my minimum retirement age with 30 years of service is in 2015 at age 57. When can I access my TSP funds without being subject to the 10 percent withdrawal penalty? 1. Most literature indicates that if you retire early in the year 55 or later, you can withdraw immediately without penalty. 2. The TSP board (I called twice already) says only 59½. 3. The FERS handbook states you can withdraw without penalty at MRA with 30 years (my case 57). I would…
Q. In running various scenarios using the TSP website calculators for TSP payout options (life expectancy and/or specific dollar amount) I notice that all the monthly amounts paid will drop off sharply sometime soon after a person reaches 100-plus years of age. What if a centenarian is still in relatively good health by that time and still needs the income from the TSP? Also what about the effects of inflation after so many years? Does a person need to plan to reinvest some TSP payout into another type of investment in order to provide for very late old age? A. …
Q. What are the options for rolling over our TSP funds? You also always state to keep our funds in TSP as long as possible. Are we guaranteed that our money will be there? If I take a monthly payment, will that monthly payment be minus taxes? A. You may roll over a distribution from your TSP account to an IRA or other qualified retirement plan, as long as the distribution to be rolled over is not a Required Minimum Distribution. Your funds are guaranteed to be there if they are invested in the G Fund. If you take full…