Q. I have 25 years in civil service. I have a Thrift Savings Plan account and, once I retire, do I get an annuity automatically or do I have to use the money in the TSP account to get that? Should I buy an annuity or just take a monthly payment from the TSP account? Not sure if I will have enough to retire. I heard that in FERS, the government gives an annuity and then you get TSP. But when I go to the website to estimate how much I have in the TSP, I do not see the…
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Q. I am under the FERS retirement plan. In four years, I will be 57 with 30 years. Will I be penalized in any way? Also, will I be able to tap into my Thrift Savings Plan? A. Reg Jones says: Because you will be retiring at your minimum retirement age with at least 30 years of service, you’ll receive a full, unreduced annuity. Mike Miles says: You’ll have access to your TSP account after retire without penalty.
Q. Can I retire from the Veterans Affairs hospital under FERS at age 55 with 25 years of service and withdraw my Thrift Savings Plan in lump sum. Or do I have to wait until I am MRA? Can I leave at 55 and defer my retirement until I reach my MRA at 56? A. Reg Jones says: You can’t retire until you reach your minimum retirement age, which is 56. If you retired then, your annuity would be reduced by 5 percent for every year you were under age 60 (5/12 of a percentage point per year). You could…
Q. I have some money in a traditional Individual Retirement Account that is doing nothing for me, and I was wondering if I could transfer it to my Thrift Savings Plan account. I invested roughly $44,000 in June 2008 and, as of March 30, I have a grand total of $46,190 in the account. I am also paying an annual fee of $344 for this IRA. In the same time frame, I made over $30,000 in my TSP account. I realize I will lose about $2,500 in the transfer, but I feel I can make that back up in no…
Q. I am a Postal Service employee, age 57, and I currently contribute $6,000 a year to a Roth Individual Retirement Account. Am I also allowed to contribute to the Thrift Savings Plan, or would that be considered an excess contribution? A. You are permitted to contribute the maximum to the TSP, but, depending upon your circumstances, this may limit your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA. See Internal Revenue Service Publication 590 for the rules.
Q. I work as a CSRS federal employee, 60 years old with 35 years of federal service. There is $200,000 in pretax money saved in my Thrift Savings Plan account. I’m interested in taking advantage of the “one-time” age-based in-service withdrawal option. Can I choose any amount to withdraw? For example, my plan is to take out $100,000 and roll (100 percent) directly into my private Individual Retirement Account and invest in stocks. Is it also correct to assume that I can move money from my IRA pretax account into my TSP account (any time and any amount) as long…
Q. I am a 54-year-old letter carrier with 24 years postal and nine years military. According to Senate bill S.1789, will I be eligible for early retirement? What about the Social Security supplement? How does this affect my Thrift Savings Plan? Can I get that also? A. You will have access to your TSP account for retirement income as soon as you separate from service. You will be subject to the early withdrawal penalty until you reach age 59½ unless you qualify for one of the exceptions listed on page 4 of the notice at https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tsp-536.pdf. Note that one of the…
Q. I will be retiring (CSRS) at the end of this year. I understand there are several options available with my account. However, I haven’t been able to find any clear/accurate information. Can I take it out as a lump sum? (Is there a negative to this?) As a retiree, can I leave it in place? (One article seemed to state that if a person does this, they receive a small monthly check of some sort.) A. You’ll find the information you need here: https://www.tsp.gov/planparticipation/withdrawals/accountOptions.shtml.
Q. What is the difference between “Year-to-date” and “Last 12 months” in the TSP Snapshot? A. Year-to-date covers the period from the last Jan. 1 to the present. Last 12 months covers the most recent 12-month period.
Q. I have $200,000 in my Thrift Savings Plan and have just been approved for disability retirement from federal service. I’ll be separated from the agency in mid-May. I am 55 years old. I am not sure whether to roll my TSP into an IRA. I don’t want to start withdrawals from my TSP, but I don’t want to pay an investment firm big brokerage fees to manage an IRA. I have no debt but have a daughter in high school for another year. What should I do with my TSP? A. Keep it and manage it for as long…