FERS Retirement Archives - Page 4 of 14

Happy Memorial Day!

Since the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) might soon be the cornerstone of the Military Retirement System, I though I’d take some time to highlight some of the attempted shenanigans taking place with the TSP.

I say attempted because it literally takes an act of Congress (that’s the entire Congress) to alter the TSP’s charter/regulations. This is by design, because the TSP is deliberately designed to be apolitical and avoid the business of picking winners and losers. This prevents a Congressman/Senator from creating a fund designed to funnel federal employee retirement savings to his or her district/state/pork project.

Enter Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA). Continue reading →

I’ve written before about ways to navigate the rules for making TSP Withdrawals after Separation from Federal Service. Unlike an IRA (or most employer-sponsored 401k plans) the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) has strict rules on when and how you may withdraw from TSP – Each one of these TSP Withdrawal events is like using up a ‘Silver Bullet’ from your retirement savings arsenal.

I’ve read many posts here lamenting how inflexible TSP is in allowing withdrawals.

Faithful Gubmints readers, know that there are technically FOUR ways to perform partial withdrawals from your TSP Account. Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned the Pluses and Minuses of the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) here many times. I’m on record stating that overall I’m a big fan of the TSP.

Recently, Congress passed regulations that automatically enroll new hires in to ‘age appropriate’ Lifecycle (or ‘L’ Funds) based on employee age. This was done because the G Fund is viewed as being less lucrative or too conservative for most folks. Before we dive head first in to L funds, let’s extoll the virtues of the TSP G Fund.

Here’s why I like the TSP’s G Fund.

Continue reading →

It’s a well-documented fact that I am a big fan of the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), which is Uncle Sam’s version of the 401(k).

It’s also well documented that I’m a critic of TSP for being a bit too Vanilla. The Vanilla investment offerings in TSP are a likely cause for the $10 Billion in closed TSP accounts last year. Due to the wonders of the G Fund, I’m no advocate of zeroing-out your entire TSP balance, but recently FedSmith.com put together a good argument pointing out the ‘other’ fatal flaw in TSP- The inflexibility of TSP withdrawals. Continue reading →

GubMints

Personal Finance for Federal Employees, Veterans, and Sometimes Everyone

Category Archives: FERS Retirement

Playing Stupid Pet Tricks with the TSP

4 Ways to take Partial Withdrawals from the TSP

4 Reasons TSP G Fund is the Unicorn of Investing

The TSP’s Fatal Flaw