Category Archives: Retirement

GAO Says There is Too Much Money in your TSP/401k/IRA

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TSP Hardship Witdrawal

TSP Hardship Withdrawal Costs

Recently the non-partisan (cough, cough) GAO conducted a study investigating large (> $5 Million) IRA balances.

According to WSJ, this study was prompted by the disclosures of Mitt Romney and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Max Levchin that they each have IRA balances worth tens on millions.

The GAO concluded in its preliminary study (GAO-14-878T):

In 2014, the federal government will forgo (emphasis mine) an estimated $17.5 billion in tax revenue from IRAs.

GAO will release a separate report with its final results on individual retirement accounts later this fall.

What prompted this study? Congress is reportedly upset about the super-sized IRA balances because (according to GAO) :

Congress limited annual contributions to IRAs to prevent the tax-favored accumulation of unduly large balances, but concerns have been raised that tax benefits accrue primarily for higher -income individuals.

Back to the cases of Mitt and Max… Continue reading →

COMNAVRESFOR to IRR: No Soup for You

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Soup-Nazi

The Benevolent Savant Soup Chef thinks it is too easy to earn IRR points…

Recently I caught wind of the below message from Commander, Navy Reserve Force (CONAVRESFOR) (H/T to the AirWarriors Forum).

To summarize: Big Navy and/or Big Navy Reserve initiate this Goat Rodeo every few years or so when they decide that it is too easy for Navy Individual Ready Reservists (IRR) to earn retirement credit points through correspondence courses. I recall a major Kaibosh put on NKO courses about 5 or 6 years ago, which created a similar panic through the IRR. Continue reading →

TSP to add Fidelity, Schwab Mutual Fund Choices?

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Thrift Savings Plan Guidance for Federal Furlough

While congress was hemming and hawing this past week about forcing TSP Investors to defer salary in to ‘Age Appropriate’ TSP Lifecycle funds (in lieu of the G Fund) as their automatic investment, a piece of key TSP news slipped past the radar of the Beltway Bloggers…

Recently the TSP publicized a study sanctioned by its Board of Directors to investigate the feasibility of a ‘Mutual Fund Window’ option within the TSP. This would let participants buy and sell 3rd party mutual funds in a ‘Mutual Fund Supermarket’ from agencies such as Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, etc.

Why? Roughly one third of TSP participants- Yours truly included- Have become a ‘very vocal minority’ and are clamoring for a few more flavors of TSP ice cream beyond Vanilla.

Continue reading →