Accessing your TSP after retiring

[Elgallo]

Can anyone here tell me what was entailed after they retired in drawing money from your TSP account?

I understand I cannot even contact the TSP board for a minimum of 30 days after I retire to begin setting up my draw, and how long will that take after the 30 day waiting period.

How long did it take to establish the ability to draw your funds, and how often can you change the amount once you initally establish the draw? Can you change the draw amount anytime, or must one wait for an "open season" as it were to do this?

I'm retireing Dec 31, 2011 and am attempting to figure out the retirement morass, so any info anyone can proivide in this regard would certainly be appreiciated.

Thanks

PS...171 Days

 

[Buffalo_Nickle]

Myfederalretirement.com has been having a four part discussion on some ways to access your Thrift.

 

[brooksmd]

Review Zebra's story and his TSP actions. He retired last Dec 31 and I believe he got his first TSP withdrawal before the end of Jan. It appears SS and TSP are on the ball, but OPM is slow. I also retired last Dec 31 and me and Z are still waiting for them to get our retirement annuity straight. We're getting about 80% and they are deducting FEHP from mine.Congrats on your future retirement. Dec 31 will be here before you know it.

 

[tsptalk]

I didn't retire, but rather resigned, and I was able to transfer some of my TSP to an IRA pretty quickly - within a week or two.

 

[clester]

If you leave your money in tsp you have several options. If you are not worried about 10% penalty, you can set up monthly withdrawals and can change the amount per month once a year. You could also take a full withdrawal all at once and pay the tax.The option I took was to use the 72t rules (see IRS rules) and payments based on life expectancy tables. You have 3 options there. Minimum distribution which tsp will calculate for you each year. This amount is the lowest but should increase each year based on your balance. Option 2 and 3 are very similar in which your calculations use the future earnings of you balance into account. This gives highest payout. But you cannot change the monthly amount until age 59.5. Go to www.72t.net where there are calculators and lots of info on this.

If you are already 59.5 you can take monthly payments of your choice, no penalty, and change the amount once per year in December.

The request I made went quickly and smoothly. It takes a couple of weeks for your agency to notify tsp you are retired. You then make request for withdrawal and first check comes a couple weeks later.

 

[Scout333]

Thanks everyone! This is good information to have.

 

[Elgallo]

Thanks everyone for the info.

The one kicker that applies to me, and may to some of you as well is I will have an unpaid portion of a TSP loan outstanding when I retire. Unless I pay it off with my own money by depositing an equal amount into an IRA, or I must wait for the TSP to declare a taxable distribution which is done by me signing and returning a form they send me to do that once OPM has provided them with notice that I have in fact retired.

I cannot persue setting up a withdrawl option until the loan is either paid back, or declared a taxable distribution.

My plan is to transfer everything out of the TSP (a form of withdrawl), and into a Fidelity brokerage account, but as one can see the loan issue delays me doing that for appx 1-2 months. THEN the trustee to trustee transfer to Fidelity will take another monrth approximatly to accomplish. And get this, NO Electronic Transferr of my funds, they F%*&*&(*&n cut a large 6 digit check and drop in in the fn mail! NOW AIN'T THAT SPECIAL.

I consider this all of this delay unnessary and potentiall costly BS BTW, but what recourse do I, or we, have.

 

[Elgallo]

Thanks everyone for the info.

The one kicker that applies to me, and may to some of you as well is I will have an unpaid portion of a TSP loan outstanding when I retire. Unless I pay it off with my own money by depositing an equal amount into an IRA, or I must wait for the TSP to declare a taxable distribution which is done by me signing and returning a form they send me to do that once OPM has provided them with notice that I have in fact retired.

I cannot persue setting up a withdrawl option until the loan is either paid back, or declared a taxable distribution.

My plan is to transfer everything out of the TSP (a form of withdrawl), and into a Fidelity brokerage account, but as one can see the loan issue delays me doing that for appx 1-2 months. THEN the trustee to trustee transfer to Fidelity will take another month or so approximatly to accomplish. And now get this, NO Electronic Transferr of my funds, they F%*&*&(*&n cut a large 6 digit check and drop in in the fn mail! NOW AIN'T THAT SPECIAL.

I consider all of this delay unnecessary, and potentially costly BS BTW, but what recourse do I, or we, have.

 

[Buster]

I didn't retire, but rather resigned, and I was able to transfer some of my TSP to an IRA pretty quickly - within a week or two.

I retired, but I rolled over the whole kit and kaboddle into an IRA..So long TSP and that butthead Long that runs it

..Making 8% to 9% right now..

 

[Elgallo]

I retired, but I rolled over the whole kit and kaboddle into an IRA..So long TSP and that butthead Long that runs it

..Making 8% to 9% right now..

Buster: How long did your roll over take?

 

[Buster]

Buster: How long did your roll over take?

About 3 weeks IIRC..I know it was less than a month for all the processing.

 

[Hallatauer]

Glad to hear that as I plan to do the same. I am not usually paranoid but I want to get my money as far away from the grubby politicians hands and into my total control as soon as possible. I'm going to roll it over into an IRA. My returns can be just as good as TSP. I can withdraw out of dividends as I see fit and not pay taxes as regular income. That's a win right there that will overcome any fees I will have to pay that i don't with TSP.

 

[Elgallo]

Glad to hear that as I plan to do the same. I am not usually paranoid but I want to get my money as far away from the grubby politicians hands and into my total control as soon as possible. I'm going to roll it over into an IRA. My returns can be just as good as TSP. I can withdraw out of dividends as I see fit and not pay taxes as regular income. That's a win right there that will overcome any fees I will have to pay that i don't with TSP.

With a firm such as Fidelity there are NO transaction charges as long as one buys/sells ONLY their mutual fund offerings of which there are many more choices as compared with the TSP.

 

[Elgallo]

With a firm such as Fidelity there are NO transaction charges as long as one buys/sells ONLY their mutual fund offerings of which there are many more choices as compared with the TSP.

I neglected to also mention that if you do any of the 3 in service withdrawls you cannot participate (DCA for the free money) in the TSP for 6 months,

NOW AIN"T THAT SPECIAL!!!

Yeah go ahead and punish us all for doing what any other citizen can do without being punished after the fact!