PessOptimist's Account Talk

[Tsunami]

I'm beyond committed to retiring on 12/31...will likely take that final day off (hopefully to head to the Rose Bowl ) so like you I have 22 work days left, assuming POTUS gives us 12/24 off. I'll finish the year with 380 hours of annual leave, and 2250 hours of sick leave to be applied to my CSRS time and FERS time, giving me a total of 35 years and 9 months. My pension will equate to 38.6% of my high-3 thanks to the little boost from my CSRS years.

Nobody has offered up a checkout checklist for me yet, but I know it exists so I need to ask soon. My replacement has been hired finally, but won't start until 12/23, and will be on leave that week, meaning her first day in the office will be on 1/2/19...my position requires lots of turnover/training...so nice planning! I'll be able to meet with her for much of December though thanks to the DOD office where she come from being a good sport, and just a few blocks away from my office. One thing I've done to complicate my exit is that for the first time in decades I'm changing health insurance. I'm switching to the new BCBS Focus plan since it looks like it will save my wife and I a TON of money, over $100/month. But HR said I can't make the switch online due to my retirement and have to use the old fashioned SF 2809 form and have OPM process it...so I've turned that in, and OPM will process it as part of my package, at glacial speed no doubt.

As for the markets, argh, this is what Jim Puplava on financialsense.com has been screaming about recently in his podcasts, don't get hurt by "sequential risk" right before retirement...taking a 10% or more whack in the months before retiring wasn't in the plan, but I'll deal with it. Fortunately we will have a pretty good income stream outside of the TSP so it's not the end of the world for me. Not fun though watching it melt away though. There's lots of divergences present now that "should" kick off a big rally as soon as tomorrow, but what "should" happen hasn't stopped the stampede of panicked sellers lately. The Fed needs to speak up soon and stop this or it could just all-out collapse I'm afraid.

 

[PessOptimist]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Sounds like everyone has a plan including the turkey chillin.

We are cooking a turkey breast tomorrow and SO insists we must have green bean casserole, yams and mashed potatoes. Just the two of us. My suggestion of turkey loaf mixed with stove top stuffing and cranberry on the side was rejected. Likewise turkey hot dogs. The turkey loaf is really good and has all the tastes you expect if served with the cranberry sauce and bashed taties.

Enjoy the day.

PO

 

[1965Vintage]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Sounds like everyone has a plan including the turkey chillin.

We are cooking a turkey breast tomorrow and SO insists we must have green bean casserole, yams and mashed potatoes. Just the two of us. My suggestion of turkey loaf mixed with stove top stuffing and cranberry on the side was rejected. Likewise turkey hot dogs. The turkey loaf is really good and has all the tastes you expect if served with the cranberry sauce and bashed taties.

Enjoy the day.

PO

Green Bean Casserole is heavenly! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Sent from my XT1585 using TSP Talk Forums mobile app

 

[PessOptimist]

It’s not a loss until you sell it the saying goes. What to do, what to do? Getting tired of seeing the TSP balance go down. Not a catastrophe so far but disheartening.

Monday should have been my last ever contrition to TSP. Time to move it all to G fund maybe. BUT C fund has lost so much since October I would hate to do that.

For now, I will just sit it out.

Where are the 12/21 share prices? It’s after 8PM EST. Did they give the computer app early release today?

While I was typing this, they did update the share prices for today. Yuck. Lost more this month than I paid for the car I am currently driving.

Many of you have lost much more. Best of luck!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

PO

 

[Whipsaw]

I hope you were in for today.

 

[PessOptimist]

The usual 15% was in C. No time to try to play right now.

 

[PessOptimist]

What's all the euphoria about? Up is better than down, true but...
PO

 

[Tsunami]

Congrats on your retirement PO; I was out the door yesterday as well.
Now I wonder how long it will take to sink in that this is something much better than just a long vacation.
I'll post updates on how my retirement benefits progress on my thread. Mine is complicated by having both CSRS and FERS components, but hopefully that doesn't delay things and it all get finalized by 5/1 or 6/1.

 

[Mcqlives]

PessOptimist,

CONGRATS on your retirement!!!

 

[DreamboatAnnie]

Hi PO, Congratulations on your retirement!!! Hope you settle in and have the time of your life! Oh yeah,..this also means we get to play more TSP Poker with you! Wooo…..hoooo….. Best wishes to you !! :smile:

 

[nasa1974]

PO, Congrats. The first month feels like a vacation. Then reality sets in. :laugh:

 

[PessOptimist]

Things are looking a little better stock wise. I will let it sit (what a surprise) at about 15% C the rest G. If the S&P ever hits 2900 again I will put it all in G and say that’s it, I am retired, can’t screw with the balance. Or not. Maybe I will consider the amount in G sacred and mess with the rest now that I have time to watch the market.

The rest of this may belong in the retirement story but maybe not as it has to do with TSP account. I have had more time to think about retirement income this month (uh oh) and wondering if it would not be better in the long run to not apply for social security until I am 70 and draw funds out of the TSP until then.

I am 66[SUP]3/4[/SUP] and SO is 62. I am beyond my “full SS retirement age”. Instead of drawing SS in June at 67 for me and 62[SUP]1/3 [/SUP]for SO, we wait until I am 70 and she is 66[SUP]1/3[/SUP]. The difference is about $12k per year. I start a full withdrawal with monthly payments from the TSP to live well on and at the point we apply for SS benefits I change that monthly withdrawal amount to the minimum which I believe is $200 per month.

The thoughts behind this are that in 4 years I have to take MRD from TSP anyway. We are not particularly concerned with leaving the TSP to our successors. In 3 years, we can adjust the monthly amount from TSP to the minimum. There will still be a healthy (to me) amount in TSP. Longer term this will give us more income.

Comments, especially from those in a similar situation, are appreciated.

PO

 

[Scout333]

Things are looking a little better stock wise. I will let it sit (what a surprise) at about 15% C the rest G. If the S&P ever hits 2900 again I will put it all in G and say that’s it, I am retired, can’t screw with the balance. Or not. Maybe I will consider the amount in G sacred and mess with the rest now that I have time to watch the market.

The rest of this may belong in the retirement story but maybe not as it has to do with TSP account. I have had more time to think about retirement income this month (uh oh) and wondering if it would not be better in the long run to not apply for social security until I am 70 and draw funds out of the TSP until then.

I am 66[SUP]3/4[/SUP] and SO is 62. I am beyond my “full SS retirement age”. Instead of drawing SS in June at 67 for me and 62[SUP]1/3 [/SUP]for SO, we wait until I am 70 and she is 66[SUP]1/3[/SUP]. The difference is about $12k per year. I start a full withdrawal with monthly payments from the TSP to live well on and at the point we apply for SS benefits I change that monthly withdrawal amount to the minimum which I believe is $200 per month.

The thoughts behind this are that in 4 years I have to take MRD from TSP anyway. We are not particularly concerned with leaving the TSP to our successors. In 3 years, we can adjust the monthly amount from TSP to the minimum. There will still be a healthy (to me) amount in TSP. Longer term this will give us more income.

Comments, especially from those in a similar situation, are appreciated.

PO

Very reasonable approach. Also, there used to be a quirky rule which allows the partner who has reached their full retirement age to suspend their Soc. Sec. to age 70 but still draw 50% of their spouse's Soc. Sec. until they reach 70. Not sure if this is still allowed heard a rumor that this rule has been changed? Might be worth checking into.

 

[Scout333]

PO, unfortunately law was changed effective 4-30-2016.
https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/claiming.html

 

[nasa1974]

PO, unfortunately law was changed effective 4-30-2016.
https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/claiming.html

Thanks Scout, good infoprmation.

 

[nasa1974]

I've got to start brushing up on SS. I'll be 67 and the wife will be 66 this year and I've been thinking about when we should tap into SS. Part of the problem is I'm CSRS and earned all my SS points outside the government but will get hit with the penalty. Hoping to hold off until 70 1/2 to start using my TSP.

 

[Cactus]

So it's your SS that takes the hit? I always thought that it was your CSRS that took the hit if you qualified for SS no matter when you took it. Not that it matters to me, I'm FERS, but I had a Car Pool buddy on CSRS who claimed he had to take SS at 62 because they were going to dock his CSRS whether he took SS at 62 or not.

 

[Tsunami]

PO, I’d say that the answer is simply to take it quarter-by-quarter, month-by-month, and apply when you reach the point that you need the money, whether it be for day-to-day expenses, or that big vacation, or to start/increase gifting to children, or whatever. That’s my plan. It sounds like you could make it to 70, and since you’ll increase the monthly amount about 8% for each year you wait, and since we’re all unlikely to average 8%/year in our investments over the next few years (who knows though), then it’s a good and 100% safe “investment” to hold out as long as you comfortably can.

In my case, my big thing with SS was to hold out on retiring until the end of 2018 since I fell under the Windfall Elimination Provision (my first 8 years were under CSRS, then I left government for a couple years, then came back but under FERS. With my last 2 paychecks received this month (got my last check yesterday and am so lucky to not be affected by the shutdown) and my annual leave deposit that I’ll hopefully get soon, I have reached the magic 30 years of “substantial earnings” this year so I will not have my SS reduced at all. I’ll post on my thread when I get the annual leave deposit, and my first reduced pension deposit, etc., and keep a running account of the timeline there. I’m hoping it’s finalized by the June 1[SUP]st[/SUP] deposit, and they don’t screw up the CSRS component of my pension.

 

[nasa1974]

So it's your SS that takes the hit? I always thought that it was your CSRS that took the hit if you qualified for SS no matter when you took it. Not that it matters to me, I'm FERS, but I had a Car Pool buddy on CSRS who claimed he had to take SS at 62 because they were going to dock his CSRS whether he took SS at 62 or not.

My SS takes a hit not my CSRS pension.

 

[nasa1974]

PO, I’d say that the answer is simply to take it quarter-by-quarter, month-by-month, and apply when you reach the point that you need the money, whether it be for day-to-day expenses, or that big vacation, or to start/increase gifting to children, or whatever. That’s my plan. It sounds like you could make it to 70, and since you’ll increase the monthly amount about 8% for each year you wait, and since we’re all unlikely to average 8%/year in our investments over the next few years (who knows though), then it’s a good and 100% safe “investment” to hold out as long as you comfortably can.

In my case, my big thing with SS was to hold out on retiring until the end of 2018 since I fell under the Windfall Elimination Provision (my first 8 years were under CSRS, then I left government for a couple years, then came back but under FERS. With my last 2 paychecks received this month (got my last check yesterday and am so lucky to not be affected by the shutdown) and my annual leave deposit that I’ll hopefully get soon, I have reached the magic 30 years of “substantial earnings” this year so I will not have my SS reduced at all. I’ll post on my thread when I get the annual leave deposit, and my first reduced pension deposit, etc., and keep a running account of the timeline there. I’m hoping it’s finalized by the June 1[SUP]st[/SUP] deposit, and they don’t screw up the CSRS component of my pension.

Tsunami, Congrats on retirement.