Retired guy needs some advice with rollover to ira.

[driz]

Interesting article on the main page.

TSP moves to expand investment, withdrawal choices - The Washington Post

Good article but all they are offering is tid bits. Sure they are willing to offer up a few mutual funds but what is that really going to do for most of us? This sounds like some underdog politician:1244: doing his dance to get attention. The bottom line, that unspeakable taboo subject they won't even hint is NUMBER OF TRADES PER MONTH. Everybody knows this is the 800 lb gorilla in the room yet they just like the neutered politician just keep tap dancing around the subject and hoping nobody notices. They keep referring to the high load mutuals and broker fees and sure they are out there but I would guess anyone with enough experience and cash to head outside is smart enough to easily avoid them.
I was surprised to see the number of retirees bailing at 40, now it's up to 55%. I'm sure they get this,its not rocket science. The trouble is they just don't want to do it so they keep offering up tid bits. I think the heady days of day trading have faded into the past so what's the harm in one or two more trades a month? Looking at those numbers though I truly think these guys are going to have to cave in and it will be sooner rather than later and offering up a few tid bits just ain't gonna cut it. Either way it goes I will probably be joining the exodus myself next year. I keep looking for reasons not to stuff the whole thing in with my other Vanguard account and I keep seeing none at all.

 

[jimijr]

I rolled mine into a pre-existing traditional IRA, takes 30 days for OPM to notify TSP. You'll pay a fee but you'll get service. They'll give you a questionnaire to determine your risk level and go from there, I'm level 2 next to no risk at all. I'm happy with the results so far, 5 years now.

 

[GUCHI]

Very interesting article about TSP. I retired about 1 year ago and still fully invested with tsp. I spoke with my broker shortly after retirement and he suggested rolling it over into an IRA with many options, I have not done so yet but considering. A wise veteran I worked with told me 25 years ago that if the gubmint offers you something it's not for your benifit. That was when they tried to get CSRS to convert to FERS, which I did not do thanks to Albert. As a federal employee working I never forgot that.

 

[nnuut]

Albert was a smart Dude, I didn't move to FERS myself, it didn't make sense to me.

 

[driz]

Albert was a smart Dude, I didn't move to FERS myself, it didn't make sense to me.

Do you mean switch from CSRS over to FERS way back when? :blink: I don't think that was a wise idea for almost anybody. FERS was a brilliant move by Reagan to take the responsibility for paying for feds retirement (or at least a major part of it) off the gov and dump it right on the individual employee. Moreover it's a pay up front move. I used to cringe when guys would tell me they weren't even getting the full match. I just couldn't get it through their heads just how much less their retirement was going to be than the CSRS guys were getting unless they started stashing those step and grade increases rather than buying "nice stuff" and movin on up. Unfortunately there was almost no information readily available, retirement calculators were off in the future and the agencies themselves did little or nothing to inform people of what they were in for. As a result there are a whole lot of disappointed Feds out there right now who recently figured out they are not as financially fit as they thought they would be. Even now most of the people that I know of in my former agency get nearly all of their retirement information from folks who are getting ready to leave.

 

[alevin]

I never had the choice between CSRS and FERS, not really, not enough CSRS years in as of mid-80s, to qualify for CSRS-Offset, much less full CSRS. but HR had so little understanding themselves back in the transition era, that I was advised on the pros and cons of choosing, and was given a piece of paper to sign saying that I voluntarily chose to go FERS. Which I signed.

the one and only advantage of FERS I understood at the time, and which caused me to semi-consciously "voluntarily choose" to go FERS, was that IF I got RIF'd at some point in fed career before getting sufficient years or age in, I could take what retirement funds I'd accumulated up to that point in TSP-I could take with me, including the match. A perceived advantage of FERS vs CSRS, given a concurrent example of consequences of "going CSRS" at the time: the example of my dad who faced getting RIF'd a handful of years short of CSRS retirement.

but I sure didn't have a clue what to do with index (tsp) funds. American Assoc of Indiv Investors, which I subscribed to for a couple years early on, mainly talked about stocks, as I recall. of course I had no additional investable funds to spare to put into stocks outside tsp, so trying to gain financial education that way did little good. then taxable IRAs came along around the time I had a little extra cashflow which I put into taxable IRA mutual funds, until I maxed out on the tax-deferred contributions side of IRAs, at which point I went back to blindly putting more funds into tsp, not having any real clue how to manage account or balance among the limited choices we had in tsp, or what level of risk was appropriate to my age, years in service.

I didn't know I could watch real market indices on daily/weekly basis and correlate their performance to performance of C/S/F, etc. until 20 years into the game, I finally started catching a clue, thanks to internet access and reading. so here I am, still catching up on understanding appropriate exposure and risk levels given rapidly approaching proximity of full retirement age/years. and feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the balance in the account, given everything else going on economically in the world, including at home in dear old G and appropriations and national debt/deficit, and the real economy at home and abroad vs market insanities. which is why I will likely try to continuing working a few months/years past eligibility date, as long as they can afford to keep me, which becomes more tenuous by the year.

 

[nnuut]

Do you mean switch from CSRS over to FERS way back when? :blink: I don't think that was a wise idea for almost anybody. FERS was a brilliant move by Reagan to take the responsibility for paying for feds retirement (or at least a major part of it) off the gov and dump it right on the individual employee. Moreover it's a pay up front move. I used to cringe when guys would tell me they weren't even getting the full match. I just couldn't get it through their heads just how much less their retirement was going to be than the CSRS guys were getting unless they started stashing those step and grade increases rather than buying "nice stuff" and movin on up. Unfortunately there was almost no information readily available, retirement calculators were off in the future and the agencies themselves did little or nothing to inform people of what they were in for. As a result there are a whole lot of disappointed Feds out there right now who recently figured out they are not as financially fit as they thought they would be. Even now most of the people that I know of in my former agency get nearly all of their retirement information from folks who are getting ready to leave.

Yes I meant switching from CSRS to FERS, and they tried twice.
The bad thing for me was at that time I was a second level supervisor and my BOSS assigned me to present the government's presentations explaining FERS and how it was possible to earn more money for retirement if they would switch!! I had done all the math and in my situation [with 12 years under CSRS + Military time] it didn't make good walking around sense for me to switch. It was hard for me to advise our employees when I didn't agree with what they were preaching, but it was my job and I did it along with a few of my own thoughts and reasons behind what I believed to be the truth. It was up to them to make their own decisions.

 

[GUCHI]

It's really a shame on the govt for being so lazed on educating their employees on the benifits of investing especially the fers employees. I started in 1979 under CSRS without a clue about tsp. I put it in g thinking it should do something. But after years of low growth and no investment advice from agency I started looking at things myself. And ohhhhh found tsp talk later to further educate myself. I would tell comrades who wanted to listen to make all they could with there tsp or it would not be there when they get to the end of the road. One very good friend heard me but would not move into equities.but after 5 years he called and said what do I do? I said you have 20 plus years,spread it out and let it ride. He did and the first year he made more that year than he had done previously with all the years combined. The tsp board after all these years are still having the same issues with new employees sticking with G fund and making nothing. What a shame. They are trying new things but it does not seem to work. People need to see a difference like my friend. Wish I had somebody tell me when I was stuck in G fund years ago. Still have my tsp and fed retirement tho. Lucky me. Maybe I'm missing something but if you have many years till retirement I would go all in and stay that way. I would not care if the market dropped and things were, I would be buying shares at bargain basement prices and when market is up, well your winning. Sounds like win win to me, cuz everyone knows the market moves in high and low cycles. Good luck all

 

[2moryrs]

Hi Fatman!
I am retired, but chose to stay in TSP due to several reasons, but mostly because tsptalk helped me grow my tsp fund from 56k to 115k with no additional additions by me. That's right, I grew my tsp just by following advice received here, and listening to my "inner voice" about what was best for me. Even with only 2 trades a month, TSP is still the best low cost investment vehicle. (Especially for those of us that did not believe the gubmint about switching to FERS.)
I think I read that the TSP Board was considering other flexible options for receiving funds from our accounts. You might want to check that out.
2moryrs-NOT