TSP Changes for 2019

If you haven’t heard the Thrift Savings Plan have finally made changes that are more favorable for retirees. For many years  retirees opted to withdraw their funds and/or transfer them to an Traditional IRA in order to have more control over their withdrawals. Despite the fact that doing this meant that they would be paying higher management fees. Now you can leave your money in the TSP without the worry of trying to figure out how much your one time, lump sum withdrawal and should be.

So what are these changes that have been made to the TSP?

• If you separate from Federal service, you can take multiple post-separation partial withdrawals. One every 30 days to keep from duplicates being put through accidentally.        
•  If you are 59 ½ or older and still working, you can take up to four withdrawals a year. 
• You can now choose if you want to withdraw from your Traditional TSP, Roth TSP or both.
• If you separate from Federal service you can take monthly, quarterly or yearly payments.
• You can stop, start, or make changes to your scheduled installment payments at any time.
• You can use the online tools to make withdrawals under the My Account section.

Now that TSP has made the changes, I don’t know about you but I plan on keeping my money in the TSP after I retire.  These changes will give me more freedom over my withdrawals. When I want to keep my taxable income low, but also make a large withdrawal for a big purchase, I can now choose to make a withdrawal from my Roth and if I’m not worried about the taxable income that year, I can choose the Traditional. Oh what, what freedom we have now that we able to choose how we want to spend our money. Not to mention the in service withdrawals for those who are 59 ½ or older.

Ms. Smart