Search:

Custom Search

Readers' Comments

Total Comments: 24
Page 1 of 3

« Previous | Next »

Retirement Planning and the Decline of Your TSP Investments

NSPS is the Double Whammy

Government Analyst
Department of Defense
Mon Mar 2, 2009 8:13 AM

Post Reply

I can live with the fact that TSP funds are down. With two + master degrees I can figure out who to distrbute my money between the extremely limited savings options that the TSP system offers. But what is intollerable is when the Federal government changes the federal rules 66% of the way through my career and start playing with how money is distributed between my bonus and my pay. With bigger bonuses given under NSPS, my retirement pay is going to be a lot less. My retirement was already reduced with the transition from CSRS to FERS and now it is fundamentally being reduced again with the governments new math under NSPS. When are people going to wake up and demand that what they have been promised for the majority of their career is being reworked to the governments financial favor. The TSP losses that government Civil Service is enduring are acceptable...we agreed to this system; But NSPS was shoved down our collective throats and is the most unfair system ever devised. Help!

Re: NSPS is the Double Whammy

Diversity Manager
DOL
Mon Mar 2, 2009 7:12 PM
Lets see you received double what other CS got over the past 2 years. Even if the $$ were evenly split between bonus and salary you made out like a bandit. One can only assume that your Masters did not have any math courses

Just Don't Retire

Attorney
DOD
Mon Mar 2, 2009 8:24 AM

Post Reply

I have concluded that not retiring is not such a bad idea. We get 26 days of annual leave a year, fairly reasonable hours, most weekends off. If I plan an interesting life around work I think I can work to the end of my life. And at they very end of life I will have about 2 years sick leave to burn to get me to the end.

Re: Just Don't Retire

Eligible to Retire
Cant Anytime Soon
Mon Mar 2, 2009 10:26 AM
If you are referring to the "Terminal Sick Leave" program--"getting sick" and riding out your SL balance in spite of not being one with chronic ailments--just make sure you really are sick. As an attorney, I think you would realize that what you are suggesting is waste, fraud, and abuse of the sick leave program.

I worked in an agency where this was observed widely, and management at the highest levels condoned and participated in it themselves. It certainly was a convenient way to get someone out of the way that was considered not to be a team player.

Re: Just Don't Retire

Attorney
DOD
Tue Mar 3, 2009 9:37 AM
Dear "Eligible to Retire," I am certainly not suggesting as you say, " As an attorney, I think you would realize that what you are suggesting is waste, fraud, and abuse of the sick leave program." Quite the opposite - I am proposing working your entire life (if you can) and then when you reach the point of your terminal, life ending illness, then using all your sick leave to exhaustion. You may have a couple of years of sick leave in your late 70s or mid 80s. Nothing wrong or fraudulant about that - I am talking about using sick leave when you are indeed sick - at the end of your life and dying - probably the sickest time in your life. I would have a medical certification submitted to my agency documenting this terminal illness and the medical need to take sick leave to justify the lengthy sick leave use. Do you have any doubts about the propriety of this approach? Thought you should be corrected on this point and my true intentions on the proper use of sick leave. Helpful?

Glad to have a job

Program Analyst
Veterans Administration
Mon Mar 2, 2009 9:05 AM

Post Reply

At the rate at which the current administration and congress is destroying our governmental system as we know it, the days before this country is either broken apart into sovereign nation states or becomes as socialist as the USSR are short. I'm glad to have a job but one has to wonder if all that I've saved in TSP will ever be worth anything to me if a Dollar becomse as valuable as a Rubel.

TSP

program manager
usda
Mon Mar 2, 2009 10:05 AM

Post Reply

One apparent factor in your survey and the range of comments is that those who are younger with most of their careers ahead of them, have time on their side and can view the present period as one of opportunity for getting into investments at 20 to 30 years lows. Those whose careers are mostly behind them however and who have followed you advice of the past year, to stay in their funds and not lock in losses, have little time left and instead, have watched as 50% or more of their lifetime savings and earnings have vanished... contrary to many of the "insider trading" corporate execs who began pulling large amounts of stock and money out of their companies over a year ago and were pretty out of the nose-dive game before last fall....

Assuming it atakes another 10 to 15 year cycle to recover as some are now predicting, the problems of the retired and near retired will not be much of a factor anymore, as many of them will no longer be around.

It is indeed dire.

Retired
Retired
Mon Mar 2, 2009 10:13 AM

Post Reply

Even the "safe" funds are not safe. The most cruel tax of all is inflation and that is sure to arrive soon given the president and congress' economic policies. It will make even money in the G fund more like monopoly money and decrease the purchasing power of the money we do get. On top of that, the ones who are working can look forward to a "share the pain" 2% increase that will not begin to keep pace with inflation and is therefore a pay cut of yet to be determined percent.

Change we can believe in.

another tactic

worker bee
any
Mon Mar 2, 2009 11:44 AM

Post Reply

Many people seem to have moved money to G and put ongoing current contributions to other funds. I did the opposite. In March 2008 I left my existing balances in the five funds alone, but changed all current contributions to G.

Hopefully, the remaining stock funds will grow, but if I don't regain what I have lost by the time I need the money (I'm 52 now), at least I will not lose any new contributions. I'm also CSRS, so TSP isn't as important to my retirement as it is to FERS employees.

Something about not throwing good money after bad allows me to sleep better at night. My TSP balance is equal to my lifetime contributions right now, so the losses have all been 'paper' losses of prior 'paper' gains. I still got the income tax breaks along the way, so I guess I'm still ahead.

Re: another tactic

Karl
Nervous Hospital
Mon Mar 2, 2009 1:25 PM
As consolidation, I reckon we really didn't lose 100% of our paper losses but more like 75%. 25% of our withdrawal, when we make it, belongs to Uncle and I reckon that is likely to go up before it goes down. If you are nervous now, don't drink coffee because it makes me more nervous when I drink it. If you do decide to drink coffee, make it a biggun.

FERS mediocre retirement plan

felix perez
VA
Mon Mar 2, 2009 12:51 PM

Post Reply

When FERS came into effect it was printed as the best of the best...specially the TSP account...they were talking about its marvellous impact on retirement...that you as a federal employee will retire with eneough money to live well during the years of need. That you will have no less than $200,000 cash at your retirement. But it happened that the economy failed and now we are in the worst situation...we have no money for retirement. Our FERS retirement % dropped and the TSP didn work...What the government will do to help the people who gave all their life to serve others?

Total Comments: 24
Page 1 of 3

« Previous | Next »

Add a Comment about this Article

** All fields are required.
Note: Your comments will not show up right away. FedSmith.com selects the most insightful comments from our readers for posting. If selected, your comments will show up in the comments section after they have been reviewed and approved. See our terms of use for more information.