Thread: Hi All!!

Okay, thanks!!

Like I said, I've got a little ways to go before I hit that milestone. I will look into rolling funds over appropriately, though--thanks!!

A

Your welcome! Also, if you are able to save more than $4000, it goes up to $5000 in 2008 BTW, I would adjust your TSP contributions according. You can always change it back at the end of the year to save up your $4000 as soon as possible. Some people recommend putting some funds into a savings account or money market account were you have some "quick" funds. This is okay but I wouldn't put more than a couple grand away like that. If you get into a "bind", you can do an electronic transfer from your ROTH into your checking in about a week and pay no penalty on any contributions you have made to it. Just remember this doesn't include earnings.

That's about all I have to say about that............

Hmmmmm....... Now, that's interesting.

I've always heard the usual "6-8 months living expenses" socked away as an emergency fund. As a federal worker, I've always figured I could get away with less than that in a money market because I feel fairly secure in my job. So, right now, I have 4 months sitting in a money market account. Sounds like I can move that into a ROTH and still consider that lump contribution as "emergency fund" since I could pull it out fairly quickly (within about a week)??? And as long as I don't need it, the earnings are all tax-free for retirement as opposed to in my MMA getting taxed every year?!

Wow!! I think I just learned something VERY importnat here--consider me done for the day!!! But also, correct me if my logic is incorrect....

A

Sounds like a plan to me. Others are free to chime in of course..............



oh that's right, it's Friday................

Originally Posted by jeepjeep92

Hmmmmm....... Now, that's interesting.

I've always heard the usual "6-8 months living expenses" socked away as an emergency fund. As a federal worker, I've always figured I could get away with less than that in a money market because I feel fairly secure in my job. So, right now, I have 4 months sitting in a money market account. Sounds like I can move that into a ROTH and still consider that lump contribution as "emergency fund" since I could pull it out fairly quickly (within about a week)??? And as long as I don't need it, the earnings are all tax-free for retirement as opposed to in my MMA getting taxed every year?!

Wow!! I think I just learned something VERY importnat here--consider me done for the day!!! But also, correct me if my logic is incorrect....

A

Jeep-

I maintain two seperate TSP accounts-

My military one is small, as it was started with funds from National Guard duty for a year- not active duty, and was about $1000 upon my Guard retirement in 2004.

My other is my federal employee account, which I started when I joined government in 92- so it is a bit bigger.

I keep both seperate- I had the fed first, so when I got the military account (they didnt' let Guard people have TSP until 2002, I think it was..) I use different strategy for that one. They have a single log-in (SSN, and only one password), and then I get to click a button asking which account, mil or civilian.

I play hard with my Mil account, moving only a few times a year, but putting in a single fund (It is in "G" right now, I just came out of four months of "I") .

ON the other hand, my civilian account is usually balanced between different stock funds, and then moved back and forth to "G" as the market timing appears to me. I rarely use "F" fund, now that we are in a interest rate rising cycle. When interest rates were falling, I sometimes would get a boost from "F".

It's nice to have two sets of funds to play with. That way I can compare returns when faced with trying two philosphys of investing. When one appears to be working better, I can adjust the other.

Anyway, that's what I do.

Welcome, and have fun.

Thanks, James!

That's interesting that you have one log-in and I don't. I can't believe it's because I started military and went fed as opposed to you starting fed then going military.

I've been thinking about the responses that I've gotten and Rod said:

More $$$ you have in one account= more shares= more $$$ (I don't know how to quote another post on these boards yet....)

But, is that thinking flawed? Only because when I started TSPing in 2003, I was buying I shares at a much lower rate than what I would be purchasing them for now if I were to roll over the money.... Seems to me that I would then have less shares. Or should I be looking at it as "the shares roll over from one account to another and not the money amount"?

Thanks in advance for responses--I'm about to head out for the weekend but will be back with a new round of questions for Monday!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Angela

The price of the shares is exactly the same- it doesn't matter whether its in a mil account or a civilian fed account.


One thing to think about-

If you ever want to take out a TSP loan, you can take it out from the civilian side, but once you leave the military, you are considered a "seperated employee", and are not able to take money out in the form of a loan from that military account- because you have "seperated."

In this kind of a situation, you might benefit from consolidating the two accounts into one. Then you could borrow from it if you needed to. Otherwise, you can only borrow from the account that you still are employed under (civilian), and there are ratios and limits on how much you can borrow. Until you build up your civilian account there are $ limits involved.

Anyway, have fun. Playing with money that you can't touch for years is a lot of fun. Especially the challenge of how fast can you use it to work for you. You can leave it in one place , or you can move it around. You just can't take it out for a long, long time.

But then again, that's half the fun.