Thread: Retired guy needs some advice with rollover to ira.

Originally Posted by FatMan

Ok, I am hoping someone out there has already crossed this bridge. Please lend your knowledge. I want to pull all my money out of tsp because I want access to it as I see fit. I am about to be 60 and will move when I find out the best method to do so.

Who out there is currently reitred, over age 59.5 and has moved there tsp money to a vanguard, schwalb, fidelity, etc... account (ira and/or money market) and heres the big one, using a fund that is very simuar to the G,F,C,S or I fund, AND DO NOT have trading restrictions( vanguard c & S fund look alikes have a 60 day trading restriction) that make it impossible to trade as I do ( move 100% twice a month if I want)!!!!

Yes I am asking alot, but why not, its my money!!! Thanks in advance.. Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, fatman, and welcome! It sounds like you're wanting to put your rollout tsp $ into index mutual funds. mutual fund families like vanguard, schwab, etc generally do put limits on how often you can move your money in and out of a fund, unless you want to pay a 2% penalty for moving faster than that. I know, frustrating, even worse than tsp, tho tsp used to be almost exactly that way when I was first starting out. I know about the mutual fund frustration because I already have a couple small creaky IRAs from my early career days. and yes, they will let me move more than once every 60 days, but only if I pay 2% for any such frequent move. IRA mutual fund companies are bound by legalities, some of them are bound by court litigation and rulings against them from years ago, for letting big dogs play too fast and furious behind the scenes while the little retail mom and pop ira holders in the same funds didn't know and couldn't play.

Sounds like what you are looking for are passively managed index etfs. trade like stocks, traded often like stocks, traders trade them. example "SPY" is the passively-managed EFT equivalent of C. You can buy ETFs at any brokerage, but depending on whether they are ETFs that brokerage house created, or if they are equivalent ETFs with a different name/ticker, created by some other outfit, the brokerage you roll into may charge you a commission each and every time you make one of those 2x/month trades with one of your ETFs. that would add up too.

Hey FatMan. When I resigned from my gov't position, I moved all but $50K from my TSP to an IRA... Scottrade and eventually Fidelity.

I trade ETF's that resemble our TSP funds keeping close to my trading system which trades about once a week at most. No regrets.

FatMan,

Get away from ETFs and mutual funds - the freedom is in individual stocks. They provide income and flexibility. I happen to use Merrill Edge and get 30 free trades/month. I opened an IRA for my wife under my account and will be buying individual stocks to build her an income stream. At some later date some of that money will be transfered to a Roth IRA. You need to think in terms of keeping your AGI as low as possible and stay under that 3.8% radar tax. Just remember that any loss in an IRA is not tax deductable. My wife will be eligible for the 30 free trades because of her balance. There are so many options available.

Tom,
Do you mind sharing your ETF's that you use? (aside from SSO/SDS)

Thanks!

Primarily SSO and SDS in my main IRA with AGG amd TLT at times when on a sell signal, but I have a couple of smaller accounts where I will trade TNA / TZA, and even some of those wild Gold ETF's JNUG /JDST, etc. And sometimes individual stocks.

Originally Posted by Birchtree

FatMan,

Get away from ETFs and mutual funds - the freedom is in individual stocks. They provide income and flexibility. I happen to use Merrill Edge and get 30 free trades/month. I opened an IRA for my wife under my account and will be buying individual stocks to build her an income stream. At some later date some of that money will be transfered to a Roth IRA. You need to think in terms of keeping your AGI as low as possible and stay under that 3.8% radar tax. Just remember that any loss in an IRA is not tax deductable. My wife will be eligible for the 30 free trades because of her balance. There are so many options available.

You'll get your dividends and as long as stocks don't crash you'll be fine. Just be mentally prepared to lose 20% - 40% every so often.

Originally Posted by tsptalk

... Just be mentally prepared to lose 20% - 40% every so often.

You can actually prepare for this? I'd love to know the adult beverage that negates the sinking feeling of a 40% drop!

That was sarcasm, but drinking helps. Friends don't let friends buy and hold (registered trademark)

I appreciate the information. I will do some more research based on this information. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by Frixxxx

You can actually prepare for this? I'd love to know the adult beverage that negates the sinking feeling of a 40% drop!

tequila.

also it helps to chase it with coor's light.

trust me on this one, i'm divorced.

Fat man I retired in May of 2014 and left my tsp as. But I have talked with my broker at Tdameritrade about my tsp account and what to do with it. I have a few stocks with them. He suggested that I move it all over so I could have more flexibility. I have not done so yet. With the higher managemennt fees and the recent instability of the market I have been hesitant to do so. Of course after retiring and no longer able to contribute I have been holding my own and even making a little cash. I just updated my AT to reflect my actual tsp account so it's for real fro real. I just looked at my account balance yesterday and was surprised to see that my gain/loss was a lot less than I thought with this recent downturn. So I'm sticking with my mix for awhile longer. It's scary to move a life time of savings to something new even if it's suppose to be similar to the tsp. Good luck