Thread: Tsp

Originally Posted by fuzzduzz

I started in the postal service in April of 1985 however the TSP Plan didn't acually start until 1987. So where would the retirement monies taken out of my paycheck go to from 1985 to 1987???

I believe those are the ones the USPS uses to help fund your pension. Bottom right of you paycheck stub.


http://www.postalreporter.com/earnings_statement.htm

That's not what I'm reffering to. When I started back in 1985 the old system (CSRS) was still in effect. So would the post office automatically take money out of my paycheck and put it into the current retirement (CSRS)? If so where is that money? If not they didn't take any money out for the current retirement system (not referring to the usps pension under the new system FERS)?

OK. Are you CSRS or FERS? I would guess if you went from CSRS to FERS they should transfer the money over to the FERS account. It is just a change of retirement account. If not............

Anyone hired after 1/1/1984 by the Federal Government is FERS. Is the post office different?

TSP got off the ground later, but the cut off for FERS was 1/1/84.

I work for the Dept of Treasury. Since FERS is partly civil service pension, they have always withheld a small portion of civil service retirement....it will be used to fund the civil service portion of retirement. My retirement income will be made up of 3 components (1) social security (2) civil service retirement (3) TSP

The percentage that they withheld for the civil service retirement portion did not change between the time I was hired 7/1/84 and the time TSP got off the ground (believe was 1987)....the thing was already planned, and in motion for anyone hired after 1/1/84.

Obviously, since you are asking the question, the post office may be different. Sorry I can't help you with that.

GA

I see that my reply above was clear as mud!

To clarify, FERS was effective 1/1/84, it just took til 1987 to get TSP up and running.

But even though TSP was not up and running until 1987, if hired after 1/1/84, Federal employees are FERS.

You can read about FERS at the TSP.gov website.

FERS retirement has 3 components:

1. social security, which is withheld from pay check
2. government retirement plan, which is withheld from pay check - not voluntary
3. TSP, which is like a 401K, and any witholdings from pay check are voluntary

So, while I can't speak for the post office (which may be different) or even the military (which may be different), when it comes to just a regular federal employee hired after 1/1/84:

The amount withheld from paycheck for retirement, for employees starting in 1984 or later, goes into a retirement fund managed by OPM (I believe).....and that is true for the withholdings before 1987 and after 1987.

GA

fuzzduzz,
You propose a good question. I never found out the answer. And yet I had to payback my military time, but never found out about the 85 to 87 circumstances......................Spaf

Originally Posted by fuzzduzz

I started in the postal service in April of 1985 however the TSP Plan didn't acually start until 1987. So where would the retirement monies taken out of my paycheck go to from 1985 to 1987???

http://www.postalmag.com/retirement.htm

according to this site, FERS was implemented by the Postal Service at the same time as other Federal Agencies, so if you were hired after 1/1/84, all your retirement witholdings were and have continued to be under the FERS plan, and were contributed, before 87 and after 87, to your Federal Retirement that you will receive in addition to Social Security.

In a nutshell, nothing changed about your retirement withholdings or what happened to them, before, or after 87. There was nothing magic about the year 1987 with regard to your government retirement, other than the fact that was the year TSP was finally up and running, so then you had that as well as your FERS Government retirement plan and social security.

GA

GA

Is there a way to claim the loss in your 401K on your taxes?

Originally Posted by malyla

Is there a way to claim the loss in your 401K on your taxes?

The 99.9% answer is no. The reason: You never PAID taxes on the money yet.

http://sbk.online.wsj.com/article/SB...365110449.html
http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/11/pf/e...pert/index.htm

There is a way but it has something to do with your tax deferred contributions & employee contributions reaching the level of zero. Then anything after that can be used to show a "loss".

Anyone else got better info?

Here's some info regarding the first question in this thread. It may still be of interest to someone.

http://www.nitpinc.com/faq/faq.pl?fi...ifunction=form

Lots of good information there.

Mary

Why do the fund losses shown on this site's Market Comments page not agree with what is on TSP.GOV?? For example, this site shows losses for the I fund at 51.15% while the TSP site has it down 42.67 percent for the year.