TSP

They say that the coronavirus is a threat to all of us regardless of who we are and where we live – we are all in the same boat. But are we really?

What a week for the Thrift Savings Plan. The TSP offered more details on how its participants can take loans and withdrawals during the coronavirus pandemic, and the international fund faces a different fate.

In a unanimous decision Wednesday morning, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board voted to defer the implementation of a new, China-inclusive index for the international fund. The board members cited ongoing economic uncertainty from the coronavirus, as well as the president’s three new nominees to FRTIB, as reasons for their decision.

In a rare move, the White House on Monday ordered the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to “immediately halt” plans to transition the international fund to a new, China-inclusive benchmark.

Do you find yourself wistfully looking back to the good old days of 2008-09? If so, welcome to what may be a fast-growing club.

Over the past five months, there have been some major changes to the tax code that could impact the amount you pay and how effectively you use the money in your Thrift Savings Plan, if at all.

Whether you are a plodder or a planner, foot-loose or up-tight, odds are your retirement checklist didn’t mention the possibility of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that would knock the 11-year bull market to its knees.

In addition to upending virtually all aspects of our personal lives — health, safety, socialization — the coronavirus and reaction to it have  forced millions of people to rethink plans for the future.

President Donald Trump hadn’t appointed his own nominees to the fill the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board until Monday, months after members of Congress first expressed deep concerns with the TSP’s plans to expand the international fund to a new, China-inclusive index.

Has your Thrift Savings Plan account shrunk by 20% or more? Has the private sector job you were considering as a second career gone away?

Most of the TSP funds turned in their highest performance in the past 12 months.

Time in grade and in government doesn’t automatically mean you will be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living once you’ve traded your biweekly pay check for a monthly annuity. 

The Thrift Savings Plan has been functioning normally during the pandemic, in large part due to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s efforts to move some 80% of its contractor workforce to telework in three weeks.

If your like most federal investors, a not-so-funny-thing happened to your retirement nest egg earlier this year.