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Return to Article: Retirement savings plan reforms could unfold rapidly

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  Your withdrawals from your regular TSP account will be taxed as regular income at the time you take the money out. If a Roth TSP option is offered, you would pay no taxes on the eventual withdrawal because you would have paid taxes before you put the money in the Roth TSP account. This would be a big advantage for younger workers or those who wanted to hedge against the possibility that income tax rates will go up in the future. However, one thing that would make a Roth vehicle less attractive is if the U.S. tax system ever moved away from income tax and more towards a European-style 'value added tax' system.

  Tom J. Posted June 24, 2009 1:04 PM
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  Don't you DARE talk like that "Dahhuh"! Isn't it bad enough when them get the occasional idea on their own?!

  Tip off Posted June 23, 2009 12:11 PM
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  This is all a precursor to the elimination of the defined benefit plan for retirees...hold your noses new guys your fix'n to get the shaft...a straight 401k retirement with no annuity...welcome to the new world order...it works so well in the private sector they never loose money in their retirement plans...just ask em at Enron...retirement is looking better everyday people...

  Dahhuh Posted June 23, 2009 11:37 AM
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  Why don't they tell us how to calculate our taxes on withdrawals from the TSP? I don't have a clue. Help!

  Paul Silver Posted June 18, 2009 11:37 AM
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  Has anything been learned from the economic crisis? This deal to buy the indexing giant from Barclays creates a money-management giant roughly 2X the size of its closest competitor but this is a good thing??? People want Blackstone which will become to big and powerful to fail to manage our retirement funds? Seriously, people need to get a clue what we're faced with here. Also, people need to realize with foreigner buying less and less of our debt and our budget deficits in the trillions it is a no brainer they are going to need domestic demand for what will amount to junk treasury bonds since the dollar is expected to get further hammered. This is why they need people to get vested right away...Do yourselves a favor and divest and if anything invest in funds exposed to China and the other BRIC countries. There are plenty of funds that will give better returns in the long run. The U.S. debt market is a malinvestment....

  MP Posted June 17, 2009 2:21 PM
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  Hey Nobody Special, there is a difference between being eligible to "contribute to TSP", "receiving the automatic 1%" and "being vested". Please read the TSP Booklet to understand the difference. I previously worked in Human Resources, in Benefits, for more than 25 years.

  Smith Posted June 17, 2009 1:55 PM
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  The two year wait to implement a Roth TSP is due largely to reprogramming the dozens of separate government payroll systems. I for one don't want my pay, taxes and benefits messed up in order to rush this for the small numbers of people who want the Roth option.

  Joe Civil Posted June 17, 2009 11:35 AM
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  Okay, I am not sure how BlackRock being in the running for control of our TSP retirements is going to work to our advantage. I would normally advocate fiscal conservancy, a cornerstone of BlackRock policy, particularly where it deals with our retirements; but correct me if I am wrong, isn't BlackRock is a subsidiary of the BlackStone Group whose president is David M. Walker, notorious among ex-government managers for his mishandling the leadership of GAO to such an extent that it forced its workers to vote in GAO's first-ever labor union?

  I'm REALLY leery of this acquisition!! I don't think I want David to be anywhere near or having anything to do with our retirements! His track record has NOT impressed this government employee!

  Will the Civil Service personnel or their duly elected representatives have ANY say in this transaction? Not likely!

  I get the feeling that the revolving door of government to civilian sector employee transition is about to hit us in our collective butts.

  Tip off Posted June 17, 2009 9:22 AM
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  I want to see a Class Action Law Suit brought against the TSP. They plan to allow everyone who becomes a federal civil servant after August 2009, to receive matching funds the minute they start. When I joined federal civil service, we had to wait 3 years before we were vested. If they plan to match funds right away, I want them to go back to my first 3 years and give me my matching funds. If not, let's sue to get what is ours.

  NoBodySpecial Posted June 17, 2009 8:51 AM
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  This is just another way of funneling money to the Wall Street bailout.

  JC Posted June 17, 2009 7:02 AM
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  Two years for a ROTH option??? That is unacceptable. That option could be implemented correctly within 6 months. Oh, I forgot - the "implementers" are government employees who could probably really care less how quickly the other 100,000 of us have access to this option. Forget TSP - a lot of us cannot wait two years for the buttons to be pushed. My contributions will be going into a non-TSP private run ROTH.

  c

  cfw Posted June 17, 2009 7:01 AM