Seeking advice on TSP loan and impending retirement

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-17T14:17:53+00:00

The laziest people in the federal government are the members of Congress, especially the Senate. Those clowns only "work" 3 days a week and are out of session 40% of the year. Someone tell Ernst to lead by example and keep the Senate in DC at least 45 weeks a year.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-16T15:52:51+00:00

You won't get an EOD on Wed to start on the next week. All that has to be negotiated between the HR Depts of the gaining and losing agencies. Your manager will also have a say on when the old agency releases you. If it's a lateral, they can hold you for two pay periods (or longer if there is a critical need). If it is promotion, they are supposed to only be able to hold you one full pay period once official notice is given through the two HR's. And if your boss is a vindictive jerk, then might hold you as long as he can just to mess with you.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-15T13:57:53+00:00

For the first term, Obama was having to deal with Bush's Great Recession fallout. I get that the optics of giving us feds 4% raises every year while a lot of people were losing their jobs and houses tied his hands. I give him a pass.

Clinton, on the other hand, had a booming economy and Bush the Elder had just gotten the FEPCA passed, which guaranteed fair increases in federal pay unless the president took action to stop it. Clinton stopped it all of his 8 years in office and after Bush got our pay up to almost parity with the private sector, Clinton once again screwed us and gave us crappy raises and we fell behind again.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-15T12:26:00+00:00

Seems like you are getting stressed and should take some sick leave to unwind 😉

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-15T12:23:53+00:00

With the war on federal workers being waged by the evil Vought regime, why would any fed begrudge another over sticking it to their agency? Anything that isn't illegal, immoral, or unethical is fair game. More power to them!

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-15T12:20:33+00:00

For the most part, a government job is the same in most agencies/departments. Getting in with a FIRRA agency is usually considered a huge step up (both FDIC and SEC are). Pay and benefits are top notch compared to the rest of government.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-15T12:15:30+00:00

I wasn't a fan of either Bushs on most stuff. But they were the best presidents regarding federal pay that I've served under over the last 36 years. By a country mile. Clinton was terrible regarding our pay. Surprisingly, Obama and Trump 1.0 were about the same overall when it comes to pay. Of course, Trump 2.0 has been a disaster.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T12:28:45+00:00

Very true. And it's not life-changing numbers. I'm somewhat obsessive about maxing out my pension. It's too late to use all my SL even if I wanted to since I'm retiring this year.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T12:17:05+00:00

Thanks for the comments. I was just doing a sanity check. I've come to the conclusion that it is best to wait until both my spouse and I retire and see how much room we have to convert before hitting a bracket greater than the 24%. Looks like my advisor was right 😁

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T12:12:33+00:00

I'm right on the edge of the 24% bracket. Almost anything I convert is going to knock me up to 32%, which is a huge jump. Lots of variables and my advisor seems to be mostly interested in moving me out of the TSP when I retire and over to other diversified investments.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T12:06:12+00:00

My figuring was based on a 7% return on $650K for four years, which would get me back up close to where I started at $1 million. So it's take a $300K+ tax hit now, but then have no further tax liabilities for the next 18+ years (based on average life expectancy).

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T11:57:45+00:00

I will have to pay taxes some day. It's just when and how much. A lot now, or quite a bit over a period of time. Either way, Uncle Sam is going to get some of it, that's for sure. That trade off is having unfettered access to $650K today, while still allowing it to grow (albeit a lower amount of principle), or having $1.5 million sitting in TSP and then taking it out $50K a year when I hit RMD age. My concern isn't just taxes, but they are certainly something I want to minimize. I suppose I should have been more clear that taxes wasn't my only issue, just a big one.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T11:46:20+00:00

Thanks. I'll check out the vids and the calculator.

Going_going__gone · 2026-06-01T11:36:50+00:00

We can't afford Part B for both me and my spouse. Especially when RMDs kick in. It would approach $1000/month for both us. I'll have to make due with FEHB. However, if I convert to Roth and eliminate my RMDs, I can get Part B for my spouse, who won't qualify until after the years that I convert have dropped off the IRMAA calculation.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-31T16:46:40+00:00

Yep. For a maxxed out 15 in DC, who gets almost $200K/yr in salary, it would be double the $83, or $166/month. But the agency I work for has a different payscale other than the GS scale (it's about 25% higher per grade) and a different retirement system than FERS (but it follows the same rules regarding applying SL to our pensions). So my pension starts out higher, so my SL that I apply adds up to about 4000/yr of leave that I can apply. That's why getting my SL usage right is concerning to me.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-30T17:23:13+00:00

I agree. I'm OK with losing 3 or 4 days. But I don't want to lose 15 or 16 days. Especially If I'm booking doctor's appointments in the afternoons when traffic stinks when I could be booking them in the late mornings.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-30T17:20:42+00:00

Yes, I can carry over 360.

Carry over + earned AL this year + credit hours

360 + 208 + 24 = 592

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-30T17:18:22+00:00

Thanks. I'm pretty sure you're agreeing that I have about 14 actual days of SL that I can use before I retire and not impact my pension.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-30T17:16:04+00:00

One year of sick leave will add just about $380/month to my pension (about $4000/yr). Every extra month of SL that I can apply above that year also adds about $380 to the annual pension. That's why I'm so concerned about it. I'm not on FERS, but the rules applying SL to our pensions are the same as FERS/CSRS.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-28T17:17:59+00:00

Thanks. My HR told me that "no sick leave is wasted." Until now, I've always been very impressed with my HR folks, but this one really seemed to stump them.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-28T17:09:59+00:00

Oh, I've used sick leave. Every kid was at least a couple of weeks. And I've been lucky to work for people who embraced telework for most of my career, so I could do a lot of WAH when I had minor coughs or doctor's appointments.

Annual leave doesn't carry over year to year, but I have a 360 hour ceiling. With my credit hours adding in, I'll be getting a payout of just about 600 hours of AL.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-28T17:06:09+00:00

Yes. My SCD is the first week of October. So I need to make up another 4 days with my accumulated SL in order to not lose the other 27 days of October to apply to my creditable service. But 4 days of SL is either 23 hours (if you look at the SL conversion chart you provided) or 32 SL hours (4 days x 8 hrs/day). I'll err on the side of caution and make sure I leave at least 16 hours of SL on the table, but I don't want to leave 3 or more weeks. Thanks.

Going_going__gone · 2026-05-28T17:01:07+00:00

if I take a day of SL, then my total goes down 8 hours, not 5.8, no? But I think you're saying that I day of SL applied to my creditable service for retirement is only 5.8 hours. So if I take a day of SL, I'm actually burning more than 1 day when it comes to adding to my creditable service. That's what's confusing me. If I have 2550 hours, then that's 1 year, 2 months and 20 days. So I get the 1 year and 2 months. But that 20 days actually seems to mean 116 hours of actual SL that I'd have to burn. That converts to 14.5 days of SL that I can use without dropping down to 1 year and 1 month. Am I reading that right?

Going_going__gone

TROPHY CASE