Roth TSP contributions to begin on May 7th

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This week Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) announced that May 7, 2012 will be the day that the TSP will begin to accept Roth TSP contributions.

With the addition of the Roth TSP option, participants can choose to invest pre-tax or after-tax dollars in any of the TSP funds, up to the Internal Revenue Code limits (for 2012 the maximum amount that you can contribute to TSP is $17,000).  TSP participants can currently invest in ten different funds: the five Lifecycle (L) Funds, the Government Securities (G) Fund, and the four broadly diversified stock and bond funds – the Fixed Income Index Investment (F) Fund, the Common Stock Index Investment (C) Fund, the Small Capitalization Index Investment (S) Fund, the International Stock Index Investment (I) Fund.

Money already in your account when you begin making Roth contributions will remain part of your traditional balance.  You will not be able to convert it to Roth.

Please visit the TSP website (www.tsp.gov) for more information to help you decide if this new option will benefit you retirement planning.

Roth TSP Flyer – https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/tsplf30.pdf
TSP Highlights – https://www.tsp.gov/PDF/formspubs/high12a.pdf

Phishing attempt involving DFAS identified

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Beware – scam emails – that appear to be sent by DFAS employees!

There are emails being sent to individuals, including military members, military retirees, and civilian employees, which appear to be sent by a DFAS employee.  Although the email appears to come from a DFAS employee and displays a dot mil address it is actually from a non-government email account.  This is an example of what’s called “spoofing.”

The emails indicate that individuals who are receiving disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) may be able to obtain additional funds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  These emails are not issued by DFAS and will likely result in a financial loss if you comply with the suggestions in the email.  Bottom line – do not send your personal information or copies of your tax returns and 1099s to the individual listed in the email.

The email indicates that individuals receiving VA disability compensation can receive additional funds from the IRS.  The email states that such funds can be obtained by sending copies of your VA award letter, your income tax returns, your 1099-Rs, your RAS statements, and a copy of your DD 214, to a so-called retired Colonel at an address in Florida.  Do NOT follow the suggestions in the email because you will be providing a significant amount of your personal information to a complete stranger, which could result in a financial loss to you.

DFAS has posted information on Facebook and they have also posted some info on the www.dfas.mil website.

Ellsworth Echoes, Episode 5

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Episode 5

April is volunteer appreciation month and so in this podcast we discuss the President’s Volunteer Service Award and reasons to volunteer. For this month’s Personal Financial Management issue, Daphne will talk with Terry Mills from Consumer Credit Counseling about filing your taxes. Finally, Nikki Reynolds, our EFMP Coordinator will talk with Captain Hanson about the EFMP program.

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How to Spend Your Tax Refund Responsibly

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It’s that time of year again that we are all filing our taxes and hoping to get a return back. I know that when I was a young Airman I saw this as an extra pay-day. So instead of paying off my debt, putting it into savings, or investing it, I would buy something I really didn’t need (but didn’t realize that then).

One of those items, a laser disc player, still sits in my garage with multiple laser discs (basically the precursor to the DVD and DVD player) collecting dust. Now over ten years after getting out of the military, I have almost paid off my debt from my younger days and I have set and try to stick to my financial goals.

Check out this article from a site called Give Me Back My Five Bucks. It presents some suggestions for spending your tax refund responsibly.

http://www.givemebackmyfivebucks.com/2012/03/09/how-to-spend-your-tax-refund-responsibily/

Your Facebook Profile Can Predict Your Job Performance – Time Moneyland

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It can take as little as 10 minutes for someone to go through your Facebook profile and predict how you’ll perform in the workplace.

In a new study to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers asked a university professor and two students to spend 10 minutes looking through the Facebook profiles of employed college students. They were then asked a series of personality-related questions about those students, like whether they thought the students were dependable or emotionally stable.

Six months later, the researchers obtained performance reviews of those students and compared those reviews with the earlier Facebook evaluations. The result: a high correlation between the perceptions drawn from Facebook profiles and their performance at work. In fact, the Facebook evaluations proved to be more accurate than traditional personality tests companies often use to gauge prospective employees.