Rollover Preparation Guide | Mountain View Wealth Management

First things first — where are you on the timeline?

Retirement date — actual or target Where are you in your federal career? Still serving Separating or retiring within the next couple of years Already separated or retired

Your TSP snapshot

Approximate account value Roth, Traditional, or both? Traditional only Roth only Both Honestly not sure — and that’s fine If both — roughly how does it split? (optional)

Your retirement paycheck

How much income do you want in retirement? How much of that will already be guaranteed — your FERS pension, Social Security, and any other pensions or annuities, combined? Nearly all of it — roughly three-quarters or more About half to three-quarters Less than half Very little — the savings will have to do most of the work Not sure yet — I haven’t run the FERS or Social Security numbers If you know them — your FERS and Social Security estimates (optional)

The gap between these two answers — what you want and what’s already guaranteed — is the job your TSP has to do. Every good rollover decision starts by measuring it.

What do you want these funds to do?

Check everything that applies. Most people check three or four, and the combination tells us more than any single answer.

Keep growing. This money is for later. Let it keep compounding. Create a Pension. Turn savings into steady income that lands right alongside FERS and Social Security. Cover the bridge years. Pay for life between leaving service and the day Social Security starts. Protect what I’ve built. The saving is done. A bad market shouldn’t get to undo it. Take care of my family. Security for a surviving spouse, and an inheritance done right. Stand ready for health costs. Medical bills, and the possibility of long-term care down the road. Pay for something specific. A home project, travel years, helping family, giving. I’m not sure yet. A fine answer. Figuring this out is what the meeting is for. Other priorities / details on any of the above (optional) If you checked several, which one is the headline? When will you first need to draw on this money? Already drawing on it Within the next two years Two to five years out Five to ten years out Ten-plus years out, possibly never. It may pass to the next generation.

Your experience & style

How would you describe your investment knowledge and experience? Forget the standard risk labels — nobody actually knows if they’re a “moderate.” Try this instead. Five portfolios, one $1,000,000 balance. For each, here’s a typical strong year and a typical bad one. Which ride would you actually stay on? Portfolio A — a strong year: +$400,000 · a bad year: −$350,000
swing for the fences — maximum growth, stomach required Portfolio B — a strong year: +$280,000 · a bad year: −$220,000
aggressive by design — big engine, real turbulence Portfolio C — a strong year: +$180,000 · a bad year: −$120,000
growth with guardrails — most of the market’s ride, worst days trimmed Portfolio D — a strong year: +$100,000 · a bad year: −$50,000
steady climber — modest engine, shallow dips Portfolio E — a strong year: +$40,000 · a bad year: cannot fall
certainty first — G-Fund-style safety; growth is the trade-away

Illustrative ranges only — not any actual portfolio, prediction, or promise. Their only job is honesty about the trade.

Now the gut check. It’s a real bear market — the portfolio you just picked has its bad year, and the statement shows the loss. What do you actually do? Sell — I couldn’t take watching it fall further Hold on, but lose sleep — I’d stay the course and hate every minute Hold calmly — downturns are the admission price; I’d barely check the statement Buy more — falling prices are a sale on the same investments Honestly, I don’t know — I’ve never been through one with this much at stake (the most honest answer on the page)

If your answer here doesn’t match the portfolio you picked above — that’s not a mistake. That gap is the single most useful thing you can tell us, and closing it is what good planning does.

My answer changes by bucket — aggressive with money I won’t touch for years, protective with money I’ll need soon (a very good answer, by the way) Anything else about you and risk, in your own words (optional)

The ten questions worth answering before moving a dollar

These come from our TSP Rollover Guide. Short answers are perfect; “don’t know yet” is a genuinely useful answer — it tells us where to focus.

1. When exactly do you separate — and do you know which withdrawal rules your birthday and that date unlock, or forfeit?

2. If you retire before 59½, which dollars pay for the in-between years — and could a rollover accidentally lock them behind a penalty?

3. Look at your traditional balance. How much of it is actually yours, and how much is deferred taxes — and when the bill comes due, do you expect rates to be higher or lower than today?

4. If the market fell 30% the year after you retired, would your plan survive it — mathematically and emotionally?

5. If you died this year, does your spouse know — specifically — what happens to your TSP, your FERS survivor annuity, and the smaller of your two Social Security checks, starting the very next month?

6. What income floor do your FERS pension and Social Security already guarantee — and how much more certainty is actually worth paying for?

7. The G Fund cannot be repurchased once your money leaves. Does it have a job in your plan that nothing outside the TSP can do?

8. For whatever you’d pay outside the TSP — fund costs plus any advisor, ours included — can you name, out loud, exactly what you’re getting for it?

9. Which parts of this decision can be undone later — and which are one-way doors? Could you list them before walking through one?

10. Is anyone recommending this rollover being paid because it happens — and have they told you that, unprompted? Ask it of everyone. Ask it of us.

Anything else we should know?

Last step

Your name Your email (we’ll copy you on what you send us) Phone (optional) Date of birth

Why we ask: several of the rules in this decision — the age-55 rule, penalty-free access at 59½, charitable giving at 70½, required withdrawals at 73 or 75 — turn entirely on your birthday.