Withdrawal of TSP in Full

[spotranger]

What is the disadvantage of lump sum withdrawal of TSP?

We (husband and wife) are both retired now.

[NateTheGrEAt]

Hi @spotranger - thanks for your question and congratulations on retirement!

The main disadvantage of taking the entire amount at once is that this can put you into a higher tax bracket, depending on the account balance. This could result in your paying more total tax than if you waited and took the money out over time.

A counter argument could be that if you expect tax rates to go up significantly in the future, that might not be true. However, no one can predict future tax rates, so this would be highly speculative. 

I would run the numbers both ways (taking it all now versus taking it on a more typical schedule)  and see if this helps give you a feel for what the right decision is for you. You can use TaxCaster to help with this forecasting. 

Hope this information was helpful!