@MikeM: What penalty? I said in the first post that I have no intention on touching the retirement accounts for several years! :P

I paid a load to buy Oppenheimer’s new fangled commodities fund back in ‘96 or ‘97. It did very well for several years (double digit gains) before crashing and burning. Now it’s long since eliminated from their store of funds. I’m left with some Class A shares there spread out currently among 5 different funds (kind of like a breakfast buffet at a mid-priced hotel chain) - a little bit of everything. I can’t recommend the company or its funds. But I cling to my A shares 20+ years after buying them direct. I’ll say one thing about Oppenheimer: They do have some unique fund offerings in areas many companies don’t care (or dare) to venture into. Just one perspective. FWIW.

I used to suggest that people don't move money out of load families once they've paid the load. It's a sunk cost; you might as well get something out of it (the ability to do exchanges at NAV). But as I noted above, many families, including Oppenheimer, are making (most of) their front end load funds available NTF through supermarkets.
Unless their unique offerings are not available NTF elsewhere, you might consider transferring your holdings to a brokerage for convenience. Not that you need to, but with the NTF option, a compelling reason to stay put (access to A shares without a new load) has disappeared.

I paid a load to buy Oppenheimer’s new fangled commodities fund back in ‘96 or ‘97. It did very well for several years (double digit gains) before crashing and burning. Now it’s long since eliminated from their store of funds. I’m left with some Class A shares there spread out currently among 5 different funds (kind of like a breakfast buffet at a mid-priced hotel chain) - a little bit of everything. I can’t recommend the company or its funds. But I cling to my A shares 20+ years after buying them direct. I’ll say one thing about Oppenheimer: They do have some unique fund offerings in areas many companies don’t care (or dare) to venture into. Just one perspective. FWIW.

If one separates from service in the year one turns 55 (even if before one's birthday), then one can tap employer-plan (government Thrift Savings Plan) without penalty.
Pretty much all tax sheltered plans (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.) can be tapped without penalty so long as one takes "substantially equal periodic payments" until the later of age 59.5 or five years. Section 72(t) payments.
Here's the TSP description of both options and more (annuitization):
http://www.wifle.org/newsletters/december2007/accessingTSPwithnopenalty.pdf

Without even reading the link, I agree with you about Ill. (perhaps an apt abbreviation). When BobC suggested NEARX, I expressed concern about its fairly high percentage of Illinois bonds. He felt that the manager was good at monitoring risk, and I do see that the Illinois holdings have been reduced to 4.34% as of the latest semiannual report.
(Performance has been another story; over the past three years, the supposedly more conservative VMLUX has done better, but I digress.)

I'm early-mid 50s, considering an early out offer. At the moment I don't need that much, but that won't last forever and I want to plan on needing more—say, a total income of about $3-3500/mo before taxes—and just save/invest the excess (which my current status seems to support)—$325K of my 401K is parked in the federal gov. MM "TSP G Fund", waiting for the inevitable market crash (well, at least a 30-40% haircut...though given the runup in the last year, maybe more like 50-60%! :)
Plus, in 4-5 years I will be eligible for a pre-SS pension supplement of about 1200mo/14,400yr, which would last until I'm 62 and SS kicks in (again, which I don't plan on touching until I'm 67-70, unless life shortening/defining chronic/terminal health conditions become an issue).

I sold my positions in Berwyn and the income fund when Chartwell acquired the Berwyn family a couple of years ago. It was time to take my gains (or losses) and walk away.

FYI: It has been almost nine years since the last U.S. bear market, as defined by a 20 percent or more decline in the S&P 500 Index. That’s the second-longest stretch without one since 1928, according to Yardeni Research Inc. Only the period from December 1987 to March 2000 was longer.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-01-25/move-over-groundhog-the-bear-holds-a-lot-of-market-answers

FYI: Any time the stock market reaches all-time highs, the contributing factors are varied and their influences are impossible to measure. What we do know is that American companies for several years now have enjoyed steadily increasing profits, which are finally resulting in lower unemployment figures.
Offsetting the exhilarating “high” we feel these days should be the question, “What’s next?” For many, the answer is to mix some bonds into the portfolio. While this would seem to make sense in this day and age, the concept developed only as late as 1929. Walter Morgan, a young accountant for wealthy individuals, felt that something better than timing the market would offer a better mousetrap for people wanting to benefit from strong markets while, at the same time, limiting their downside.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/25/balanced-fund-investing-only-half-the-freak-out-during-a-stock-market-slide/
M* Snapshot VWELX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/vwelx/quote.html
Lipper Snapshot VWELX:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/vwelx
VEWLX Is Ranked #3 In The (50/70 Equity)) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/allocation-50-to-70-equity/vanguard-wellington-fund/vwelx

Except for last year, all the other Pats years the market was flat or down.

My "retirement" job is putting in gardens for people retiring in their homes but are no longer able to do some of the work. A lot of what I do is building raised beds to help ease the bending and lifting discomfort. The price of cedar this spring is up 27% this winter over the end of summer, and sustainable redwood is up 36%. For some, who have gardened for 50-60 years as a labor of love without putting a dollar amount to their time, the costs of a raised bed or rototilling has them visibly stepping back. This cost increase is going to make getting work harder. For several years retirement communities with budgets kept me comfortably going, but even they have balked at this year's cost estimates for spring work.

A few years ago the fund was closed and shortly thereafter it entered a period of extreme volatility. It can be a difficult fund to hold onto (speaking from experience). We'll see how many of 2017's new investors stick around should things get dicey once again.

I have a regular account and have being making zero fee recurrent invest in TF mutual funds regularly for years. However, short term investment withdraws (less than 180 days) will be subject to penalty fees.

FYI: Marvin Schwartz, one of Neuberger Berman’s most renowned investors, joined the firm’s research department in 1961 at an hourly wage of $1.25. He caught the eye of Philip Straus, the great contrarian investor who was one of the firm’s first partners, and who taught Schwartz the tenets of value investing. Today, Schwartz leads Neuberger’s Straus Group, whose stock picks have roundly beaten the market for the 30 years that Neuberger has kept track, even counting a recent disappointing stretch when oil investments fizzled
Regards,
Ted
http://www.cetusnews.com/business/An-Investment-Pro-Who’s-Seen-It-All-Still-Sees-Upside-for-Stocks.r1TAD5FSz.html

FYI: The level of stock markets differs widely across countries. And right now the U.S. is leading the world. What everyone wants to know is why—and whether its stock market’s current level is justified.
We can get a simple intuitive measure of the differences between countries by looking at price/earnings ratios. I have long advocated the cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio, or CAPE, that John Campbell, now at Harvard University, and I developed 30 years ago.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.barrons.com/articles/america-the-worlds-priciest-stock-market-1517019872

Hate to be missing the Trump bump, but Cinnamond isn't buying, so far as I can tell. (My legacy accounts have enough for the next ten years.) RBS is finally doing well, and I think TEVA will work out. GE will probably work out over a few years, so will average down. Bought some Vanguard Overseas a few months back when my university restricted my options (possibly a good idea, since it's cheaper), although I think I'd be several thousand ahead now otherwise with my previous Fido investment (mostly overseas), but I never know when to sell. Riding VPMAX and VHCAX (adding the yearly minimums) plus VGHAX for the next decade, and moving money from my TDA account into them at the allowable rate. (In hopes that there won't be enough money left when my dementia becomes obvious [strong family history]) for any financial harm to be done.
Will be living on SSI and RMDs from 2019 on, so good ideas are appreciated. (I've really benefited from some, so this is not an idle comment.)

Sorry, perhaps I missed, but have you worked out already how much you need and when and for how long? Are you thinking output stream only and never touching the holdings?

Right, the intent is mostly output stream only (pension from work should be about $1500mo/18,000yr and SS about 1200mo/14,400yr, which the SS I won't be touching for several years!).

Okay, I may be about to retire.
My main nest egg is Vanguard, with about $1,000,000 (I also have about $600K in 401K/Roth IRAs—which I don't plan on touching for several years—and $175K in cash/treasuries/savings bonds).
The Vanguard portfolio breaks down as so:

            Total US Stock- $350K
Total Int'l Stock-  200
Energy Fund-   75
Total Bond-  125
REIT Index-  150
(State) Tax Exempt Muni-  100
=========
$1,000,000
For that $1M, the 2017 Income & Dividends works out to:
                    Taxable- $22.5K
Non‐Taxable-   3.0
=======
$25,500

or just over 2.5%!
Even with the low interest rates, I would think that I should be able to get at least 3.5-5%, even while playing it reasonably safe.
Should this portfolio be radically revamped or just tweaked (maybe take 100K out of Total Stock and open a more income/dividend rich index/sector?)?
Or is 2.5% reasonable/acceptable, given current conditions?

PIMIX is my largest bond holding and yes, it's struggled over the past few weeks for sure. I've been looking at LSYFX but it does seem a bit volatile in that category. Any thoughts on LFRAX ? It seems to be a tamer fund.

LFRAX (assuming it is load waived) is a fine bank loan fund. While not as robust as EIFAX and LSFYX it was positive in 2015 unlike many in that category. But you wouldn’t have wanted to be in bank loans anyway that year. In bull markets in this sector ala post February 2016 it is pretty much straight up with little to no volatility along the way. While PIMIX/PONDX is not my cup of tea and don’t expect returns like the past two years, it is still an excellent fund. It is hard to hop on and off where the momentum is unless you can discern such momentum sooner than later. Most always seem to be weeks to months late to the party.

Currently, in my income sleeve my average yield is 3.41%, my average duration is 3.0 years and my average maturity is 5.3 years. With this, I am not doing much. However, I am thinking of removing one of my shorter duration and lower yielding funds (LALDX or THIFX) and replacing it with a multi-sector income fund (FSTAX). Over the past two years FSTAX has had much better performance (about double) over LALDX and THIFX. My holdings within this sleeve are BAICX, CTFAX, FMTNX, GIFAX, LALDX, LBNDX, NEFZX, THIFX & TSIAX. Most likely, the one that will be removed is THIFX. I might even go with a 18 mo to 24 mo CD with yields ranging from 2.0% to 2.3%. Yield on THIFX is 1.87%. Until recently the CD, from a yield perspective, was not a viable option.