I got the following comment from Angela and thought there might be others who were in a similar situation:
Question for you Amy: in the next week or so, I’ll be migrating my site from TypePad to WordPress. I have nearly 1,800 posts moving. Should I go ahead and change the Permalink settings now – in preparation for the move?
I've never worked with Typepad. (For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's another blogging platform. I explain blogging platforms here.) Given my ignorance, it's probably best I don't give you any advice about it. 
However, after a quick search, I found this post, Moving from Typepad to WordPress: 2009 Guide, from Foliovision which looks pretty thorough.
I hope it's helpful!
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites. In plain English. Want to 
Wow! A post just to answer my question? I feel flattered! I've actually hired the help of Foliovision for my migration this week – I felt the technical aspects of moving was more than I could handle.
That being said, I'm trying to do everything I can on my end in preparation for them moving the posts over. Does that make sense? I've actually worked my way through most of your posts and have been able to get some of the settings and plug-ins up and going.
At this point, I think I'll wait until they've completed the move before I mess with the permalinks.
Thanks, Amy!
How about moving from blogger to wordpress I so don't want to pay the fees and from what i understand it's quite simple but cannot find anything under google that really makes since. I love your blog by the way
I'll be covering the basic Blogger to WordPress process but if you want a head start, from your WordPress Dashboard–>Tools–>Import–>Blogger.
(Note: This will not transfer your followers or "Google Juice" but only your posts, comments, etc. from your Blogger blog to your WordPress blog.)
Angie, I'm not the expert here…but I think moving to Blogger – WP is MUCH MUCH easier than TypePad! TypePad is not easy to move out of – hence, I needed help. I felt the amount of time, traffic, and effort I put into my blog thus far justifies the cost. I feel I'm actually getting a pretty decent deal! (BTW, pretty sure FolioVision is only for TP- WP migrations.)