2015 Contribution Limits

[alevin]

Re: $ The Shark Tank

Nice that BEST does the calculations for you and makes the adjustment for you automatically. My outfit doesn't do that, I'll have to do the refiguring myself, after the first pp goes into effect. I already submitted for 26pp, missed the part about 27 at the time. oh well. I'll get it fixed myself. nobody will do it for me, even if they know I miscalculated. I'll get it recalculated and resubmitted as soon as the program lets me, but will have to take into account the first pp already having taken out based on 26.

 

[Cactus]

Yeah, that happened to me last year as I waited too long to change my allocation. I keep forgetting that there is a difference between the pay period and the payday. So I had to figure it with 1 payday at the old allocation and 25 at the new one. It worked.

Looking at the 2015 schedule, I thing the initial confusion was on the Friday, January 1, 2016 payday. It's a holiday so we get it early on Thursday which is actually the previous year giving us 27 paydays in 2015.

 

[PessOptimist]

Good catch Cactus. It doesn't happen too often that some of us have 27 paydays in a calendar year. As for me my first payday in 2016 will be 7 JAN so this does not apply. Everyone will need to get hold of a 2015 payroll calendar for their own agency to verify their pay days.

A retired member mentioned elsewhere we may be spending too much time on this effort of making sure we get all the matching. According to what what I have read about the catch up contributions, you only have to be "on track" to max the regular contribution to qualify. I wonder what that means? I would rather make sure I max the regular contribution so the catch up never comes in to question.

Regards, PO

 

[Frixxxx]

Re: $ The Shark Tank

27 Pay Periods spreadsheet

View attachment 2015-quickreference-tsp-contributions-27PP.xls

For those who need the estimates.

 

[alevin]

Good catch Cactus. It doesn't happen too often that some of us have 27 paydays in a calendar year. As for me my first payday in 2016 will be 7 JAN so this does not apply. Everyone will need to get hold of a 2015 payroll calendar for their own agency to verify their pay days.

A retired member mentioned elsewhere we may be spending too much time on this effort of making sure we get all the matching. According to what what I have read about the catch up contributions, you only have to be "on track" to max the regular contribution to qualify. I wonder what that means? I would rather make sure I max the regular contribution so the catch up never comes in to question.

Regards, PO

My agency- for payroll deductions, you have to sign up separately for the regular than for the catchup, but can sign up for both at same time. when I sign up for the catch-up, it asks me if I think I will be able to put the full regular 18 in also by end of year. I say yes, spreading the 18 out across all 26-27 pp to get the full match. The catchup doesn't get matching. so I'd be worried that if you max out the regular contributions 18K in say the first 20 pp, you may not get the match for those last payperiods of the pay year, even if you are putting in the catchup still. I'm not sure the catchup, since its separate, is programmed to treat those as regular for matching purposes, if you already told payroll to max out the regular contributions earlier than that. I may be totally offbase, but I'd rather spread both sets of contributions across the entire pay year, just to make sure I don't mess it up at the end big time by maxing regular contributions too early.

 

[Cactus]

Here is an article on FedSmith talking about the 27 paydays if you're still wondering if this affects you.

Will You Have an Extra Pay Day in 2015? : FedSmith.com

 

[Cactus]

Here is a follow-up article to the previous one by the same author on the 27 paydays.

Will I Get an Extra Pay Day in 2015… Or Not? : FedSmith.com

 

[Skorcher]

What does DFAS stand for? I want to make sure it's not the Dept of Agriculture.

Here is a follow-up article to the previous one by the same author on the 27 paydays.

Will I Get an Extra Pay Day in 2015… Or Not? : FedSmith.com

 

[Maricar19]

What does DFAS stand for? I want to make sure it's not the Dept of Agriculture.

DFAS stands for Defense Finance and Accounting Services

 

[Cactus]

What does DFAS stand for? I want to make sure it's not the Dept of Agriculture.

Defense Finance & Accounting Service (US DoD).

 

[weatherweenie]

Does anyone know, if you front load your contributions, will you get full matching funds?

A guy I work with plans to retire in May this year. He is going to put all $18,000 into the TSP by the time he retires and believes that he will get the full matching funds on his contributions.

I thought that if you accelerate your contributions like that, you would miss out on matching fund.

Anybody know what the case is?

 

[weatherweenie]

Does anyone know, if you front load your contributions, will you get full matching funds?

A guy I work with plans to retire in May this year. He is going to put all $18,000 into the TSP by the time he retires and believes that he will get the full matching funds on his contributions.

I thought that if you accelerate your contributions like that, you would miss out on matching fund.

Anybody know what the case is?

Answering my own question. If you put in more than 5% per paycheck you don't get matching on the amount over 5% per paycheck.