Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

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16 years in TSP with $247,000.,probably wont make 15% this year!

I have not been able to dodge corrections, every time my account reaches a balance of $258,000 which has been around 4 or 5 times this year there is a correction. I read an article that mentioned there is a slow melt up and then market sells off and takes profits in 1-2 days. This really sucks, I need another strategy and use discipline to sell when market reaches new high. Right around July 4th, my husband told me to sell and did I listen, no, unfortunately.:sick:
 
Contributed 24 yrs and have $350,000 in tsp have total 32 yrs including forest service time and I'm 60 getting RIF Oct. 1st.
 
fisherhouse said:
Been in TSP for about 9 yrs. Currently have about $61K. I'm active duty, so no matching. I really started upping contributions over the last 1.5 years. Currently throwing 32% of my pay towards TSP. Next year I'll up it to 37% and max out contributions. Hopefully I'm able to do that until I retire from the military. I also have about $210K between my Roth IRA and another taxable investment account.

Funny how I'm actually saving more now then when my wife was still working and we didn't have our 2 kids.
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It doesn't mean much, but I think it is complete BULLSHIT that our active military doesn't get matching contributions in TSP.
 
29.5 years with DOJ (LEO Retired at 56 on 12/31/13)
604K Balance at retirement.
200K moved to an IRA at retirement that's invested with a company I've invested with for years. Permanent income stream at 12% annual rate paid monthly.
The remainder is still in TSP making money with I_T. I attribute a great deal of my success to following Tom and I_T on Tsptalk for many years now. Now better place to be if you have money in TSP. Looks like everyone is doing well. Stay the course. It's worth it.
And I agree with weatherweenie. There is no reason why the great men and women in our military shouldn't be receiving matching funds.
 
weatherweenie said:
It doesn't mean much, but I think it is complete BULLSHIT that our active military doesn't get matching contributions in TSP.
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60 yrs old, 30 years in FERS/TSP, TSP balance 800K. 250K of that is from matching funds (and growth on those funds)!

The matching funds really adds up over time! Never go below 5% contribution, so you never lose out on any matching funds. And YES, YES, YES.......Military should get matching too!! What's up with that!?! :blink:
 
I believe in 2006 Congress did start looking into matching contributions for military. They thought it would help with retention. However, I think the final report stated that matching contributions would not be cost effective in regards to boosting retention.
 
This was discussed here, but dont remember the thread.
Retirement annuity = no matching

Army did test, no affect on recruitment or retention

Won't ever happen UNLESS the annuity goes away.

I would rather have the annuity, its not based on the stock market ;-)
 
not to discount the sacrifice of time and commitment and risk and sometimes injury and death of any soul who committed to serve and defend our great nation by contributing their personal effort to a mission larger than any one of us, but i think the logic behind tsp match goes something like this when the policy makers and beancounters put their heads together:

service members can: retire after 20 years of service and begin drawing a pension for the rest of their lives. this can theoretically be at an age of 38 for some. they also have lifetime medical care built into that retirement package. they also qualify for veteren's preference in hiring decisions which can and does for many lead to a second satisfying career serving the mission as a .gov civilian (including tsp match and an additional annuity). also things like housing allowances, discounted shopping opportunities, risk pay, tax free income while serving abroad, etc. help sweeten the pot. at great cost for some if not many, no doubt. but there is great financial and personal and moral value to be gained by serving. it adds up.

a person can possibly gain a military pension, a civilian pension, participate in tsp some of the time with 5% match, earn social security benefits after active duty career, utilize discounted opportunities not available to the general public, and have private investments outside of that to shore up their safety net,

not too bad a deal as it exists now, without the match for service members. and extra tsp match on top just does not make fiscal sense to the actuaries or the dogs they work for when the big broken budget picture is taken into consideration.

that's how it appears to me anyways. i may not be smarter than most, but i'm no dumber than your average working taxpayer. military match does not pencil out from the perspective of the softies who pay most of the bills. that dog don't hunt.
 
5.5 years in service so far. My current balance is approximately 103,000, of that approximately 57,000 are my personal contributions. The rest is the match and earnings. I was very lucky to come in and start pouring money into the C/S funds after they crashed in 2009. The balance definitely isn't growing as much as it did the past few years but Im able to max my contributions this year and going forward. Im a LEO and can retire in 14 years. The G will kick me out in 17 due to mandatory age.

Im hoping I will be over 650,000 at retirement but I seriously doubt Ill be anywhere close.
 
Globalpack said:
I read an article that said you should have ten times your annual salary saved by retirement. I don't see that happening personally and was wondering how the folks here compare.

It may also serve as a good motivation tool to save more.

So what's your TSP balance and how old are you?

Me, Im 44 and have $148K.
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I guess your statement is partially true, depending on whether you are using your starting salary as basis. When I started with TSP, my starting salary was $30- $32 thou then. And my TSP is 10x that. However, my salary has gone up since then. And I am nowhere near the 10x, not even 4x.
 
Age 45 with 16 years of service. TSP of 250K averaging just over 12% annually. Started with just a 5% contribution (started way too low) and have worked my way up to @17% and hope to max out in the next few years. Personal goal is to surpass the 7 figure mark by retirement.
 
burrocrat said:
service members can: retire after 20 years of service and begin drawing a pension for the rest of their lives. this can theoretically be at an age of 38 for some. they also have lifetime medical care built into that retirement package. they also qualify for veteren's preference in hiring decisions which can and does for many lead to a second satisfying career serving the mission as a .gov civilian (including tsp match and an additional annuity). also things like housing allowances, discounted shopping opportunities, risk pay, tax free income while serving abroad, etc. help sweeten the pot. at great cost for some if not many, no doubt. but there is great financial and personal and moral value to be gained by serving. it adds up.
Click to expand...

There are other government jobs with similar benefits that receive matching contributions. Air Traffic Controllers are one example. Plus, Air Traffic Controllers, Firefighters, Law Enforcement Officers, Capitol Police, Supreme Court Police, or Nuclear Materials Couriers annuity is computed at 1.7% for their first 20 years of service. That's a HUGE added benefit.
 
59 y/o, 29 yrs service. Current balance $656k. I don't have a very high salary and have always contributed just 5%. I lost about 1/3 of my TSP in a divorce 15 yrs ago. :(
I've always contributed the maximum to my IRA since it first became available and have had a better rate of return on my IRA than my TSP, due primarily to the IFT limits.
 
Frixxxx said:
Did you manage your TSP or go with a set it and forget it approach?
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I've always managed it, although my transfers were very infrequent pre-internet.
I made some terrible choices back then. For a few years, I would move to the best performing fund for the year when I received my annual TSP statement. That fund usually was the poorest performing one the following year.
I was among the first FERS employees in 1984. I believe there were just three fund options then - G, F and C.
My returns increased significantly when I found TSP Talk. :)
 
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