Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

[bmneveu]

Age- 60 retired in 2016 with 28 yrs of service and $1,120,000 in TSP. I withdraw $3500 per month from TSP plus retirement pay and supplement. Paid off mortgage ($150K). Paying for two kids in college, traveling wife does not work. Current balance in TSP $900,000. Current allocation 50% C fund, 50% S fund.

Wow, 100% in stocks in retirement. Good for you, sir! I imagine you have done very well for yourself over these bull years with that approach. Every broker on the planet would probably tell you to be more conservative with your money at your age, but I suppose it is easier to stay in the game when you have other sources of income like your pension and no mortgage. Congrats!

 

[bmneveu]

I'm not a financial advisor, but I'd say dump all that money into an L fund - today. Before noon. Forget timing. Keep contributing through highs and lows and get on with your life.

Couldn't agree more. Get in now and forget about the stock market for 20 years. If you are one to worry about your retirement every time you see the market down 1% on the day, then stop looking at the market. Set it and forget it.

Also, its important to note that you have to set both your "allocation" and "contributions" to the new fund. Allocation is your current total balance, while contributions are what come out of your paychecks. They are separate in TSP and have to be adjusted individually. If you move your allocation into the L fund but leave your contributions going to G fund, you are going to miss out on a ton of money in the long run. So set them both, and go enjoy life.

 

[TSPuser]

Folks a 10+ year reader of the TSP talk, did not post more than a couple of times. I retired in June at age 61 with 36+ years of FERS service. TSP now equals ~$1.3+, was 100% S, my 1 year gain is ~36%, got cold feet and went 50% S, 30% C and 20% F. Received first TSP paycheck at $3K / month. Unsure of road ahead and yes the commercial fund managers want it all.
thanks for all the terrific insights and lessons learned. Stay in TSP or go. After MUCH internal head-space discussion I stayed put (for now).

Good luck to those in route!

 

[TSPuser]

TWO GRAPHICS THAT HAVE HELPED MY INFORMED CHOICES ARE 1) the PER SHARE VALUATION RATIO BETWEEN SPECIFIC FUNDS TO SHOW TRENDING BETWEEN FUND VALUATIONS and 2) VISUAL SLOPE, DIRECTION, AND CLOSING DAY PRICE OF FUNDS FOR S, C, I, L2050, L, F, and G OVER THE YEARS. AN EXCEL WORKBOOK DRIVES THE DAILY GRAPHICS UPDATE

 

[James48843]

What on your first chart is "GC"? is that a 50-50 mix or something?

 

[TSPuser]

Hi James48843 - the first chart on the left, with the legend titled GC, shows the calculated time history comparative valuation of a share of the G fund in contrast to a share of the C fund. You can see how this valuation has changed over time, as one would expect as the C Fund is invested in a stock index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index, a broad market index made up of the stocks of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies rather than the G fund that invests in a special non-marketable treasury security issued specifically for the TSP by the U.S. government. Hope this helps. I used this to assess when it makes sense to shift some $$ into our out of a holding.

 

[coquina]

Just turned 55. Have been contributing to the contribution limit for 30 of my 33 years in government. With a $965K balance at the end of Sep 2020 and plans to retire at the end of 2021 I have 85% in the L Income Fund and 5% each in the C, S, I funds. My future contributions are 100% US equities.


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[bmneveu]

Just turned 55. Have been contributing to the contribution limit for 30 of my 33 years in government. With a $965K balance at the end of Sep 2020 and plans to retire at the end of 2021 I have 85% in the L Income Fund and 5% each in the C, S, I funds. My future contributions are 100% US equities.

Coquina, congrats on doing so well with your retirement account and hopefully you hit that $1M milestone soon!

 

[Radarcontact]

Almost 48 yrs old. ATC 18yrs. Eligible to retire in 2 years. Mandatory in 8 yrs. Balance as of 10/9/20 899k. Blessed

 

[weatherweenie]

Maxing out the contribution 30 of 33 years is awesome!

Just turned 55. Have been contributing to the contribution limit for 30 of my 33 years in government. With a $965K balance at the end of Sep 2020 and plans to retire at the end of 2021 I have 85% in the L Income Fund and 5% each in the C, S, I funds. My future contributions are 100% US equities.


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[13Z50P]

Age 47, 21 years in - 9 to go. Started contributing 5%, got as high as 12%, economy pushed me back down to 8%. Sitting on 400K ATM. With elections, pending vaccine, and stimulus bill - I'm overthinking my interfund transfers for the next 6 months. Trying to win big and lose nothing (of course). I didn't budge when COVID took 150K out of my TSP. Got all my losses back and gains to boot.

 

[nasa1974]

Congrats on everyone and their TSP.

My story starts in 1987 when I first started to contribute to my TSP. I was in the CSRS retirement program so I got no matching funds. I didn't know a lot back then about investing and everything was done either over the phone or snail mail. So I sat in the "G" fund from 1987 to August 1994 when I split between "G" and "C" fund. It wasn't until 2003 that I finally understood what the heck was going on and April 2008 I really got a good grasp on what was happening when I joined TSPTalk. I always looked at my TSP as a supplemental income after retirement since I would have a decent pension. I wish I had been more informed early in the program. After retirement I kept my TSP instead of transferring to an outside account and I haven't done to bad. But, pretty soon I will have to start drawing on my account and at that time I will move out of my TSP and put it into another account I have with Edward Jones. My goal was to try and get my account as close to 500K as I could before 70 1/2 but in 2013 I made a decision to take 70K out of my account to pay off some school loans and make some home improvements. I don't regret my decision but I won't reach my 500K goal.

Anyway the key is to maximize your contribution early so that you get as much of the matching funds as you can. I have been somewhat aggressive (mostly in the "S" fund) and I have had some really good years and some bad years. The key is to be informed and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are some really smart people here. Don't be afraid to take some chances. Yes, you might get burned but but remember you are in it for the long haul. But I have to admit some of it is just dumb luck.

Good luck

 

[Christopher]

My wife (JD) began her Fed career in 1985 and is a GS-14; I (Chris) began my Fed career in 1989 and am a GS-12. She turned 49 and i turned 47 during December of 2015. Here's our short story:

At the end of 2003, we were invested 100% in G with balances of $7,464.40 and $5,120.29, respectively - only Uncle Sam was contributing to our TSP accounts. All of that changed in early 2004: just prior, my best friend (who worked in commercial banking) kicked me in the derriere when, during a discussion about investing, I told him my wife and I hadn't contributed anything to our Fed "401K accounts". :embarrest: SO ... LOL ... I kick started our contributing to both our TSP accounts and began managing them both, though ignorantly moving $ between funds at first because I lacked any real knowledge. I stumbled across TSPTalk not long after, but didn't become a member for a while - I just stood in the shadows and read a LOT of posts, researched cause and effect between market forces, scrutinized member methodologies, and tried to make some sense of all the chatter and banter - but began actively investing ("trading") the funds in our TSP accounts with my new insights.

Over the years, we've contributed between 5% and 10% to our accounts - I recall reducing the 10% to 5% to aggressively pay off the mortgage Christmas of 2005 and then again as markets began crashing during the Great Recession (where we lost a little better than 5% - mild compared to others we knew who were buy and hold types. We're still contributing 5% now). I'm honored to be among those notorious day traders who received the TSP board's "ultimatum" letter back in the day, and I don't regret a day of aggressively managing our funds during that time - it helped me to help US catch up some to where our TSP accounts would have been if we had contributed prior to 2004. Our combined balance hit $300K last quarter, and we're OK with that considering our "late bloomer" statuses. :smile:

My TSP slacker status regrets in 2015: 1) not consistently watching the markets, and 2) not consistently applying my own investing rules when I DO. I hope to be more intentional in 2016 and onward.

Checking in, it’s been a while! I will reach 52 at the end of 2020 and the wife will be 54 a few days prior. Our daughters both married and flew the coop over the 18 month period that ended with the weekend in March that COVID hit hard and full time telework began the norm. We slammed the pedal to the metal on contributions, our combined balance has hit $650K since my last post.


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[tsptalk]

Yo, Christopher - check your PM's will ya!

You were in the top 5 this month!

 

[Bb575]

Hello Everyone,

I figure its time i start to focus far more on my TSP. I am just turned 32, have worked for the government for 9 yrs, and just made GS 14 with $110,000 in tsp.

Thanks

 

[weatherweenie]

Max out your contributions, if you haven't already. As a GS-14, shouldn't be a problem.

Hello Everyone,

I figure its time i start to focus far more on my TSP. I am just turned 32, have worked for the government for 9 yrs, and just made GS 14 with $110,000 in tsp.

Thanks

 

[Bb575]

Yes luckily I maxed out my contributions once I got the 14. All of my contributions have been Roth thus far. I am debating on if that is the best option.

 

[bmneveu]

Yes luckily I maxed out my contributions once I got the 14. All of my contributions have been Roth thus far. I am debating on if that is the best option.

It almost always is. Hard to know if you will be in a higher or lower tax bracket when you are taking the money out, but you do know that the gains on your contributions are tax free, whereas they get taxed if you go with the traditional option.

 

[Globalpack]

TSP balance($407K) + Roth IRA(68K) + TSLA stock = $1,570,000

 

[bmneveu]

TSP balance($407K) + Roth IRA(68K) + TSLA stock = $1,570,000

Wow, $1M in TSLA?