Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

[Spiceworm]

46 Years old with 25 years in USPS. Did not contribute the first 2 years. Balance was 100k after 13 years.
Never contributed more than 10% of pay. Have taken out loans 4 times(paid them all back within a year).
Current balance is $582k.

 

[NH-Native]

2024 Update:
Age 48
25.5 years service (13 with feds and a prior 12.5 in private sector)
TSP balance has recovered to current total of 2.22M
Buy and hold investor.

 

[FAAM]

Retired on 12/31/21 age 62 years+4 months; TSP about $850k (about 40% was ROTH). Since then I've not withdrawn any but I have transferred all but $125k to IRAs, and in process of converting most of the non-Roth to ROTH, with about half of it invested in combo of life-insurance/ indexed-annuity IRA or non-taxed products.

I had 38.5 years of service, 9.25 of which was active-duty Army. My average grade was about GS-13.4 from '92-to-retirement. I contributed about 7% to 10% of my income to TSP for 18-years, then closer to 15% for next 11-years.
Was Buy-&-Hold C-fund from '93-May'07, then did many IFTs staying mostly pretty conservative with some more aggressive surges.

 

[petemalo]

Update: Age 52, $962 in TSP, took the VERA this year

 

[tsptalk]

Update: Age 52, $962 in TSP, took the VERA this year

Big move in two years. Very nicely done!

 

[bmneveu]

Congrats CGM on reaching your goal. It's a great feeling. As HW mentioned, don't work too long. With a reasonable amount out of TSP every year, it's probably costing you $$ to go to work. I figured the last year I worked cost me about $14.12/hour. My feeling was that on my way home every work day, I was throwing $113 out the truck window. I had no problem stepping away the job.

Off topic, but I am curious about the calculation here. What is the theory and math behind losing money at work? This has me interested!

 

[bmneveu]

Closing in on 50K and 33yo. Definitely one of those this month, hopefully both!

5 years later, $154K at 38 years old. I plan on (probably) retiring from active duty in 3.5 years and not sure what my plan for my TSP account will be at that point. I have a lot more in taxable investment accounts and real estate, which has taken more of my time and focus lately. It's been nice having TSP on set-and-forget / buy-and-hold.

 

[Boghie]

I forgot about this until I noticed a post of mine was 'Liked'. With the 2023 and 2024 returns, things are looking great. Using data from 2024/12/31:

Age: 60
Balance: $1,015K (as of 2024/12/31)
Investing: Alternate between three allocations (Conservative, Normal, Aggressive)
Expected Balance at age 65:
Retirement Age: 65
Expected Return: 8.00% - This is still under my IRR since 2004.
Expected Inflation: 3.0% - Once the FED gets control and forces the Gubmint to control their spending inflation will come down.
Expected Contributions: 20% of Gross Salary, 15% from me, 5% match

Results (inflation adjusted):

• Expected Balance: $1.615 million
• Expected Annual Withdraw (20 years): $105K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (30 years): $85K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (38 years): $77K

I am dialing back my risk. Using the guidance from Edelman for a 7% return I will get:

• Expected Balance: $1.545 million
• Expected Annual Withdraw (20 years): $93K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (30 years): $73K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (38 years): $65K

My likely retirement will occur next year at age 62 (I'm posting this late, but using numbers from 2024/12/31). My current allocation has a bit more risk, so annual return was expected to be 9%. So, my balance is currently well over expected. Another nice thang is the wifey is now a CPA, has a good job, and doesn't really want to quit when I ride off into my Blazing Saddles Sunset. Anyway, if we use 7% and a retirement age of 62 the numbers are as follows:

• Expected Balance: $1.204 million
• Expected Annual Withdraw (20 years): $72K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (30 years): $59K
• Expected Annual Withdraw (38 years): $53K

2023 and 2024 were great years that overcame the dumbness that was 2022. Yummy.

My plan is to hold about five years of withdraws in G/F. That way, I can buffet a five year market mess. That is about 23% of my current holdings. Quicken estimates a 9% annual return on that allocation with an 11% risk. So, 2/3rds of the time the annual return will be between -2% and +20%. Kinda swingy, so I will likely pull more back in G/F - maybe to 35% of the allocation, or to put it another way, a 7+ year buffer. This year has been great.

BTW, thanks bmneveu for reminding me of this thread with your 'Like'. It is a great placeholder for monitoring progress.

 

[MrBill]

Off topic, but I am curious about the calculation here. What is the theory and math behind losing money at work? This has me interested!

I wasn’t expecting a question from a 4-year-old post. Took me a little while to find my old files to reply to your question about how I thought about “losing” money by going to work. Started thinking more in depth about retirement at age 40 when I attended a mid-career retirement session and soon after had a discussion with a retiring co-worker. My CSRS co-worker just received his retirement pay estimate and it was lower then expected. He was considering continue working or taking a job in retirement. I determined that I didn’t want to go into retirement having financial reservations. This is what I came up with to satisfy myself: Would my Retirement Income approach or exceed my Actual Income.

Actual Income = Salary minus all those things I would not be contributing to in Retirement. I determined those things to be: 1) Medicare 2) OASDI 3) TSP 4) FERS 5) Disability Insurance 6) IRA 7) Tolls. These accounted for 17.3% of my Salary.
So, Actual Income = 82.7% of Salary

Retirement Income = FERS + SS Supplement + TSP. The first two were determined from my pay software at work, but can also be calculated. For my TSP portion, I used 6%. Over 31 years of investing in TSP I had averaged 8.3% return so I thought it conservative to use 6%.

I tracked actual values each year from age 42 and estimated to retiring at age 56, updating each year with actual numbers. Actual numbers for me at age 56;
Actual Income – Retirement Income = ($29593) or ($14.18)/hour [this is why I say I was losing money going to work]

The year I turned 52 is when it began to “cost” me money to go to work. I realize I couldn’t retire until 56, but I felt comfortable and looked forward to retiring at age 56. I had no interest in continuing to work past the age of 56 and had no reservations walking out the door knowing I was covered financially.

 

[nasa1974]

Definitely in a better place now than when I was working. Although I do miss the group I worked with. The years I worked part time and then after retirement when I went back as a contractor I earned my points for Social Security. I retired CSRS. Transferred my TSP to my 401K last year. Not even touching that money.

 

[weatherweenie]

Definitely in a better place now than when I was working. Although I do miss the group I worked with. The years I worked part time and then after retirement when I went back as a contractor I earned my points for Social Security. I retired CSRS. Transferred my TSP to my 401K last year. Not even touching that money.

CSRS, nice.