Amount in TSP? Age? Years in Government? GS Level?

[Anonymous]

~$190k I think? 38 yo and 8 years as a fed (currently gs14).

[Anonymous]

GS-13 with 12 years of service and about 100k. I made the mistake of leaving my money all in the G fund for almost ten years so I've made very little.

[Anonymous]

1 mil, 54, 29 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1 mil, 54, 29 years

GS-15

[Anonymous]

I am new to the government, so I don't understand all the benefits ... If you work in the private sector, maxing out your 401k is critical since that is a big, possibly only depending on what happens with the social security system, part of your retirement. Maxing out the TSP contribution doesn't seem as important since FERS will provide a big (around 30%) of our income during retirement. Are people maxing out the contribution because they have extra income and want to take advantage of the tax benefits and low fees of the TSP?

[Anonymous]

35, 8 years, GS-14, $200k. Have been maxing out the past 3 years, before that put in between 5-7%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am new to the government, so I don't understand all the benefits ... If you work in the private sector, maxing out your 401k is critical since that is a big, possibly only depending on what happens with the social security system, part of your retirement. Maxing out the TSP contribution doesn't seem as important since FERS will provide a big (around 30%) of our income during retirement. Are people maxing out the contribution because they have extra income and want to take advantage of the tax benefits and low fees of the TSP?

Yes.
Make sure you get your match. After that, additional contributions are a question of tax benefits. Given current tax rates (at your income level) and expected tax rates at retirement, does it make sense to invest pre-tax now and pay income tax later or invest post-tax into Roth. Do you need access to money before retirement? Then you may want to invest in regular taxable accounts.

TSP costs are low, but choices are limited. Index fund costs aren't all that much higher than TSP costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am new to the government, so I don't understand all the benefits ... If you work in the private sector, maxing out your 401k is critical since that is a big, possibly only depending on what happens with the social security system, part of your retirement. Maxing out the TSP contribution doesn't seem as important since FERS will provide a big (around 30%) of our income during retirement. Are people maxing out the contribution because they have extra income and want to take advantage of the tax benefits and low fees of the TSP?

I'm maxing out because a) we currently don't have kids, so maxing out now will help if we have to cut back my retirement contribution in the future. b) to get the benefit of reducing our income for tax purposes c) maxing out doesn't really cramp our lifestyle since we live well below our means. might as well save the money someplace where it actually grows d) my husband is a MD state employee and frankly, he doesn't understand/know what his benefits are and i have yet to dedicate the time to figure it out (can you tell who manages all of the household finances?), so I'm hedging my bets that his pension is not that generous e) who knows what the future may hold? the president is a nutjob and congress is fairly hostile to the federal workforce. i don't trust that they won't screw us over.

GS14, 32, 4 years, 61K. Just upped my contribution to the amount that will be 18K, so next year will be the first year I max out. This year's contribution will be around 16K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$700K 45 16 years GS-15

How did you do this? Did you roll over other retirement funds into your TSP? I'm about the same age, with 19 years of service, but do not have this much.

My DH is similar to the PP above -- he has approx $725,000 in his TSP as a GS-15 (age 46). He's been a federal employee (attorney) for 17 years. Until very recently, he had everything in the C fund. (He has not always maxed out -- in some years he contributed only 5%.)