If you took money out of your TSP for a downpayment on a house....

[Anonymous]

Do you regret it? Or would you have made the same decision?

[Anonymous]

My DH did for the down payment on his first condo - not a huge amount and paid it back before he sold. I think it sounds risky but I've never had a government job; I think when your job is that stable the calculus changes somewhat.

[Anonymous]

We did it twice. Both times we paid it back within about two years. We just viewed it as part of our mortgage payment.

[Anonymous]

We did. I don't regret it since it kept us from paying PMI and we always had a bit in stable funds, which weren't gaining a ton more than what we have to pay in interest when putting our money back into the funds.

[Anonymous]

Done it twice now, served me very well. Got me up to 20% down so no PMI, and I paid it back as soon as I could.

[Anonymous]

Did it for the house we currently live in. No regrets. House has tripled in value in 8 yrs. Live in Bloomingdale. TSP paid off.

[Anonymous]

Served me well, glad I did it.

[Anonymous]

same as others above. I'd only regret it if I was ready to retire and hadn't paid it back. Otherwise its my money

[Anonymous]

Don’t regret it, served us well.

[Anonymous]

I took money out of my 401k. At the time, I was well ahead of where I thought I needed to be savings wise. I managed to pay it back in 3 years. And my house increased in value over that time frame. In a perfect world, it wouldn't have been necessary, but I have no regrets. It worked out well for me.

[Anonymous]

Don't you people understand continously compounded interest and what you lost? I think borrowing from a TSP is incredibly stupid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't you people understand continously compounded interest and what you lost? I think borrowing from a TSP is incredibly stupid

Not stupid if you get 400 percent rate of return on the house you buy like I did. I didn't borrow but took out ,$10k from my 401k to buy my house in 2003. When we sell we'll have more than $500k gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't you people understand continously compounded interest and what you lost? I think borrowing from a TSP is incredibly stupid

Did you actually work out the numbers or just repeat what others say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't you people understand continously compounded interest and what you lost? I think borrowing from a TSP is incredibly stupid

Not stupid if you get 400 percent rate of return on the house you buy like I did. I didn't borrow but took out ,$10k from my 401k to buy my house in 2003. When we sell we'll have more than $500k gain.

+1 I'm the PP upthread whose husband did this before we met. He borrowed something like $20k from his TSP, paid it back in 4 years, and his condo appreciated $100k in those same 4 years (realized gain, not just on paper). Taking that kind of loan may be more risk than some are naturally comfortable with, but "incredibly stupid" it was not.

[Anonymous]

Well, I changed my allocations to reduce the amount I had invested in th G fund to reflect the amount of The loan, so no loss to compounding at all really.