Thread: Are TSP Goals Achieved

If I was close to $1,000,000 after 2 years of federal service, the IRS would surely know about it. :shock:

Same as Mike, only been in TSP one year. I'm 1/5th of the way there in all my funds, though. It's only on paper. Long, long way to go.

Unless your salaray has been like $200,000 since the late 80's I don't believe it would have beenpossible to accumulate $1 million in 17 years based on a zero starting balance in 1987 and15% contributions (10% plus 5%) and the returns we have seen. The S&P 500 is "only" up about 600% in that time.

I have heard a couple people say they are over $300,000 but that is the highest mentioned.

Someone just sent me an IM saying that after 18 years, they are just over 400K. It pays to start early. Way to go!

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey

http://hr.er.usgs.gov/calculators/tsp/

I ran the numbers using the above calculator, starting with a $30,000 annual salary and a 2.5% annual increase for 17 years. The result was a balance of $230K (appx) with a average 10% annual return (appx C fund historically).

It's the only TSP caluculator I have found where you can plug in projected salary growth.

tsptalk wrote:

Someone just sent me an IM saying that after 18 years, they are just over 400K. It pays to start early. Way to go!

It would be nice to know if that is all in the market or if they reallocate them the way we are doing it here.

pyriel wrote:

It would be nice to know if that is all in the market or if they reallocate them the way we are doing it here.

From the anonymous $400K account holder...

"I started in the G fund for a few years. Then I was in the C fund from about 1990 until April 2003. I was in the S from April 2003 until late January of 2004. Then I started to reallocate anywhere from once every 2 months to as much as several times a month (with some limited success). If I had been smart enough to get out at some point during the 2000-2003 period, my account balance would have been significantly higher. I won't make that mistake again."

tsptalk wrote:

pyriel wrote:

It would be nice to know if that is all in the market or if they reallocate them the way we are doing it here.

From the anonymous $400K account holder...

"I started in the G fund for a few years. Then I was in the C fund from about 1990 until April 2003. I was in the S from April 2003 until late January of 2004. Then I started to reallocate anywhere from once every 2 months to as much as several times a month (with some limited success). If I had been smart enough to get out at some point during the 2000-2003 period, my account balance would have been significantly higher. I won't make that mistake again."

Impossible

Chappy, I'm glad to hear you're doing that -- adjusting your income before entering the calculator. I do the same and it was never clear to me thatit was correct to do so. Your 2.5% is probably very near the truth. Don't forget to include step increases!

Here is whatI do. First I estimate my ending salary,incorporating COLA's and step increases. Then Itake my current salary -- base salary remember;I do not include premium pay --add the estimated ending salary anddivide by 2 to get an average. This average salary willbe on deposit for the entire time, so I use it for the calculator.

Then to get a baseline minimum I assume 100G and use 5%. I adjust this number upward in increments to see how the final answer varies with the estimated percentage return. If you think that 10% is a good average return for the market, then you must reduce this by the proportion you believe will not be invested in the market, on average, over the life of the account. For example I am trying to remain 60% in the market, 40% in the G fund over time. So I would take 40% of 5=2%, and 60% of 10=6%, and add these to get an 8% effective return.See what I'm saying?

I also think I have to add in my catch-up contributions. They are fixed dollar amount andsocannot easily be added to my contribution percentage, and besides what if I am already at 15%? That is the largest number the calculator will accept.Since I cannot adjust the percentage I must adjust the salary instead. To do this I work backwards and ask, what would I have to add to my salary such that 15% of it equals my catch-up contribution? If I'm kicking in $4000, then the answer is $26,666. This should be added to my estimated average salary.

Whew!

Dave

Dakota wrote:

tsptalk wrote:

pyriel wrote:

It would be nice to know if that is all in the market or if they reallocate them the way we are doing it here.

From the anonymous $400K account holder...

"I started in the G fund for a few years. Then I was in the C fund from about 1990 until April 2003. I was in the S from April 2003 until late January of 2004. Then I started to reallocate anywhere from once every 2 months to as much as several times a month (with some limited success). If I had been smart enough to get out at some point during the 2000-2003 period, my account balance would have been significantly higher. I won't make that mistake again."

Impossible

Very possible!

I have been in TSP for almost 12 years and I have almost 300k in tsp. I have always contributed at least 10%, had my money in c for the majority of the time. If i had used a site like this in 2002 and 2003 I think I might have about 50k more... I do have the advantage of a high gov't salary so the $$ contributed by me is significant. Thi year I am contributing the 14k max. I think the 1million mark is w/i my reach in the next 8 years.