Thread: Time Running Short to Adjust TSP Investing

With the end of the calendar year nearing, time is running short for
higher-paid FERS employees to make sure they will receive the maximum
government contributions toward their TSP accounts for the year. If
FERS investors hit the annual dollar cap ($15,500 this year) before
the last pay date of the year, their contributions will stop and so
will government matching contributions (although the automatic 1
percent of salary government contribution would continue). In sum,
FERS investors must make sure they can invest at least 5 percent of
salary through the entire year in order to capture the maximum
government share. There is no similar consideration for CSRS investors,
who get no government contributions.

Pay Raise Bill in Line in Senate

The Senate returned to work this week from a one-week break and turned
its attention to unfinished work on appropriations bills for the current
fiscal year, including the financial services-general government measure
(HR-2829) that specifies a 3.5 percent average general schedule raise in
January. The House passed that measure in June, and while the Senate's
measure has been ready for a floor vote since July, it has been stuck in
the logjam of numerous other spending bills needing attention. The bills
don't specify how the amount for GS employees would be split, but there's
a general expectation that a 2.5 percent raise would be paid across the
board with the funds for the remainder divided up as locality pay. A 2.5
percent base GS raise would in turn act as the cap on increases in
congressional and executive schedule pay, whose rates are used as caps
on pay and total compensation for career employees in several high-level
salary systems.

Swsop