Page 14 of 27 FirstFirst ... 4121314151624 ... LastLast
Results 157 to 168 of 323

Thread: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

  1. #157

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by dhstdog View Post
    I assume you all are aware that your TSP is not insured. Money in the bank or credit union or broker accountant yes insured. I won't post that much information in a public forum, definitely don't cut and paste from TSP. If someone drains your account or takes a loan out. You get to file a police report but that money is GONE! Not insured... good luck I have .90c in my puny acct! 😂
    Isn't the issue of funds not being insured also true for pretty much all 401k and 403b retirement accounts?

  2.  
  3. #158

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by blueroadster View Post
    Isn't the issue of funds not being insured also true for pretty much all 401k and 403b retirement accounts?
    That depends where the money is parked however I don't see anyone posting their private 401k information here. Just a friendly word of caution my friend. Cheers

  4.  
  5. Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    I'm 51 with $292k in my account. I just started on tsptalk, looking to maximize my returns and avoid the down years.

    Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using TSP Talk Forums mobile app

  6.  
  7. #160

    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Aiea, Hawaii
    Posts
    1,122

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by drbama View Post
    I'm 47 with a current TSP balance of $360K. Had been a buy-n-holder in C/S funds since start of service, but rode the 2008 crash all the way down. Found TSP Talk a couple of years ago, so have been transferring between funds based on input from forum regulars. I also subscribe to Tom's premium service. 2016 was a good year; just prior to the election I was top-50 on autotracker, but was out on election day, so missed a good bit of the post election gains. Still ended the year with 16+%.

    I am currently contributing 10% to TSP. No other outside investments. Using Scottrade, I've tried to dabble with individual stocks and ETFs, but end up losing money. At 57 (my MRA), I will have 34+ years of service, with a high-3 average of $150k+.

    Question: If I could only do one of these, should I: 1) continue to increase my contributions to TSP to 15%, 2) start contributing to TSP Roth, 3) contribute to Roth outside of TSP, 4) steadily contribute to mutual funds. I know I have to be careful to not exceed the max allowed, and can contribute an extra amount once I reach 50.

    I know the answer starts with "it depends", but would appreciate any advice. Thanks much.
    Sounds like you have a good start!
    And asking the question is good , anytime!
    Have you looked at the Roth threads and the Investment Strategies threads? There are lots of good points to consider for your personal situation.
    I will say (and have said in detail in the Roth vs Traditional IRA/TSP threads) I think everyone should have some Roth exposure for 'tax diversification' reasons, if nothing else. BUT, Roth TSP does NOT appeal to me at all. For Roth, go outside to a good IRA firm (I like Vanguard).
    Good Luck in your investing!
    There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who know binary, and those that don't!!
    Retired on December 31, 2018!!

  8.  
  9. #161

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by drbama View Post

    Question: If I could only do one of these, should I: 1) continue to increase my contributions to TSP to 15%, 2) start contributing to TSP Roth, 3) contribute to Roth outside of TSP, 4) steadily contribute to mutual funds. I know I have to be careful to not exceed the max allowed, and can contribute an extra amount once I reach 50.

    I know the answer starts with "it depends", but would appreciate any advice. Thanks much.
    Maxing Roth IRA then TSP traditional at least up to match would probably be my advice. As far as the Roth TSP that does depend on one important thing: will you be in a higher tax bracket when you retire? If the answer is yes then use the Roth TSP, if the answer is no then don't bother with it. No one knows what the tax rates will be 10, 15, 30 years down the road but they aren't likely to be all that different than they are now. In the same vein we don't know if the rules on Roth contributions/distributions will be changed, but that is just as much a threat as the tax rates IMO.

    Have an emergency fund too, then fund the TSP up to the max, outside investments, etc. A Roth IRA can also double as an emergency fund because you can always take the principal without taxes or penalty.

  10.  
  11. #162

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by dhstdog View Post
    I assume you all are aware that your TSP is not insured. Money in the bank or credit union or broker accountant yes insured. I won't post that much information in a public forum, definitely don't cut and paste from TSP. If someone drains your account or takes a loan out. You get to file a police report but that money is GONE! Not insured... good luck I have .90c in my puny acct! 😂
    Doesn't hurt to be safe I guess but stealing money from a TSP account, especially if you haven't yet retired, is pretty tough. TSP needs to go away from the passwords however and go to multi-tiered authentication. I thought they said they were working on that, but haven't heard anything in a while.

    This is one password I would never write down anywhere. Memorizing your account number, password, always checking from a fire-walled home/trusted computer, and not telling guys on the train how much you're worth is always smart. I wouldn't be paranoid about someone draining my account though, there are enough security measures in place to make that very difficult.


  12.  
  13. #163

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    I'm not saying what my balance is, but will give some insight... it's empowering to have a significant base amount saved by the time you are in your mid 30's. You start understanding the big picture of government work, and what's really needed to move up (ie bullshitting and kissing up and managing smart people becomes more important than doing the job itself)...and once you run the numbers and realize campaigning to move up isn't going to 'really' earn you that much more both salary and extra-TSP matching wise... it's just extremely satisfying to know that you don't 'need' to move up for more money. And also that you don't need to leave government work to make more either, unless you get an offer from Google of at least doubling or tripling your salary while keeping the same amount of personnel leave time (very unlikely for most).

    Forget saving a percentage folks...drive to save that maximum contribution amount each year.

    (Before anyone complains, I wrote this on my own personal leave time, not Govt time.)

  14.  
  15. #164

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by mbrogz3000 View Post
    Forget saving a percentage folks...drive to save that maximum contribution amount each year.
    I agree, aim for max contribution early as possible. I started the maximum about a year ago, then stopped just a few pay periods later because we want a bigger house. Max will happen again hopefully within a year or two.

    I'm 46 and TSP balance 198K.
    Last edited by Globalpack; 02-18-2017 at 03:35 PM.

  16.  
  17. #165

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Virginia
    Posts
    44

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    46 years old, 21 years of federal civil service, $625K.

    Contributed 5% for the first 6 years, then bumped that up to the max for years 7-18, then went back down to 5% once I reached what I determined to be my coast-point. (Coast-point meaning the compounded growth of my existing balance will far out strip any additional contributions over time, but no sense giving up any matching funds.)

    Was lucky to avoid a major haircut in 2008. (-14% that year)

  18.  
  19. Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    50 years young, 22 years of TSP contributions,and a TSP balance of 610,000.
    Not to bad for an old "TURN-KEY" from southern Illinois making less than $69,000 per year.

  20.  
  21. #167

    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Arkansas
    Posts
    3,277

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Hi, my name is Jim and I’m an invest-aholic (Can I get a Hi Jim?). I was a serial TSP contributor most of my working life. I started out as a 5%er and just got worse from there. Before I knew it I was up to 10%, then 15%. When I finally came clean with my wife it was too late. I was rolling all my raises into TSP and contributing the IRS maximum + $5,000 in catch-up contributions + investing heavily in highly profitable outside ventures. Yeah, I had gone over to the dark side of non-TSP investing. It was an addiction with no cure..........
    Until I met my retirement counselor. She saved me (but not so much my money) from myself. She convinced me that retirement was the only way to beat my TSP contributions addiction. So, at 56 I retired and stopped contributing. It was hard, and I backslid a couple times. My wife finally gave me an ultimatum when she caught me rolling my annual leave lump sum into my outside 401k. She demanded that I set up monthly withdrawals from TSP or my other 401k and start spending some of the money I had saved over 30+ years. Wait WHAT? NOOOOOOOOO!
    I've been clean for about 4 years now (except for the yearly rollover of interest payments back into outside investment accounts that she doesn't know about ). I've found other addictions like fishing, boating, regularly sampling a variety of beers, remodeling a lakehouse, and some light posting on various websites.
    At 60, I'm retired, permanently unemployed, and have more $$$$$$$ then I can ever possibly spend (unless I buy that Aston Martin I've been eyeing). My TSP and 401k balances are far, far beyond anything I ever dreamed of. Haven't quite reached the million dollar mark, but getting close. Maybe in the next 3-4 years with luck.
    I love me some compound interest.


  22.  
  23. #168

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Globalpack View Post
    I read an article that said you should have ten times your annual salary saved by retirement. I don't see that happening personally and was wondering how the folks here compare.

    It may also serve as a good motivation tool to save more.

    So what's your TSP balance and how old are you?

    Me, Im 44 and have $148K.
    Maybe rename this thread: FANTASY TSP?
    2 IFT's! That's it, Be cautious & WISE!

  24.  
Page 14 of 27 FirstFirst ... 4121314151624 ... LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
S&P500 (C Fund) (delayed)
Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread
(Stockcharts.com Real-time)
DWCPF (S Fund) (delayed)
Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread
(Stockcharts.com Real-time)
EFA (I Fund) (delayed)
Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread
(Stockcharts.com Real-time)
BND (F Fund) (delayed)
Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread
(Stockcharts.com Real-time)

Yahoo Finance Realtime TSP Fund Tracking Index Quotes