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Thread: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

  1. #145

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    3,416

    Smile Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Boghie View Post
    Age: 50
    Balance: $340K
    Investing: Did not start till I was about 32 (What a waste, I would not have to contribute a dime if I started earlier)
    Expected Balance at age 65 (using Quicken and DinkyTown.Net):
    • Age: 65
    • Expected Return: 8% - Done better, but being conservative and considering I will be more conservative at age 60 or so
    • Expected Inflation: 3% - For quite some time now it has been in the 2's. That is very nice...
    • Expected Balance: $1.4 mil - $1.5 mil
    • Expected Annual Withdraw (20 years): $75K
    • Expected Annual Withdraw (30 years): $60K


    However, unlike my retired military friends, I will have to pay for my medical insurance and I will only receive a pension from age 65 onward (if that is when I retire) and I do not receive commissary privileges nor VA loans and some other niceties. However, I did get a good match and I do not have to hope that a future politician will honor promises of past politicians. Personally, knowing what I know now, if I were a young military dude I would much prefer a matching TSP to the pension. It would transfer for those who get out before a pension, it would not be in view of politicians seeking cash, and I can watch my assets rather than having them slammed into the G Fund. Just my two cents.
    Since others are posting updates:

    Age: 52
    Balance: $425K
    Investing: Alternate between three allocations (Conservative, Normal, Aggressive)
    Expected Balance at age 65 (using Quicken and DinkyTown.Net):
    • Retirement Age: 65
    • Expected Return: 7.69% - My actual IRR since 2004. I have obviously gone more conservative...
    • Expected Inflation: 2.5% - I still expect very muted inflation. Could change, but...
    • Expected Contributions: 15% of Gross Salary, 10% from me, 5% match
    • Expected Balance: $1.3 million
    • Expected Annual Withdraw (20 years): $74K
    • Expected Annual Withdraw (30 years): $60K


    I'm OK with that. My guess is that my IRR will raise over the next 2 - 4 years so the ending balance should be higher. I think my focus should be on keeping my average annual return about 5% higher than inflation. Happy
    Lookin' up at the 'G Fund'!!!

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  3. #146

    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Paradise
    Posts
    324

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Been a few days since I lasted posted. However I still read the site almost daily and keep up with the auto tracker. I feel like I am doing good compared to my coworkers, however I still feel like I need to do more. I guess thats a good thing.

    41y/o
    13 years of service
    $258k TSP balance, with a goal of 800k-1.3m
    Plan to retire in 8-13 years, depending on balance.
    I could stay to the maximum age for me of 57 in hopes of a 1.7m balance but don't want to stay, but things could change.
    From day one started with saving 13%, and increased from there. Reached 25% for a time, but hover around 18% now.
    Stayed mostly with a buy and hold approach, currently 30C, 40S, 30I. Plan to stay this way with a slight reduction of the I fund.
    I owe a lot of my success to my dad who said I should max tsp out, then TSPtalk!(found in 2004) And now I am addicted to Bogleheads.org
    Pill

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

    43. Lost it all after a divorce so stated again in 2010.
    Current balance is $196,500 - Gradually increased until I got to the full $18k annually.
    Buy and hold at 70/20/10 c/s/i.
    I'm also contributing $5,500 to an outside Roth hoping to make up for lost time.

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  7. #148

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    51. In FERS/TSP since before college grad - roughly 32 years. Made max contribution for the past 17 years but before that put at least 10% of pay in. Just crossed $700,000. Could have been better had I aggressively invested in equities but stayed pretty true to a 40% C, 10% S, 10% I, 30% F, 10% G allocation throughout. My main disappointment is the I Fund. I haven't gotten stock market type returns with that piece.

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  9. #149

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    On a Florida beach
    Posts
    1,454

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    I love this thread, it reads like a therapy session. Hi, my name is Tsunami, I'm 56, married, and...

    I could retire now if I had 3 bad days in a row at work, but I just took a new position with a big promotion and it wouldn't look too cool to leave soon, so my plan now is 12/22/18 or 3/31/19, unless I'm really liking the new job by then in which case I'll go to the end of 2019 to get full benefit of the new pay in my high-3. If I get wiped out by a stock market nosedive, then I'd likely to age 62.

    I'm coming up on 33 years as a Fed, almost 8 years under CSRS in the 80s as a nuclear engineer for DOD, then I left for greener pastures, then saw the error of my ways and came back to Uncle Sam in 1991 (and immediately bought back my CSRS years, so my annuity will get about a 10% bump from the CSRS component)...back of the envelope calculations at the time showed I could get to around $1.5M in my TSP by age 56, so with dollar signs in my eyes on my first day at the new job I signed the paper to leave CSRS Offset and go to FERS, argh. A subsequent divorce then stung my TSP growth (I'd started my TSP in Nov 1991), since between that and the high cost of living in California I had to cut my contributions to just 5% for 12 long years. Now my second wife of 20+ years and I are building our empire, and I'm catching up to my goals and in the TSP I max'd out with the $24k contributions last year for the first time...current balance $527K, with projections of $675K by 12/31/17. Our net worth recently topped $1M, so that was a nice milestone.

    Retirement Plan:
    - To not follow any more gurus ever again, I've subscribed to over 20 of them since 2001. I'll follow my own plan.
    - To stay in the TSP upon retiring and do monthly withdrawals, adjusting annually to whatever 6% of my balance is, assuming 7% returns on average, hopefully I will do a bit better, but after any bad years the budget shows I'd be able to cut way back or stop the withdrawals and be OK.
    - For whatever we don't spend from the TSP withdrawals (and non-retirement account investments), I will invest with a 50/50 mix of a dividend stocks portfolio (which I recently started with $100K in my TD Ameritrade account, $5K each of 20 stocks), which should net me 4.8% this year, or $400/month, and will grow from there...and with the other half I'll invest in ETFs using the same strategies I'm beginning to use in my TSP.
    - If there's still more leftover after I get my wife her HGTV dream home, all the "stuff" she wants to fill it, and a pool girl for me, and taking a few nice trips each year and/or spending several months each summer away from the Florida heat (Viera, FL is our retirement destination) in places like Puget Sound, then I hope to start gifting the excess to our 3 kids.

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  11. Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    I retired at 59, with 30 years, being a GS 13 for 20 of those years. I put the full amount allowed by IRS in the TSP for all those years and the maximum amount allowed as a catchup contribution. I have been in the TSP premium services since their inceptions and have used either one service or all the services at various times. I have primarily used the S fund for the last 10 years and the C,S and I funds prior to that. I moved in and out of the market (timed it) regularly using a combination of the premium services and my tracking of political and financial news. When I left government I had $800,000 in the TSP and that was after suffering a $200,000 loss in 2007 and 2008. At present I have $1,140,00 in the TSP. I have never withdrawn any funds.


    Sent from my iPad using TSP Talk Forums

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  13. Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Talk is cheap.

    37 years old. 14yrs of service. All military (non agency matching). I have been investing since 2004. Just a little over $450K total

    I have about ~$227K in my TSP and another ~$227K in my investment (Roth IRA and brokerage) accounts.

    Here is my proof since talk is cheap.






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  15. #152

    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    9,583

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by FAB1 View Post
    Age - too old
    time served - too long
    tsp - not enuf

    reading you guys posts is getting me depressed. I will have to work forever.
    Amen, me too...
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  16.  
  17. Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    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.


  18.  
  19. #154

    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    2,274

    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.
    I wouldn't limit yourself to only one, but my order of preference would be 3, 1, 4. Depending on your AGI, Roth phases out between 117K & 132K. If you are worried about your current/future taxable income with option 4, you might consider municipal bonds as part of your investment strategy.

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  21. #155

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    I'll be turning 52 in a few days. I have 16 years of Federal Service and have a balance of $170,000 in my TSP. It would be more but I took out a $50,000 TSP loan to build a house last summer and am making minimum payments on it for the next 15 years. ($149 per paycheck)
    I don't plan to retire early and may work till I'm well over 70, so I have lots of time to build up my TSP. At this time I am only contributing 6% each paycheck and have never contributed more than 10%.
    I actively manage my TSP and really miss the unlimited trades!
    I use the G, C & S funds only. I don't understand enough about International Markets or Bonds to mess with the F or I funds.

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  23. #156

    Default Re: Share Your TSP Balance and Your Age Thread

    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! ��

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