Thread: TSP Newbie

Welcome Bubbagump and good luck with your TSP!

Originally Posted by bubbagump

I started a new career with the fed gov in 2019 at 30 years old.

After some back and forth I've settled on a 15% contribution in the Roth TSP.

Welcome! You will be far ahead of your peers starting with 15% contributions. You’ll be glad you did that in a few decades.

What fund(s) are you invested in? If you don't mind sharing.

Welcome aboard. Lot's of good information in here. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

Originally Posted by PessOptimist

What fund(s) are you invested in? If you don't mind sharing.

I'm currently at 60/20/20 in C/S/I, respectively. I plan on changing that up as time goes on; I'm still doing research on all the individual funds.

I may just move to a lifecycle fund as I near retirement.

Welcome bubbagump! Thanks for joining us, and good luck!

Originally Posted by bubbagump

Thank you all for the warm welcome.



I'm currently at 60/20/20 in C/S/I, respectively. I plan on changing that up as time goes on; I'm still doing research on all the individual funds.

I may just move to a lifecycle fund as I near retirement.

Just wondering as some coworkers in the past announced they were investing 15% or whatever % in TSP. When asked what fund it was going in to they didn't know. Default then was G fund. It was paying almost 3% then. Lots of time spent getting coworkers to look in to it.

C, S, I funds are scary right now. Just dropped a lot but are coming back up. You have a lot of time. Historically stocks come back longer term. Not to say you can't get out at the perfect time and get in again at lower prices, thus increasing your balance.

Just asking based on previous experience. Sounds as if you are on a good track.

PO

FWIW, my highest year in TSP was about 7% so do not follow my autotracker.

Originally Posted by bubbagump

I was previously also contributing to a Roth IRA, but will be sticking with the TSP from now on. Im saving for a home down payment and will most likely put the IRA balance towards that, and leave my TSP untouched for the next few decades.

Do you happen to know the fees on funds that your Roth IRA was invested in? I'd be curious to compare it to the TSP, which has extremely low fees. For example, if your money was in a mutual fund, it could have been charged between 0.2 and 1% a year. Something like that. Meanwhile TSP charges 42 cents per $1,000, so a 0.042% fee. Doesn't sound like much of a difference, but when you compound that over 30 years, it ends up being tens of thousand of dollars and even hundreds of thousands in some cases. Crazy!

Originally Posted by bmneveu

Do you happen to know the fees on funds that your Roth IRA was invested in? I'd be curious to compare it to the TSP, which has extremely low fees. For example, if your money was in a mutual fund, it could have been charged between 0.2 and 1% a year. Something like that. Meanwhile TSP charges 42 cents per $1,000, so a 0.042% fee. Doesn't sound like much of a difference, but when you compound that over 30 years, it ends up being tens of thousand of dollars and even hundreds of thousands in some cases. Crazy!

Lower fees are one of the reasons I decided to stay with TSP for the long haul.

However, I was with Vanguard which does have relatively low fees. The expense ratio for my Roth IRA at Vanguard was 0.15% which I thought was pretty darn good.