Thread: tsp and roth

1. Banks offer nothing that beat any of the funds in TSP, so if that's the real question, there's your answer. The only "investments" at the bank are lousey savings accounts, so-called money market accounts, and CDs. All of these should be avoided.

2. Roth vs TSP after match comes down to personal preference, ultimately there's no right or wrong. Both are tax advantaged, the former gives tax breaks at the end, TSP gives them in the year you contribute (like a traditional). Roths do have a very nice advantage though in that you can always get to principle without any penality or taxes; that is if you dont create a CD roth at your bank!

puertorico wrote:

ok

I need an advise on ,what to do if only have a tsp account

or both," tsp and roth".I talk to a personal banker.And he

advice me to put just 6% in tsp, and open a roth account

with the other 8% .Becouse that 8% is

not getting match.



My opinion is, to still putting 14% on tsp becouse my retirement

day is far away,a least 18 years.But the banker said is better

you put in tsp the % they match "money free" and the other

porcent open and roth.

WHAT is u opinion ? I really dont know what to do !

options

1-stay 14% on tsp for now and when close to retirement open a roth ira

2- put 6% on tsp and the next 8% open an roth ira...

PR, you need to worry about contribution limits in your Roth also. This year it is $3000 max and next year is $4000 I believe. You can always open more than one Roth though.

I would personally put the 5-6% in your TSP and the rest in your Roth since there are more investment opportunities with your Roth.

Mike,

I think that I can answer this question with certainty, but it depends on a few things.

First, how old are you and how old do you expect to live? Obviously the first question is easier and the second is a guess. Let's say that you are in your thirties. You benefit, because of time, mostby the Roth IRA as your first choice, unless your employer matches your TSP contribution. If your TSP is matched, which it is almost certainly so, First contribute up to the amount that is matched. This match is free money, with a 100% return right off the bat. Anyone would be a fool to not take advantage of this first. Second, with the next chunk of money, place it into a Roth IRA. If you are younger than 50 (not exactly sure the exact age) place the money in a Roth IRA which the maximum contribution this year is $3000. That, I believe without a calculator is $216.66/month. Now I know that it does not give you a tax break right now, but it grows tax deferred and is taken out tax free. Compare this to a traditional IRA at an age under 50 and there is no comparison to the Roth as far as after tax money. Even if you took the "tax savings" of the traditional IRA and invested it (which most people don't) dollar for dollar assuming everything else (same fund, same length of time) you come out ahead after Uncle Sam gets his hand in it with the Roth IRA. Go to Vanguard.com or T.Roweprice.com and they have comparison "what if formulas" that you can plug in and see for yourself. So after funding the maximum to the Roth IRA for the year ($4000 next year) if you have more money to invest, go back to your TSP and the tax deferred savings and fund the max. So the order should be this:

1. Fund TSP to the level of the employer match. If more money available:

2. Fund Roth IRA to the maximum for the year. If more money available:

3. Go back to the TSP and fund it to the maximum. If more money avaiable:

4. Many options including annuities (different kinds, check on this) universal lifke (not that great) These take advantage of more tax deferred savings but I don't know much about these.

The first 3 options I am rock solid on as far as their order. I've bounced this off ofeveryfinancial planner I meet, read about it from articles from financial planners. Heard Suzie Ortmann (from TV)say the same thing, EVeryone, EVeryone, Everyone who is not trying to SELL YOU SOMETHING, i.e- YOUR BANKER, agrees on these steps in the order presented above. I threw the fourth one in in case money grows on trees over at your house. By the way, If you know that you are going to have the money up front for both the Full Roth and TSP contribution, you can fund both at the same time. I just wouldn't do it that way if you are not sure, then I would follow the above order. Questions? I hope this helps.

Joel

Mike,

Sorry, this should of been directed at Puerto Rico, I miss read the post.

Joel

I dont know about roth ira,but will be a good idea

to learn abou it.

Tsp is simple ,and I learn a lot here in this site.



Retirement tools...

1-SOCIAL SECURITY

2-COMPANY PENSION

3-TSP

4-personal account

......another branch "roth ira" help retirement a lot.That way u

can retire in good shape and earlier than later.

5- "roth ira"



,,,Azanon , Mil_Man , JGPalmerdds,,,Thanks a lot for u help...

Now is up to me :^

Another reason i max TSP before Roth is this: TSP is forced savings, and once you set it, you cant change it until the next open season, which can be bad if you set it to something less than the max. If you already have TSP set to max, then you can save in the Roth as excess monies become available to you. If you only have TSP set to the 5% match point, and you unexpectidly come into a lot of money you would have available to save later in the year, you lost the opportunity to max both TSP and Roth. Done the other way around (maxing TSP first), you can always contribute to a Roth at the last second.

Are they raising the Roth limit each year like they're doing with the max TSP witholding (going to 15% next year)? Is it also rising in 2006, 2007...?

Yeah roth's are rising. i believe it will be 4000 per Roth next year and the year following... forgot what comes after that.

Hi,

I have a question and some info. First the question. Does the percentage limit of contributions to our TSP accounts include the 5% match? That is,am I limited to 9% in 2004 (so that the total is 14% with the match)? Or, can I give 14% out of my salary, so that the total contribution is 19%?

Now for the info. Maximum IRAcontributions will be $4000 from 2005-2007, then $5000 after that. Here is a link toa schedule of IRA and 401(k) (and TSP) maximum contributions:

http://www.gabelli.com/university/iraupdate.html

I tried to postthe infohere, but the format was all screwed up so I edited the post and just provided the link.

Keep in mind that, in addition to the percentage limit to TSP contributions, there is a dollar amount limit that is also increasing. It will be $14,000 in 2005, then $15,000 starting in 2006.

Dave

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I am a new employee at the VA Tampa, I've been told by the existing staff here that the match does not count toward the percentage or the total amount. This makes sense as in my old business as I maxed the employee deferral and got the employer contribution (match) on top of that. I would check with your HR department to be sure but I think that is right.

Joel

I think you are right, Joel. I did some more searching online, and it seems like the percent limit does not take into account the agency match. So, if you put in the maximum of 14% in 2004, you would actually be saving 19% However, the TOTAL DOLLAR limit does take into account the agency match.

Here is a link to more info:

http://www.tsp.gov/cgi-bin/byteserve.../ocfs91-13.pdf

I apologize if this is old news, but I did a calculation based on 2005 TSP limits: 15% of salary and $14,000 per year. If you make over $70K, and contribute 15% (= 20% with agency match), you end up exceeding the $14,000 per year limit. When that happens, contributions, including agency match, stop. So, you would be better off putting in a smaller percentage and putting the remaining savings elsewhere (like a Roth IRA).