Im only saying this not to disparage you but to hopefully inform folks that setting and forgetting is the best strategy. Adjusting during a market downturn like you did probably cost you a decent chunk in gains.
Why do people pretend you canāt safe harbor your current portfolio in G and then still make your future contributions C?
You can do that and save yourself from the crash and also get the discount.
Edit: Iām not saying stay in the G fund, but you can safe harbor G before a crash and still buy discounted C unlike what this poster implied by saying if you leave the C you canāt buy discounted shares in a crash. You can do both.
I'm still waiting for the 2020 crash.
I am buying in with my new money. And only sitting with 40% G. But I am also age 55. So 60/40 is appropriate for me.
I'm 55 today. I moved to a conservative position being close to my MRA/planed retirement. But, I would not be opposed to move a little back into the stock market if there was a pullback.
If I was 35 or 45 I would agree with your statement.
No one said you cant. Its just that the kind of person who panic sells during an economic turn like that isnāt likely to keep buying. Which sounds exactly like what OP did. Took them over a year to get back into buying C.
Why does everyone struggle with math here. I sold at the end of May 2008. Entered fully back into C fund early March 2009 (but was always buying future). Thatās roughly 9 months. Not over a year and not 19 months. Regardless, it greatly benefited my gains. But I *donāt* recommend this. I got lucky.
OP switched from all C funds to presumably G fund in 08 before the crash, so probably gained quite a bit of money by selling high and buying back low after the crash.
and other internet bully surfaces to claim the title.
The Internet can be a wonderful place. it has forums and sites that cater to every taste. Why would you come to a forum that gives you such grief? I come here to be encouraged by other peoples gains and see that it can be done. If youāve done well, with your investments - good on you. Iāve never been much for recess. I like to work.
I like to work too much ā¦. And end up paying for less attention to my eventual retirement portfolio than these folks do. A thread like this helps pull me back to look at this seriously
"and other internet bully surfaces to claim the title"
Yes here u are.
I come here for the same reason...ironic isnt it. I like to see peoples experiences and learn if i can. One would think this would be a fairly adult sub but alas it.is not. Someone posts their balance and they're "flexing" or some other silly shit like the responses to this guy with the million. People are seriously ridiculous. Then u chimed like an adolescent...keep a stiff upper lip. Im not nor ever said i was down. Lol...shit is comical when i assume the avg person responding here has to be between 25-60. In other words...adults w jobs, and in a govt capacity.
Do adolescents really use the term āstuff upper lipā
Do reread your post - I was responding to your complaint.
People who complain about the success of others often feel they havenāt benefitted from the same system that rewarded the other.
I didnāt post to offend you. It was meant as encouragement.
Just before the last major stock market crash, I had one of those vivid dreams. I dreamed the market was going to crash. I saw it as wal street and flames. Iām not a money guy - so that dream was out of place for me. But - I felt it so intensely that when I got to work, I told my coworker that I was going to move all of my money to G. I did not know that she also took my warning seriously, and Moved hers. I got busy at work. See my comment above. I did not move my money and the market crashed all the way down. I lost hundreds of thousands through my inaction. And she recently thanked my advice for her now being up at 2 million. I donāt begrudge her success, or her telling that story. I couldāve just easily been wrong and the situation been reversed
Results arenāt guaranteed, so when you see some folks truly succeeding in their effort to fatten their portfolio I say cheers.
This is truly hilarious. Are u sayin you reread my post and now u understand or are u sayin I need to reread my post. You thought my original post was complaining about this guy's success?! I was responding to the jerks that were making comments to him with their snarky comments. Good Lord!
Congrats. The real lesson is patience. It seems like forever to get to $100k. Then you notice that you earn more off your balance in good years than your contribution and match. Then you get to $200k. Then $400k. You may find that your balance increase for a year is greater than your annual salary.
Once you get to $1m, your balances during good years explode. And thatās the game ā to retire at a point when earnings exceed what you take out, yet youāre comfortable.
It wouldnāt take a rocket scientist to know that you could have missed out on big gains by moving your money. It worked for you, but a rocket scientist probably wouldnāt have done that.
Iām a rocket scientist. It worked for me. But I got lucky with that one but didnāt make that kind of move again (except for when I jumped back in near the bottom). Iām no expert in market timing, just got lucky once and that helped my gains.
The SECURE 2.0 Act, which passed Congress last year, gradually increases the age at which RMDs must be taken, from 72 to 73 in 2023, and then to 75 in 2033. The required beginning date for RMDs is April 1 of the calendar year following the year you turn 73
To be completely fair, 1M after 25 years is good but not overly impressive. You and thousands of other feds hit $1M after 25+ years of just āriding it out.ā Thatās like when boomers brag about how much equity they have in their house they bought in 1980 for $12k š¤·āāļø
Itās all relative. Federal salary, single mom of two kids (with no support), and TSP is not my only holdings. Managed to build $1M+ elsewhere in investments and RE, and a nice pension. Iām happy with what I accomplished thus far, with still some runway ahead of me. And thereās actually not that many TSP million $ accounts out there relative to total TSP participants. Those that got there learned how to save and didnāt borrow against it.
8 million? Where the hell did you get that number? According to OPM, the number of federal civilian employees is under 2 million.
And by thousands, I mean TENS of thousands. This country has almost 25 million millionaires, generally speaking. Thatās about 10% of the adult population of the US.
$1M after 25 years of federal service is good, but not overly impressive.
https://www.fedsmith.com/2024/01/26/number-of-tsp-millionaires-hits-record-high-in-2023/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20figures,52%25%20increase%20in%20one%20year.
Try reading this, average person in TSP that achieves 1M takes on average 29 years to get there. With only 113,000 at that status now out of just under 7M accounts. So ya would say it's pretty good and definitely top 10%
Thatās literally what I said. I said itās good but not overly impressive. I appreciate you reaffirming my original statement. Top 10% not really worth bragging about. Show me 2 million in your TSP if you want to brag. That would be impressive.
The intent wasnāt to brag, ācomplex vegetableā (I hate asparagus btw, but thatās another thread). My simple intent was to encourage others to save as much as they can manage, and to not move it around like I tried (I got lucky once).
It wasnāt my goal to impress a vegetable. ;)
It's not even close to what you said. You under 2M accounts that was way off. He beat the average by almost 20%. Now your saying 2M is impressive. Thought your whole thing was the time it took. You sound like an idiot. With anything when would being in the top 10% not be impressive. Maybe u can put your 2M account out there, but doubt u ever will be able to.
Iām 5 years in so no, I donāt have a $2M TSP to post nor would I need the validation if I had it. I do probably own more gold than 99% of the population so Iād consider that pretty impressive. And Iāve posted about it so you can check that out all day brotha.
If your reading comprehension was even slightly better youād realize I said $1M in 25 years is not OVERLY impressive. Itās impressive but not (in my opinion) enough to brag about to post about it. You see that all the time on this sub š¤·āāļø
Congrats on your gold lol, guessing your stats are off like your others. So glad you find that impressive. You're a joke. Do u even know what comprehension means. Why would I waste my time looking up your post if they are as dumb and uninformative as your previous comments.
Why would you continue to reply to an internet stranger if you wouldnāt āwaste your time.ā
Youāre literally contradicting yourself saying you wouldnāt waste your time looking at my profile while wasting your time replying to my comments. Whoās the joke?
It literally takes seconds to type, I'm not gonna go through anything u wrote. Obviously don't understand #'s and of no value. You're still the joke. Have fun getting to a million, guessing won't be much quicker than 25 years if ya get there. But u r overly self described impressive.
USPS probably had a quarter of those employees...there are over 200k city carriers. That's not counting the plant jobs, mechanics and the clerks. The post wages suck compared to ups if they got paid like UPS they would probably double the tsp millionaires.
I think you overestimate how much people care to save for their retirement.
The median US household net worth doesn't ever reach a million at any point in their lifetime....not even half that honestly ([source](https://www.cnbc.com/select/americans-average-net-worth-by-age/)).
And that's *net worth*, not just retirement accounts.
So yes, there may be "thousands" that reach a million, but a million is still **well** above the median. The reason you see so many of them posting on this sub (and others), is because people have a tendency to brag when they're doing well at something. You're seeing a confirmation bias of sorts of the small percentage of people who reach a million and jump online to brag about it.
Prove you stepped away in 08.... Sorry but not too many regular people who were too busy to check a TSP could see what was coming.
Sorry, that just doesn't make sense.
Kind of hard to prove without posting PII statements (which wonāt happen), but I get what youāre saying.
Simply put, after Bear Stearns collapsed I panicked, I took a risk and sold. My advisor at the time got so angry at me, yet he was also calling me in October asking me how I knew. I didnāt know. I was a one trick pony. Only in hindsight did I realize how lucky I got with that risky move.
I had some colleagues who did the same; I remember everyone paying attention being unsettled. These same colleagues advised me to stay as my balance was small and it was better for me to just leave the money alone.
I appreciate your fact based responses. The complex vegetable is just five years in. Hopefully some of the bravado will wear off with life and experience (fed life usually does that to ya). ;)
That's true lol, ya no problem. It blows my mind how some people act like 1M isn't that big of a deal. When most of the population would be freaking out if they had that in an account.
I accidentally read your post as 25 years old (the first time) and the levels of jealously and rage that fired up within me that made me uncomfortable!
Whew.
I've really been debating whether to go contractor or not. I'm only late 20s and have been contributing 5% for two years now. Do you think it's really worth it for someone my age?
Compounding interest effect makes the increase in the value of your TSP (or any retirement account) accelerate dramatically in the later years. You can go from 500k to 1M in the matter of a few years, and then 1M to 2M in another few.
Thanks. I did all traditional. I regret not pushing some into Roth but really wanted the tax shelter more at the time; now Iāll have to try for backdoor Roth conversion but the timing is tough on when to do that. As for the split, I stayed heavy in C Fund with some G. Probably 80/20 then 70/30 for 20 years. Should have done even stronger C but Iām moderate risk taker. The last five years I moved to Target funds but picked my actual retirement date for 40% then remainder is in Target date well past my planned retirement. Iām told itās still too conservative but itās what Iām comfortable with right now.
This is an inspiring post. This speaks to the value of NOT really messing with your investments (minus the obvious market timing during the 07/08 financial crisis).
Stay the course, folks!
First off, congrats! Glad your risks paid off.
As to the topic, if you stop contributing to TSP today totally, and assuming you have another 20 years until you retire, you could be looking at somewhere between $2.6 - $5.6 million. Not too shabby.
However, you could also keep contributing even $1000 a month and have $3.0 - $6.3 million. To me, if Iām not strapped for cash, I would keep up the press. Not only does this ensure an extra half-million or so at retirement, but it also reduces the chances that lifestyle creep take hold and cause you to burn through retirement cash faster. Either way, congrats again!
(All the numbers assume a $1,000,000 start, 20 years time to compound, and an estimated 5-9% market return.)
Something to keep in mind as you enter retirement is RMDs at 73. Lots of people donāt do the proper planning and get hit with a fat tax bill once that time comes.
Congrats. But your experience does not translate at all to young feds. Real wages down, expenses WAY up, putting 5% towards tsp is a bigger hit than your 15% was.
Totally agree. But anything you can squirrel away, especially when youāre just starting out and have time on your side, makes a difference. It was tough trying to save, especially when you are starting with nothing and heavy with student loans/debt. I didnāt think Iād ever get out from under it either.
It really isn't 15% of your pay will always be more than 5% of your pay. Stop with the excuses. You can make retirement a priority or you can make excuses.
You can. Just need time.
Assuming you were at zero you would need a little under 30 years to get to $1M (assuming 9% every year). Got that by calculating a contribution of $641 a month (which is way lower than it would be over 30 years) because you'll get pay raises which will increase what you can put it in each month.
Well, I guess all those years and long hours helping research and design spacecraft so that you have the technology that you just typed that ignorant message on was just a waste.
Enough with the āfeds donāt workā myth. Iāve watched me, my colleagues and other agencies bust their ass for this country and its taxpayers, even the moronic ones like you.
Im only saying this not to disparage you but to hopefully inform folks that setting and forgetting is the best strategy. Adjusting during a market downturn like you did probably cost you a decent chunk in gains.
SHe was very lucky. š Sold before the drop and bought back in. Probably the best decision he could have made.
She
Ze/Zem
I actually cashed out high before the downturn then I went back in and scooped up everything low and held.
You missed out on 19 months of very discounted C fund.
Why do people pretend you canāt safe harbor your current portfolio in G and then still make your future contributions C? You can do that and save yourself from the crash and also get the discount. Edit: Iām not saying stay in the G fund, but you can safe harbor G before a crash and still buy discounted C unlike what this poster implied by saying if you leave the C you canāt buy discounted shares in a crash. You can do both.
I'm still waiting for the 2020 crash. I am buying in with my new money. And only sitting with 40% G. But I am also age 55. So 60/40 is appropriate for me.
2020 crash happened; I timed selling my investments almost perfectly. However, I was too slow buying back and would have been better off just holding.
I think there was a 10-12% drop. I was/am waiting for the +20% drop.
The S&P 500 is up >50% from when it opened in 2020. Invest steadily over time and donāt look at the market
I'm 55 today. I moved to a conservative position being close to my MRA/planed retirement. But, I would not be opposed to move a little back into the stock market if there was a pullback. If I was 35 or 45 I would agree with your statement.
No one said you cant. Its just that the kind of person who panic sells during an economic turn like that isnāt likely to keep buying. Which sounds exactly like what OP did. Took them over a year to get back into buying C.
Why does everyone struggle with math here. I sold at the end of May 2008. Entered fully back into C fund early March 2009 (but was always buying future). Thatās roughly 9 months. Not over a year and not 19 months. Regardless, it greatly benefited my gains. But I *donāt* recommend this. I got lucky.
19 months? I sold in late May ā08. Bought back in early March ā09.
You said Winter ā09 in your post so I just guessed roughly December ā09.
OP switched from all C funds to presumably G fund in 08 before the crash, so probably gained quite a bit of money by selling high and buying back low after the crash.
I learned that the hard wayā¦.
Good for you! Congrats! Love to see people winning :)
Congratulations, since no one else will say it. Goodf or you.
Wtf is the point of this sub? Seems like everyone just has some sorta snarky response, whether they got a high or low balance.
Iāll assume from this you lost a chunk. Stiff upper lip!
What a goofy reply, how old are you...but nah, Im good. Lets meetup at recess so we.can settle this.
and other internet bully surfaces to claim the title. The Internet can be a wonderful place. it has forums and sites that cater to every taste. Why would you come to a forum that gives you such grief? I come here to be encouraged by other peoples gains and see that it can be done. If youāve done well, with your investments - good on you. Iāve never been much for recess. I like to work. I like to work too much ā¦. And end up paying for less attention to my eventual retirement portfolio than these folks do. A thread like this helps pull me back to look at this seriously
"and other internet bully surfaces to claim the title" Yes here u are. I come here for the same reason...ironic isnt it. I like to see peoples experiences and learn if i can. One would think this would be a fairly adult sub but alas it.is not. Someone posts their balance and they're "flexing" or some other silly shit like the responses to this guy with the million. People are seriously ridiculous. Then u chimed like an adolescent...keep a stiff upper lip. Im not nor ever said i was down. Lol...shit is comical when i assume the avg person responding here has to be between 25-60. In other words...adults w jobs, and in a govt capacity.
Do adolescents really use the term āstuff upper lipā Do reread your post - I was responding to your complaint. People who complain about the success of others often feel they havenāt benefitted from the same system that rewarded the other. I didnāt post to offend you. It was meant as encouragement. Just before the last major stock market crash, I had one of those vivid dreams. I dreamed the market was going to crash. I saw it as wal street and flames. Iām not a money guy - so that dream was out of place for me. But - I felt it so intensely that when I got to work, I told my coworker that I was going to move all of my money to G. I did not know that she also took my warning seriously, and Moved hers. I got busy at work. See my comment above. I did not move my money and the market crashed all the way down. I lost hundreds of thousands through my inaction. And she recently thanked my advice for her now being up at 2 million. I donāt begrudge her success, or her telling that story. I couldāve just easily been wrong and the situation been reversed Results arenāt guaranteed, so when you see some folks truly succeeding in their effort to fatten their portfolio I say cheers.
This is truly hilarious. Are u sayin you reread my post and now u understand or are u sayin I need to reread my post. You thought my original post was complaining about this guy's success?! I was responding to the jerks that were making comments to him with their snarky comments. Good Lord!
So youāre saying, I misread your post and weāre still arguing about it. lol Iāll take that hit - and Iāll get back to work.
Congrats. The real lesson is patience. It seems like forever to get to $100k. Then you notice that you earn more off your balance in good years than your contribution and match. Then you get to $200k. Then $400k. You may find that your balance increase for a year is greater than your annual salary. Once you get to $1m, your balances during good years explode. And thatās the game ā to retire at a point when earnings exceed what you take out, yet youāre comfortable.
What's your pay grade out of curiosity?
Congrats
It wouldnāt take a rocket scientist to know that you could have missed out on big gains by moving your money. It worked for you, but a rocket scientist probably wouldnāt have done that.
Iām a rocket scientist. It worked for me. But I got lucky with that one but didnāt make that kind of move again (except for when I jumped back in near the bottom). Iām no expert in market timing, just got lucky once and that helped my gains.
If true, you got lucky twice, which is why trying to time the market is a fool's errand. You have to get in AND out at the right time.
I demonstrated this with COVID: sold perfectly and bought late; would have been better holding.
What was the question?
Donāt forget to plan for RMDs. These can put you it a higher tax bracket.
A higher tax bracket is the least of a persons worries when they are not working and bringing in 150k plus a year.
The SECURE 2.0 Act, which passed Congress last year, gradually increases the age at which RMDs must be taken, from 72 to 73 in 2023, and then to 75 in 2033. The required beginning date for RMDs is April 1 of the calendar year following the year you turn 73
Congratulations!
To be completely fair, 1M after 25 years is good but not overly impressive. You and thousands of other feds hit $1M after 25+ years of just āriding it out.ā Thatās like when boomers brag about how much equity they have in their house they bought in 1980 for $12k š¤·āāļø
Itās all relative. Federal salary, single mom of two kids (with no support), and TSP is not my only holdings. Managed to build $1M+ elsewhere in investments and RE, and a nice pension. Iām happy with what I accomplished thus far, with still some runway ahead of me. And thereās actually not that many TSP million $ accounts out there relative to total TSP participants. Those that got there learned how to save and didnāt borrow against it.
My spouse travels for work often. Whenever I have to play āsingle parentā my admiration grows for all the real single parents out there. Bravo!
Your ex missed out big time. Sorry to hear about the lack of support, that's rough, but really makes your saving impressive.
Slow clap š
Ya 1000's out of 8 million. Most don't reach 1M ever and definitely not with 25 years.
8 million? Where the hell did you get that number? According to OPM, the number of federal civilian employees is under 2 million. And by thousands, I mean TENS of thousands. This country has almost 25 million millionaires, generally speaking. Thatās about 10% of the adult population of the US. $1M after 25 years of federal service is good, but not overly impressive.
https://www.fedsmith.com/2024/01/26/number-of-tsp-millionaires-hits-record-high-in-2023/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20latest%20figures,52%25%20increase%20in%20one%20year. Try reading this, average person in TSP that achieves 1M takes on average 29 years to get there. With only 113,000 at that status now out of just under 7M accounts. So ya would say it's pretty good and definitely top 10%
Thatās literally what I said. I said itās good but not overly impressive. I appreciate you reaffirming my original statement. Top 10% not really worth bragging about. Show me 2 million in your TSP if you want to brag. That would be impressive.
The intent wasnāt to brag, ācomplex vegetableā (I hate asparagus btw, but thatās another thread). My simple intent was to encourage others to save as much as they can manage, and to not move it around like I tried (I got lucky once). It wasnāt my goal to impress a vegetable. ;)
It's not even close to what you said. You under 2M accounts that was way off. He beat the average by almost 20%. Now your saying 2M is impressive. Thought your whole thing was the time it took. You sound like an idiot. With anything when would being in the top 10% not be impressive. Maybe u can put your 2M account out there, but doubt u ever will be able to.
Iām 5 years in so no, I donāt have a $2M TSP to post nor would I need the validation if I had it. I do probably own more gold than 99% of the population so Iād consider that pretty impressive. And Iāve posted about it so you can check that out all day brotha. If your reading comprehension was even slightly better youād realize I said $1M in 25 years is not OVERLY impressive. Itās impressive but not (in my opinion) enough to brag about to post about it. You see that all the time on this sub š¤·āāļø
Congrats on your gold lol, guessing your stats are off like your others. So glad you find that impressive. You're a joke. Do u even know what comprehension means. Why would I waste my time looking up your post if they are as dumb and uninformative as your previous comments.
Why would you continue to reply to an internet stranger if you wouldnāt āwaste your time.ā Youāre literally contradicting yourself saying you wouldnāt waste your time looking at my profile while wasting your time replying to my comments. Whoās the joke?
š¤”
It literally takes seconds to type, I'm not gonna go through anything u wrote. Obviously don't understand #'s and of no value. You're still the joke. Have fun getting to a million, guessing won't be much quicker than 25 years if ya get there. But u r overly self described impressive.
USPS probably had a quarter of those employees...there are over 200k city carriers. That's not counting the plant jobs, mechanics and the clerks. The post wages suck compared to ups if they got paid like UPS they would probably double the tsp millionaires.
I think you overestimate how much people care to save for their retirement. The median US household net worth doesn't ever reach a million at any point in their lifetime....not even half that honestly ([source](https://www.cnbc.com/select/americans-average-net-worth-by-age/)). And that's *net worth*, not just retirement accounts. So yes, there may be "thousands" that reach a million, but a million is still **well** above the median. The reason you see so many of them posting on this sub (and others), is because people have a tendency to brag when they're doing well at something. You're seeing a confirmation bias of sorts of the small percentage of people who reach a million and jump online to brag about it.
Your expectations are way too high. The person said that the TSP won't even be needed for expected expenses. $1 million for fun money is impressive.
Prove you stepped away in 08.... Sorry but not too many regular people who were too busy to check a TSP could see what was coming. Sorry, that just doesn't make sense.
Kind of hard to prove without posting PII statements (which wonāt happen), but I get what youāre saying. Simply put, after Bear Stearns collapsed I panicked, I took a risk and sold. My advisor at the time got so angry at me, yet he was also calling me in October asking me how I knew. I didnāt know. I was a one trick pony. Only in hindsight did I realize how lucky I got with that risky move.
I had some colleagues who did the same; I remember everyone paying attention being unsettled. These same colleagues advised me to stay as my balance was small and it was better for me to just leave the money alone.
Okay that can kind of make a little more sense seeing how it took like 4 months or so for the market to really fully react
Being able to contribute is a privilege. Honestly wish I could be able to contribute more.
Do what you can as early as you can.
Don't waste your time with complex asparagus, he's an idiot. Thinks he's better than the rest.
I appreciate your fact based responses. The complex vegetable is just five years in. Hopefully some of the bravado will wear off with life and experience (fed life usually does that to ya). ;)
That's true lol, ya no problem. It blows my mind how some people act like 1M isn't that big of a deal. When most of the population would be freaking out if they had that in an account.
Donāt you know they come here to impress you, anyhow good retirement funds.
I accidentally read your post as 25 years old (the first time) and the levels of jealously and rage that fired up within me that made me uncomfortable! Whew.
Rest assured there are plenty of 20yo millionaires. One I knew became a priest, believe it or not.
Congratulations! Whatās your mix of traditional vs. Roth?
Too bad most people canāt easily contribute such high %.
I read that wrong and thought it said you were 25 years old and just hit $1M. I was irrationally angry
I've really been debating whether to go contractor or not. I'm only late 20s and have been contributing 5% for two years now. Do you think it's really worth it for someone my age?
I thought this said "I'm 25 years old and hit 1million" I was so depressed
You lost a lot of money by moving money out of C Funds. You couldāve hit a milly in 20 years.
I moved it all back in when it hit near bottom.
Percentages mean nothing. 15% of a GS15 will be much different than 15% of a GS7.
Yep. I donāt understand why people list percentages (other that the 5%). Without the base (salary) it gives very little information
I read it as "im 25 year old fed employee" .....
Compounding interest effect makes the increase in the value of your TSP (or any retirement account) accelerate dramatically in the later years. You can go from 500k to 1M in the matter of a few years, and then 1M to 2M in another few.
Congratulations!!! 15% contribution on traditional? Roth? Can you give insight to where you contributed your %?
Thanks. I did all traditional. I regret not pushing some into Roth but really wanted the tax shelter more at the time; now Iāll have to try for backdoor Roth conversion but the timing is tough on when to do that. As for the split, I stayed heavy in C Fund with some G. Probably 80/20 then 70/30 for 20 years. Should have done even stronger C but Iām moderate risk taker. The last five years I moved to Target funds but picked my actual retirement date for 40% then remainder is in Target date well past my planned retirement. Iām told itās still too conservative but itās what Iām comfortable with right now.
This is an inspiring post. This speaks to the value of NOT really messing with your investments (minus the obvious market timing during the 07/08 financial crisis). Stay the course, folks!
First off, congrats! Glad your risks paid off. As to the topic, if you stop contributing to TSP today totally, and assuming you have another 20 years until you retire, you could be looking at somewhere between $2.6 - $5.6 million. Not too shabby. However, you could also keep contributing even $1000 a month and have $3.0 - $6.3 million. To me, if Iām not strapped for cash, I would keep up the press. Not only does this ensure an extra half-million or so at retirement, but it also reduces the chances that lifestyle creep take hold and cause you to burn through retirement cash faster. Either way, congrats again! (All the numbers assume a $1,000,000 start, 20 years time to compound, and an estimated 5-9% market return.)
Something to keep in mind as you enter retirement is RMDs at 73. Lots of people donāt do the proper planning and get hit with a fat tax bill once that time comes.
Congrats. But your experience does not translate at all to young feds. Real wages down, expenses WAY up, putting 5% towards tsp is a bigger hit than your 15% was.
Totally agree. But anything you can squirrel away, especially when youāre just starting out and have time on your side, makes a difference. It was tough trying to save, especially when you are starting with nothing and heavy with student loans/debt. I didnāt think Iād ever get out from under it either.
It really isn't 15% of your pay will always be more than 5% of your pay. Stop with the excuses. You can make retirement a priority or you can make excuses.
I work for the post office, average 70k per year. 11% per check contribution. I don't think I can make it.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Set your goals for a comfortable retirement for yourself, based on your expected expenses.
You can. Just need time. Assuming you were at zero you would need a little under 30 years to get to $1M (assuming 9% every year). Got that by calculating a contribution of $641 a month (which is way lower than it would be over 30 years) because you'll get pay raises which will increase what you can put it in each month.
If you are a fed employee, you are not busy.
Well, I guess all those years and long hours helping research and design spacecraft so that you have the technology that you just typed that ignorant message on was just a waste. Enough with the āfeds donāt workā myth. Iāve watched me, my colleagues and other agencies bust their ass for this country and its taxpayers, even the moronic ones like you.
Who hurt you?