Growing your TSP account (and making it last)

Thrift Savings Planner

April 2024

Summary of contents

Your experience matters to us!
How would you answer these questions about your retirement readiness?
Growing your TSP account (and making it last)
Free TSP webinars
Biometrics for the TSP Mobile App
First quarter statements in My Account

Your experience matters to us!

Did you know we often reach out to individual TSP participants to learn more about the people we serve, what’s working well at the TSP, and where we can make improvements?

We truly value the time participants spend offering thoughtful feedback and insights. If you receive a survey request from the TSP, please respond. (You can always contact the ThriftLine to check whether a TSP survey request is authentic, if you’re unsure.)

And if you’re curious about the questions we ask and the results of past surveys, you can read the reports online.

How would you answer these questions about your retirement readiness?

One of the more recent survey results we published is the Financial Wellness Survey. We want to know how TSP participants perceive their readiness for retirement and what drives those perceptions.

Here are a couple of the results that are helping us prioritize improvements and develop financial education material.

Most TSP participants are confident that they’re on track to a comfortable retirement lifestyle.

54% confident

24% neither confident or unconfident

22% not confident

Those who use multiple money management practices are more likely to be confident in their financial futures. These money management practices include tracking spending, budgeting, controlling or paying down debt, and tracking savings and investment totals. How would you rate your own confidence?

Find out how to take full advantage of the TSP in our Early to Mid-Career online course.

25% of TSP participants aren’t sure how long their TSP savings will need to last in retirement.

pie chart showing percentages of TSP participant guesses on how many years they'll have in retirement

25% don’t know

19% 30 years or more

31% 20 to 29 years

17% 10 to 19 years

9% 0 to 9 years

How would you answer this question for yourself? Statistics show that people are living longer, healthier lives. It’s possible that you could spend two, maybe three, decades in retirement.

Get the tools you need to make smart decisions about your TSP savings as you prepare to retire in our Pre-Separation online course.

Growing your TSP account
(and making it last)

Giving your money the potential to earn more money by itself is the most powerful advantage of investing. Compounding—when your investments accumulate earnings on earnings on earnings (and so on over time)—is how investing can grow your savings exponentially so that you have what you need for a comfortable retirement.

Join the TSP Investment Funds webinar for a discussion about investing to meet your retirement goals.

Calculate compounding

There are three decisions that’ll have the greatest effects on how much your savings can earn and how long your money will last in retirement:

your contribution and withdrawal amounts
how long you invest your money
your choice of investment funds, which determine your rate of return

To get an idea of how your choices can affect your savings, you can use a compounding calculator like the one from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on investor.gov.

As an example for the calculator, let’s say you’ve just started your federal career with an annual salary of $60,000. If you contribute 5% of your salary to the TSP and get your 5% employer match, that means $500 goes into your TSP account each month. To keep this estimate simple, let’s assume your salary and contributions stay the same for your 30-year career. With a diversified portfolio of low-cost funds, like the TSP L Funds, and a 7% estimated rate of return (called “interest rate” in the calculator), you would have more than $500,000 dollars in your TSP account after 30 years!

Line graph showing compound growth of 500 dollars invested per month for 30 years

Take a turn at using the SEC compounding calculator to see how much your TSP account can grow. If you’re close to retirement, you can use a negative monthly contribution amount to see how long your TSP savings can generate retirement income for you.

Crunch your numbers

Free TSP webinars

Thousands of TSP participants join our free webinars every month!

Our official TSP trainers host free webinars on a variety of TSP topics and always include time to answer your specific questions. We add new sessions throughout the year, so check frequently to find times that work for you.

Browse all TSP webinars >>

Biometrics for the
TSP Mobile App

You can now log in to the TSP Mobile App quickly and securely with your device fingerprint or facial recognition! If you download the latest version of the TSP Mobile App on a device that supports biometric authentication, you can set up this security feature in the TSP Mobile App settings.

Download the TSP Mobile App

First quarter statements in My Account

Your first quarter TSP statement covers account activity for January 1 – March 31, 2024. You'll receive an email when your statement is available online in My Account.