TSP Retirement Calculator Guide 2026: Limits, Match, and Projections

The Thrift Savings Plan is the federal government's version of a 401(k), and for most civilian and uniformed service members it quietly becomes the largest asset they own. The reasons are structural: contributions come out of pay automatically, expenses stay low, and — under FERS — the agency adds money on top of whatever you defer. None of that tells you what your balance might be at retirement, though, and that is the question a TSP retirement calculator exists to answer. This guide covers the inputs that matter: contribution limits and how they roll forward, the 1% automatic and matching contributions, traditional versus Roth, the funds, and how projections turn monthly deferrals into a number you can plan around. Estimates, not guarantees — but disciplined ones.

SECTION 01What the TSP Is — and Why It Starts at 5%

The TSP is a defined-contribution plan for federal employees and uniformed services, administered as a low-cost sibling of private-sector 401(k) plans. Under FERS, your retirement income has three legs — the basic annuity, Social Security, and the TSP — and the TSP is the leg you control most directly. Contribution percentages come out of each paycheck before you can spend them, which is quietly the most powerful feature of the whole system.

The number to internalize is 5%. When you defer at least 5% of basic pay, the agency contributes its maximum: an automatic 1% plus matching dollars that together equal another 4%. Below 5%, part of the match is left on the table every single pay period. No fund choice or market timing replicates an immediate, guaranteed return of that shape, which is why every calculator scenario in this series assumes the match is captured first.

Contributions can be split between traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (after-tax) TSP in any proportion, and investment elections apply across both. Payroll changes are made through your agency's electronic system and generally take a pay period or two to land, so plan changes around the start of a year rather than reacting mid-month.

SECTION 02Contribution Limits and How They Roll Forward

For 2025, the elective deferral limit is $23,500, with an additional catch-up of $7,500 for contributors age 50 and over. Participants in the 60-to-63 age window get a higher special catch-up — $11,250 under the 2025 figures — which replaces the standard catch-up amount for those years. Limits are set annually by the IRS and adjust over time, so treat these as recent anchors and check tsp.gov for the current-year numbers before you set a payroll election.

Two practical wrinkles matter for planning. First, the deferral limit is a combined ceiling: traditional and Roth contributions share it. Second, catch-up contributions are opt-in each year — they do not happen automatically when you turn 50, so the birthday is the trigger to file the election, not the payroll office. Both wrinkles are payroll mechanics rather than finance, which means both are fixable in minutes through your agency's electronic system.

For a calculator, what matters is the annual ceiling converted to per-paycheck reality. A $23,500 goal over 26 pay periods is about $904 per pay period; hitting a limit early in the year can pause agency matching for the remainder of the year under some payroll setups, which is why many planners deliberately spread contributions evenly rather than front-loading.

SECTION 03The Match: 1% Automatic, Up to 4% Matched

The FERS agency contribution has two parts. The automatic 1% of basic pay goes in whether you contribute or not. On top of that, the first 3% you defer is matched dollar for dollar, and the next 2% is matched at fifty cents on the dollar. Contribute 5% and the agency adds 5% — doubling your money before any investment return exists.

The arithmetic is worth seeing once in raw dollars. At an $80,000 salary contributing 5%: you put in $4,000; the agency adds its automatic $800 plus $3,200 of match, another $4,000. Total flowing into the plan: $8,000 a year from a $4,000 payroll deduction. That is a 100% immediate return on the matched dollars, which is why this guide hedges market figures freely but never hedges the match.

In the uniformed services the Blended Retirement System works on the same shape, with some differences in vesting timing and continuation pay for the military. If you are BRS-eligible, the 5% target still applies as the planning default. Vesting of agency contributions follows FERS/BRS rules, while your own contributions are yours immediately.

SECTION 04Traditional vs. Roth TSP

Traditional TSP deferrals come out of pay before federal income tax, lowering taxable income now; withdrawals in retirement are taxed as ordinary income. Roth TSP deferrals come out after tax; qualified withdrawals — typically age 59½ or later, with the five-year rule satisfied — come out tax-free, including the earnings. Neither is universally better; they are two different bets about your tax rate today versus your tax rate later.

A useful simplification: early-career employees in lower brackets often lean Roth, mid-to-late-career earners in higher brackets often lean traditional, and many do both. State tax treatment and retirement location add nuance, as does the fact that TSP balances eventually interact with required minimum distribution rules. A calculator can show the growth path for either; it cannot know your future bracket, so treat any Roth-versus-traditional verdict as scenario, not prescription.

One structural point people miss: Roth TSP is not a Roth IRA. Limits, withdrawal rules, and income eligibility are separate systems, and the TSP deferral limit is shared across your traditional and Roth contributions combined. Confusing the two leads to wrong annual targets — a common mistake covered in the companion piece.

SECTION 05The Funds and Lifecycle Funds

The core menu is five index funds: G (government securities, the stable option), F (fixed income), C (large-cap US stocks), S (small- and mid-cap US stocks), and I (international stocks), plus Lifecycle (L) funds that hold all five in an age-appropriate mix and adjust over time. Expenses across the lineup have historically been among the lowest in any retirement plan, though you should verify current expense ratios on tsp.gov rather than trusting a blog's numbers.

Allocation is the biggest lever a calculator cannot responsibly pick for you: long-run growth assumptions of 5–8% a year describe stock-heavy mixes, while conservative mixes plausibly earn less with less volatility. That is why every projection in this series states its assumed return out loud. A plan earning 4% and a plan earning 7% are not small variations of each other over thirty years — they are different retirements.

A reasonable workflow: pick a target date L fund and treat it as the default decision, or build your own mix from the five funds if you want the control. Whichever you choose, the calculator's job is to project outcomes under a stated mix and return — the mix itself is a decision you own, ideally reviewed annually rather than during market storms.

SECTION 06What a TSP Calculator Actually Models

A TSP retirement calculator takes four families of inputs: current balance, contribution rate (yours plus the agency's), assumed annual return, and years to retirement. It then compounds the balance forward, typically monthly, and reports a projected total — sometimes alongside contributions-only totals so you can see how much of the final number is growth. Some models add salary growth, which changes results meaningfully; flat-contribution models are more conservative by construction.

The honest caveats live in the assumptions. A 7% return is a planning average, not a promise; sequence risk means real portfolios zigzag around the average; and inflation separates nominal from real dollars — $1 million in 30 years is not $1 million of today's purchasing power. Good calculators show real (inflation-adjusted) figures or at least flag the distinction; every figure in this series is a hedged nominal estimate unless stated otherwise.

Use the tool the way actuaries do: run three scenarios (conservative, middle, optimistic), look at the spread rather than the middle number, and let the spread drive behavior. If the low scenario still funds your plan, the uncertainty is survivable; if only the high scenario does, the plan is fragile and the contribution rate, not the projection, is the lever to move.

SECTION 07Withdrawals: Getting Money Out

Accumulation rules get the attention, but withdrawal rules shape real plans. In general, separating from federal service opens options: a lump sum, monthly payments, an annuity purchase, or combinations, with tax treatment depending on traditional versus Roth money and your age. In-service withdrawals are limited — loans exist under rules but carry real costs — and early access before separation is deliberately restrictive.

Age rules matter here. Money withdrawn before 59½ generally carries a 10% early-distribution penalty with exceptions; separation in or after the year you turn 55 is one of the classic exceptions for employer plans, though details vary by situation and this guide hedges them deliberately. Required minimum distributions eventually apply to traditional money. The TSP's own withdrawal materials are the authority; treat any blog summary, including this one, as orientation only.

A TSP retirement calculator helps most here in reverse: starting from a target income, it can estimate the balance needed to support it under a chosen withdrawal rate. Commonly cited rates around 4% a year are planning heuristics, not rules. If a projected balance supports 4% of itself at your target income, you have a working hypothesis; if not, the years-to-go or contribution-rate inputs are where the fix begins.

SECTION 08The Assumptions Behind Every Scenario

Growth examples use a 7% annual return compounded monthly (a monthly rate of about 0.5833%) unless a scenario says otherwise, and the standard future-value formula for level monthly contributions. That formula's factor for 30 years at 7% is roughly 1,220: a dollar contributed every month for 360 months becomes about $1,220. For 20 years it is about 521, and for 13 years at 6% about 235. Memorize those three factors and most TSP napkin math becomes possible.

Match math follows the FERS structure throughout: agency automatic 1% of basic pay, first 3% of employee deferrals matched dollar-for-dollar, next 2% matched at fifty cents on the dollar. Salaries and returns are illustrative and rounded — the point is the method, and a TSP retirement calculator reproduces each case with your own inputs in seconds.

SECTION 09Scenario 1: The New Employee Capturing the Full Match

Priya starts under FERS at a $60,000 salary and defers 5%. Employee contributions: $60,000 x 0.05 = $3,000 a year, or $250 a month. Agency contributions: automatic 1% = $600, plus match — first 3% ($1,800) matched dollar-for-dollar and the next 2% ($1,200) matched at half, adding $600 — for $2,400 of match. Agency total: $600 + $2,400 = $3,000, or $250 a month. Combined: $500 a month, which is exactly 10% of pay.

Projected growth at 7% for 30 years: $500 x 1,220 ≈ $610,000, against contributions of $180,000. Two observations follow. First, half of the monthly flow is agency money — skip the 5% election and the flow drops from $500 to $300, not $250. Second, roughly 70% of the projected balance is growth, which is why time in service and time in the market dominate every other input.

SECTION 10Scenario 2: The High Saver at 10%

Marcus earns $95,000 and defers 10%. Employee contributions: $9,500 a year ($791.67 a month). Agency contributions stay capped at 5% of pay — $4,750 a year ($395.83 a month) — because matching tops out when the employee reaches 5%. Combined flow: $1,187.50 a month, or 15% of salary. The extra 5% of deferral buys no additional match, only additional compounding.

Projected growth at 7% for 20 years: $1,187.50 x 521 ≈ $619,000, against contributions of about $285,000. The instructive comparison is with Scenario 1's $610,000: Marcus reaches a similar balance in twenty years that the 5% saver reaches in thirty, entirely because the deferral rate roughly doubled. Match captures the floor; deferral rate buys the timeline.

SECTION 11Scenario 3: Catching Up at 52

Dana, 52, maximizes 2025-style limits: $23,500 in deferrals plus the $7,500 catch-up, $31,000 total, or about $2,583 a month. She plans to retire at 65, so the horizon is 13 years. Growth at a more conservative 6% uses a 13-year factor of about 235 (at 6% compounded monthly, 156 months): $2,583 x 235 ≈ $608,000, against contributions of about $403,000.

Read that carefully: contributions carry most of the balance because the runway is short. Catch-up years are heavy-lift years, which is why the special catch-up window at ages 60–63 exists — under 2025 figures, $11,250 replaces the $7,500 standard catch-up in those years, pushing the ceiling to $34,750. The lesson is not despair about late starts; it is that late starts respond to contribution rate in a way early starts do not.

SECTION 12Scenario 4: Roth vs. Traditional, Same Dollars In

Two colleagues each direct $500 a month into the TSP for 25 years at an assumed 7%. Growth math is identical for both: $500 x 810 ≈ $405,000 at retirement, since fund returns do not care about tax treatment. The difference sits entirely in tax timing. The traditional contributor's $500 leaves pre-tax, so take-home pay drops by less than $500 today, and withdrawals are taxed later. The Roth contributor's $500 leaves after tax, costing the full amount now, with qualified withdrawals tax-free later.

The scenario's lesson is that the calculator cannot pick for you — both lines reach $405,000 under the same assumptions. The decision lives in tax rates: if your bracket now exceeds your bracket in retirement, traditional plausibly wins; the reverse favors Roth; and nobody knows either number with certainty. Splitting contributions is a legitimate hedge, and rebalancing the split as your career progresses is the practical answer most planners converge on.

SECTION 13Scenario 5: The Missed Match

Elena earns $50,000 and defers 3%. Employee contributions: $1,500 a year. Agency: automatic 1% ($500) plus a dollar-for-dollar match on her 3% ($1,500) = $2,000. Combined: $3,500, or 7% of pay. Compare her colleague at 5%: employee $2,500, agency $2,500, combined $5,000 — 10% of pay. The gap between them is $1,500 a year of agency money that Elena never collects, roughly $125 a month.

Projected over 30 years at 7%, that missing $125 monthly compounds to $125 x 1,220 ≈ $152,000 of balance she will not have. Her own extra 2% deferral would add another chunk on top — but the agency's $152,000 is the pure cost of the gap, money available for nothing except a payroll election. This is the most expensive silent mistake in the federal benefits system, and it is reversible this pay period.

SECTION 14Scenario 6: Modeling Raises Instead of Flat Pay

Flat-contribution math understates real careers. Take Scenario 1's saver but add 3% annual raises, holding the contribution at 10% of a rising salary. Contributions start at $500 a month and grow with pay, reaching roughly $1,178 a month in year 30 (since 1.03 to the 29th power is about 2.36). Total contributions rise to roughly $285,000 rather than $180,000.

A simple growing-annuity estimate at 7% lands near $845,000 — call it $840,000–$850,000 depending on rounding — versus about $610,000 for the flat version. Nearly 40% more balance, purely from modeling raises. The takeaway for using any TSP retirement calculator: check whether it supports salary growth, because a flat-pay projection is systematically conservative. Neither number is a forecast; both are honest under their stated assumptions.

SECTION 15Reading the Six Together

Seen together, the six scenarios form a career arc. The new employee's match is a foundation worth more than any fund choice; the 10% saver shows how deferral rate compresses timelines; the catch-up contributor demonstrates that late starts respond to dollars rather than return assumptions; the Roth-versus-traditional pair resolves into a tax question the growth math cannot answer; the missed match quantifies the system's one unforgivable leak; and the raises scenario warns that flat-pay projections are systematically shy.

The common thread is that every number moved when a controllable input moved — the election percentage, the catch-up filing, the tax split, the timing of the first full contribution. Markets will do what markets do. A TSP retirement calculator turns each controllable into a projected consequence, and reviewing that projection each January is how a career of small elections becomes a retirement number you actually want.

SECTION 16Mistake 1: Leaving Part of the Match on the Table

The most common and most expensive error is deferring anything less than 5% of basic pay. Every dollar of missing match is an immediate, guaranteed return you declined — worth roughly $1,500 a year at a $50,000 salary and compounding to six figures over a career, as the worked-examples piece shows. Life happens and contribution rates get trimmed during tight months; the failure is not the trim, it is the trim that quietly becomes permanent.

Fix it structurally rather than vigilantly: set the election at 5% and tie any future reductions to a calendar reminder to restore them. New employees should make the election during onboarding week, because some payroll setups default to a lower rate — and defaults, not decisions, are how most match leakage happens. Check your LES each January; limits and elections do not always carry forward as expected — and once the election is right, watch it compound by running the before-and-after through a TSP retirement calculator.

SECTION 17Mistake 2: Forgetting Catch-Up Contributions Exist

Catch-ups are opt-in, never automatic. Turn 50 and nothing changes until you file an election; reach the 60–63 window and a larger special catch-up is available only if you claim it. Eligible savers who never file the election simply save at the standard limit for a decade or more, which is a silent five-figure difference over the years it covers.

Practical rhythm: a recurring January task — confirm the year's limits on tsp.gov, adjust per-paycheck amounts, and confirm catch-up elections are active. Since the deferral limit is shared across traditional and Roth, decide the split at the same time. The January ritual takes fifteen minutes and compounds for the rest of the career; few fifteen-minute tasks pay better.

SECTION 18Mistake 3: Confusing Roth TSP with Roth IRA Rules

The two systems overlap in branding and almost nowhere else. Roth TSP has no income-phaseout for contributing, shares the elective deferral limit with traditional TSP, and follows plan withdrawal rules. Roth IRA has its own limits and income thresholds. Savers who conflate them either overcontribute to IRAs, underuse the TSP's lack of income limits, or miscount their combined ceiling — each error is a tax-year headache to unwind.

The clean mental model: one shared deferral ceiling covers all your TSP deferrals, traditional plus Roth combined; IRAs live entirely outside it. High earners who get phased out of Roth IRAs often discover the Roth TSP is their unaffected path to after-tax savings. Confirm current-year numbers, since limits move annually, but the structure of the two systems is stable.

SECTION 19Mistake 4: Treating the Default Fund as a Decision

Automatic enrollment places new participants in an age-appropriate Lifecycle fund by default, which is a reasonable starting allocation — the mistake is letting it remain the answer by inertia for thirty years, or the opposite mistake, jumping to the G fund for safety and never leaving. A default is a floor, not a strategy, and the difference compounds just like the dollars do.

The productive version: once a year, look at your mix against your actual horizon and risk tolerance, decide deliberately whether the L fund or a self-built mix from the five core funds fits, and write down why. Reviews during market storms produce bad decisions; calendar-based reviews produce defensible ones. The TSP retirement calculator's return assumption should match your real mix — a 7% projection paired with a bond-heavy allocation is an arithmetic lie.

SECTION 20Mistake 5: Pricing Early Withdrawals After the Fact

TSP money touched early pays for it: distributions before 59½ generally add a 10% penalty to ordinary income tax, with exceptions such as separation in or after the year you turn 55, and loans carry interest and repayment obligations that become due abruptly at separation. The mistake is not that emergencies happen — it is discovering the cost structure during one, when the only exits are the expensive ones.

Before treating the TSP as a reserve, price the specific exit you would actually use: loan rules, in-service withdrawal limits, and the after-tax cost of an early distribution at your bracket. Most households conclude an outside emergency fund is cheaper insurance. If a withdrawal is genuinely necessary, knowing the rules in advance is the difference between a planned exit and an expensive surprise.

SECTION 21Mistake 6: Assuming the TSP Is Your Pension

Under FERS, the TSP is one of three legs, not the pension itself. The FERS basic annuity comes from the formula covered in the companion piece, Social Security is separate, and the TSP is the part you fund and direct. Conflating them leads to both overconfidence (retirees expecting a paycheck-sized TSP they never sized for) and unnecessary anxiety (savers ignoring a healthy annuity that already covers part of retirement income).

Plan across the three legs as a portfolio of income sources: estimate the annuity, get a Social Security statement, and size the TSP for the remainder. The TSP retirement calculator models the leg you control; the FERS calculator models the leg you earned; retirement planning is the arithmetic of the sum. Households that size the TSP against the wrong target either over-save painfully or under-save quietly.

A practical sizing exercise makes the distinction concrete: take your projected annuity and estimated Social Security benefit, subtract both from a realistic retirement budget, and the remainder is the income the TSP must fund. At a hedged 4% withdrawal rate, every $10,000 of annual gap implies roughly $250,000 of balance; run the gap backward through your remaining working years and the implied monthly contribution appears — usually a number that fits a payroll election better than it fits a worry.

SECTION 22Pro Tips from Long-Serving Feds

Automate the escalator: bump the deferral by one point every year and with each step increase, so saving grows with pay instead of against it. Reinvest windfalls as one-time deferral increases. Keep a small cash buffer outside the TSP so emergencies never force early distributions at penalty prices. Update beneficiary designations after every life event — the form, not the will, controls who inherits the account.

Run the numbers annually rather than obsessively: one sitting each January with current limits, a mid-career check against the FERS annuity estimate, and a five-years-out deep pass on withdrawal strategy. Between sittings, ignore the market noise; between decades, that discipline is worth more than any fund choice. When in doubt about a rule, call the ThriftLine or read the fact sheet on tsp.gov rather than acting on forum folklore.

🔑 Key takeaways

• Contribute 5% of basic pay first: the agency's 1% automatic plus match tops you up to 10% of pay flowing in.
• 2025 anchors: $23,500 elective limit, $7,500 catch-up at 50+, and an $11,250 special catch-up for ages 60–63 — verify current-year figures on tsp.gov.
• The deferral limit is shared between traditional and Roth TSP; the two are a tax-timing choice, not separate accounts with separate ceilings.
• Every projection is only as honest as its stated return assumption — run conservative, middle, and optimistic scenarios and plan around the spread.
• Growth assumptions of 5–8% describe stock-heavy mixes; conservative mixes plausibly earn less with less volatility.
• Withdrawal rules — penalties before 59½, exceptions at 55, eventual RMDs — belong in the plan before retirement, not after.
• Convert percentages to dollars before projecting: at $60,000, a 5% election plus full match means $500 a month, half of it agency money.
• Handy compounding factors at 7% monthly: about 1,220 over 30 years, 521 over 20, and 235 over 13 years at 6%.
• The match sets the floor and the deferral rate buys the timeline — a 10% saver reaches in 20 years what a 5% saver reaches in 30.
• Catch-up years do the heavy lifting: late starts respond to contribution rate far more than to return assumptions.
• Roth and traditional grow identically under the same assumptions; only your tax timing decides between them.
• A 3% gap in the match compounds to roughly $150,000 over a 30-year career — the cheapest money you will ever leave behind.
• Modeling 3% annual raises raises 30-year projections by roughly 40% over flat-pay math; check whether your calculator supports it.
• Defend the 5% election structurally — reminders and LES checks — because a trimmed match compounds into a six-figure gap.
• Catch-ups are claimed, not granted: file the election at 50, and again for the larger 60–63 special catch-up window.
• One shared ceiling covers traditional plus Roth TSP; Roth IRA rules are a separate system with separate limits.
• Review your fund mix on a calendar, not during market storms, and make the calculator's return assumption match your real allocation.
• Price early-withdrawal exits before you need them; penalties and loan repayment cliffs are expensive discoveries under stress.
• The TSP is one of three FERS legs — size it against the income your annuity and Social Security do not cover.
• An annual January ritual — limits, elections, beneficiaries, projections — captures most of the plan's available upside.

❓ Frequently asked questions

What is the TSP match right now?

Under FERS, the agency contributes an automatic 1% of basic pay, then matches your first 3% dollar-for-dollar and the next 2% at fifty cents on the dollar — 5% total agency money when you defer 5%. Verify current rules on tsp.gov, but this structure has been stable for years.

What are the TSP contribution limits?

For 2025: $23,500 in elective deferrals, plus a $7,500 catch-up from age 50, and an $11,250 special catch-up for ages 60–63. Limits adjust annually, so confirm the current figures before setting payroll elections.

Should I choose Roth or traditional TSP?

It depends on whether you expect to be taxed more now or later — early-career lower brackets often favor Roth, peak-earning years often favor traditional, and splitting is legitimate. A calculator can project either balance; only your tax picture picks the winner.

What happens if I hit the contribution limit early in the year?

Your deferrals stop, and depending on your payroll provider's true-up practices, agency matching can pause too until year-end reconciliation. Spreading contributions evenly across pay periods avoids the gap; ask your payroll office how they handle it.

Can I lose agency contributions?

You are always vested in your own contributions. Agency automatic and matching contributions vest under FERS/BRS rules — typically within a few years of service. Check your service history if you are within sight of a vesting boundary.

How accurate are TSP projections 30 years out?

They are honest illustrations, not forecasts. A stated 7% return with no inflation adjustment says what the math does, not what markets will do. Use three scenarios, prefer inflation-adjusted outputs when offered, and revisit the projection annually as reality replaces assumptions.

Are these growth numbers guaranteed?

No. They are outputs of a fixed assumed return applied to level contributions — useful for comparing scenarios, useless as promises. Markets move in sequences, not averages, which is why the guide recommends running conservative, middle, and optimistic cases.

Why use 7% as the assumed return?

It is a common planning figure for stock-heavy mixes, deliberately hedged rather than precise. Conservative mixes plausibly earn less; aggressive mixes more. The number matters less than stating it — an unstated assumption is the dishonest kind.

Do the match percentages apply to uniformed service members?

The Blended Retirement System uses the same 1% automatic plus matching structure, with military-specific wrinkles such as vesting timing and continuation pay. The 5% full-match target holds as the planning default.

How do I translate an annual limit into per-paycheck amounts?

Divide by your number of pay periods — $23,500 over 26 pays is about $904 per pay. Spreading it evenly keeps matching active all year under most payroll practices; front-loading can pause the match depending on your agency's true-up handling.

What if I already have a balance from a previous plan?

Add it as the starting balance and let it compound — a $40,000 rollover growing at 7% for 20 years becomes roughly $155,000 before any new contributions. Any decent TSP retirement calculator has a current-balance field for exactly this.

Which scenario applies if I split Roth and traditional?

Scenario 4's growth math applies unchanged to the combined balance. Track the two tax buckets separately for withdrawal planning, but for projection purposes the split is a tax decision, not a growth decision.

How much should I contribute to the TSP?

At minimum 5% to capture the full agency match; beyond that, the honest answer comes from running your target retirement income through a calculator and working backward. Many planners land somewhere between 10% and the annual limit depending on career stage and other goals.

What is the TSP catch-up contribution age?

Standard catch-ups begin in the year you turn 50; the larger special catch-up applies during the ages 60–63 window under SECURE 2.0-era rules. Amounts adjust annually — 2025 figures were $7,500 and $11,250 respectively — so confirm the current year on tsp.gov.

Can I contribute to both Roth TSP and traditional TSP?

Yes, in any split you choose, and the combined deferrals count against one annual limit. Many savers shift the split over a career — Roth-leaning early, traditional-leaning in peak-earning years — based on expected tax brackets.

Does the TSP have fees?

The TSP's expense ratios have historically been among the lowest in American retirement plans, but verify current ratios on tsp.gov rather than relying on older articles. Low costs are a structural feature; the exact basis points are a check-the-fact-sheet item.

What happens to my TSP if I leave federal service?

It stays in the plan if you choose, or can be rolled to an IRA or a qualifying employer plan. Leaving it often preserves the TSP's low costs; rolling out can add flexibility. Rules and tax details vary — read the TSP's separation materials before moving anything.

When can I withdraw without penalties?

Generally from 59½, or upon separation in or after the year you turn 55 for most federal employees, with specific exceptions and rules for each path. Because details matter and change, treat this as orientation and confirm with the TSP's own withdrawal guides before acting.

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