TSP Calculator

If you are in the FERS retirement system, your agency puts in 1% of your salary automatically, even if you contribute nothing. On top of that, the agency matches your first 3% dollar for dollar and your next 2% at 50 cents on the dollar. So if you contribute at least 5% of your salary, you get the full match of 5% total from your agency. CSRS employees do not get any agency match.

For 2025, the base IRS limit is $23,500. If you are age 50 or older, you can add $7,500 in catch-up contributions for a total of $31,000. If you are between ages 60 and 63, the catch-up amount is $11,250 instead, giving you a total limit of $34,750. These limits apply only to your own contributions. Agency matching does not count toward the cap.

The calculator uses 26 pay periods per year. This is the standard biweekly pay schedule for most federal employees. Your annual contribution is divided across these 26 pay periods.

If your per-pay-period amount would push your total past the IRS limit, the calculator caps your contributions at the limit for that year. The tool also warns you and shows which pay period you would hit the cap. This matters because if you stop contributing early in the year, you could miss out on agency matching in the remaining pay periods.

Mirror Current Balance splits your future contributions the same way your current balance is divided across funds. Custom Allocation lets you set your own percentages for each fund. Your custom percentages must add up to exactly 100%.

The default return rates are based on historical average annual returns for each TSP fund since its inception, sourced from TSP.gov. For example, the C Fund default is 11%, the G Fund is 4.5%, and the S Fund is 9%. These are averages and do not guarantee future results.

Yes. Use the Override Blended Annual Return field to enter any return rate you want. If you leave it blank, the calculator uses the weighted average of your fund allocation based on historical returns.

Traditional contributions come out of your pay before taxes. You pay less tax now but owe taxes when you withdraw in retirement. Roth contributions come out after taxes. You pay tax now, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. This calculator projects the balance growth the same way for both types. The difference shows up in how much tax you pay at withdrawal.

The calculator does not adjust your final balance for inflation. The numbers shown are in future dollars. To get a rough idea of what your balance would be worth in today's dollars, subtract 2% to 3% from your expected return rate using the override field.

Starting in 2025, if you are between ages 60 and 63, the IRS allows a higher catch-up contribution of $11,250 instead of the standard $7,500 for those 50 and older. This means your total limit during those years is $34,750. This is a provision from the SECURE 2.0 Act.

Each year in the projection, your salary increases by the percentage you enter in the Expected Annual Raise field. Your contributions grow along with your salary if you chose the percentage-of-salary basis. This gives a more realistic projection over a long career.

The Growth column shows how much your balance grew from investment returns that year. It includes growth on your starting balance for the year plus an estimate of growth on contributions added during the year. The calculator uses a mid-year contribution approximation, meaning it assumes contributions are spread across the year rather than added all at once.

Pick the system you are actually enrolled in. Most federal employees hired after 1987 are in FERS. Those hired before 1984 who did not switch are in CSRS. The main difference in this calculator is that FERS employees receive agency matching contributions and CSRS employees do not.

No. The IRS elective deferral limit only applies to the money you put in. The agency's automatic 1% and matching contributions do not count toward the annual cap.

Lifecycle funds are pre-mixed portfolios that blend the five core TSP funds for you. Each L Fund targets a specific retirement year. As you get closer to that year, the fund automatically shifts to safer investments like the G and F Funds. If you do not want to choose your own fund mix, picking the L Fund closest to your retirement year is a simple option.

Yes. Click By Fund under Current TSP Balance. You can then enter the dollar amount you hold in each of the five core funds and any Lifecycle funds. The calculator adds them up and can use that breakdown to mirror your allocation for future contributions.

Even a small change in the return rate has a big effect over many years because of compound growth. For example, over 20 years, a 7% return produces a much larger balance than a 5% return. The longer your time to retirement, the bigger the impact of the return rate.

Switch the Contribution Basis to $ Per Pay Period and enter your amount. The calculator multiplies it by 26 pay periods to get your annual contribution. Note that this amount stays the same each year in the projection, unlike a percentage which grows with your salary.

You need to contribute at least 5% of your salary to get the full FERS agency match. The agency puts in 1% automatically, matches your first 3% fully, and matches the next 2% at half. That gives you 5% from the agency on top of your 5%, for a total of 10% going into your TSP.

No. This calculator projects your TSP balance growth but does not calculate taxes owed at withdrawal. Traditional TSP withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Roth TSP qualified withdrawals are tax-free. Talk to a tax professional to estimate your tax burden in retirement.