The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings and investment plan for Federal employees and members of the uniformed services. If you are covered under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS, FERS-RAE, and FERS-FRAE), contributing to the TSP is extremely important, as the TSP will be a very large part of your retirement income. To learn about the importance of contributing to the TSP, take a few minutes to view the following short, informative videos:
- How the TSP Fits into the Federal Employees Retirement System
- How Can Compound Earnings Work For Me?
The 2021 IRS annual contribution limit for regular TSP contributions is $19,500. In addition to regular TSP contributions, you may also make TSP Catch-up contributions, if you are age 50 or older. The 2021 IRS annual limit for TSP Catch-up is $6,500. For TSP Catch-up contributions, the new “spillover” method applies. Spillover helps to simplify the TSP Catch-up process and does not impact the Agency Matching contributions. You no longer need to enter a separate TSP Catch-up election. Instead, you now enter only one TSP election into myPay. If you are eligible to make catch-up contributions, any contributions beyond the $19,500 for regular TSP will automatically start counting toward the Catch-up contribution limit. These additional contributions will “spillover” until you meet the catch-up limit.
You may start, stop, or change your TSP contributions at any time by using myPay.
If you have questions, refer them to your Benefits Contact or AskBenefits@nih.gov