Project your Thrift Savings Plan — and make sure you are not leaving the government match behind.
Fill in your grade, balance and contribution rate, then press Project My TSP.
Under the Blended Retirement System the government puts 1% of your basic pay into your TSP whether you contribute or not. Then it matches: dollar for dollar on your first 3%, and 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2%.
So contributing 5% of basic pay attracts a full 5% from the government — a 100% return, before the market does anything at all. Contributing 4% attracts 4.5%. Contributing 3% attracts 4%. Anything above 5% is unmatched, though still worth saving.
Hitting the IRS annual limit early in the year stops your contributions — and stops the government match with them, because the match only lands on pay periods where you actually contribute. This works out the percentage that spreads your contributions across the whole year.
Enter your monthly basic pay and press Work Out My Percentage.
TSP contributions are matched per pay period, not annually. Contribute 60% of your pay and you will hit the $24,500 limit in a few months — and for every remaining month of the year you contribute nothing, so the government matches nothing.
The fix is to pick a whole percentage that reaches the limit in December rather than in June. TSP only accepts whole percentages, so this rounds down and leaves a small cushion — going over stops your contributions early, which is exactly the outcome being avoided.
Estimates only. Projections assume constant returns, a constant contribution rate and a constant annual raise — real returns vary year to year and can be negative, and promotions change pay in ways this does not model. Historical fund averages are not predictions. The 2026 elective deferral limit is $24,500 with an $8,000 catch-up at 50 and over; the annual addition limit is $72,000. Not investment advice. Confirm limits and matching with TSP.gov and your finance office.