Project Thrift Savings Plan growth over a career, including Blended Retirement System automatic and matching contributions, contribution rates, and expected returns.
Rates last verified August 2026 against the published source tables.
Under the Blended Retirement System the government adds 1% of your base pay whether or not you contribute anything, then matches the first 5% you put in — so a 5% contribution collects the full government share and anything less leaves part of it unclaimed. Members under the legacy High-3 system receive no matching, though they can still contribute. The match is the highest-certainty return available to a service member, which is why the contribution rate matters more here than the fund choice.
Contributions can be traditional (pre-tax now, taxed at withdrawal) or Roth (taxed now, tax-free at withdrawal). Pay earned in a combat zone is already untaxed, which makes Roth contributions from it unusually efficient — the money is never taxed at either end. Government matching always lands in the traditional balance regardless of which you choose.
High-3 and CSB/REDUX receive no match at all. Government matching belongs to the Blended Retirement System. A member under the legacy systems who contributes to the TSP gets the tax treatment and the funds, and no government money — the trade being a pension multiplier half a percentage point per year higher.
Contributing under 5% leaves money behind. The match is on the first 5% of basic pay. Every percentage point below that is a point of free money not taken, and it cannot be made up later — a matched contribution not made in March is gone in April.
Front-loading can switch the match off early. Hitting the annual elective deferral limit before December stops your contributions, and the match stops with them. Members who max out early can end the year with several months of unmatched pay, which is the one case where contributing faster costs money.
Elections go through myPay. Contribution percentages, the Roth and traditional split, and catch-up contributions are all set in myPay rather than on the TSP site. The TSP site is where you change what the money is invested in; myPay is where you change how much of it there is.
It takes a pay period or two. A change made mid-month usually takes effect the following month. If a contribution has not appeared on the LES after two pay periods, check the election is against the right pay category — special and incentive pay elections are separate from basic pay.
Nobody enrolls you in the funds. Automatic enrollment puts contributions into an age-appropriate lifecycle fund, which is a defensible default and not a decision. Changing it is a two-minute job on tsp.gov, and the returns modeled above depend entirely on what you choose.
Service members under the Blended Retirement System (BRS) receive an automatic 1% of base pay whether or not they contribute, plus matching on the first 5% they contribute — so contributing 5% of base pay yields the full government contribution. You can look up your own base pay by grade and years of service with the military salary calculator. Contributing less than 5% leaves part of that match unclaimed. Members under the legacy High-3 system do not receive matching contributions, though they can still contribute to TSP.
The IRS elective deferral limit is $24,500 for 2026. Members aged 50 or older may contribute an additional $8,000 in catch-up contributions, and those aged 60 to 63 may contribute up to $11,250 extra under the higher catch-up tier. Government automatic and matching contributions do not count against your elective deferral limit — only the money you defer from your own pay does. Verify current figures with the IRS or tsp.gov before maxing out, since limits are adjusted annually.
Traditional contributions come out of pay before tax, lowering taxable income now, and are taxed on withdrawal. Roth contributions are made after tax and qualified withdrawals are tax-free. Junior service members in low tax brackets often favor Roth, since paying tax now at a low rate can beat paying it later at a higher one. Note that government matching contributions are always deposited into the traditional balance regardless of which you choose.
TSP offers five core funds plus the Lifecycle (L) funds: G Fund: government securities — principal is protected, lowest risk and lowest expected return, F Fund: fixed income, tracking a broad US bond index, C Fund: common stock, tracking the S&P 500 (large US companies), S Fund: small-cap US stock, covering companies outside the S&P 500, I Fund: international stock, covering developed and emerging markets outside the US (its benchmark widened in 2024), L Funds: ready-made blends of the five that shift automatically toward the G Fund as the target date nears.
Yes, but only through the traditional balance. Pay earned in a designated combat zone is generally tax-exempt, and traditional contributions from that pay sit outside the elective deferral limit, counting instead against the much higher annual additions limit. Roth contributions never get that treatment: they count against the elective deferral limit no matter what pay they come from. So once you hit the elective deferral limit, further combat-zone contributions have to go traditional. Confirm the specifics with your finance office, since combat-zone contributions are handled differently from ordinary ones. Deployments also open up the Savings Deposit Program, which pays a guaranteed 10% return on up to $10,000.
Your balance stays invested and continues to grow — you are not required to move it. You can leave it in TSP, roll it into an IRA or a new employer's plan, or begin withdrawals once eligible. Leaving it in place keeps TSP's very low expense ratios, which is often the strongest argument for not rolling it out. Withdrawals taken before age 59½ may incur a 10% early-withdrawal penalty on top of ordinary income tax, with limited exceptions.