Percentage Limits to Rise Again

The TSP’s next open season will run October 15-December 31, not November 15-January 31 as in the past. During the autumn open season employees in the FERS system will be able to increase their biweekly withholdings to 13 percent of salary and those under the CSRS system will be able to increase theirs to 8 percent. Elections will be effective as early as the first pay period starting on or after December 1. The higher percentage limit will mean that more FERS investors will have to pay attention to the dollar cap for their 2003 investments. The dollar limit will rise to $12,000 for 2003. Highly paid FERS investors also will have to take care that any increases they request during the autumn open season don’t cause them to hit the dollar cap during the current calendar year, since those requests could kick in during the last several pay periods of the year.