Slightly more than a third (36%) of participants contribute to the Roth TSP. Image: sasirin pamai/Shutterstock.com
By: John GrobeThe TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the United States. There are 7 million participants with over $845 billion in invested assets. Almost $10 trillion is invested in defined contribution plans overall. They recently shared a bunch of 2023 year end statistics via email in their “Thrift Savings Planner”.
One statistic that gives one hope about retirement savings has to do with the number of participants who contribute enough to receive the full 5% matching contributions. Per the Thrift Board, the number of participants who contribute at least 5% of their pay is higher than ever. 87% of FERS participants and 85% of active-duty participants in the Blended Retirement System are getting the full match.
Slightly more than a third (36%) of participants contribute to the Roth TSP. this is one stat that surprised me; I would have thought that more participants were contributing to the Roth side.
Over 2023, the TSP:
· Answered over 2.4 million phone calls;
· Had 143,219 live chat sessions in “My Account”;
· Responded to over 1.1 million inquiries through AVA (their virtual assistant); and
· Responded to nearly 50,000 emails.
Participants slightly preferred to access the TSP via desktop (53%) over mobile (47%). However, when it came time to access “My Account”, 85% chose to do it via the website, and only 15% used the TSP mobile app.
Which ten pages were viewed the most by visitors to the TSP website?
1. Share price history – 3,576,414 pageviews
2. Access your account – 1,676,312 pageviews
3. Rates of return 997,104 pageviews
4. We’re here to help – 768,666 pageviews
5. Calculators – 691,370 pageviews
6. Forms and resources – 600,810 pageviews
7. TSP loans – 516,662 pageviews
8. Individual funds – 415,565 pageviews
9. Online learning – 413,071 pageviews
10. Withdrawals in retirement – 414,631 pageviews
Over 72,000 people attended TSP training events, either in-person or via webinar.
The five most popular topics in 2023 were:
1. TSP Early to Mid Career
2. TSP Pre-Separation
3. Introduction to the TSP
4. TSP Distributions
5. TSP Investment Funds
John Grobe, President of Federal Career Experts, is an expert in the area of federal employee retirement and benefits. This expertise comes from his 26 year federal career in which he managed the retirement program in a 3,500-employee office of a large federal agency.
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