Federal employees · TSP fund performance
A FERS match is worth $4,000 a year
A FERS TSP account collects up to 5% of basic pay from the agency, and a TSP rollover after you separate keeps every vested dollar of it while giving up the plan's costs. The automatic 1% inside that 5% takes 3 years of federal civilian service to vest, and leaving a day early forfeits it along with everything it earned. The other 4% is matching, which is yours from the pay period it arrives in.
Rules and fund costs verified on 10 September 2026 against tsp.gov Share prices through 9 September 2026
Maximum agency money
5%of basic pay, at a 5% employee contribution
Vesting on the automatic 1%
3 yearsof federal civilian service, for most FERS employees
Cost of the C Fund
$35a year on $100,000, 2025 expense ratio
G Fund after CPI
0.43%a year, May 2003 to July 2026
Agency contributions
The FERS match stops at $4,000 a year
Agency money at each employee contribution rate, on an $80,000 salary. The salary is an assumption and everything else is the published formula: 1% automatic, then the first 3% matched dollar for dollar and the next 2% matched at fifty cents.
The last bar is the one worth reading twice, because contributing 10% of an $80,000 salary puts $8,000 of your own money in and brings the same $4,000 the 5% contributor gets. Nothing above the fifth percent of pay is matched at all. The reverse cliff is sharper still, because dropping from 5% to 3% costs you $800 a year in agency money on top of the $1,600 you stopped saving.
Stopping your own contributions stops the matching immediately, while the automatic 1% keeps arriving either way because it does not depend on you putting anything in.
Wondering what a custodian would actually charge you? The match tool asks six questions about your account and shows the custodians that take a TSP, with their fee schedules, before anyone phones you. Start the match tool.
Vesting
Leaving before 3 years forfeits about $2,400
Only the Agency Automatic (1%) Contributions carry a vesting requirement, and the amount at stake is smaller than most people assume until they see the arithmetic on a real salary.
Always yours
Your own contributions and their earnings, and the Agency Matching Contributions and their earnings. The TSP is explicit that you are always vested in both, so a resignation at eleven months costs you none of that money.
Yours after 3 years
The Agency Automatic (1%) and everything it earned. Most FERS employees vest after 3 years of federal civilian service. Congressional and certain noncareer positions vest after two, and every year in a TSP-eligible position counts even if you contributed nothing during it.
What it is worth
About $2,400 of contributions on an $80,000 salary, before anything it earned. Forfeited money goes back to the plan, where it pays the administrative costs that keep every participant's expense ratio down.
Two details about the clock catch people out, and both of them are about dates rather than about the formula. Your vesting clock runs from the TSP Service Computation Date your agency reports, which is visible in My Account and is not always the date you think it is. Civilian service also does not count toward vesting in a uniformed services account, and uniformed service does not count toward vesting in a civilian one, so someone who moves between the two starts a second clock rather than continuing the first.
Leaving federal service
What a TSP rollover keeps, and what it does not
A separated FERS participant with $200 or more can leave the balance in the TSP indefinitely, which makes the rollover a choice rather than a deadline. Five things change if you take it, and two of them are not on any fee schedule.
| What | In a rollover | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Tax deferral | Preserved | A direct rollover of the traditional balance to a traditional IRA is not taxed this year and nothing is withheld. |
| Vested agency money | Preserved | Once vested it is your money and moves with the rest of the balance. |
| The expense ratio | Lost | The TSP's own booklet says the receiving plan's rules determine your investment options, fees and rights to payment. |
| The G Fund | Lost | Nothing outside the plan holds Treasury securities issued specially to it and redeemable at par. |
| Spousal consent | Lost | A married FERS participant needs notarised written spousal consent for a partial withdrawal, and an IRA custodian owes your spouse nothing of the kind. |
The direction of travel is worth noting as well, because the TSP accepts rollovers in from traditional IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs and eligible employer plans, so a separated employee who moves money out can in principle move cash back later. Physical metal cannot make that trip on its own. Walking back through the door means selling the bullion at whatever a dealer bids on the day, and the spread on that round trip is the cost nobody quotes at the start.
The mechanics of the rollover itself are the same as any other plan, so they are covered once rather than three times. The gold IRA rollover guide works through the direct and indirect routes, the 60-day deadline and the withholding trap in detail.
Method
How these figures were measured
Two kinds of number appear on this page, and they are held to different standards.
The match figures are arithmetic on the published formula, applied to a stated $80,000 salary. Change the salary and every dollar figure scales with it, while the percentages and the position of the cliff do not move. The vesting periods come from the Summary of the Thrift Savings Plan, which is the plan's own booklet rather than a secondary source.
The fund returns and expense ratios are the same figures the TSP fund performance tracker computes, from the daily share price file covering 31 May 2003 to 9 September 2026. The real return joins a month-end resample of that file to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U series and runs to July 2026, which is as far as CPI goes.
Sources
- Thrift Savings Plan, contribution types, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Summary of the Thrift Savings Plan, vesting and fund descriptions, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Tax Rules about TSP Payments, rollover treatment, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Thrift Savings Plan, expenses and fees, 2025 ratios, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Thrift Savings Plan, taking money from your account, spousal rights, retrieved 10 September 2026
Limits
What this page does not show
Four things this page is not in a position to tell you, stated here rather than buried in a disclaimer.
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Not your vesting date
The clock runs from the TSP Service Computation Date your agency reported, and only your agency and My Account know what that is. Breaks in service, non-pay status and earlier federal employment all move it.
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Not the FERS annuity
The TSP is one of three parts of FERS, alongside the basic annuity and Social Security. Nothing here touches the other two, and a rollover decision that ignores the annuity is only looking at a third of the picture.
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Not the tax on your situation
Traditional and Roth balances roll differently, state tax is not withheld by the TSP at all, and the plan reports payments to your state of residence. A tax adviser is the right place for the arithmetic on any of that.
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Not a gold IRA fee schedule
Very few custodians publish one, so the comparison below is a range rather than a computed figure. The gold IRA fees page holds what we have been able to verify in writing.
The Digest Perspective
The match is worth more than the metal
· Gold IRA Digest Editorial Team
A FERS employee contributing 5% of an $80,000 salary collects $4,000 of agency money every year, which is a guaranteed 100% return on the first three percent of pay before any market does anything.
What that does not settle is what to do with the balance once you separate and the match stops. The G Fund returned 0.43% a year after CPI across 23 years and finished behind consumer prices in 7 of 22 calendar years. A household drawing on that balance for two decades is right to find the figure thin, and the question stops being about the match and starts being about what a preserved dollar is for.
Your agency
Wants you in long enough to vest, and the 3-year cliff on the automatic 1% is the mechanism. Forfeited money pays the plan's administrative costs, so every participant who stays is subsidised by one who left at two years and eleven months.
The dealers
Want the separated balance, and federal households are a list they buy by name. The commission is in the premium over spot price on the coins rather than in the annual fee, so the fee is the number that gets quoted.
Your spouse
Has statutory rights inside the TSP that do not survive the move. A partial withdrawal by a married FERS participant needs notarised written consent, and no IRA custodian is required to ask anyone.
The strongest argument against us
You would be leaving the cheapest retirement account in the country, and for most FERS readers that is where this ends. The C Fund charges $35 a year on $100,000. A self-directed IRA charges a custodian fee and a depository storage fee, commonly $300 together, which is 9 times as much before a single coin is bought.
Held for 20 years at the C Fund's own 11.39%, that charging difference costs $14,110 on $100,000, and it gets proportionally worse the less you have, because a flat fee does not scale down. The same $300 takes 4.0% of a $50,000 balance over that period against 0.2% of a $250,000 one. Add the premium over spot on the way in and the dealer's bid on the way out and a rollover can be several percent behind before the metal moves. If nothing specific in your own position outweighs that, stay where you are.
Our view is that a FERS employee should take every dollar of the match before considering anything else, and that after separation the plan's costs are a reason to stay rather than an argument that settles the question by themselves.
Whether that holds for you depends on your vesting date, how much of the balance sits in the G Fund, how close you are to drawing on it, and how large it is, since that last one decides whether a flat fee is a rounding error or a real cost. We do not know any of those, and the checker below is the fastest way to find which rules apply.
Six questions, about 2 minutes, no phone number
Common questions
FERS TSP questions
- How much does the agency put into a FERS TSP account?
- Up to 5% of basic pay, made of 1% automatic that arrives whether you contribute or not, plus matching on the first 5% you contribute: the first 3% dollar for dollar and the next 2% at fifty cents. On an $80,000 salary a 5% contribution of $4,000 brings $4,000 of agency money, and the sixth percent of pay brings nothing extra.
- What happens to the agency 1% if I leave early?
- It is forfeited along with everything it earned. Most FERS employees vest in the Agency Automatic (1%) Contributions after 3 years of federal civilian service, while those in congressional and certain noncareer positions vest after two. On an $80,000 salary that is about $2,400 of contributions at risk before earnings, and the money goes back to the plan to pay its administrative costs.
- Am I vested in the matching contributions?
- Yes, the matching contributions are yours from the pay period they arrive in. The TSP states that you are always vested in your own contributions and their earnings and in your Agency Matching Contributions and their earnings, which leaves the Agency Automatic (1%) as the only part of the account carrying a vesting requirement. If you die before separating from service you are treated as vested in everything in the account.
- Can I roll my TSP into a gold IRA while still working?
- No, not in most circumstances, because the TSP allows in-service withdrawals only in defined situations and its own booklets are the place to check whether any of them apply to you. Once you separate you can leave a balance of $200 or more where it is, roll the traditional balance to a traditional IRA or another employer plan, or roll it to a Roth IRA and pay the tax this year.
- What does a rollover out of the TSP cost me?
- The plan's expense ratio, for one, which runs 0.034% to 0.051% and works out at $35 a year on $100,000 in the C Fund, checked on 10 September 2026. You also give up the G Fund, which is not sold anywhere outside this plan, and the statutory spousal consent the TSP requires on a partial withdrawal by a married FERS participant, which is a protection an IRA custodian owes your spouse nothing like.
Gold IRA Digest is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with the Thrift Savings Plan, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, the Office of Personnel Management or any federal agency. This page is information rather than investment or tax advice. Plan rules change, so check anything here against tsp.gov before acting on it, and take the tax question to an adviser who can see your whole return.