Throwback Thursday Classic Post – A Simple and Military Specific Summary of How to Save for Retirement

Posted on February 18, 2021 Updated on February 13, 2021

I’m a huge fam of Jim Lange. He’s a noted expert in financial management, saving for retirement, and estate planning. He’s written a number of books, some of which you can get for free on this page. If I ever move back to Pennsylvania, I’ll probably have him do my estate planning so that I don’t have to worry about anything in retirement.

He sends out a monthly newsletter that I get via snail mail, and it usually has a useful article in it. If you want it, you can get it here.

A previous edition had a section called “Jim’s Point-by-Point Summary of the Whole Retirement & Estate Planning Process.” It was simple but extremely useful. Below in bold are each of the points he lists for people who are still working, which is most of my readership. Let’s take each bolded point and militarize it for you so it is specific to those of us in the military.

Contribute at least the amount to your retirement plan that your employer is willing to match or partially match.

For those under the legacy retirement plan, this is not an option. For those under the new Blended Retirement System (BRS), you need to contribute 5% of your basic pay to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) to get the pull 5% DoD match:

You also need to make sure you contribute 5% every month and don’t fill the TSP too early. If you max it out in October, you won’t get a match in November or December.

If you can afford to, contribute the maximum allowed to your retirement plan even if your employer does not match.

This is $19,500 in 2021. You can do an extra $6,500 if you are 50 or over. You can even do more if you are in a combat zone.

Once you have maximized contributions to your plan at work, contribute the maximum you can to an IRA, even if you cannot take a tax deduction on it.

If you are able to fill your TSP account, next you’ll need to open an IRA at an investment firm. Vanguard is the obvious choice due to their across the board low investment fees and unique non-profit structure, but you can do this anywhere (Schwab, Fidelity, etc.).

If you make too much to contribute to a Roth IRA, you just use the back door Roth IRA option.

Consider your personal tax bracket when trying to decide if you should contribute to a Roth or a traditional IRA/retirement plan.

With a traditional plan, you take a tax deduction now and pay taxes later when you take the money out. With a Roth plan you pay the taxes now and the withdrawals are completely tax free.

The general principle is that if you are in a lower tax bracket now than when you are retired, you do the Roth. If you are in a higher tax bracket now, you use the traditional.

No one really knows what the future holds, though, making this decision tough. Here are some resources for you to check out when making this decision:

Traditional and Roth TSP Contributions

Roth vs. Traditional IRAs: A Comparison

Do not take loans against your retirement plan. Allow the tax-deferred or tax-free status of the account to maximize the growth of your money.

While the TSP allows loans, I refuse to link to any information about it. Once you put money away for retirement, you don’t borrow from it unless it is an ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY.

Period.

The Bottom Line

Here are the point-by-point summary of steps Jim Lange suggests you take if you are saving for retirement:

• Contribute at least the amount to your retirement plan that your employer is willing to match or partially match, which is 5% of basic pay in the BRS.
• If you can afford to, contribute the maximum allowed to your retirement plan even if your employer does not match, which is $19,500 in the TSP ($26,000 if you’re 50+).
• Once you have maximized contributions to your plan at work, contribute the maximum you can to an IRA, even if you cannot take a tax deduction on it. Use a back door Roth IRA if you need to.
• Consider your personal tax bracket when trying to decide if you should contribute to a Roth or a traditional IRA/retirement plan.
• Do not take loans against your retirement plan. Allow the tax-deferred or tax-free status of the account to maximize the growth of your money.