personal finance
Finance Friday Articles
- 2026 IRS Roundup: New Limits for Retirement Plans, Plus Brackets and More
- Four ways financial advice delivers true value
- How to Become a Moderate Millionaire
- IRS outlines details for Trump accounts
- Making 7 Figures in Medicine in a Decreasing Reimbursement Landscape
- The Best Hedge
- Vanguard’s economic and market outlook for 2026
- Vanguard’s New Target Retirement Lifetime Income Funds
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- 2026 outlook: Economic upside, stock market downside
- A Q4 Checklist for Retirement Savers
- Boring Investing Still Works
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- How to Never Run Out of Money in Retirement
- Investing and Tax Planning Come Last
- Investing for the Long-Term
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- Tax Update: Retirees in These States Will See Changes in 2026
- The Astonishing Bull Market Will End One Day. Are You Ready?
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- The Housing Affordability Crisis
- What We Learned When Our Tenant Was Arrested on Drug Charges
Finance Friday Articles
- 5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Crashed—And Why It Could Fall Further: Deutsche Bank
- 2026 Changes to Charitable Giving Tax Deductions Due to OBBBA
- Discounts for Doctors and Healthcare Workers in 2025
- Giving smarter: Donating appreciated securities
- I’m Leveraged to the Gills at Nearly $2 Million! Watch Me Swim
- The 4 Year Rule For Retirement Spending
- The Peter Bernstein Rule: Beware Empty Memory Banks
- The Truth About Whole Life Insurance
- TSP Strategy: Sticking to a Plan vs Guessing the Market
- What a classic beer ad reveals about the high-yield market today
Finance Friday Articles and Changes to TSP Catch-Up Contributions
- 10 Things We Can Learn From Warren Buffett That Have Nothing to Do With Money
- Are U.S. Stocks Running Out of Steam? A Deep Dive into Valuations and Market Concentration
- Being a First-Time Mom and a New Attending Surgeon: It Can Be Done
- I’ve heard about avoiding early withdrawal penalties with the ‘Rule of 55.’ How does it work?
- Launch of Roth In-Plan Conversion Feature for TSP Participants and Beneficiaries
- Retirement is a Sprint, Not a Marathon
- Vanguard Backdoor Roth Tutorial
Also, here is a note I got from the TSP:
Upcoming changes to catch-up contributions in 2026
If you’ll be age 50 or older in 2026, you are eligible to make catch-up contributions to your TSP account. These contributions are additional savings allowed above the IRS elective deferral limit. In 2026, participants age 50 and older can contribute an extra $8,000 in catch-up contributions on top of the $24,500 elective deferral limit, for a total contribution limit of $32,500. (For participants ages 60 to 63, the IRS catch up limit is higher—$11,250—which makes the total contribution limit $35,750 for this group.)
Starting January 1, 2026, a new rule from the SECURE Act 2.0 (provision 603) may change how you make those catch-up contributions.
What’s changing
Under the new rule, if your wages from the prior year exceed the IRS threshold ($150,000 for 2025), the IRS requires any catch-up contributions you make in 2026 go into your Roth (after-tax) TSP balance—not your traditional (pre-tax) TSP balance. If you don’t have a Roth TSP balance, the first Roth contribution will automatically create one.
How this may affect you
- If your prior-year (2025) wages exceed the threshold and you make only traditional (pre-tax) contributions: Once you reach the IRS elective deferral limit of $24,500, any additional contributions you make will automatically switch to Roth (after-tax) TSP and go into your Roth TSP balance to satisfy the IRS requirement—there’s nothing you need to do.
- If you make both traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (after-tax) contributions during the year: Once your combined contributions reach the $24,500 elective deferral limit, any Roth contributions you make—or have already made—will count toward satisfying the IRS requirement that your catch-up contributions be Roth up to the $8,000 catch-up contribution limit. You can continue contributing to your traditional balance until your traditional contributions reach the elective deferral limit. If your total traditional contributions reach the elective deferral limit, any additional contributions you make will automatically switch to Roth.
- If you prefer not to make Roth catch-up contributions: You can stop your contributions once your traditional contributions reach the IRS elective deferral limit of $24,500 before those contributions automatically become Roth. However, you will need to restart your contributions the following year if you wish to continue saving.
- If you made less than the threshold ($150,000 in 2025): This change does not affect you.
- If you’re a uniformed services member and earn tax-exempt pay while serving in a combat zone: Your contributions toward the catch-up limit must be Roth regardless of your prior year wages. (The TSP cannot accept traditional tax-exempt contributions toward the catch-up limit.)
Learn more about making catch-up contributions and see scenarios to help you understand how the new rule applies based on your age, income, and contribution choices.
Note: IRS thresholds and limits are subject to change and are updated annually for inflation.
How to determine prior year wages
The IRS uses FICA wages from the previous year—typically found on your W-2. Only wages from TSP-eligible federal positions count toward the threshold. Wages from non-federal jobs are not included.
Questions?
Visit catch-up contributions or call the ThriftLine at 1-877-968-3778. You can also chat with a ThriftLine representative through our virtual assistant, AVA, during business hours.
Sincerely,
Your TSP
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Finance Friday Articles and JAN 2026 Roth TSP Changes
Two changes are coming to the TSP in January 2026 that may affect your Roth TSP contributions or Roth TSP balance. TSP will have more information about these changes on their website soon.
Catch-up contributions must be Roth if prior year wages above a certain amount
Beginning in 2026, catch-up contributions must be made to your Roth TSP balance if your wages from TSP-eligible positions are above a certain IRS threshold.
Roth in-plan conversions coming to the TSP in January 2026
Starting in January 2026, you’ll be able to convert money in your traditional (pre-tax) balance to your Roth (after-tax) balance in your TSP account. This is called a “Roth in-plan conversion.” If you don’t have a Roth balance in your TSP account, your first Roth in-plan conversion will create one.
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- Real Life Examples of How WCIers Live, Worry, and Withdraw Money in Retirement
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- What Is a Stretch IRA?
- What’s Going on With Gold?
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- Rethinking the Investing “Rules” Feds Are Told to Follow — Especially for Your TSP
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- Tempted to retire abroad? Here are some top financial considerations to keep in mind
- TSP Takes Step toward Upcoming In-Plan Roth Conversions
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- Why a Traditional Investment Portfolio is Better than Real Estate
- Why You Don’t Feel Rich
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