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The Thrift Savings Plan has hit a new
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record recently. There are now nearly
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195,000 TSP millionaires. What's driving
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this increase and what can you learn
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from these successful TSP investors? Hi
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everyone, I'm Ian Smith here with
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fedsmith.com and I wanted to talk to you
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today about this uh staggering number of
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TSP millionaires and the success of
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these these uh current and former
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federal employees investing in the
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Thrift Savings Plan. There's a saying,
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you become who you hang around. And in
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the Bible, it talks about this a little
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bit, too. It's there's a proverb that
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says, "Walk with the wise and become
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wise. Associate with fools and get in
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trouble." That's Proverbs 13:20. And you
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can apply that philosophy to studying
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the TSP millionaires. That's why I bring
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it up. It may sound a little off topic,
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but if you want to become wealthy, do
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what wealthy people do. That's basically
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the principle. And so if you want to
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have a successful retirement, look at
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what other people who have successfully
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prepared for retirement are doing. First
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off, what is a TSP millionaire? Well,
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basic, it's pretty much what it sounds
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like. It's anyone who has at least a
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million dollars or more in his or her
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TSP account. This includes anyone under
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defer, CSRS, military, etc. Basically,
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anyone participating in the thrift
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savings plan. As I mentioned, we just
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hit a record number in at the end of
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2025. the number of individuals who have
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reached this important milestone. There
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TSP millionaires. The average years of
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contributions for these individuals is
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years. I'll talk about that a little bit
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more later. And the largest TSP account
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is now 9.96 million. So that's quite
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impressive as well. It's it's been in
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the past even higher. I don't know if
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it's the same person. The TSP doesn't
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release that information, but in the
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past it's been over 10 million. Within
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the TSP, there are now 7,280,829
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And there also, as you can see again
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from the chart, there are 136,594
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participants who are in the 750,000 to
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range. So they're some of them are on
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the cusp of becoming millionaires. Now
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the number of millionaires in the TSP
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has surged considerably especially in
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the last few years. Fedsmith has been
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tracking these data for quite a while
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now going back to 2011. I'll put this
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table up on the screen here for you to
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give you some perspective. Back in 2011,
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there were only 208 millionaires. Like I
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said, now we're approaching 200,000.
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So that that's an astronomical amount of
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growth. That's an increase of 93,516%
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in 14 years. Just since 2020,
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the number of TSP millionaires has grown
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by 158%. In 2020, as you can see, it was
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And to give you some perspective,
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um the stock market has done very well
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in that time, hence the increase in
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these figures. Since 2011, the S&P 500,
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that's the index that the C fund within
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the TSP tracks, it's averaged about 13%
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during that time. And from 2020 to 2025,
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it's averaged about 13.7%.
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If you dig into the figures a little bit
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more, um they're they're interesting as
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well. I'll put this table up on the
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screen for you so you can see. This is a
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breakout of the balance categories, the
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number of participants within the TSP in
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these ranges approaching 195,000
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millionaires now. And they represent
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almost 3% of total participants. So that
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that's very impressive. The largest
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number of participants are those who are
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just starting out. They've been
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contributing only for about six years
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and there's over four million of them.
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What these figures show clearly is they
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reinforce the core message that time in
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the market is the probably the biggest
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factor in this. You're not going to
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become a millionaire in the TSP
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overnight. So what are some of the
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general principles that TSP millionaires
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follow? Here are some general factors to
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keep in mind. As I said, they invest for
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a long period of time. Nearly 28 years
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of investing and contributing to the TSP
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on average. So that's over the course of
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much of a federal career. The
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contributions are consistent. The more
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you invest, the more wealth you're going
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to build. So contributing with every
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single paycheck. That's something
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federal employees can do. That's one of
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the benefits of the TSP. Slow and
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steady. Many of the TSP millionaires
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also are going to be investing more in
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the stock funds in the TSP. Uh those are
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the CS and I funds. The fund in
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particular has done very well.
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recently over the past year or so and
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I'll include a link to an article in the
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description that that breaks down the
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returns of the TSP in 2025 for some
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perspective on that. Also, you have to
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stay invested through market downturns.
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Think back to times like COVID or in
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2008 when the stock market dropped
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considerably. That's pretty stressful.
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If you log into your account and you see
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your balance dropping every day, that's
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not easy to to look at and it's hard to
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stay invested. But if you look at the
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performance of the stock market over
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time and you are invested for the long
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haul and you're not about to take the
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money out to use in retirement, for
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example, then over time it it will do
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very well. That's that's what the data
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show about the historic performance of
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the stock market. Also, you want to
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avoid loans and withdrawals as much as
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possible if you take money if you borrow
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money from your TSP account. That's
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cutting off the growth that the
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compounding interest effect that that
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money could have. And also taking full
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advantage of the match. The government
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matches the contributions you make to
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the TSP as long as you contribute at
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least a certain amount. And that's a
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that's free money essentially.
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Now, as I showed in the the data from
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the TSP earlier, the majority of
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participants in the TSP are not at this
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point yet. And I'm not presenting all
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this to you to make you feel
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discouraged. In fact, the opposite. I
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want to encourage you and see I want you
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to see this is what can happen over the
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course of your federal career. If you
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invest slowly and steadily, you will
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build wealth wealth for retirement. The
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TSP is a great retirement benefit for
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federal employees. And again, these data
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show that becoming a TSP millionaire is
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not only possible, but a lot of people
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have done it over the course of their
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federal careers. It just takes time,
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consistency, and then um the compounding
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effect of of being invested in the stock
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market over a long period of time. I
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hope this information was helpful and
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encouraging to you. Please remember to
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like and subscribe to the channel if you
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found it useful to get more updates. And
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um I've also included some links to
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articles on FedSmith in the description
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that are related to this topic that you
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may find helpful. Also, thank you for
