<p>I thought I had sign up for the catch up version, apparently not. I have a few paycheck to quickly fill them for this year. Both my husband and I forgot to sign up. How did I miss it?</p>
<p>Both my husband and I are government employees. We are part of the FERS retirement system. Does anyone have suggestions for how much we should have in our TSP accounts when we retire? We will get 35 percent of our salary, plus social security, but I have no idea how much. Also, do people recommend sticking with the TSP or transferring money to private company when possible? </p>
<p>H was CSRS and I had NO pension and very little saved when he retired. We have chosen to leave our money in the TSP accounts and let them administer our index funds. They have some of the lowest administrative and index fund costs in the business. How much you need to have in your TSP account depends on how much you need to live on annually as well as how long each of you expects to live. These are things you can guesstimate now by keeping track of current expenses and estimate what will happen to them as of when you retire. We planned to and DID pay off our mortgage and our kidsā expenses by the time H retired, so that was a HUGE savings.</p>
<p>Do you have any other investments, like real estate rentals? The rental income can help keep up with inflation and add some diversity to your income sources. Itās a thought and consideration if you have assets to investāyou can hire a property manager if you prefer not to manage properties yourself.</p>
<p>1214 mom, Both of us are FERS also. I would say max each year and the extra when 50.I Plan on leaving it in, but H plans on taking it out and putting it in another SEP plan. As HImom says, depends on cost of living, pay off mortgage, etc. </p>
<p>We have the contributions set at max allowed. I think that includes catch-up.</p>
<p>Well my husband changed so that the last 2 pay checks will take out $3000+ per pay period. I guess I have to prepare for a harsh winter. Bean and toast.</p>
<p>Dr G you can throw in some peanut butter and oatmeal for variety. We are a ton of that during our lean years. </p>
<p>^I love oatmeal. </p>
<p>In our case the payroll makes max contributions automatically.</p>
<p>I love peanut butter, I had eaten for a hole year, peanut butter sandwich and an apple, for lunch when I was in high school. My high school friends had money for burritos and thatās considered a luxury. I donāt like oatmeal however.
For some reasons, there are 2 parts in our system, we have to select 2 parts. Somehow, we didnāt. That goes to show we need to retire, we even messed up on the mundane thing like contributions to catch up version.</p>
<p>Sorry, we ATE a ton of that in our lean years and now, H has gone back to making oatmeal every morning in the belief it helps keep our cholesterol numbers down, which seems to be correct as we are both well under 200 total cholesterol!</p>
<p>Going OT, but Iām not the first: if you have a Zojirushi rice cooker (or similar, with timer and fuzzy logic), you can have the best oatmeal waiting for you in the morning. 1 part steel cut oatmeal (I like McCannās Irish), 2.5 parts water (modify to taste, I like relatively non-mushy oatmeal), cooks for a little over an hour to be ready just when youāve set the timer for. Can remain good and warm for an hour or two in the cooker, but itās a good idea to stir it up when itās finished cooking. </p>
<p>Real treat: 2 fried eggs on top. Good treat: add some milk and fruit.</p>
<p>I might use my rice cooker more for oatmeal than rice. </p>
<p>I havenāt use rice cooker for years. I think I gave it to my daughter, she loves rice.
My husband just have muesli the gluten free kind with fresh berries. He eats much healthier than Iām. But he also has eggs and sausage or bacon in the morning. Anything else you eat to reduce cholesterol without having to eat oatmeal? Iām not a fan of mushy stuff, too lazy to eat properly. I just have a Greek Yogurt. In fact, I eat lots of Greek Yogurt. I even eat them at night when nuts when I donāt feel like having a big meal.</p>
<p>A rice cooker for oatmeal? Perfect! I should go out get a rice cooker. I love oatmeal but it takes about an hour to make it.</p>
<p>@Iglooo, as someone who bought lesser rice cookers in the past, it is worth it for the real deal. Even if you have the time, cooking it āby handā itās tough to get consistent results. </p>
<p>@DrGoogle, Iām not a doctor and I have attended 0 days of med school, but the following is what happened to me, ymmv. I was on Lipitor and some other statins. I could never get my cholesterol under 300. I read somewhere that the liver produces most of the cholesterol, and that dietary cholesterol is not usually the problem. So, since Iām a diabetic, I get regular blood tests and decided to try an experiment. I stopped taking Lipitor, and started eating 2-3 dozen eggs per week (which, btw, allowed me to reduce insulin injections also), threw away margarine and started using grass-fed butter, ate steaks, burgers, sausages, etc. I was operating under the theory that if your body is convinced that youāve got enough cholesterol, it will trigger feedback to your liver that it can cool its jets (notice the doctor-talk 
). </p>
<p>Next blood test: cholesterol at 160, where it has stayed for the past 5 years or so. Endocrinologist was very surprised, but still prescribes Lipitor to his other victims. Itās easier to consider me an anomaly than perhaps a sign that vested interests keep pushing statins for $$$. </p>
<p>6 grams per day of high concentration fish oil pushed my cholesterol down to around 175. The total is much less important than the individual components however.</p>
<p>Wow, Bob, that is amazing. My husband eats the same diet but he is not diabetic nor does he have high cholesterol level, not on Lipitor. But he eats more protein and not less, he eats less carbs, get mostly his carbs from fruits and vegs. I think my sister has high cholesterol level and high blood pressure, I better tell her your story.
I do think sometimes doctor can kill you. 
Apologize for all the doctors out there. Hence I do my own research regarding nutrition. So far Iāve been reasonably successful. The internet has tons of information out there and I know some doctors are scared of this.</p>
<p>Dr G, last year our HR department forgot to include the correct amount ( too low as they were old year amounts) and it was way too late for that year to correct with not standing the chance of more human errors for the TSP.</p>
<p>Rocky, Iād sue Hr and get a nice chunk to retire. Who knows it might work?</p>
<p>Ever since I started having 2 eggs a day my cholesterol dropped significantly. I think (but have no real evidence) that reducing carbs and increasing fat in general has also helped quite a bit. It certainly helped on the triglycerides front, though I donāt think my doc is especially thrilled with how I got to those numbers. She did like the fish oil. When youāve had the drumbeats of low fat, low fat, low fat pounding in your ears for forty years other ideas are tough to consider.</p>
<p>I think triglycerides is the number one should keep an eye on. I think in the diet thread someone did mention something about it. I eat a lot of vegetable fats, although I confess I donāt know what my cholesterol numbers are but Iāll bet itās low.</p>