What’s the best way to divide my check into my tsp or most amount I should put in as an E-1? And still have a good chunk left over on my check, I’m single, no kids
@cheky1818 The best way is to make a budget. Write down necessary expenses (car, gas, phone, car insurance). Then write down optional expenses (eating out, video games, hobbies).
General advice is 15% put away every year towards retirement. Of course that theoretically includes total compensation so would actually be closer to 25% of base pay.
There is no “right” answer. Ultimately you need to decide how much you’re able and wiling to sacrifice now so you can save for your future without living a miserable present. It’s about balance. You need to look out for your long term but ideally enjoy life along the way.
@cheky1818 Yea, but as I said, that technically equates to 25% of base pay since your salary technically includes housing and food already. Of course, if you can’t save that much, 15-20% is still a great start.
Make a budget and see if you can live off 75% of base pay. If you can’t, see how much you can live without and save the rest.
Are you sure that's not backwards? If you're putting 15% of your base pay in and you count the BAH/BAS they aren't getting due to living in the dorms, it's still just 15% of their base pay going in. And if you included the pay they aren't getting the percentage would be lower.
For example, when I was in if I put 15% of my base pay in, it was only around 9% of my total pay (with BAH/BAS).
Another example, the general advice of 15% is of your gross pay. If you're getting BAH/BAS on top of base pay, 15% of your gross pay is more than 15% of your base pay (because gross pay is greater than base pay).
I think I may have worded what I said poorly. Basically we agree. I am saying that to meet the 15% general advice, he needs to set his base pay to 25% ish or so. I didn’t mean to say that setting it to 15% would be the same as saving 25%.
@makubexx Gotcha, yeah the way it sounded to me is you were saying them using 15% was essentially equal to someone else using 25% which sounded way wrong.
Sounds like we do agree, may have been more clear to more plainly say something like "general advice is 15% but due to how military pay works you actually need more like 25% of your base pay to reach similar numbers".
@makubexx This, but don’t consider the “yearly salary” apart of it. I’d look at you take home pay without the TSP and go from there. Budget on what you see on a day to day, leave yourself play money, and put away the rest.
@cheky1818 Since I've been in I have been contributing 25% of my base pay split 50% between the C and the S fund. This personally has worked for me but I am also a very frugal person. Don't buy shit or takes loans for stuff you don't need like most people in the military.
@cheky1818 Slightly less than every 2 weeks. Military pay is 2 times per month, not every two weeks. The difference is 2 paychecks per year - your pay = 24 paychecks per year whereas every two weeks = 26 paychecks per year.
While a seemingly minor distinction, it's an important one. Calculating it at every 2 weeks you would earn $18642 for a full year, but calculating it twice per month (as military pay pays out) you only actually earn $17208 for a full year.
@cheky1818 Yes...I knew what you meant...but you being new and all I wasn't sure that you knew that so I wanted to make sure you were aware and weren't incorrectly calculating things.
For example, with the max annual contribution being $20500 (I know you don't even earn enough yet to reach it but bear with me), if someone who can max it calculates their percentage contribution wrong because they assume 26 paychecks (every two weeks) they might hit the max early and miss out on some BRS matching.
@davidolonge I see, thank you for that, I wasn’t tryna sound like a douche, I still have trouble crunching numbers but I’m experimenting with it in my early time being in TRADOC before I get established at a unit and have more financial obligations
@cheky1818 It's a great time to pay attention to it...so many people go through their first enlistment (sometimes even more) without really working out a budget or understanding retirement savings and such.
I will say I've seen people max out their Roth as an E-1 in training though - 60% (the max TSP let them use for Roth due to taxes and such at the time) straight into Roth...great time to do it cause your taxes are so insanely low. But make sure you budget for it...even at your first base your expenses should be pretty low beyond a phone, car, insurance, and maybe internet and such...everything like going out to eat, drinking, etc, can be nice - but don't let it eat into what you should be saving.
