TSP Center

Any thoughts on the new military retirement system BRS?

If you are planning to be a "lifer" and have a choice, stick with the old plan. The 1st goal of BRS was to save tax dollars. On the other hand, if you are not planning on making the military a career, go with BRS.

Overall, I think BRS is a good thing. It introduces military members into a habit of saving and investing, and serves everyone vice just those that go to 20 years.

Is it a better deal than the legacy system? For those that go to 20 years, absolutely not. But for the sake of everyone, I like it. My concern moving forward is that it is easy for the Gov't to manipulate the matching funds...much harder to manipulate the pension. Thus, my fear would be they will cut or reduce future matching funds.

By the way, the military pension is no joke! Receiving it starting the day you leave the military is just incredible. Compare it to any civilian jobs out there...won't find much better.

And, while I like the BRS for all, I think they are doing a really bad job of teaching the different funds of the TSP. At least they changed the default fund to an age-appropriate L Fund. It used to be the G Fund before BRS...which was criminal...members think they are doing the right thing investing, and in reality were/are just giving their money back to the government for a very low interest loan. Many current members have still have no idea and are unknowingly still just putting into the G Fund. And they make it just hard enough to get your TSP password (I think you still have to do this through the mail), that many have not done so.

I agree. The instruction regarding the use of the TSP for military members is severely lacking.

Most of the "experts" that I've seen brought in to give briefings focused on the choices between pensions and pushing the reenlistment bonuses. The TSP is given a few token minutes, and never in delth enough to even explain the basic differences between the Funds. They don't even talk about the differences between stocks and bonds. All questions are answered by directions to visit tsp.gov.

I spent a good deal of my time in the last few years of my career educating service members on not only the differences between the funds but also on risk...why do we take the risk and why risk is necessary. Most of the time, people will just be asked what is your risk tolerance without asking them what their financial goals are. Your financial goals should help shape your risk tolerance (because you should never take more risk than necessary to meet your goals), not the other way around.

I have observed Fantasy TSP for some time, but I have just started to take the leap towards ETFs and 'seasonal' investing. Until now, I have followed just a buy and hold approach in C&S. Trump's policies seem to favor large corporations, so I have slanted to 70 C/30 S. Now...I'm trying I in April...end of the FY for Asia (and I think Europe). We'll see.

Haha 100% to both of you.

TSP was never taught in the Corps, during all 3 of my deployments, money accrued in the G fund, and no one told us about investments. The L2050 would have made a world of difference from 2007-2014. I teach some of my boots that are still in about it, and have slowly got them accustomed to investing and thinking about the long haul. The average grunt at a barracks only cares about cold beer and Driftwoods though .