Guide · updated 2026-07-30

Your TSP Statement, Decoded — Every Line on the Quarterly Statement

A line-by-line reading of the TSP participant statement: which contributions came from you versus your agency, how to spot a shortfall in matching, what the Agency Automatic 1% vesting rule covers, why changing your investment election leaves your existing balance alone, and what the loan lines mean.

What the statement covers

The TSP issues a participant statement each calendar quarter plus an annual statement. A quarterly statement covers that quarter's account activity and posts to My Account roughly a month after the quarter closes — the second-quarter statement, for example, covers April 1 through June 30 and is available by the end of July. TSP emails you when a statement posts to your secure participant mailbox, and mails a paper copy only if postal delivery is the preference set in your My Account profile.

The contribution breakdown — and how to spot missing match

Money arrives in your account from up to three distinct sources, listed separately: your own employee contributions (traditional pre-tax, Roth after-tax, or both), Agency/Service Automatic (1%) Contributions, and Agency/Service Matching Contributions. If you are FERS or BRS, the automatic 1% of basic pay is deposited every pay period whether or not you contribute anything yourself. Matching applies only to the first 5% of pay you contribute: the first 3% is matched dollar-for-dollar and the next 2% at 50 cents on the dollar, so contributing 5% draws a 4% match and, with the automatic 1%, a 5% agency total. That makes the shortfall easy to read off the statement — if your own contribution line is under 5% of basic pay, the matching line is smaller than the tiers would otherwise produce, while contributing above 5% adds nothing further to the match. Stopping your employee contributions stops matching but not the automatic 1%.

Vesting — which agency money is already yours

You are always vested in your own contributions and their earnings and in Agency/Service Matching Contributions and their earnings; only the Agency/Service Automatic (1%) Contributions and their earnings carry a vesting requirement. Most FERS employees become vested in the automatic 1% after three years of federal civilian service, FERS employees in congressional and certain noncareer positions after two years, and BRS participants after two years in the uniformed services. All service in a TSP-eligible position counts toward vesting even in years you contributed nothing, and the clock starts from the TSP Service Computation Date your agency reports. If you leave government service before meeting the requirement, the automatic 1% and its earnings are forfeited — and civilian service does not count toward vesting in a uniformed services account, or vice versa.

Investment election vs. the money already in your account

This is the most commonly confused pair of lines, and the TSP's current terms are investment election, reallocation, and fund transfer — not the older "contribution allocation" and "interfund transfer" wording. An investment election specifies how new money coming in is invested and applies to all future deposits, including agency contributions and loan payments; by design it does not touch money already in your account. To move the existing balance you make a reallocation, which resets the percentages across all your funds, or a fund transfer, which moves money from specific funds into other specific funds. Both are rationed: the first two reallocations or fund transfers in a calendar month may redistribute among any funds, after which you can only move money into the G Fund for the rest of that month.

Loan and withdrawal lines — and what to verify each quarter

An outstanding TSP loan shows as a balance being repaid through payroll deduction; the loan is drawn proportionally from your funds and sources, its interest rate is the G Fund rate from the month before you requested it, and a processing fee of $50 for a general purpose loan or $100 for a primary residence loan is deducted from the amount you receive. If payments stop and the loan becomes delinquent it may be closed, with the balance and accrued interest taxed as income, so the repayment line is worth confirming after any pay or agency change. Each quarter it is worth checking four things against your leave-and-earnings statement: that a contribution posted for every pay period, that the matching line is consistent with the percentage you actually contributed, that your investment election still reflects your intent, and that any loan repayments are being credited.

Official sources for this guide

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