Agency Automatic Contributions

  

The agency automatic contribution is a very specific retirement savings item open to federal government employees.

Employers commonly offer matching funds for some of the money employees set aside for retirement. The federal government has this kind of program as well (See "Agency Matching Contributions" for more details), but the agency automatic contribution works a little differently. Federal government employees who participate in its thrift savings plan get the extra benefit of agency automatic contributions.

In this program, the government makes an automatic contribution equaling 1% of the worker's pay. This comes not as matching funds, but as an auto add-on. Employees get it even if they don't make a contribution on their own.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Coverdell Education S...11 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what is a Coverdell education savings account? Coverdell...[Man using a red umbrella]

00:09

nope not an umbrella for the farmer in the well what is a Dell anyway? uh no

00:14

different Dell remember farmer in the Dell? all right moving on

00:18

Coverdell was the senator who named this type of tax deferred savings account and

00:23

note it's tax deferred not tax free maybe that is you might put two grand a

00:29

year in this account and you don't pay tax on it this year it just gets

00:33

invested and it grows just like a 401k account and an IRA and a Roth more or

00:39

less but then when you withdraw the money you don't pay tax on it if you use [Cash withdrawn from ATM]

00:44

the dough for school that is for like private school fifth grade books and

00:49

uniforms or that no athletic scholarship in the Ivy League tuition at Princeton [Man walking towards college building and football hits his head]

00:54

Or the iPad app suite from shmoop yeah

00:59

you could spend it on us we'd appreciate it thank you if you don't spend the

01:02

money on education well then you get taxed in the normal way as if it's

01:06

ordinary income there are all kinds of restrictions in this plan like there's a [Restrictions appear]

01:10

max of two grand contributed per kid who benefits from it the dough has to be

01:15

distributed fully by the time the kid is thirty or go to others in the family for

01:20

education and if your family makes too much money like you work too hard you're

01:25

too successful well you might have to cover your own Dell yeah so yeah it's a [Man walking along with a Dell laptop]

01:30

great option for some and an excellent way to attend the school of your dreams

01:34

while temporarily staving off the taxes of your nightmares if you're really lost

01:39

or something to spend it on you know think of your friends here at shmoop...

01:41

we're happy to take your dough

Up Next

Finance: What is Automatic Reinvestment?
3 Views

What is Automatic Reinvestment? Automatic reinvestment means that all of the money that investors make, “capital gains,” is reinvested into the...

Finance: What Do You Need to Retire?
209 Views

What do you need to retire? Retirement - think: 401k, pension fund, IRA, roth IRA, etc. All of these savings socked away while you worked hard are...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)