Couple questions...

1.) A couple people I talked to said that you only earn interest on your balance, or $10,000 - whichever is lower. For example:

Let's say I have $20,000 in TSP. They say I will only earn interest on $10,000. Is this true? I thought that whatever amount of money you have in TSP, you earn interest on..

2.) What's the maximum amount of money I can contribute in a year? Is it $15,000 for 2007?

3.) Can I make a one-time deposit into TSP? I have some money I want to deposit in there, but I don't know if you have the ability to do a direct transfer... Perhaps I could open up an IRA, put money into the IRA, and then transfer that over to my TSP?

4.) I'm looking at the C, S and I funds. It seems these are based off of general stock/options that anyone can buy into with a stock broker (such as etrade) - is this true?

5.) The TSP loan program.. is there an interest rate, or as long as you pay back the loan in the allotted time, your good?

Thanks,
Eric

I can only answer #5, there is an interest rate, it is around 6% or so. It will be automatically alloted from your pay until it is paid off in full.

1) Your rate of return is entirely dependant on which funds you have the money invested in. If all 20k is in the G then the entire amount will earn ~5%. If its in the stock funds then the entire amount will earn what the fund is returning.

2) 15,500 for 2007

3) No, it has to be a % of your pay

4) No, those funds are not publically traded and are offered only through the TSP.

5) see previous poster, but taking loans from retirement accounts is generally not a good idea.