We knew the number of Thrift Savings Plan millionaires would take a hit when the latest figures were released. We just didn’t know how big of a hit.
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board which administers the TSP—the world’s largest defined contribution plan with more than 6.6 million participants—reported this week that the number of TSP millionaires dropped from 112,880 at the end of 2021 to just 72,241 through the end of June 2022. That’s nearly a 36% decline in the number of TSP participants with seven-figure account balances. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, there were 100,364 TSP millionaires.
The current number is the lowest number of millionaires since 2020 when there were 75,420. TSP millionaires now comprise just 1.7% of all accounts, down from about 3% at the end of last year.
The value of the single-largest individual TSP account also took a big hit in the first six months of the year, dropping from $10,975,527 at the end of 2021 to $6,955,938.72 at the end of June. It is not known if it is the same participant, but the roughly $4 million drop in the largest TSP account balance in six months is significant.
Of course, millionaires (and recent millionaires) weren’t the only ones to suffer losses in the first six months of the year. The number of those with balances between $750,000 and $999,999 fell from 105,000 to 85,444, and the number between $500,000 and $749,999 fell from 219,658 to 193,326. Further, as of June 30, 2022 there are 519,397 TSP participants with between $250,000-$499,999; 1,621,153 with between $50,000-$249,999; and 4,160,558 with balances less than $50,000.
Total TSP account balances fell nearly $105 billion to just under $707 billion in the first half of 2022, hampered mainly by sharp drops in the plan’s three stock funds (C Fund, S Fund and I Fund). These figures do not include significant gains in July in those funds as the stock market rebounded that partly offset those losses.
The TSP’s S Fund, made up of small-cap businesses, rose 10.32% in July, which brought its YTD performance up to a still-dismal -20.48%. The C Fund, based on the S&P 500, saw a 9.22% gain in July, cutting its losses for the year so far from -19.96% through June to -12.58% through July. The I Fund made up of international stocks finished with a 5.15% gain in the month of July, paring its losses to -7.86% for the year so far.
The ultra-conservative G Fund, which invests in a special non-marketable treasury security issued specifically for the TSP by the U.S. government, was the only fund to finish in the black for the first half of 2022 with a modest gain of 1.15%.
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