Take money matters into own hands with TSP

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Rebecca Hernandez
  • 65th Force Support Squadron
LAJES FIELD, Portugal --  Last week, Lajes Field saw huge success in savings with the events of Military Saves Week. With the goal of encouraging servicemembers to make the pledge to be financially secure, one airman accepted the challenge while another shared her experiences of financial success. Being one of the Air Force's newest airmen, Airman 1st Class Corey Legister decided to start saving early in his career and invest in the Thrift Savings Plan.

Although skeptical about the TSP at first, Legister met with a financial counselor at the Airman and Family Readiness Center to get all the facts, and got started on his path to financial success. As Legister made the commitment to pay himself first and invest in his future, he emulated Tech. Sgt. Kimberly Young's experience from nearly 12 years ago, as she too opened her TSP account here at Lajes Field as an airman first class.

When the TSP program was first introduced to the Air Force, Young attended a TSP kick-off workshop, where she was first educated on the ins and outs of TSP. She liked what she heard and the rest, as she says, "is history".

Legister's financial mentor is his father, a retired master sergeant, who shared his wisdom with him by teaching him to "put aside satisfactions of today so you can live a better tomorrow". Young's motivation to start a TSP was to be able to retire from the Air Force with the option of not having to start a second career.

Goal setting is the first step to creating a financially sound plan. A financially secure retirement is the objective for both airmen when it comes to investing in the TSP. Both set their aspirations high and although Young still has many years to go until retirement, she can already see the fruits of her commitment to TSP, as she claims, "I could purchase a brand new car, if I wanted to--paid in full."

Currently, only 33 percent of uniformed service members are actively participating in TSP. The plan is one of the single most easy and effective means of saving for retirement for our servicemembers. Airmen can get started today directly through the MyPay website. For more information and advice on TSP, contact your A&FRC or visit TSP.gov. Young's advice to all airmen..."Take your financial matters into your own hands. Unfortunately, many of us are not taught the beauty of savings, so when retirement or even an emergency comes, we are stuck at a stand-still. We need to educate our young Airmen early and ping our 'older' Airmen now to start investing in their own futures. The key is to start!"