If you’re contributing to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), you’ve probably at least heard of the Lifecycle Funds. But what exactly are they? And how do they work?
The Lifecycle Funds are target-date funds, meaning they automatically adjust their investment allocations as you get closer to the time you expect to begin withdrawing money from your TSP account. While that may coincide with your retirement date, the two aren't necessarily the same.
Each of the Lifecycle Funds within the TSP is a mixture of each of the five core funds within the TSP: the G, F, C, S, and I funds.
The objective of the Lifecycle Funds is to strike the right balance between the expected risk and return associated with each of those funds. They are horizon-based portfolios, meaning there’s a moment in time in the future that we want an account to look a certain way, such as to be more conservative. As we get closer and closer to that time, or horizon, the account will automatically adjust.
As a result, the balance of the fund will be different over time. You won’t have an equal amount of G, F, C, S and I in each of these Lifecycle Funds, but instead the fund will shift and morph over time to look more like it needs to look based on when you need the money.
Are the Lifecycle Funds right for you?
That's a really hard question to answer, but the people who we see drawn to these funds may have no idea on how to invest. They either don't know how much money they should have invested in each of the five funds, or they're not really sure how they each perform, or at what point they should change their allocations or the distributions. As a result, they can get very confused. And when confused people approach decisions, they tend to take no action.
The Lifecycle Funds provide federal employees with a professionally designed mix of the five core TSP funds based on when they expect to begin withdrawing their money. While this approach won't necessarily be right for everyone, it can help take some of the guesswork out of deciding how to allocate their TSP investments.
How the Lifecycle Funds Change
The Lifecycle Funds naturally change over time because that's how they're designed to work. But in July 2020, the TSP made a different kind of change by expanding its Lifecycle Fund lineup. Before then, there were only five options: L Income, L 2020, L 2030, L 2040, and L 2050. That was it.
In July 2020, the TSP expanded its Lifecycle Fund options, retiring the L 2020 Fund and introducing new funds in five-year increments to give participants more choices based on when they expect to begin withdrawing their money.
Since then, the TSP has continued updating its Lifecycle Fund lineup. The L 2070 Fund was introduced in July 2024, followed by the L 2075 Fund in June 2025. At the same time, the L 2025 Fund reached its target date and was retired, with its balances automatically transferred into the L Income Fund.
As of October 2026, the TSP offers 11 Lifecycle Funds: L Income and L 2030 through L 2075, in five-year increments. These options allow federal employees to choose a fund that more closely aligns with when they expect to begin withdrawing money from their TSP accounts.
This choice of funds now allows you to get a little bit more dialed in, maybe not in a perfect way, but it at least allows you to get a little closer to that timeline of when you plan to first need money out of your TSP account.
If you like the idea of “setting it and forgetting it” when it comes to the TSP, the Lifecycle Funds are designed to do much of the work for you. These funds automatically rebalance daily to maintain their target investment allocations, while the target allocations of the date-specific Lifecycle Funds are adjusted every quarter.
As you get closer to the time you expect to begin withdrawing your money, these funds gradually shift toward a more conservative mix of investments. This means you don't have to constantly monitor and adjust your allocations yourself. However, it's still important to periodically review your investment strategy to make sure it continues to align with your retirement goals.
If you've never invested in the Lifecycle Funds before, don't have a financial planner to guide you, or simply feel like you're all over the map with your TSP investments, these funds may be worth considering. They offer a way to simplify your investment decisions while keeping your long-term retirement goals in focus.
One important thing to remember: Just because a Lifecycle Fund matches your anticipated retirement timeline doesn't automatically mean it's the right investment choice for your situation. Your risk tolerance, other sources of retirement income, and when you actually plan to begin withdrawing from your TSP can all influence which fund makes the most sense. And while Lifecycle Funds automatically adjust over time, they aren't immune to market losses. The key is understanding how your TSP investments fit into your overall federal retirement plan—not simply choosing a fund based on a date and hoping for the best.
For a deeper dive on this topic, watch the FedImpact Webinar on the TSP Lifecycle Funds.
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