Re: Just As We Are Restricted

Of course there is no way to prove it but I don't believe in coincidences.

You don't think limiting fed workeer choices AND the volitile and then horrific stock market were linked? I certainly suspect they were.

Of course, most people - being pretty damn naive - didn't notice that their own rights to control their retirement were being severly limited. All they saw was the "boogyman" of non existant "day traders" adding to their expenses.

A simple analysis of the data indicated clearly that this was a red herring, the costs - per person amounted to practically nothing. But we ALL lost our rights, that might cost us thousands and thousands of dollars per year, to save a few penny's.
And the definaition of "day trader" was so manipulated that it lost all meaning, the TSP only let you move 1X per day, even under the old rule. That isn't what a "day trader" is, in fact, day traders buy/flip stocks all day long, usually making small amounts in hundreds of transactions.

Re: Just As We Are Restricted

No doubt, the recent restrictions imposed by the TSP that saved the vast majority of TSP investors money is also responsible for global warming, and the war in Iraq as well as the bear market in stocks. The price of oil, the possibility of Israel invading Iran and the meltdown in housing stock prices probably all pale in comparison to these horrendous restrictions to limit the frequent traders who are invested in the TSP.

Re: Just As We Are Restricted

Professional in Leg Branch,

You need to think beyond your venting. To manage your account to avoid the loses in the market, you would have moved your money into the G Fund. Movement of money into the G Fund was not restricted by the new rules, just so that we could avoid nosedives, just like we have just gone through. So what is your complaint?

Re: Thrift Savings

How has it been mismanaged?

Re: Thrift Savings

Has anyone noticed that the entire world is seeing the markets nosedive?

G fund is a safe harbor to ride this out. You could have moved your shares there.

Now that I did NOT move my shares I will let them ride so I don't lock in the losses and can benefit when they rise again.

I am buying shares in my private account now that they have fallen so low so that when the market recovers, and it eventually will, I will profit from having more shares that increase in price.

If they never recover then we are likely in worse shape than just losing money in an investment account would be responsible for.

Re: Thrift Savings

Gee, retired USPS, you should have used that handy-dandy crystal ball of yours and gotten out years ago when everything was go, go, go. How about in 1999?

Nice comment, completely baseless as TSP reflects overall trends in the markets worldwide.

Re: Thrift Savings

It has been mismanged by the bottom line results. All my other investments have made me money consistently. Only the "Thrift Savings" has continually shown downward trends.

Re: Thrift Savings

Retired USPS, you're asking it to do something it wasn't designed to do. It's an indexed based plan that follows the market. The market has gone down.

According to your definition of "mismanagement", all indexed based funds in the world(and there are a bunch of them) have been mismanaged in the short term.

If you're going to judge it's performance you need to figure out how it's designed to perform if you want your conclusions to be valid.

Re: Never happy

That's easy to say when you have a guaranteed retirement income that is fully indexed to the CPI.
Try being in a system where the gains and losses of the TSP effect the major portion of what you will have to live on in retirement, combined with a pension guaranteed to loose 1% every year and see if you feel the same way.

Re: Never happy

Good point - if we are in a long term cyclical bear market - lasting 20 years or more- FERS folks are in very serious financial jeopardy. FERS folks who are healthy enough will simply not retire- die on the job - or if they are forced out they will get other jobs in their 70s and 80s - slowly moving down the employment chain from professional Fed to flipping bergers at Wendy's or cleaning toilets at hotels. These are the jobs you get when you are forced to work at age 70+. The equity and bond markets contain no guarantees for any positive return and poverty is one possible TSP outcome for millions of Feds under FERS - get those toilet scrumbers ready.

Re: Never happy

Take any 20 year period in the last 100 years (including periods that have the '29 and '01 crash in them. Put the same amount of money in two pots, the first in large cap US stocks(similar to the C fund), the second money market rates (similar to the G fund).

In every single instance you'll have more money at the end of that 20 years in the stock pot than the money market pot.

Re: Never happy

I'm not going to debate the factual information that Programmer stated but I don't really agree with how Ibbott Associated (data source) portray that information. The problem is that our world is completely different now in the globalized economy and our dependence on food/oil and everything else that we import. If we don't have some REAL good years coming up, we'll really fall below the normal 20 yr return for the SP500 and other benchmarks. Reason is if you go back 20 yrs now you are going from 1988-2008 - that includes those great yrs from 1995-2000 plus you are figuring numbers after the 87 crash so it's a little misleading. If you look over the last 10 yrs the SP500 return has been only like 5% which is horrible. The G and F fund have outperformed the C fund over that time.

As to USPS, CSRS is way better than FERS - I would take the CSRS system over the FERS anyday. I came in way too late and didn't have the choice but and the match is only great if the market is doing well

Re: Never happy

Nothing says that you can't take money you would have invested in "Thrift Savings" and route it to investments that make more sense. I did. Isn't it incredible that the other investments made me money while the "Thrift Savings" was flat to downward. I guess if you get lazy, you reap what you sow.

Stop moaning and get a financial advisor. Mine only laughed at the Thrift Savings plan. So am I.

Re: Never happy

If your financial advisor is competing with the TSP for investment money, therefore it's human nature for him/her not to speak favorably about it.