October Has Bad Rap for Stock Returns
October is often thought of being a month in which the stock market goes down. But, while there have been some spectacular stock market drops in October, the average return for stocks in October is positive. No doubt, what influences the thinking of investors is the record stock market drops of 19.7% in 1929 and 21.5% in 1987. October has an average return of 0.58% over the past 40 years.
Best TSP Fund Return in October
October was a good month for stock market returns this year. The I Fund was the top performer with a monthly return of 3.6%. It is up more than 17% so far this year.
The C Fund was up 2.16% for the month. The C Fund is up more than 23% so far in 2019 and leads all of the TSP funds in the year-to-date returns.
Latest TSP Returns for Month, YTD and 12 Months
Here are the returns for all of the TSP funds for the past month, the year-to-date and for the past 12 months:
| G Fund | F Fund | C Fund | S Fund | I Fund | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | 0.14% | 0.28% | 2.16% | 1.93% | 3.60% |
| YTD | 1.93% | 8.82% | 23.14% | 19.83% | 17.28% |
| 12 Month | 2.46% | 11.50% | 14.31% | 9.07% | 11.48% |
| L Income | L 2020 | L 2030 | L 2040 | L 2050 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | 0.70% | 0.79% | 1.67% | 1.95% | 2.20% |
| YTD | 6.06% | 7.55% | 13.47% | 15.72% | 17.61% |
| 12 Month | 5.21% | 5.89% | 9.28% | 10.45% | 11.36% |
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) has reported statistics resulting after the start of the Additional Withdrawals Project (AWP) went into effect in September allowing TSP participants to have more access to their accounts.
Single Payment Total-Account Transfers-Out of the TSP decreased by 47%, Partial Withdrawals increased by 333% and Age-based Withdrawals increased by 254%.
TSP Statistics
On the Monday after deployment of the project, the contact center received more volume than any previous peak day. This resulted in a blip in service levels across the board. The average number of calls per day increased by nearly 2,000 calls immediately following the AWP.
TSP Participants and Average TSP Balances
As of September 2019, here are the number of TSP participants in major categories and the average TSP balance for each group.
| Number of Investors | Average Balance | Roth Investors | Average Balance | |
| FERS | 3,474,164 | $144,465 | 595,736 | $14,524 |
| CSRS | 302,883 | $155,119 | 10,111 | $22,340 |
| Uniformed Personnel | 1,349,406 | $27,790 | 546,994 | $9,968 |
TSP Interfund Transfers in October
The G Fund took in considerably more money than any other underlying TSP stock fund in October. More than $1.9 billion was transferred into the G Fund. All other funds saw a different trend. $836 million was transferred from the C Fund; $999 million from the S Fund; and $72 million from the I Fund. $87 million was transferred into the lifecycle funds.
The stock market is running up on the first day of November after a strong jobs report from the Department of Labor. We wish all TSP investors best wishes for another month of solid TSP returns in November!
