Direct Rollover from 401K to TSP-Does it makes sense?

[powerman754]

I have a 401K plan with a previous employer and currently working within the federal government. Does it makes sense to do a direct rollover of my 401K to the thrift saving plan? How I can evaluate that? Thanks

[KAPLOWD]

Why not rollover into an IRA were you'll have more flexibilty to invest and not be limited to the noon deadline. Other examples of flexibilty are, shorting the market (Fildelty has some funds which do that), or playing just an Asian fund which excludes Japan, or just playing a Japan fund, or for that matter any world market.

[rokid]

On the other hand, the TSP is very low cost and provides the major asset classes, i.e. treasuries, bonds, large cap, small cap, and Europe/Japan, plus the L Funds.

On the other hand,:Dan IRA would allow you to have someadditional asset class exposures not provided in TSP, e.g.REITs or emerging markets.

[Birchtree]

The more money you can get into TSP the more money you can make with minimal risk - and you can trade without fees. The objective is to accumulate and build an account that allows you certain leverage when you are older and trained to pistol shoot your way to prosperity. Good luck - perserverance is the answer.

[mlk_man]

Anybody remember me mentioning this stock:

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/view_topic.php?id=1449&forum_id=29&highlight=XSNX

It was about 10-11 cents at the time. Hit 50 cents today.

I mention it because that is just ONE of the things I like about my IRA as opposed to my TSP. You can do some research in little developing companies and throw a little money their way and if it hits, great, and if it doesn't, no biggie. It's fun for me and one can never have too much fun.

Good luck,

M_M


BTW, it does work both ways. I bought PWRM.PK at like $1.45 or something. Down to about 15 cents now. Make sure to set stop losses!!

[mlk_man]

New water sector ETF(PHO) started today if anyone is interested as I am. Correlates well with the small cap ETF (IWM), which I like with even more upside.

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/etf/rogernusbaum/10255828.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

[Show-me]

mlk_man wrote: Anybody remember me mentioning this stock:

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/view_topic.php?id=1449&forum_id=29&highlight=XSNX

It was about 10-11 cents at the time. Hit 50 cents today.

I mention it because that is just ONE of the things I like about my IRA as opposed to my TSP. You can do some research in little developing companies and throw a little money their way and if it hits, great, and if it doesn't, no biggie. It's fun for me and one can never have too much fun.

Yep! I have it on my watch list and wish I would have pulled the trigger on it twice.

[mlk_man]

Show-me wrote:
Yep! I have it on my watch list and wish I would have pulled the trigger on it twice.

:(

Tough to do sometimes.

[powerman754]

I guess it is a tough decision to make. What I am trying compare is the rate of return on a IRA mutual fund vs. TSP fund. Can they be compared? The rate of return for IRA could be 20% however I only hear 2-3% in TSP. Does that makes sense? Thank you

[mlk_man]

powerman754 wrote: I guess it is a tough decision to make. What I am trying compare is the rate of return on a IRA mutual fund vs. TSP fund. Can they be compared? The rate of return for IRA could be 20% however I only hear 2-3% in TSP. Does that makes sense? Thank you
All depends on the mutual fund. There plenty out there that have outperformed our TSP funds. Funds that track the energy sector have exploded this year.However, if the particular mutual fund tracks the the S&P, it should have a similar returnto our C fund, perhaps even a little worse because of the low maintenance fees of our TSP.

Hope this helps,

M_M

[yakers]

I moved or consolidated an old IRA I had into my TSP account. It took longer than I expected, about 2 1/2 weeks from the time the old IRA company (Oppenheimer) sent the check until it showed up in my TSP account. While there are reasons to have an IRA outside of the TSP like greater asset class choices and the potential to convert an IRA to a Roth IRA for me I liked simplifying my finances and having them in one place helps. And the TSP has decent choices and definitely low fees. I have one more old IRA I will probably move sometime in 2006.