Thread: Dividends

Originally Posted by mait13

Are dividends paid to the account holders of C., S, and I funds and if so how and when are they paid?

Hey Mait,

Welcome!

Shares prices increase when the indexes increase (with dividends). http://tsp.gov/forms/tspbk08.pdf ~ bottom of page 10!

There are no dividends (paid to us) with any TSP funds.

Keep the questions coming! <~~~with my best Tom typing skills!!!!!

Welcome to the Message Board Mait13!!
Each of the funds have a value for shares, when a fund price goes up each of the shares you own goes up in value, if the price goes down you lose. Share prices are listed on the TSP site and the Tsp Talk home page.
Beat of luck
Norman

Personally, if it paid dividends I be a pure B&Her but it's not so you try and squeeze alittle out each month through DCA, Gov't match and timing.

Don't always work so well

Frixxxx has it. When dividend are paid to the S&P 500, it shows up in the C-fund share price.

Originally Posted by Frixxxx

Hey Mait,

Welcome!

Shares prices increase when the indexes increase (with dividends). http://tsp.gov/forms/tspbk08.pdf ~ bottom of page 10!

There are no dividends (paid to us) with any TSP funds.

Keep the questions coming! <~~~with my best Tom typing skills!!!!!

As I understand it if you own an index fund which I did own in the late 90s Vanguard, Gabelli, and others they paid their dividends at the end of the year. Does the TSP fund get dividends from the index funds? If so how is that passed on to the holders of the TSP index funds?

Originally Posted by mait13

As I understand it if you own an index fund which I did own in the late 90s Vanguard, Gabelli, and others they paid their dividends at the end of the year. Does the TSP fund get dividends from the index funds? If so how is that passed on to the holders of the TSP index funds?

These aren't index funds, they just track them, so no divs are paid.

I guess the best way to explain this is that you don't own stock in an index.

Stocks pay dividends.

Now, let's say a stock pays a dividend on a day the stocks don't move.

If you own stock at $25 dollars and it paid you a dividend of $1 you might think on that day, your share was worth $26.

But in the index with no price change of the stock, the index remains the same.

You will only hold your share of the "index". Now, if a stock does pay a dividend, the stock would probably be affected by the payout of the dividend and increase/decrease your index share amount.

If the dividend is not paid out it is rolled into the stock share which affects the index "price"

Make more sense now?

Originally Posted by JTH

These aren't index funds, they just track them, so no divs are paid.

My understanding was that dividend gains were factored into the increase of share price in the TSP funds, hence the slight differences noticed primarily in percentile gains between, say the C Fund and the S&P500 or an S&P500 Index.

OK,

Bottom of page 10 of the TSP Booklet which is easily accessible from tsp.gov.

You will see a row in the table that shows Types of Earnings***

Those *** down below explain in detail what happens in the case of TSP.

It says:

***Income from interest and dividends is included in the share price calculation. It is not paid directly to participants’ accounts.

That row says

G Fund gets Interest
F Fund Change in market prices + Interest
C Fund Change in market prices + Interest +Dividends
S Fund Change in market prices + Interest +Dividends
I Fund Change in market prices + Change in relative value of currency + Dividends

We've kicked this topic around before. Frixx, good find with the fine print. See the links below:

Profit Sharing and Dividends

Dividends and Reinvestments