Thread: anyone know how to track TSP concributions in a profilio?

Unfortunately, the TSP funds don't have ticker symbols. Therefore, you have to enter the prices manually into Quicken, MS Money, or Tom's TSP spreadsheet.

I use Quicken.:^

you need to puchase the code and such huh? and you have to input the numbers everyday?

wendellmiculob wrote:

you need to puchase the code and such huh? and you have to input the numbers everyday?

You need to buy the software. You can usually get a prior year'sedition, e.g. 2004,for less than $20.

Yes, you need to put prices in at some point. However, it doesn't need to be daily. In addition, if you're contributing on a bi-weekly basis, you also need to inputyour contributions.A compromise might be to put your contributions in on a bi-weekly basis and update the prices at that point.

The big advantage of this software is that if you keep your prices and contributions up to date,you know exactly how your TSP account is performing.

I forgot all about using Quicken for something like that. Is there atutorial or "wizard" you can recommend (I'm using 2004)?

Download free beta.

No, I'm not aware of a Quicken wizard or tutorial.Sorry.

rokid--do you have any instructions on how to set up Quicken manually?

No, but if you have specific questions, I'll try to walk you thru -thru posts and/or PMs. Incidentally, I'm using Quicken Deluxe 2004.

Basically, you have to set up accounts, e.g. G Fund, F Fund, C Fund etc.from the "Investing" tab.

Since TSP doesn't have a download capability, you have to update prices manually. In 2004 click on the account nameto get the "Security Detail View"and use the "Update" tab to update the prices.

To enter contributions, click on the "Enter Transactions" tab from the Summary page and fill in the appropriate info, i.e. the date, the security, number of shares acquired, and the price.Using the "shares added", instead of "shares bought" seems to work thebest.

Note, I'll be out of town and off the computer until Tuesday.

Happy New Year! :^

rokid--thanks a bunch for reply.

I'm using Q2006.

Q2006 has a "Enter Transaction" button and within it is the "Add-Shares Added" option. Haven't done that yet will wait for your answer on Tuesday.

Got the funds setup, so how often should I make updates?

I make payroll contributions every two weeks and get only qurterly statements.

Should I make daily entries or just bi-weekly entries when I actually contribute?

Unless you wish to keep track of your gains/losses daily, there's no need to enter share prices more often than biweekly (when your contributions go in). The only other reason I can think of to enter the prices would be if you make an interfund transfer (which of course would mean you are buying/selling shares).

Unless you want to track the performance of each fund on a daily basis, you only need to enter the fund prices when you add shares on a bi-weekly basis.

Use the "add shares" option. After the first entry, you'll need to subtract the current number of TSP shares from the updated number. For example, if you currently have 100 shares of C Fund, you may have 120 after your contribution goes in. Therefore, you would "add" 20 shares of C Fund at the price of the shares on the day posted.

I get payed on Friday. However, my TSP contributions are added the night before, i.e. Thursday night. Therefore, I use Thursday's price in my "add" transaction. Once you update Quicken, make sure the TSP totals are the same - grand total and total for each fund. Good luck.

I have quicken 2004 premier and I just figured out the importing price history dilemma. So this might help some of you.
I thought there used to be alot more posts about Quicken in this TSPTalk forums but I guess they deleted all of the old posts anyway.
1. What I do is I add setup my paychecks in Quicken to put my contributions and the gov't contributions into my the TSP porfolio. In that portfolio I have each of the funds set up.
2. At the end of each quarter I download the PDF of the participant statement and then I copy the tables (Date/Contribution/Amount invested/etc.) into a custom Excel File. I have the excel File setup so that when I import the table below it automatically populates the fields so that I'll be able to import them into Quicken.
3. I save that file as a Text Tab delimited, and then open that up in notepad, clear out the Tables at the Top, leaving the Quicken QIF formatted stuff at the bottom, and then save that as a qif file.
4. Then I import that into quicken and all of my transactions are automatically populated.

I just figured out how to import price history. I've read alot on this previously and yes the format is: "Ticker, Price, Date" but the key is that in quicken you have to have a "Ticker Symbol" assoicated with the account. Now previously when I set up my tsp account I setup an account NAME but not the associated ticker symbol, because obviously there are no ticker symbols associeated with TSP accounts as they are not publicly traded. So once you make sure that a ticker symbol is registered with each fund, the file easily imports. The only flaw I found was that although I had saved the price history in Excel as a CSV file I still had to open it in notepad and resave it as a CSV file, I guess excell adds some sort of headers or something to it and saving it in notepad clears that off.
Anyway, if you want the excel file so that you can import all the transactions , it is attached in a zip file. I made it in Excel 2000. It is pretty self evident if you used Excel and Quicken before but if you have questions email me. georgie12345@comcast.net

Hope this helps.