Thread: Hello

In my humble opinion the "L" funds are for people that don't know or don't want to handle their allocations. If you would like to be proactive and maybe make a little more or a lot more money, handle it yourself. Sissy's!!

Do you really think Im going to take the time to read all this stuff? No! Get to the point, is better!!!

Sorry about the ramble. I will try and keep it short and sweet from now on. The sissy comment got me thinking. You are right. I am young enough and far enough from retirement. Maybe I will adopt the active trading method with guidence from this forum. Thanks for slapping me back into reality.

Sorry, I'm a little too direct sometime. I'm sure you will do just fine, and there is nothing wrong with asking questions. Keep it up I've more to learn myself. I'm not an analysis by a long shot, don't have a fancy system, but I try. If you need anything just ask. If I don't know, I'll do my best to find out and get back to you. Best of luck in the Markets.
Norman

Originally Posted by mailmanusa

The sissy comment got me thinking. You are right. I am young enough and far enough from retirement.

Check out the Tally rankings. You can do a lot worse than the L Funds.

Did you ever see "Dirty Harry"?

If so, "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"

You might want to check out the Vanguard Diehards for a different investment perspective. Good luck.

Originally Posted by mailmanusa

Thanks for the input. I am aware that the idea of the L funds is to let them adjust basedon your expexted retirement date. I think I understand that the L2010 is more conservative than the L2020 and so on. Since my retirement date would actually be about 2019, then obviously the L2020 would be the recomended choice when reading the literature on the L funds. I like the idea but have faith the stocks will earn more over time. So thats why I have the idea of spreading across more than one L fund. Spreading more aggessively. When I followed the slide bar showing how the L funds adjust as time progresses I saw that beginning within the last 5 years the shift to more conservative really picks up speed. So the plan would be to shift it all back to the L2020 fund at about 5 years out of retirement. now if those plans work as they were designed, I should have more money in the end than if I had it all in the L2020 all along. Again, 20% to each of the S and I make it a bit more agressive too. All of this would be shifted back to the L2020 in the year 2014. Those remaining 5 working years it will shift more conservative at a pretty good clip. The way I see it all of the L funds are basically the same. One is just more conservative than the next. Te key is to switch it all back to the Lfund that targets your retirement date at about 5 years out of actual retirement. I would time the shift back to the L2020 when the stocks are up. I would begin watching closely for the higher mark at 5 years out. I have faith in the American market and the world economy alike. I dont know but maybe I dont get it. The literature on the Lfunds at the TSP site also said what was noted above. That the Lfunds were designed to have all your money in one fund. They did not explain technically why though. What exactly could be a downside of spreading across more than one Lfund in a more aggressive manner? As long as its moved back to the targeted fund at the right time, I dont see a problem. One way or another I will be hanging in the wings of this forum to see what goes on. Maybe my stratigy will change if you all are blowing me out of the water with your choices. For now when the dow hits 11500 I am gonna make my planed shift unless someone can show me how it is a mistake. I guess it doesnt look like I am the typical TSP forum member huh? Anyway, my plan is taking the proffesional suggestion of the target Lfund and making it more agressive.

Check the Tracker, look at the results for the "L" funds YTD! Hmmmmm?

Originally Posted by nnuut

Check the Tracker, look at the results for the "L" funds YTD! Hmmmmm?

Yelp,

Twenty-two TSPers are beating all of the L Funds YTD. Thirty-eight TSPers, including myself, are doing worse than one or more of the L Funds YTD. Of the twenty-two top performers, skill or luck? Only time will tell.

Welcome to our fun house!

I like the L-funds. I take them as professional advice. My goal is to beat them all. I use the allocations in the L2040 as a baseline and adjust from there. If I can't beat the L2040 I intend to join it.

However that strategy was disturbed by the events beginning in May. For the last couple of months it has been a scramble, holding nothing for long. Once things settle down again, so will my allocation.

Good luck!
Dave

Sooner or later im gonna drop 50% in the L2040 and leave it there. Then I will play with the other 50%. Most of the time that other 50% willbe divided between the S and I funds.