Thread: Hello

Welcome mailman! Always nice to have someone around who still delivers......

Welcome to the board Mailmanusa!!

Im glad that someone's balance is healthy... After last quarter, mine has started to fade...

Welcome to the group!

Well the balance is down 10K from its previous high. I have plenty of time to gain it back. No worries. Stock prices down??? Heck, buy buy buy.....

OUCH! I would be Jacked if I were down 10K!!

The L funds seem to be doing ok during these roller coaster rides. I plan to wait to regain. When the dow gets back to about 11,500 I will move a few things around. Dont wanna sell at the bottom. I am gonna spread thru the L funds but make it a bit more agressive by keping some in the S and I. I plan to try 20,20 20,20,20 percentage wise in L2020,L2030,L2040, S and I. I think it will be fun to watch these compete with each other. What do you think the pros and cons of this plan might be? Right now I am spread 34,33,33 in L2040, S and I.

Never tried the "L" funds, didn't see any reason to complicate my life. I think just allocating between the GCSFI can do the same thing without the BS>

Contribution 20% to each Lifecycle fund does not make sense, because you end up with performance that is in the middle, and this is difficult to track. The L funds were developed so federal employees could choose one L fund, based upon when they need to withdraw the money. You then have all your time for work and family, and not worry about your TSP investments. It makes sense for the majority of federal employees to invest in a single L fund, because they do not spend the time to manage their TSP account.

There different types of investors at TSPTalk. Some are passive by sticking with a specific asset allocation according to age and risk tolerance, and then rebalance periodically. Some are active investor by switching among the C/S/I/G/F funds, or the L funds, based upon technical, physiological, and fiscal conditions. Or one could try a combination of passive/active by allocating a fixed percentage among the funds (e.g. 40% total), or a single Lifecycle fund, and the remaining percentage (e.g. 60%) switching among the funds based upon market conditions. What kind of investor are you?

This is just my view on how you can choose to invest your TSP money. Its really up to you to decide how to invest.

I agree with ewguy on this one. The L funds weren't set up to put a little in each fund. They were set up to invest in one fund depending upon your age and years till retirement. Each quarter they are adjusted to gradually get more conservative. To put some in each is defeating the purpose. If you want to make more aggressive allocations, I'd suggest putting your money into G,F,C,S or I according to your own risks.

The current allocations for the L2040, the most aggressive L fund, are set up as:

G- 6.10%
F- 9.90%
C- 41.60%
S- 17.80%
I- 24.60%

Of course you can do whatever you want to with your TSP. For now anyway. I don't think the person doing the tracker here should feel obligated to track something like that though. Too much effort for not enough return if you know what I mean.

Welcome mailmanusa! Thanks for joining us.

Tom

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.