New & young investor

**cbackous** · 02-21-2009, 01:51 AM

Hello all! Been looking over the site for awhile and thought i would join up, see what i can learn and earn.

I am just shy of 25, in the air force. Figured since i have a long time before i retire i am in a good position to make the best of this bad market. when i started i put everything in the L2040 fund but i think i am ready to take a little more control.

i am thinking of rebalancing to something along the lines of:
45% C fund
25% I fund
30% S fund

any advice/comments are welcome. Looking forward to chatting with you all.

(afterthought)** maybe 30 or 35 in I fund and less in S fund?**

**JTH** · 02-21-2009, 03:04 AM

Welcome to TSP

You certainly have plenty of time. The only suggestions I would make is leave some in the G-Fund so you can be a buyer when we get those huge market crashes. I would also suggest you start out with smaller amounts since we are in a bear market. And lastly, look at the tracker before you make your IFTs, and see where your mentors are. The tracker can serve as a good guide, especially in this market.

Best of luck!

**KevinD** · 02-21-2009, 03:08 AM

When I was 25 I couldn't care less about this stuff. Now that I'm 50 I wish I had.

Good for you!

Good Luck and Welcome!

**alevin** · 02-21-2009, 03:08 AM

Hi cbackous, welcome. Having so much time ahead of you is wonderful, you'll have so much more time and resources available to learn things it's taken me nearly twice as long to learn. Watch what others are doing and why and watch what happens to their accounts in autotracker as consequence of their decisions. Join autotracker yourself, its a great way to monitor the results of your decisions. A paper loss is still a loss, ie Time spent recouping a loss is time not increasing your stash. Only you can decide how much time you want to spend recouping vs. increasing your stash. Time flies before you know it. enough words of wisdom already, have a great weekend!

**cbackous** · 02-21-2009, 03:28 AM

Thank you all for the welcomes and words of advice. Most of the advice i have been given has been to think long term, not to worry so much about short term gains/losses. So i guess my mentality is more towards buy and hold (cost averaging).

i do like the suggestion of keeping some in G fund so that i am able to buy on a price drop. I'm waiting on my TSP password in the mail (forgot mine

) so i am going to see what others are doing in the tracker's, see what works and feels comfortable to me.

now i just need to figure out where to balance what i have in there, and then see how to balance my future monthly TSP deposits.

again, thanks for the welcomes and advice.

**Viva La Migra** · 02-21-2009, 07:33 AM

Thank you for your service, cbackous. My grandfather retired as a Chief Master Sergeant after thirty years of service. Although I opted for the Army, I always had a fair amount of respect for you flyboys!

Sorry for vomiting on the C-130 during airborne school!

I think you guys did that low level flying stuff to motivate us cherry jumpers to WANT to jump!

Good luck with your TSP fund. We may be in some turbulence right now, but we'll lift above it at some point!

**cbackous** · 02-21-2009, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by Viva La Migra

Thank you for your service, cbackous. My grandfather retired as a Chief Master Sergeant after thirty years of service. Although I opted for the Army, I always had a fair amount of respect for you flyboys!

Sorry for vomiting on the C-130 during airborne school!

I think you guys did that low level flying stuff to motivate us cherry jumpers to WANT to jump!

Good luck with your TSP fund. We may be in some turbulence right now, but we'll lift above it at some point!

well we like to help out you guys when we can

**KevinD** · 02-21-2009, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by cbackous

(afterthought)** maybe 30 or 35 in I fund and less in S fund?**

You meed to get used to the "afterthoughts." You'll be having a lot of them.

**tsptalk** · 02-22-2009, 08:36 PM

Welcome cbackous! I didn't see you come in. Thanks for your service!

Just starting out and buying here should pay off in the long-term, but buy and holders are at the mercy of the market and some day you'll have a large chunk of money and you'll want to be able to avoid any major declines in the market. So, it is good to see you here learning now so you'll know what to do down the road.

Good luck!

**peterson82** · 02-23-2009, 01:42 PM

You're like a new car-able to take dips, gaps, and potholes in the market road and bounce back resiliantly. As you get older the car should be kept safe in the (G)arage!

**Frixxxx** · 02-23-2009, 03:22 PM

Welcome to the Boards,

25 and starting your retirement fund....you are WAAY ahead of the pack.

Stay true to this position and you will laugh when you retire! Laugh cause you made it and laugh cause you made it$!!!!!

**cbackous** · 02-23-2009, 03:45 PM

Originally Posted by peterson82

You're like a new car-able to take dips, gaps, and potholes in the market road and bounce back resiliantly. As you get older the car should be kept safe in the (G)arage!

HA, well put!