Investment Advice

**72Zorad** · 04-05-2010, 04:59 PM

I'm going to ask the question I'm sure has been asked hundreds of times. I've looked around the forums and haven't found an answer. If course, to be honest, I'm not even sure I was looking in the right place.

As I become more familiar with my TSP and get closer to needing it becomes apparent to me I need to attempt to maximize my returns. I've tried doing this following some basic guidance and run pretty exhaustive reports on past data trying to determine what can be learned from it that might relate to the future. In doing this I've learned quite a bit, but to be honest I'd have to say I've been more lucky than anything. I couldn't really find anything concrete to make decisions from and was pretty much winging it. I also recognize that I really don't have the psychology required to make appropriate decisions about my investment (ie. the lows impact my decisions with much more weight than the highs).
Is there a place where people who recognize the value of moving investments but don't have the time, experience, knowledge.....can go to pay for investment advice? I know there are several and I've checked them out. I've always found warnings to stay away as they are accused of posting past investment history as they would have done it, not as they did. Also, they send out weekly, monthly....email reports. Some of these are pretty overwhelming.
In short, knowing I'm responsible for my investments and can't hold anyone else accountable for decisions; Is anyone aware of a site that has people who have a background in this and will just tell me what to do? Kind of like other mutual fund investment firms. They move the money around and tell you how their investment brokers performed with your money except I have to do the actual moves because they don't have access. I already have a job and really don't want to try an become an expert in two fields although I recognize the value of sound advice from an expert in this one.
I'm envisioning an email every time I should move and not much else. Then I just sit back and either keep paying for a service that is worth it or move on if it isn't.

Thanks,

72Zorad

**Birchtree** · 04-05-2010, 05:50 PM

This is not the answer you are looking for but why pay a fee when the solution you seek is simple. Put you money into 75C fund and 25I fund for the next ten or longer years and just let it ride. You would own the world's largest companies. The important fact is to be sure to use dollar cost averaging into both funds regardless of what the market is doing - everything is placed on auto-pilot - put in as much as you can and you will gain more knowledge as time progresses. History has proven you will be fine with this approach.

**72Zorad** · 04-05-2010, 06:17 PM

Well, I was 100% in C for many years. During those years the I far outperformed the C. Then I noticed during the '08 meltdown that the I and C bottomed out at nearly the same value. This would lead me to believe the I had a better potential when things are good but no worse when things are bad. (Remember, this isn't my day job so these could be some bad findings/assumptions). Then I hear all this talk about the dollar being way overinflated because they are printing money like it's going out of style. I wonder how much of the C and S gains we've seen amount to anything in real value.
Also, any reason you didn't consider S. It's been going like gangbusters the last half a year or so in comparison to the others.

Thanks,

**Birchtree** · 04-05-2010, 06:30 PM

See my post #7958 in my thread for information on the small caps - you decide.

**dannyboy** · 04-05-2010, 06:50 PM

Guaranteed Good TSP Advice? Ain't happenin',
http://www.tsptalk.com/tracker/tsp_user_balance_all.php
Follow the leaders,
Review their posts,
Put the max you can w/comfort (

Southern

),
Roll-the-dice, Say your Prayers,etc,
DB

**Boghie** · 04-05-2010, 08:23 PM

72Zorad,

What I did earlyish on this site is find folks who were doing well and matched my trading frequency. I will probably make 10 IFTs this year - and that is probably more than normal if you could look at my activity over a number of years. We are still in a churning cycle. And, don't look at my trading style last year - very AbbyNormal.

Anyway, I found a few and starting poking around their threads. Then I read some books (Ric Edelman's 'The Lies About Money', Ray Lucia's 'Buckets of Money', and Dave Ramsey). Then I set up a few (3) portfolios that I use to cycle through the good, the bad, and the ugly times. Thus, not much trading - unless the urge to surge hits.

Finally, its not much of a job. Look at some of the blogs. CoolHand, Bullitt, and JTH. Look at folks on the AutoTracker who have made minimal trades this year and last. But, remember, you might want to temper this years winners by looking at their productivity last year and the year before. All this is available at this site.

Finally, Quicken has some very nice investment management tools in their Deluxe package that show risk factors. Find a pivot point allocation you can sleep with (BT gave you a good one) and play on the margins.

Oh well,

Happy Hunting

**Frixxxx** · 04-05-2010, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by Boghie

Finally, Quicken has some very nice investment management tools in their Deluxe package that show risk factors. Find a pivot point allocation you can sleep with (BT gave you a good one) and play on the margins.

Oh well,

Happy Hunting

WTG.......Boghie!