mb_dad
02-08-2005, 10:54 AM
I read the email on the negative merit that the TSPTalk website may have on some TSP participants thatTom shared in his daily comments of 2-8-2005. While the email author made some points worth considering, I was amazed that he or she thought that readers of TSPTalk.com were so naive in their investment strategies. There are many TSP participants that are what I call "passive" investors. They dump their savings in a particular fund and then cross their fingers in the hopes that something good will happen. That's where I wasseveral months ago until I discovered TSPTalk.com. Quite frankly, what appealed to me about the sitewas the volume and range of information being shared amongst a community of like-minded individuals who participate in the Thrift Savings Plan. This was a really powerful concept to me! This didn't mean that I blindly followed whatever was being presented as an absolute certainty of a successful outcome and I doubt that others are doing this either. What I like about the site is that the information contained within it allows me to be better informedand less passive about something that is important to me with respect to my future retirement. I applaud Tom's efforts to make us better educated investors. So what has been the impact of all this knowledge to my personal investment strategy? I was able to take my underperforming account that was returning at about 3% to 10.1%. Not exactly "fire-breathing" performance but certainly a respectable return compared to what I was doing in the past. Thanks Tom!