alevin
01-01-2008, 12:43 PM
It's time I said Hello, first time message boarder anywhere so I've been kinda hesitant to launch myself out there. Been listening and learning from the best on the site for sometime now, my retention level for system/chart discussions remains low unfortunately. I need to do some supplemental hardcopy reading and study, I tend to learn better that way. I read and think and don't always follow a chart or system from here, sometimes it pays off, other times not so well. Sentiment Survey has helped, so did EBBChart before he went off the public boards.
I was one of the very first mandatory FERS retirement system hires. All they said in the early years was-contribute to TSP, you'll be in trouble if you don't. Never explained what they meant by that. Thanks to internet retirement calculators I discovered a couple years ago, I've discovered my true retirement stash needs and what its going to take to get to that point when I need to be there :(. Thankfully I have 10-15 years to salvage the situation. 12%'s motto is my ballpark (modest?) objective, give or take a couple, but if I can do even better? as long as I can limit downside risk sufficiently, ok.
So many changes in tsp over the past 20 years (G, F, C, then S&I; quarterly phone/snail mail transfers-I got used to not thinking about short-term market ups and downs since I couldn't do anything about it anyway), overly conservative choices early on-plus getting diversification and buy-and-hold preached at me, then laisse-faire for a few key years (worst years) in C fund 100% between 1999-2002 (when I was thinking buy and hold in stocks was the longterm ticket). I didn't monitor or understand what was actually happening in the market (and my account) back then before I was much of a routine internet user-was suspicious of S and I too when they came out, so took even longer to begin understanding and using them effectively). And of course right around 2001-2002, I switched from contributing 10% down to 5% so I could use the other 5% to pay off my house early (so I could invest more later). timing is everything, took me much longer to recapture my market losses since I downsized new contributions right when the market had tanked and was climbing its way back out (and I didn't realize til much much later how timing affected net benefits of that decision). So much for how I got here...the present and future are everything, so long as I've learned from past mistakes.
I have FERS co-workers my age and era who still believe that "Throw your $ into TSP and forget it." is the best way to go-don't want to hear me when I say not my current plan due to past and future consequences to my account. For their sakes I hope they meet their goals, I just know I need to be a little more proactive from here to the end. Thanks for being here everyone, looking forward to an upside year of mutual support with no regrets at the end. :)
I was one of the very first mandatory FERS retirement system hires. All they said in the early years was-contribute to TSP, you'll be in trouble if you don't. Never explained what they meant by that. Thanks to internet retirement calculators I discovered a couple years ago, I've discovered my true retirement stash needs and what its going to take to get to that point when I need to be there :(. Thankfully I have 10-15 years to salvage the situation. 12%'s motto is my ballpark (modest?) objective, give or take a couple, but if I can do even better? as long as I can limit downside risk sufficiently, ok.
So many changes in tsp over the past 20 years (G, F, C, then S&I; quarterly phone/snail mail transfers-I got used to not thinking about short-term market ups and downs since I couldn't do anything about it anyway), overly conservative choices early on-plus getting diversification and buy-and-hold preached at me, then laisse-faire for a few key years (worst years) in C fund 100% between 1999-2002 (when I was thinking buy and hold in stocks was the longterm ticket). I didn't monitor or understand what was actually happening in the market (and my account) back then before I was much of a routine internet user-was suspicious of S and I too when they came out, so took even longer to begin understanding and using them effectively). And of course right around 2001-2002, I switched from contributing 10% down to 5% so I could use the other 5% to pay off my house early (so I could invest more later). timing is everything, took me much longer to recapture my market losses since I downsized new contributions right when the market had tanked and was climbing its way back out (and I didn't realize til much much later how timing affected net benefits of that decision). So much for how I got here...the present and future are everything, so long as I've learned from past mistakes.
I have FERS co-workers my age and era who still believe that "Throw your $ into TSP and forget it." is the best way to go-don't want to hear me when I say not my current plan due to past and future consequences to my account. For their sakes I hope they meet their goals, I just know I need to be a little more proactive from here to the end. Thanks for being here everyone, looking forward to an upside year of mutual support with no regrets at the end. :)