Thread: To early to get in the L funds?

Welcome genestar34! You can invest in any fund you wish, at any time! The length of time you've been in the TSP doesn't have a bearing on which funds you can invest in!

The L funds, or Lifecycle Funds, are just different ratios of the 5 main TSP funds. The concept is that the closer one is to retirement, the less aggressive one should be with his or her nest egg. So, someone who is retiring within the next five years might choose L 2010.

The cool thing about the L Funds is that the ratio changes through time automatically the closer ones retirement date approaches! The TSP official website explains it pretty thoroughly. Oh, and one more thing; to make a change to your TSP account forthe next day, you have to do it before 12:00 noon Eastern time.

This website has a wealth of knowledge to learn from andquite a few folks who post about relevant topics! Arm yourself with the facts and do what you feel is the best for YOU!

GOOD LUCK !!

Welcome, genestar34! While you are resting in the L fund of your choice, may I suggest you go to

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/forum22/1700.html or http://tinyurl.com/7fs52 (whicheverone works.)

and utilize Spaf's `classes' on learning how to be the Best Trader - Yourself. You will be safe in the L, and can concentrate on doing `paper trades' and reading, & practicing - daily.:P Then, you can start putting some toes in the water and see how it feels to make even more progress managing your own fund. And even if you aren't interested in taking control of the allocations yourself, you will at least have an understanding of what is going on with those soon to be THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. !! There are others who have posted teaching/learning methods; I mention Spaf because he laid it all out back on May 30.

Enjoy - & the best of the market to you - :^

ps: be sure you keep scrolling when you get to the site - there are several sessions -

The L funds are now as open and active as any of the others. The L fund is a great improvement for folks who would have just picked one fund (G, I, S, C or F) and dumped everything there. This is a good "one fund" solution for them. The only decision is which of the L funds to choose based on either retirement date or anticipated date for withdrawals, if later than the retirement date. The rebalancing and risk provisions are excellent.

I am putting all my new contributions into an L fund. I do not do the account trading that some folks advocate on these boards. If you want a "one fund" solution and you choose an L fund you probably do not want to trade either. But if you are going to trade then watch the funds for a while and make up a game with your own spreadsheet on proposed investments/trades. After you become comfortable you could do trades or new contributions into a preferred fund. Don't bet the whole amount until you are *really* comfortable with your choices.

From everything I have read the key ingredients for growing your account is 1) size of your contributions and 2) assett allocation (which the L funds"solve") only at number 3 would be trading choices and a lot of folks lose more than they gain from this one. It does make life interesting but it also takes time and effort and things can go wrong. I do not trade in my TSP account. But I do have individual stocks and I understand the concept although I tend to be a "buy & hold" stock investor as well. A while back I had a stock trading account and did OK (beat the S&P500) and actually made money but I did not have enough money that it was really worth my time & effort except for the entertainment value. So I would recommend holding up on TSP account trading until you are quite sure you wnat to do that.