Thread: What YOU can do to fight back - IFT limit

Jones,

What a beautiful brain you have! We need to use all legal avenues to stop the injustice, to stop the arrogance of power, and to bring accountability into process. Keep up the good work.

Jones,

I adopted and sent your letter to:

mailtoavidlRostker@omb.eop.gov

Can anyone tell me how to reach the ETAC military rep at the Pentagon? Need an office or a phone number?

Originally Posted by Art2007

Can anyone tell me how to reach the ETAC military rep at the Pentagon? Need an office or a phone number?

Colonel Adrienne Fraser-Darling, USMC,
ETAC Representative
Military Assistant, Office of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness, US Dept of Defense
Job site: The Pentagon
Room 3E788
Washington, D.C. 20301
Tel: (703) 697-2121
FAX - (703) 697-8256
e-mail: adrienne.fraserdarling@osd.mil

I don't know if it will do any good, but I emailed my union's leadership, NWSEO, to ask what, if anything, they intend to do to protest the TSP board's decision to restrict transactions.

After sending out a blanket email earlier in the month, the response I got back was largely negative in that most had a mindset of, 'the TSP is a long term investment that shouldn't be traded.'

There are two questions I have for the TSP board, 1) how can a person excessively trade, if they are only abiding by the rules the TSP board established? 2) What is the real motivation behind restricting transactions to two a month?

I brought it up to folks in my office and they immediately went on the offensive accusing us of "running of fees"- classic TSP Board propaganda.

If only they KNEW the potential earnings with their TSP- I tried to explain.

One can only TRY and lead a horse to water...

Originally Posted by weatherweenie

2) What is the real motivation behind restricting transactions to two a month?

ANSWER: There's not enough $$$ remaining in (G) for the gov. to "borrow" from.

Originally Posted by airlift

Jones,

What a beautiful brain you have! We need to use all legal avenues to stop the injustice, to stop the arrogance of power, and to bring accountability into process. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. I'm just "trying to stir the pot" by making arguments that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has to counter. If they cannot, then this action is withdrawn.

Originally Posted by airlift

Jones,

I adopted and sent your letter to:

mailtoavidlRostker@omb.eop.gov

Airlift,

It cannot hurt. The more emails on this technical point sent to the Office of Management and Budget, the better.

Originally Posted by weatherweenie

What is the real motivation behind restricting transactions to two a month?

IMO, their restriction is based on fear of their own incompetence. They are thinking (under the guidance of Ms. Ray) that they are following the big boys (i.e. a few funds that are using limits already, forget the fact that these funds have much much larger overhead than TSP and have shareholders that insist on profit and big salaries for the board members, not just that the funds cover expenses) .

Being a mindless copycat is enough to relieve them of some of their fear. The last thing they want to do is actually do the homework necessary to determine what is really the best path to take. Instead they get someone like Ms. Ray with an agenda (forget multiple people with multiple agendas coming to a consensus) to give them a sense that homework has been done. Heaven forbid, a real discussion and debate might take place on the best options here for everyone.

They have "outsourced" it in other words. A classic method for incompetent management to determine strategy. If it doesn't work out for the best, they can blame Ms. Ray (or better yet the contractors who are furnishing her info).

No accountability so why do actual real work to overcome any lack of information leading to their incompetence? Down the road when TSP participants no longer are maxing out their contributions but instead are taking what they would have given to TSP and investing in IRA's that give them real time trading with minimal costs for unlimited trades, the board members making this decision will be long gone (and as we know memories are always short.)

And I am totally convinced that "down the road", newcomers WILL be much more interested in trading their TSP than the current group who still have ties to the Depression mentality of keeping your funds in the G for absolute security.

Originally Posted by weatherweenie

I don't know if it will do any good, but I emailed my union's leadership, NWSEO, to ask what, if anything, they intend to do to protest the TSP board's decision to restrict transactions.

NWSEO's reply: 'we can protest this but we have no legal jurisdiction and therefore no influence.'