Cactus' Account Talk

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Yes, I'm using Cactus' to indicate the possesive case. That may be old fashioned these days. I've seen the use of 's after words ending in s and think it's the new way. Don't really know. I've never been good at grammer and spelling. That's what spell checkers are for. With my dad being a 30 year man in the U.S. Army we moved around a lot and my education suffered accordingly. I never even heard of that i before e rule until after high school. My wife says I didn't even learn it right. she says it is: i before e except after c or when it sounds like ay as in neighbor and weigh.

Anyway, I'll keep posting my IFT's, but I don't know if it will keep working now that I know CRAP does so much better than me. :mad: I did compute CRAP for the previous 2 years if you are interested:

[TABLE="width: 100"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]2013
[/TD]
[TD]2012
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cactus:
[/TD]
[TD]17.29%
[/TD]
[TD]2.75%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]CRAP:
[/TD]
[TD]7.85%
[/TD]
[TD]19.06%
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The computations were a little more tricky in the year I didn't swing for the fences but moved allocations around in equities or outside. We'll see how this year turns out.
 
The MACD crossover continues and the S Fund appears to have more potential than the C Fund going forward, so I am IFT from G to S @ COB today. That means CRAP, my contrarian indicator, is going from S to G.
 
Hey, I get home last night and what do I find in my mailbox? It's an advertisement from TSP encouraging me not to pull out my funds. What is this? Is the ship sinking or what? Has anyone else gotten one of these? Why would I even consider pulling my money out? I'm not retiring anytime soon.

Reading their flyer brings up even more questions. One line says they don't make any profit off of me. Really, then why are they concerned that I would pull my $ out? I always intended to leave my money in the TSP because of the low expenses but now I'm not sure. Yeah I'm paranoid, but I say they are talking out of both sides of their digestive track. :suspicious:
 
Cactus I read the article but a little confused.... Does this also apply to retired CSRS folks? I have looked into IRA and Roth but have not made a move yet, this might be my best op. Thanks for the heads up cactus
 
Awwwwwwwwwwww that's not good, but it is what it is. I got my 2014 annual statement and very pleased with results. They also included a flyer about staying with tsp and not moving your money out. Biggest plus administration costs around .029% per $1000. Which is good and low comparably speaking.
 
Cactus said:
Hey, I get home last night and what do I find in my mailbox? It's an advertisement from TSP encouraging me not to pull out my funds. What is this? Is the ship sinking or what? Has anyone else gotten one of these? Why would I even consider pulling my money out? I'm not retiring anytime soon.

Reading their flyer brings up even more questions. One line says they don't make any profit off of me. Really, then why are they concerned that I would pull my $ out? I always intended to leave my money in the TSP because of the low expenses but now I'm not sure. Yeah I'm paranoid, but I say they are talking out of both sides of their digestive track. :suspicious:
Click to expand...

No profit...my Irish A$$! Check out their bonuses... .29% of each thou when you have the balance sheets they run means a huge pot of money! And then they try to make it mandatory for people which will increase their coffers. This is the closest thing to a union shake down most fed employees get.
 
GUCHI said:
Awwwwwwwwwwww that's not good, but it is what it is. I got my 2014 annual statement and very pleased with results. They also included a flyer about staying with tsp and not moving your money out. Biggest plus administration costs around .029% per $1000. Which is good and low comparably speaking.
Click to expand...

Mcqlives said:
No profit...my Irish A$$! Check out their bonuses... .29% of each thou when you have the balance sheets they run means a huge pot of money! And then they try to make it mandatory for people which will increase their coffers. This is the closest thing to a union shake down most fed employees get.
Click to expand...

I will be corrected if I am wrong but as far as I know the FRTIB folks don't get bonuses. The "Administrative Costs" is what Blackrock gets for managing our money.
 
nasa, thanks for pointing out that we are dealing with two separate entities here, FRTIB and BlackRock. Of course, it's not always clear who is really responsible for what. For example, it's the FRTIB that limited us to 2 IFTs a month, but I understand that was from pressure by BlackRock because some people here were making money day trading the I Fund and cutting into their profit.
 
nasa1974 said:
I will be corrected if I am wrong but as far as I know the FRTIB folks don't get bonuses. The "Administrative Costs" is what Blackrock gets for managing our money.
Click to expand...

My apologies if I'm wrong about the bonuses...I assumed that the SES's positions would be able to since they are federal emplloyees. Here is what I do know...In 2006 (for some reason I saved the 2007 GAO report on the tsp...I think someone here might of posted it? Link at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07541.pdf ) the TSP ran about 9 mil in compensation (this does not include travel) for its employees...The GAO cites about 65 staff members including 28% who are paid at GS 11 wages or lower; 1 SES director and 7 other SES positions. So, doing the math, when you take the 28% (18) of the 65 employees that are making GS 11 or lower off the top, the average pay at the tsp for the other employees is 160000 to 170000 range...in 2006. A lot of ching to spread around...the bonuses were an assumption on my part.
 
nasa1974 said:
I will be corrected if I am wrong but as far as I know the FRTIB folks don't get bonuses. The "Administrative Costs" is what Blackrock gets for managing our money.
Click to expand...

Sorry...this was bugging me so I actually did some digging. I'm still (now) not saying that they get bonuses...but since this November 27, 2012, federal register posting they can...
"Title 5, U.S. Code, 4314(c)(4), requires that the appointment of Performance Review Board members be published in theFederal Registerbefore Board service commences. The following persons will serve on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board's Performance Review Boards which will oversee the evaluation of the performance appraisals of the Senior Executive Service members of the Federal
Retirement Thrift Investment Board: Thomas K. Emswiler, James B. Petrick, Tracey A. Ray, Kimberly Weaver, Mark Walther, and Renee Wilder.James B. Petrick,
General Counsel, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board"

Every agency with SES's that get bonuses have to have this Performance Review Board...otherwise they can't get bonuses.
 
It would be very very nice to have a more up to date listing of FRTIB member and staff salaries grades etc. 2006 unless I am off my meds again was nine years ago. A little more info a little easier to find would be nice. IMHO
 
I knew I had it around somewhere. Try Federal Employees Search and enter the name. Mr Emswiler made a paltry 165k base salary in 2013 with a measly 6.3k in awards. Leave the name blank, enter "F" in "Dept./Agency and scroll down to FED RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD and there you are for 2013.

Don't know what base means. Maybe base with no locality?

PO
 
Cactus said:
nasa, thanks for pointing out that we are dealing with two separate entities here, FRTIB and BlackRock. Of course, it's not always clear who is really responsible for what. For example, it's the FRTIB that limited us to 2 IFTs a month, but I understand that was from pressure by BlackRock because some people here were making money day trading the I Fund and cutting into their profit.
Click to expand...

Cactus, It was never proven but it was very strange how quickly it happened. I don't think it was BlackRock at the time. I would have to go back and check. But it appeared that the trading in the "I" fund might have been the reason. Tom and Norm can correct me if my memory is a bit fuzzy. During the daily IFT days there was a large following that did daily moves in and out of the funds. It just so happened around this time that the "I" fund was making some gains. On one particular day word got around that the "I" fund was do a nice jump (people where starting to perfect their systems). So a large group did an IFT into the "I" fund and the next day did an IFT and got out. The "I" fund hit big (I think we all got lucky, but luck is good). Anyway, it appeared that because of that large profit making IFT the managing group almost couldn't cover the trades that day. It wasn't much longer after that our IFT's were going from a daily IFT to 2 per month and people would be punished if you tried to do more than 2. People were punished. That's the "Cliff Notes" version and I'm working on some fuzzy memory.
 
PessOptimist said:
I knew I had it around somewhere. Try Federal Employees Search and enter the name. Mr Emswiler made a paltry 165k base salary in 2013 with a measly 6.3k in awards. Leave the name blank, enter "F" in "Dept./Agency and scroll down to FED RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD and there you are for 2013.

Don't know what base means. Maybe base with no locality?

PO
Click to expand...

PO, Good memory. I forgot all about that website.
 
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