Noob questions

[Ce_Troop]

Not sure if this is event he best board to post in. If its not, please forgive me. I am in the military and for the last 2 years I have had all my money put in the "I" Fund and have left it there with out touching it. So far its done good, but I am not as educated as I would like to be on investing. Is it bad to just leave all my money, atm 12k, in the "I" Fund, or should I be just using one of the L funds. Sorry if this is noobish, I know this has probably been asked, but no luck for me in finding good answers.

Thanks

 

[Spaf]

Ce_Troop,
The I-Fund has done quite will, but that is no guarantee thet it will do so in the future, but that goes with any equities......
For long term MHO would be to elect the L-Funds if you want things on auto-pilot.
For Trading and self management it would be up to your own discretion.

Not sure if this is event he best board to post in. If its not, please forgive me. I am in the military and for the last 2 years I have had all my money put in the "I" Fund and have left it there with out touching it. So far its done good, but I am not as educated as I would like to be on investing. Is it bad to just leave all my money, atm 12k, in the "I" Fund, or should I be just using one of the L funds. Sorry if this is noobish, I know this has probably been asked, but no luck for me in finding good answers.

Thanks

 

[tspforretirement]

Not sure if this is event he best board to post in. If its not, please forgive me. I am in the military and for the last 2 years I have had all my money put in the "I" Fund and have left it there with out touching it. So far its done good, but I am not as educated as I would like to be on investing. Is it bad to just leave all my money, atm 12k, in the "I" Fund, or should I be just using one of the L funds. Sorry if this is noobish, I know this has probably been asked, but no luck for me in finding good answers.

Thanks

Ce_Troop,

Everybody has to start somewhere and I've found that this free forum has a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Since you've kept your monies in the "I" fund, then, one could say you are extremely aggressive investor with a high-risk tolerance. But are you? If tomorrow, next month, and next year the "I" fund took a massive dip. Are you willing to hold out, suffer those interim losses, or gamble further?

Yes, I used the term "gamble" since the "C, S, I" funds are basically into stocks and are a gamble since it is based upon the “market”. The hopeful thought is that in the long run you come out ahead.

Remember this - it is based upon your tolerance, exposure and tolerance to the ups and downs of the “market.” The “market” is it’s own animal.

Examples:

Somebody that has put in $1000.00 with 100 shares, therefore each share is worth $10.00. One day it takes a loss of $0.10 per share. Now you have $900.00 in your account. Then the next day, another loss of $0.25 per share (in addition to). Now you have $650.00.

What are you going to do? What is your tolerance? If you had to use the monies now, you’d only have $650.

Then the flip side, a gain of $0.10 per share, so you have $1100.00. Sounds great? Made $100.00 in one day. What about the next? Calculations go on.

These numbers seem small, but multiply it by 10.

$10,000.00 with 100 shares.
Losses of $0.10 per share.
Leaves $9,000.00 – You lost $1000.00 in one-day.

The reverse.

$10,000.00 with 100 shares.
Gains of $0.10 per share
$11,000.00 – You gained $1000.00 in one-day.

Still small? Add another zero.

I realize that I only brought up the “near-term”, but we also have the “long-term” strategies to overcome these “dips” and “ups” in the market. I recommend that you research investment strategies based upon your risk tolerance. There is no solution that is a “win-all”, “cure-all” when it comes to these types of investments.

TSPTalk is one of those place, IMHO, where you can gather additional knowledge of how things actually move. Why did the "I" fund go UP, why did the "S" fund go down, etc., and then there are so many other resources, that at one-time you had to pay for, but is freely available on-line (though generally not available in real-time). Research.


I hope that I helped and not confuse.

HOOAH!

 

[James48843]

Ce troop-

First, welcome aboard.

A good place to start is to go to the very top set of message boards, and look for the one titled 'Member introductions". Post your "hello" there, and get properly wecolmed by everyone.

One place for information for new folks is here:

http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/showthread.php?t=3629

It's designed for new federal employees, and new members to the TSPTALK site, but contains some good information you might find helpful. One message includes some discussion of various TSP investment strategies- i.e. buy and hold vs. trying to do better than buy and hold. It's something you should read as you educate yourself.


You've hit the "I" fund in a good time, with very, very good returns, so i won't try to talk you out of that right now. But the "I" alone also has periods where it goes DOWN a lot too- something to consider as you grow.

Welcome, and nice to have you here. Hooah.

 

[Ce_Troop]

Thank you for all the direction and friendly help.