respos' account talk

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IFT time!!! 100% G on 9-24 and watched her slide the next couple of days. Lost almost all of my prospective gains yesterday. Still holding on with the funds dipping again today. I think 4 days is quite enough of potential losses for this new guy!

2
50% S and 50% C, COB 9/28/12
 
Not even trumped up jobs numbers could prop the beast up. Now with reality charging in this week (earnings), I'll be heading for the G hills.
 
I'm about as mad as a wet sitting hen! I'm sick of this. We enter all our TSP transactions electronically. All that I do at work is reflected electronically, my pay stub is displayed electronically, etc, etc. Something smells. Why would the TSP brass limit our transaction to 12 noon. What does is hurt if its 12:30 or even 4:00? It's obvious to me that TSP doesn't care about our ability to grow our balance! I look at it like this. If TSP enters my IFT immediately and I make a profit, Then I'll have more money to be taxed when I retire. More money to spend in this economy. Wouldn't that be worth the extra aggravation for TSP to beef up their systems? I know that The TSP is termed "a spectacular deal" on Boglehead and it is to a certain extent, but this system is costing me money THIS VERY MINUTE!
Sorry for the rant but I needed to get this off my chest once again. I'm not just a complainer though. I'm gonna start complaining to the people that can change things. I'm gonna stimulate the languishing postal service with some letters. I don't care if it doesn't work. My opinion is gonna be heard at TSP.
Respro
 
respo,

Save your letters and energy - nothing will get their attention. They are there to be sure you are protected from yourself. That's the way they see their fiduciary responsibilities. Social Security works on the same ideas.
 
Re: still hangin in

alternatively, you could contribute 5% and only 5% of your salary to get the free double cash match. keep it all in G, everbody keeps a portion of their investments in cash anyways. take anything else you are putting away each pay period in a low cost broker like scottrade or schwab. first fully fund roth ira, then regular brokerage, and invest in low cost index etf's equivalent to c s i with no transaction fees executed immediately as much as you like with no delay or limited number of trades. also you can borrow up to 50% of your tsp holdings (the part you paid in) and invest that in the same independent brokerages. leave the gov free money in cash for diversification and go hog wild in private accounts with unlmited investment options. pay yourself back at the G fund rate and when the loan is settled borrow as much as of your own money back as you can. that way only a minimum of your portfolio is limited by the tsp gloved fist (mostly their free money to begin with) and it's all cash, ie the full faith and credit of the us as gauranteed by the fed. when you pay the loan off do it again.

no need to waste time writing letters to a brick wall, and most of your funds are yours to do with as you like, only the gov free money sits in cash, and it's only fair if it's their money that they control how you can use it.

no need to waste time complaining about what they won't let you do with their money, just take your money and get on down the road.

someone hyper intelligent with tax matters like boghie can better explain the tax consequences. remember tax is just a way gov takes back their money that they allowed you to earn
 
I hope all the people rhat run TSP.GOV enjoyed their holiday this Monday. I paid almost 3 thousand dollars for your day off. Your welcome.
 
Re: still hangin in

burrocrat said:
alternatively, you could contribute 5% and only 5% of your salary to get the free double cash match. keep it all in G, everbody keeps a portion of their investments in cash anyways. take anything else you are putting away each pay period in a low cost broker like scottrade or schwab. first fully fund roth ira, then regular brokerage, and invest in low cost index etf's equivalent to c s i with no transaction fees executed immediately as much as you like with no delay or limited number of trades. also you can borrow up to 50% of your tsp holdings (the part you paid in) and invest that in the same independent brokerages. leave the gov free money in cash for diversification and go hog wild in private accounts with unlmited investment options. pay yourself back at the G fund rate and when the loan is settled borrow as much as of your own money back as you can. that way only a minimum of your portfolio is limited by the tsp gloved fist (mostly their free money to begin with) and it's all cash, ie the full faith and credit of the us as gauranteed by the fed. when you pay the loan off do it again.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking of doing that, the tsp mechanism is great if you're a buy and holder, but for someone who does active trading it doesn't work well without a huge change in strategy. My stock portfolio has gains over 60% this year but the TSP account is around 9-10%, a lot of big losses I've taken in the TSP were also due to the delay where I would have stopped out of in a brokerage acct.

The IFT rules from the TSP are probably there to protect people from themselves, but the way the IFT works, it almost makes it more dangerous for people to move in and out of funds. What happens if 2008 happens all over again, there's nothing to stop you out of a position. And if you get that transaction in a little too late, well... Dow loses 1000 pts on day 1, transaction goes through end of day tomorrow, where it loses another 2000. man that's gotta hurt. granted most technical traders would have been outta there well before the 1000 pt crash, but just using that as an example of how IFT deadline / delay can totally screw someone.
 
Changing IFT rules, there's more than one way to skin a cat. We just have to find that way. Believe me when I say that I'm looking hard!
 
respro said:
Changing IFT rules, there's more than one way to skin a cat. We just have to find that way. Believe me when I say that I'm looking hard!
Click to expand...

if you can do it i will buy you a beer. and if not i'll buy you two. that way you could still drink one while crying in the other.

tsp is great for the free double up, but a poor active investment vehicle. why try to fix a flawed design?

you know the tsp board just loves to sit up in their ivory tower and watch the random rogue investor crash themselves on the rocks below, ask nsurf. why entertain them? they left the back door open, take it and run.
 
Doin the jail house rock for the rest of the month. Went to the G fund the day before the election, back to C, S yesterday when the market was edging up. Big mistake! So back to the G house I go. With these moves I can say I'll be losing on a serious upswing between now and Dec
1. So sad.:(
 
respro said:
Doin the jail house rock for the rest of the month. Went to the G fund the day before the election, back to C, S yesterday when the market was edging up. Big mistake! So back to the G house I go. With these moves I can say I'll be losing on a serious upswing between now and Dec
1. So sad.:(
Click to expand...
That has happened to me a lot, sadly then the market would turn around and make me look like a fool, it's a TSP generated trap, need more IFTs a month.
 
Disclaimer: I have massively little knowledge of the stock market.
That being said I think we're heading south toward correctionville.
 
nnuut said:
That has happened to me a lot, sadly then the market would turn around and make me look like a fool, it's a TSP generated trap, need more IFTs a month.
Click to expand...

i think it happens to everybody, agree more ift's are needed, and i wish they were real-time instead of delayed
 
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