Tracking TSP Returns

[Boghie]

Quicken 2010 provided the IRR for the following indexes:

S&P 500:

1 Year: 20.69%
3 Year: -7.19%
5 Year: -0.50%​

Russell 2000:

1 Year: 24.68%
3 Year: -7.64%
5 Year: -0.65%​

DOW:

1 Year: 16.64%
3 Year: -5.44%
5 Year: -0.46%​

By the way, the new TSP web site (in beta) looks real good. They have a bunch of the same stats as the above. I think this is a reflection of BlackRock purchasing the account.

 

[Scout333]

Hello FERS employees out there, I am working on a return on investment calculator for TSP and I wondered how matching contributions are reported on the TSP accounts for FERS employees. Are they reported seperately so you can easily tell how much of the contributions into your TSP account are yours vs. government matching contributions? I am a CSRS Offset employee and don't receive matching contributions so I don't worry about matching vs. my contributions. I just back mine out and compute my rate of return. Would appreciate anyone who could give me a quick description of how this is reported for FERS employees. Thanks,

 

[burrocrat]

Scout,

TSP contributions for FERS employees are shown on TSP.gov website as total amount in. It does not split out how much is employee contribution and how much is matching funds government contribution.

The Earnings and Leave Statement only shows employee contribution taken out of gross pay.

If one is contributing 5% of gross salary, then the number on the E&L statement is exactly 1/2 of amount shown as what TSP.gov shows as 'deposited'.

Happy New Year.

 

[burrocrat]

They say knowledge is power, but who knew it could also be so inexpensive?

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Thanks for the suggestions James and Bullitt, Today I was going to start eating better and exercising more, oh and quit smoking and drinking, but you guys have given me so much to work with I'll just have to put those other things on the back burner for a bit, the mind is a terrible thing, To Waist!

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[Boghie]

Hello FERS employees out there, I am working on a return on investment calculator for TSP and I wondered how matching contributions are reported on the TSP accounts for FERS employees. Are they reported seperately so you can easily tell how much of the contributions into your TSP account are yours vs. government matching contributions? I am a CSRS Offset employee and don't receive matching contributions so I don't worry about matching vs. my contributions. I just back mine out and compute my rate of return. Would appreciate anyone who could give me a quick description of how this is reported for FERS employees. Thanks,

Scout,

That will be a tough one. It probably is functionally impossible to use any of the data provided to generate IRRs for the individual funds. However, the automatic 'Agency 1%' and 'Matching Contributions' are shown on the quarterly and annual reports. Together, those are the matching contributions you mention.

What I do is to take the whole contribution dollar ammount (mine and matching) and break it up by the percentages. That gives me a dollar amount per fund that I am contributing to. Then, if you want you can multiply those by the ratio of matching/total contribution to get the matching dollar amount.

Personally, I don't break out my and my matching contributions. It will not affect the IRR. Kinda just more mulla going into the account. You can think of it as a pay period bonus

 

[Scout333]

Thanks for the info re the FERS matching contributions! Mine will be a very basic return calculator. No need to get too fancy.

 

[beafet]

I keep track of my TSP using mint.com

You link your actual TSP account to it.
Oh yeah, it's free.

 

[JTH]

I keep track of my TSP using mint.com

You link your actual TSP account to it.
Oh yeah, it's free.

Looks like a pretty cool sight for us Excell-graph challenged, how do you like it?

 

[burrocrat]

I keep track of my TSP using mint.com

You link your actual TSP account to it.
Oh yeah, it's free.

I heard about that place. I assume you store your password and it goes there and updates balances? Does it offer any returns annalysis (there's that double n word again)?

I'm a little nervous about storing financial info in the cloud. On the other hand why worry, if someone steals my identity they are gonna get what they deserve, hell maybe they'll even improve my credit rating.

Didn't need it anyway, don't borrow anymore, have gotten quite comfortable saving and doing without, peace of mind has it's own value. Only debt is a student loan at a fixed 1.50% (1.25% for doing the auto-debit thing), even if i had the money it wouldn't pencil out to pay it off. Also because of my only recent boarding on the fed bus i qualify for the IBR repayment plan, they just take a certain percentage of my income. Eventually i will gradute to the ICR plan, and at some point just be making standard payments. Bonus is the public service forgiveness option, after ten years of payments they wipe whatever balance due away. I will never pay more than the monthly standard 10-yr payment, benefit comes from the period of time i paid less than that. figures to be about $16,000 forgiven down the road, unless i hit the lottery or they decide i'm just too dangerous to actually do the work and promote me to management.

 

[beafet]

Looks like a pretty cool sight for us Excell-graph challenged, how do you like it?

I like it a lot. It's not perfect, but works good enough for me. Keeps everything pretty simple and graphical.

It sometimes doesn't update as quickly as I would like, but other than that, I haven't had any problems with it. I use it for a lot more than just my TSP though.

For the security conscious:http://www.mint.com/features/security/

 

[burrocrat]

The TSP.gov website is still showing shares/prices from COB 12/31/09 this morning so I can't update the spreadsheets yet.

I haven't seen anything about this beta version of a new website others have mentioned.

 

[nasa1974]

The TSP.gov website is still showing shares/prices from COB 12/31/09 this morning so I can't update the spreadsheets yet.

I haven't seen anything about this beta version of a new website others have mentioned.

burrocrat, I use this site to update my daily price per share. Just go to the top left hand corner of this page and click on the LOGO. Then scroll down about 2/3rd's and there it is.

 

[burrocrat]

burrocrat, I use this site to update my daily price per share. Just go to the top left hand corner of this page and click on the LOGO. Then scroll down about 2/3rd's and there it is.

roger that, done. entered prices from tsptalk and copy/pasted shares existing shares since they didn't change, profit of 0.76% yesterday, all tabs appear to update correctly and the math looks good, except for the little 'g' on the 'daily profit-loss'. even though G share price increased i get a ready of 0.00. little f,c,s,i show the right numbers and all cells have the same formula so i'm not sure why, maybe just need more coffee.

thanks nasa.

 

[burrocrat]

from tsptalk's spreadsheet, this one shows percent changes not dollar amounts, same results displayed differently, doesn't show returns for period or year until i get a second days worth of data in there i think (i didn't fill in ending 2009 numbers except in the fund price and fund allocation columns).

GFCSI 0.03%0.12%1.61%1.95%1.92%

 

[burrocrat]

from scouts, same %'s so all look like they're accurate, just display data in different formats, i'm not posting actual $ change because y'all might laugh at my small balance.

when i paste all of them in the reply they look just like the spreadsheet display, but when i actually post it it comes out modified, comma-delimited, whatever. numbers are good though.

G %F %C %S %I %ChangeChangeChangeChangeChange100.00100.00100.00100.00100.000.0003 0.0012 0.0161 0.0195 0.0192

thanks guys.

 

[burrocrat]

i'll have to watch, but i think using the numbers from this site could potentially differ on occasion from tsp.gov site, maybe because of tracking proxy's for share prices vs. whatever magic tsp.gov does behind the curtain from time to time. probably so insignificant as to not matter.

 

[burrocrat]

So the share prices available on tsptalk this morning match exactly what is posted now on tsp.gov, no divergence.

All spreadsheets returning accurate data (and handy during tracker maintenance downtime), it's just a matter of how you like your tea, no bag for me please.

 

[burrocrat]

oh and i like cream and sugar, but don't call me sugar.

 

[Birchtree]

Please speak in soft tones when you say that name. Don't even ask...

 

[burrocrat]

ssshhhhugar. like that you mean?