Last week started out shaky for the stock market as we saw a sell-off on Monday, which experience a hangover from the jobs report. Despite some nice rallies, the indices struggled to move above the break-even mark through Thursday, but on Friday the bulls took charge and it moved stocks into positive territory for theRead… Read more »
Last week was a holiday shortened week and we went into Friday with just minor losses in the stock market, but as you may have heard, the May jobs report came in well below expectation and stocks sold off sharply. If you missed it, estimates were looking for an increase of 150,000 jobs and weRead… Read more »
Worst week of the year The stock market and the TSP stock funds experienced a precipitous decline last week with barely a notice of any kind of relief rally. The buyers have gone on vacation apparently, while the trouble in Europe dictates the action. Here are the TSP fund returns for the week of MayRead… Read more »
It is extremely rewarding to open peoples eyes to the thrift savings plan millionaire strategy. You might even say it brings great pleasure to have realized there was a way to retire a millionaire at the age of 32. It took me going to college for marketing to then realize there were no jobs toRead… Read more »
Usually, in todays economy, most federal employees I speak with have doubts on their thrift savings plan retirement. The older employees have an interesting mindset. They feel the market is too unpredictable to dabble in interfund transfers. “Too dangerous” is what I get most of the time. As of this post, I am 32 yearsRead… Read more »
Ralph Smith is the president and a co-founder of FedSmith.com. Sign up for the FedSmith.com free daily email newsletter to get the latest news affecting federal employees. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about our economic future. Headlines from Europe scream about countries defaulting with investors in Greece potentially taking a 70% lossRead… Read more »
Stocks lost ground last week and it has been interesting to see how the days played out. We saw mostly good economic reports that sent stocks higher in the early trading, yet by the close investors were selling. As we’ll discuss below, historical seasonality was bearish last week, but this week things start to change.Read… Read more »
Despite a series of strong economic reports, the stock market is still almost completely focused on the situation in Europe; moving up and down with every headline coming out of the EU meetings. On Thursday and Friday the Dow flip flopped on a couple of nearly 200-point days as the news out of Europe wasRead… Read more »
Goal: Make sense of your benefits package and pick the programs right for you. How To Cover Your Benefits Bases: 1. Pick a health/vision/dental insurance plan that suits your working style (i.e. HMO for staying put/PPO for travelling Govvies). 2. Contribute 5% to your retirement account or enough to get the full employer match, whicheverRead… Read more »
Stocks seem to want to go higher After starting the week with some negative action, stocks rebounded strongly on Wednesday with the help of a positive ADP weekly employment report. The rally continued on Thursday and ironically, after a much weaker than expected November monthly jobs report, the market moved up again on Friday. ItRead… Read more »