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 »
Weekly TSP Wrap-up from TSP Talk If history can repeat itself, we could see a positive start to March Stocks were modestly lower last week, but February proved to be a good month for stocks; particularly for U.S. stocks. For the week, the C-fund was down 0.37%, the S-fund slipped 0.35%, and the I-fund lostRead… Read more »
It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride for the Thrift Savings Plan, thanks to Wall Street’s ups and downs of the past month. As for what this means for the near term, we asked Tom Trabucco, TSP Director of External Affairs. “Markets are in a state of flux,” he told Federal News Radio’s Amy Morris onRead… Read more »
Hi everyone – It’s your govloop weekly dose of TSP Talk. This market commentary is updated daily on www.tsptalk.com. Stocks ended a good week on a sour note Friday as the major indices and TSP stock funds were down about 1% across the board on the day, while the F-fund picked up 0.16%. For theRead… Read more »
Federal Employees News Digest is having a breakfast seminar on August 18th – one of the panels has Greg Long from the TSP talking about the legislation that will make changes to the Thrift Savings Plan – plus Q&A afterwards. As the spouse of a long time federal employee, I know that I’ll be askingRead… Read more »