Your TSP nightmare becomes reality

Do you have nightmares about not having enough money in retirement?  Are you starting to think you may have to work until you drop?

So, you’ve done the right thing.  You have been a steady investor in the federal thrift savings plan. You put in enough to get the full 5 percent govenrment match (a tax-deferred pay raise), and you’ve invested for the long haul.  That is in the C, S and I stock market funds.

You survived the recession (at least so far). You may have moved everything into the safety of the low-yield G (Treasury securities) fund.  Or maybe you stayed the course. You kept buying the devalued C, S and I funds and, suddenly last year they were back and your account runneth over.  Until lately.

Now you are having nightmares when the market drops several hundred points a day on many if not most days.  China (to whom we owe lots of money) is having troubles. The Middle East (again) if boiling over.  The to-be-or-not-to-be Iran treaty is hotly debated.  The possibility of (another) government shutdown is out there.  Then you wake up …

And it turns out your nightmare is reality  All of the above scenarios — plus a lot more — are happening.  Or about to.  So do you bail out of the market? Wait until things get better?  How long with that be? And when/if it happens, will you know reality from nightmare when it happens?

Bethesda, Maryland-based financial planner Arthur Stein says your age, timeline, goals, risk tolerance and other factors all play a part in your investment profile.  For many investors, he says the best thing to do when the market is declining/correcting is nothing.

While ignoring most problems can be a mistake, in the case of stock market ups and downs he says that for many people it works.

“The ignore-the-problem-and-watch-it-improve strategy did work well in the TSP’s U. S. stock funds (C and S).  Historically, investors in the those funds who ignored the declines (bear market corrections) and didn’t sell, were eventually rewarded with sufficient growth to leave them with solid gains in investment values,” Stein said. “After some period of time, the investments were worth more than before the decline.” Meantime, many had been buying “low” when the market was down and C and S funds were at bargain prices.

So what next?  Today at 10 a.m., Stein will be talking about what to do and not do with your TSP account. He’s our guest on the Your Turn show, streaming on Federal News Radio or in the Washington, D.C. area also on 1500 AM.

If you got out of the market during the recession, should you go back? If you think the buy-and-hold strategy is best, how to you discipline yourself to do it when times get tough?  Should you be investing in the self-adjusting LifeCycle funds?

If you have question for him, email them to me at mcausey@federalnewsradio.com.  Listen if you can, call in if you like after 10 a.m. ET time at 202-465-3080.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michael O’Connell

Nightmare is the name of Casper the Friendly Ghost’s horse.

Source: Wikipedia

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