Growing your TSP: Time to time the market?

Many people investing for retirement know that it is risky, dangerous and stupid to try to time the market. To guess when stocks are high and sell them then guess again when they are at the bottom when they become bargains. Then repeat as necessary until your bank account is overflowing or all your hair has fallen out. Whichever comes first.

Opponents of the by-low-sell-high, repeat-as-necessary system include Warren Buffet, many Americans’ favorite billionaire and the late John Bogle, founder of Vanguard. Both said they couldn’t do it and they never met anyone who could. Still, lots of people — now with the ‘help’ of apps — think they can. So are you one of the lucky/gifted few who can read the markets when guys like Buffet and Bogle couldn’t. Take a test. In fact you’ve already taken it according to D.C. area financial planner Arthur Stein. He’s a former congressional economist who now advises clients — many of them current or former feds including some self-made millionaires — how to grow their TSP accounts and other investments.

Art Stein is my guest today on our Your Turn radio show. He says the recent ups and downs of the stock market, after a record long 11 year bull market, have already tested TSP investors like you. So how would you do in the Am I A Market Timer Test?