TSP- How have you allocated your investments?

[Anonymous]

100% stocks is too aggressive for me (at least if you are past 35), but many disagree.

[Anonymous]

A Fed friend told me that she felt that the pension we get is sort of like the G fund -- will be there, a constant number, so that her TSP could all be in non G fund allocations. Interesting point. I'm 50 and won't be touching TSP until at least 59 1/2 (hopefully later than that). I am allocated about 35% in G/F funds, and the rest spread out over S/I/C and a little 2030 lifecycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A Fed friend told me that she felt that the pension we get is sort of like the G fund -- will be there, a constant number, so that her TSP could all be in non G fund allocations. Interesting point. I'm 50 and won't be touching TSP until at least 59 1/2 (hopefully later than that). I am allocated about 35% in G/F funds, and the rest spread out over S/I/C and a little 2030 lifecycle.

On the boglehead forum there is a lot of discussion about that. Some people think that makes sense, but I tend to agree with the people who say that social security or a pension just lowers the amount you'll need from your other investments which might, or might not, in turn affect your asset allocation for those investments (but that's different from treating social security or a pension as part of your asset allocation while investing).

[Anonymous]

I'm very risk tolerant so I go with 50/50 in I and S. I have other IRAs and I'm planning on a military retirement at some point.

[Anonymous]

The friend's point re the G Fund is completely off base IMO. If anything it's the opposite: due to its low operating costs the G Fund is the best money market fund anywhere, its return is much higher than any mm fund you'll find.

So you may want to consider having whatever portion of your portfolio (retirement) you want in cash significantly in the G Fund.

I do not like lifecycle funds, I don't want to cede control over my allocations to someone else's view (and lifecycle funds are all over the map in terms of their allocations so you have to do much more than just pick a year and buy in).

I use an advisory service that uses technical analysis to recommend allocations and it has saved/earned me well over $100k over the past 6-7 yrs. by going conservative before the market tanked.

They are never all in or all out (and I don't recommend that, it's just market timing and that's a losing game). They don't change allocations very often, maybe 1-2x a year or less frequently, and only based on technical indicators.

They have paid for the annual fee hundreds of times over with their advisories by saving losses in '08 & after. They are not a market timing service.

Current allocation: 58% G; 8% F; 15%C; 14%S; 5%I

Previous : 44% G; 22% F; 15% C; 14%S; 5%I

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The friend's point re the G Fund is completely off base IMO. If anything it's the opposite: due to its low operating costs the G Fund is the best money market fund anywhere, its return is much higher than any mm fund you'll find.

So you may want to consider having whatever portion of your portfolio (retirement) you want in cash significantly in the G Fund.

I do not like lifecycle funds, I don't want to cede control over my allocations to someone else's view (and lifecycle funds are all over the map in terms of their allocations so you have to do much more than just pick a year and buy in).

I use an advisory service that uses technical analysis to recommend allocations and it has saved/earned me well over $100k over the past 6-7 yrs. by going conservative before the market tanked.

They are never all in or all out (and I don't recommend that, it's just market timing and that's a losing game). They don't change allocations very often, maybe 1-2x a year or less frequently, and only based on technical indicators.

They have paid for the annual fee hundreds of times over with their advisories by saving losses in '08 & after. They are not a market timing service.

Current allocation: 58% G; 8% F; 15%C; 14%S; 5%I

Previous : 44% G; 22% F; 15% C; 14%S; 5%I

Call it what you want but that is market timing (reminds me of the alleged Winston Churchill quote "we've already established what you are, now we're just haggling over the price")

[Anonymous]

I just do a 30/30/30 split between the C/S/I funds, and split the remaining balance between the G and F funds.

In my mid 30s. Fairly risk tolerant. Figure I can't make any gains without a decent amount of risk. May revise in my mid 40s, but that's still a few years off.