TSP Tips is a service designed to bring professional investment advice to military personnel and government employees by maximizing its accessibility. Personal financial guidance is out of reach for so many people, and retirement is just too important to leave to chance.
We're here to change that. Our investment strategist (PhD, CFP) has been building portfolios for clients for over 20 years, and every one of our tips is backed by that same level of experience and history of positive results.
In a nutshell: As soon as you receive a notification that new tips have been posted, go to the TSP website to request an interfund transfer. For the transfer, allocate percentages of your entire balance to the G/F/C/S/I accounts according to the numbers in the tips. That's all there is to it.
Yes! By default, you should get email notifications of new tips. If you'd rather not, you can disable them within the TSP Tips app, under "Settings." You'll also get a push notification on your iPhone or Android device. This may be disabled by default, so go to TSP Tips under your iPhone's Settings app to make sure they're turned on. Or on Android, under Settings, Sound and Notification, and App Notifications.
Just request an interfund transfer for your entire balance. You can change your paycheck contributions to match the tips if you want, but it's not necessary and is kind of a hassle. We recommend keeping them directed to a stable fund, such as G.
Unfortunately we're limited by the TSP to two interfund transfers per month, unless it's a move to the G fund. Back in the day we could move money around all we wanted, but no more.
Yes and no. While we'd love for you to tell your friends about TSP Tips, we maintain control over the content (i.e. the tips) and don't authorize any outside distribution. In other words, taking the advice and broadcasting it to your coworkers is a no-no. Copyright and intellectual property laws and all.
Very generally speaking, yes. As you'll see below, we don't make any guarantees on our tips' performance (because that's impossible), and so we also can't promise that we'll catch every significant market drop. But if our analysis indicates a sharp drop outside of the usual window, yes; we will send out an update.
Fantastic question. TSP Tips is Justin Pearl (software engineer and general tech guy) and Roy Weisert (investment guru). You're probably more interested in Roy's background, and you can read more about him here. He's a retired Navy pilot, PhD recipient, and Certified Financial Planner with over 20 years of history of building solid investment portfolios for his clients. We also both have civil service backgrounds, and invest our own TSP accounts using these same strategies.
One of us is! Roy handles all the market math, and holds a CFP license as well as a PhD. He's been providing personal, professional investment services for clients since 1993, and still does.
We have performance data for our TSP strategies here. Worth pointing out is that this data includes a 4.2% gain (yes, GAIN) in 2008, when markets all over the globe were losing 30% or more.
Roy also has seven years of synopses available here, summarizing the gains he's made for his clients. More data is on the way; in the meantime, tell us if there's something specific you want to know! You can also check out reviews from some folks who've been using our tips for a while, and have had a chance to see them work.
Well, Roy's been doing this for over 20 years. In 2012, he began providing TSP advice to coworkers. Word of mouth did its thing, that list of coworkers grew and grew, and the foundation for TSP Tips was formed. We released a free preview in November 2013, and officially went live in July of 2014.
In financial markets, a "guarantee" is also known as a "lie." We're not liars. What we offer is the credibility and assurance that comes with 20+ years of professional expertise, a history of positive results, and the knowledge that we invest our own accounts the same way.
Roy's website has a really good description of the core concepts behind his investment strategies. Check it out when you have a few minutes!
No. When following the TSP Tips recommendations (or anyone's recommendations), sometimes your account may be down for the week. Maybe the month. Maybe even a year.
"Well hell, why would I pay for advice just to lose money?" A fair question. And the answer is, because no one (including us) can post profits all the time. Our strategy is focused strongly on *long-term gain*. An average of almost 10% annually from 2003 to 2013, in fact. Basically, while you may lose battles, we try our best to help you win the war.
The answer here is pretty similar to question 7; different strategies produce different results. For example, we did very well in 2013, gaining around 25%. But so did a lot of people. The S fund grew 35% in 2013.
"Well hell, I'll just keep my money in the S fund then." True, you can do that, and you'd have done very well in those months. But the key is balance. The S fund also lost 38% in 2008; we gained 4.2%. It's not all about big gains all the time.
There's a wealth of information on the Weisert Investments site if you want to gain a bit more knowledge about smart investing and risk management.
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