Investing | GubMints

New Military Retirement System is a Pyramid Scheme

My Lending Club investment returns have been taking a beating lately. Even with a spread of more than 1400 loans across multiple grades, I’m getting burned with -0.3% Annualized Return.

This account funded in the Spring of 2015, so the loans are in their at their 30 month point, a ‘danger zone’ when Lending Club reports most defaults take place.

This account has followed all of the recommended investing ‘rules’ on the Lending Club website – Buy more than 800 loans, spread out your credit risks, etc. After following the Lending Club guidance, all I can state is that the performance is rather unnerving, minus 0.3% Annualized Return: Continue reading →

The following is a summary of points I found in ‘The Hedge Fund Mirage‘ by Simon Lack. Simon spent an entire career on Wall Street as a trader or providing ‘Seed Funding’ to Hedge Fund managers. The goal of his book is to inform investors and provide some transparency to the Hedge Fund Industry.

Feds and Vets, thank yourself that the TSP prevents you from stepping in these Hedge Fund land mines below:

Continue reading →

Feds – Don’t be alarmed. If you’re a new hire or are opting for TSP ‘L’ Fund allocation based on your age, your TSP asset allocation has not become more ‘Risky’.

Last week’s article at GovExec misses the mark, and while the follow-up article at GovExec about TSP L Fund allocation is closer to the truth it still does not paint the whole picture.

Here’s what you really need to know about ‘risk’ when it comes to investing in TSP:

Continue reading →

I’ve written before about ways to navigate the rules for making TSP Withdrawals after Separation from Federal Service. Unlike an IRA (or most employer-sponsored 401k plans) the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) has strict rules on when and how you may withdraw from TSP – Each one of these TSP Withdrawal events is like using up a ‘Silver Bullet’ from your retirement savings arsenal.

I’ve read many posts here lamenting how inflexible TSP is in allowing withdrawals.

Faithful Gubmints readers, know that there are technically FOUR ways to perform partial withdrawals from your TSP Account. Continue reading →

GubMints

Personal Finance for Federal Employees, Veterans, and Sometimes Everyone

Category Archives: Investing

Lending Club Provides Negative Returns

7 Reasons Hedge Funds Suck

Are TSP Fund Allocations for New Feds really ‘Risky’?

4 Ways to take Partial Withdrawals from the TSP