Coming off a strong 2023 (and December 2023), the core funds in the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan saw mixed results in January 2024—with three of the five showing negative returns.
The other two core funds were in the black, led by the common stock C Fund posting a 1.68% gain in January. That’s despite the stock market dropping significantly on the last day of the month, when the S&P 500 dropped 1.6% after the Federal Reserve announced it was unlikely there would be a further interest rate cut in March. Over the past 12 months, the C Fund is up an impressive 20.78%.
The conservative government securities investment G Fund posted its typical small positive return in January with 0.34% gain, which was .05% lower from December. It is up 4.23% over the past 12 months.
The biggest loser among the TSP’s five core funds in January was the small cap stock index S Fund, which dropped 2.41% to lower its 12-month return to 10.34%.
The international stock index I Fund was down 0.22% (up 8.93% last 12 months) and the fixed-income investment index F Fund was down 0.19% in January (up 2.06% last 12 months).
All of the TSP’s target-date fund-like Lifecycle funds posted small positive returns to start the new year. The L 2055, L 2060 and L 2065 funds all saw 0.45% gains in January (and all three are up 15.09% in the past 12 months) while the L 2030, L 2035, L 2040 and L 2050 all saw 0.41% gains (L 2045 was at 0.40%).
The smallest gains were the L 2025 at 0.37% and the L Income at 0.36%.
TSP by the numbers
The TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the U.S., with more than 7 million participants and over $845 billion in invested assets, according to some 2023 year-end data recently shared by the Thrift Savings Board as featured in FEDweek.
That data shows the number of participants who contribute at least 5% of their pay—enough to receive the TSP’s full 5% matching contribution—is higher than ever with 87% of FERS participants and 85% of active-duty participants in the Blended Retirement System getting the full match.
Slightly more than a third (36%) of participants contribute to the Roth TSP. Over 72,000 people attended TSP training events, either in-person or via webinar.
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