By LIFELines Staff
For many Navy and Marine Corps families retirement programs means Military Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). With all the volatility in the financial markets (more than $2 trillion in retirement investments lost) it is imperative that service members know what their Thrift Savings Plan is doing.
The Military TSP is the equivalent of a 401K program for military families. Contributions to the plan are tax-deferred, or deducted off-the-top of your pay-check, before your state and federal taxes are deducted. TSP funds are not taxed until they are pulled out at retirement when families are in lower tax bracket. A cottage industry has developed around the Thrift Savings Plan with several organizations that are tracking the funds. These organizations include everything from bloggers who are watching the activity of the TSP Board to companies that are using sophisticated market analysis (for a fee) programs to advise users about which funds they should be investing in and what percentage of their investments should be allocated to the funds.
The TSP Center, a Thrift Savings Plan Community, provides tracking (year, month, daily) charts for all of the funds available in the TSP. Check it out.
