Olddix TSP blog has moved

The move is official and just in case you access this blog directly, the new address is www.cmarkdixon.com/olddix

TSP end of week, month, and year for 2017

 

2017 is in the books and it was an awesome year. I ended the year, as it stands right now with the raw numbers, with a 20.14% gain. It could go up a little when all gains including dividends that are paid behind the scenes are applied to our PIP. Looking at my little 12 month chart, I also had one losing month in August and it was a mere .05%. Out of everything that I track, I also ended up 3rd behind the I-fund and C-fund. The L-2050 is a very hard index to beat annually and I’ve only done it twice, and this year was one of those year I beat it. Our PIP for 2017 will likely not be reported until next Tuesday and when it is, I’ll post for all to see. 

 

Looking at my big numbers chart above, do you see the biggest winner and largest comeback from a year ago? The I-fund. It kicked butt in 2017 and is a great reason why we follow monthly moves and do not learn to hate an index just because it had a bad year. Doesn’t matter what the fund is called or what it is invested in. If it is a monthly buy, we are in. It could be the peanut butter index. That’s a joke, just smile and roll with it. 

 

Do you see the change in the number chart at the top? Its a small change, but a change that will always let you know what is and isn’t a buy. I am going to tweak the L-funds to some how show how much of the fund is green and how much is red. Still working on that. Also if you look down that last column, bottom right, you can see what I am invested in at all times. It doesn’t show the distribution, but you will always know what. I will post my distribution weekly and if I ever change it. 

 

So now it is time to move on to 2018. If you missed my post from last night, this will be the last post here on blogspot.com. I will be moving everything over to wordpress and onto my own personal domain. I will also be converting my blog to a pay site. There will be a 30 day free trial, and then you can opt out. You can chose month to month for $10 or pay for an entire 12 months for $110. So in case you have already had to much to drink to celebrate New Years weekend, that’s a $10 savings or a month free. For all of those that come with me, I am looking forward to teaching, showing, and investing in a manner that is calming in the worst times and fun in the good times like now. What I did or we did was easy the last 12 months and eventually it wiil end. This is when you need a calm method that is not driven by drama but un-emotional charts and moving averages. 

 

I will still post all my links on facebook as I have done in the past, but the only difference when you click the link to read, you will have to have an account to access the blog. Thanks for all that have followed me in the past and put up with my learning how and all my mispellings and poor grammar. I even giggle at some of my post when I go back and read them, but on the brightside, I didn’t lose a dime because of my grammer. 

 

Happy New Year to all and I hope we all have a prosperous 2018. 

 

 

Friday will be the last day of 2017.

Wow, where did 2017 go? I have to say that it has been a year that I will not forget personally because of all the life changes I had the last 12 months. Everything in life happens for a reason and I truly believe I am a better person today.

As far as the TSP goes, you and I had an incredible year if you followed my moves. It's not as much about the money as it is about the method. I promote a very calm and logical way to invest while young, while growing or aging, and while retired. If you take the time to learn my methods and listen to what I say, you will sleep and live a comfortable life when you retire.

For the first time in very long time, I am going to beat the L-2050 by over a 1.3%. That is awesome. I also blew out my personal PIP goal for 2017. My goal is a 7% gain, never have a negative PIP for any 12 month period, and if I do, never have a double digit loss. I will make close to 21% this year. With the size of my account, the growth of my account exceeded the income of more than 94% of people living in the United States. That is even more than I can comprehend.

In 2018, I am going to convert my blog into a pay site for a few reasons. Are the 109 followers that I have on Facebook real? Do I have followers that truly want and need what I provide? If I am writing this blog and is it being read by no one but myself and my family, then I can end it. The time I spend putting all the charts together and writing the blog can be spent doing something else. I accomplished my goal in finding a method to run my TSP account in retirement that cost me nothing and will let me sleep.

But, if I have 5 people out there in TSP land that actually want and need what I do and are willing to pay $10 a month for it, I will continue. If I only get 4 or less, I'll refund the money to the 4 and close shop.

So, the ball is in your court. Is Olddix TSP worth it?

Either way, it's been an awesome ride and I've learned a lot.

Now, let's get busy working on everything for 2018.

Merry Christmas to all

 

TSP daily charts as of 12/23/17

Not a bad week this week. The Small Cap gave us all our gains for the week. When you look at my gain chart that I posted yesterday, it looks like the International had a good week, but in reality it should only show a .2 to a .3% gain. Not sure why there is a discrepancy in the report. We have 4 more trading days left for December and the year of 2017. What a year we have had. It really makes me feel good to see some of the young people out there that follow me, reporting back with gains of 20% plus. I do want to impress just a little bit of reality to these newbies, it will not always be this rosey. At least 3 times in my 31 years of working for the Government and making deposits into the TSP, I saw major pullbacks of 40% plus. So, learn to run your accounts now to minimize the bad years when they come and they will come. The main thing to learn and know, is when to get out to minimize the damage so the recovery doesn’t take years to happen. Let me show you a little math and then I’ll get to the daily charts. 

 

If you take a 50% loss in one year and the next year you have a 50% gain, did you break even? No, you did not. Watch this so you understand. $1000 * (50%) = $500 loss. That leaves you with $500. Ouch. $500 * 50% = $250 gain. That leaves you with $750. That is not a recovery or equal amount. You need a 100% gain in order to recoup a 50% loss. So, the lesson here is we never, ever, buy and hold. We babysit our TSP account while working and retired until death do we part from this earth. It doesn’t end when you reach your retirement date. 

 

Now to the charts. 

 

The S&P 500 is still a thing of beauty and will make the worst trader/inverstor look good. It does appear after the last 4 trading days that a Bull flag is forming. That is actually a good thing as prices pause and then continue higher most times. Volatility is low and the DMI is very positive. So I do not see a change in direction for awhile for the C-fund. 

 

 

 

 

The Small Cap on Monday had a very impressive pop that almost equaled our all time highs. The remainder of the week price just grinded sideways. The DMI below is positive but it still looks very undecided to me. Looking at the last 5 days of trading and the short trading bars for each day, it appears that volatility has slowed and that is good. Over all there is nothing to like here and we will continue to ride. 

 

 

 

The International had a very explosive and impressive Monday, then Tuesday gave it all back plus some. That was a little disappointing because price temporarily broke through overhead resistance. I was hoping that price would never look back and continue higher, but we are right back in the middle of the consolidation channel. I think at this point we have a 50-50 chance of price breaking in either direction. The odds prior to this week is that we had 80-20 chance of prices continuing higher, but after falling this hard back into the channel, it look much less positive. 

 

 

 

Bonds had very bad week when you look at the chart. Price fell out of the bottom of the channel and I would have to assume we are heading lower. It will likely be just a continuation of the slow downward trend that we have been watching since September 7th. There is still nothing to like here and I will remain out of bonds. 

 

 

Conclusion: No matter what, if you have been following my exact moves this year, we are going to end the year very postive. I do not expect things to change anytime soon with my setup because of one main thing. The Tax Bill that they are going to sign. Good, bad, or ugly, the stock market will love it if it passes and will pull back 5% if they do not pass it. If you haven’t figured it out yet, they do not pass things in Congress for the little or middle folks. It has always been about big business and it will remain that way until they bankrupt the country. So, you might as well invest and ride the wave of the people with money so you can get a little piece of the pie. Having an opinion about weather the tax bill is good or bad for whoever doesn’t really matter. Just ride the direction of the wave or step off and swim back to shore and get nothing. Bring on 2018, let the TSP growth continue. 

 

 

TSP weekly closing numbers as of 12/22/17

I am back, and here are the closing numbers and charts.

Hi TSP’ers! That was a wonderful vacation. It was our first cruise and other than a little cold leaving the harbor that first night, it was close to perfect. We really had a good time traveling with friends, exploring, excursions, shows, food, and drink. We are already searching for our next destination. I think I am going to love this retirement thing.

 

The Stock market had a very good week while I was gone and brought us all back into the green. We need strong run for the rest of the month to match last years December returns, but no matter what happens, I think we will all end 2017 positive and leave us hoping for more in 2018. Now for our closing numbers for the week and charts. 

 

 

 

 

The S&P 500 last week was the leader. With a near 1% gain for the week and a almost picture perfect price structure, what else could we want? I’ll tell you. All time highs and we also got that. The DMI and volatility are both positive. There is nothing you can find on this daily chart that is negative. 

 

 

 

The Small Cap had an ok week, but it was a bit sloppy. The larger the daily bars, or longer bars I should say, the more volatility there is for that day. The more of these you get back to back, the scary the market can be. It can also be very hard to see direction. I pointed out some of those days on the chart above. The last two had some big swings. Also what concerns me is if you look about 10 days back, that nice up swing we had came to an end. This could be a temporary pause or consolidation, but I was really expecting a longer surge up. To me, price needs to continue uphill from here and if by chance we fall below the red CBL, it could hurt. 

 

 

 

The International showed a small gain this week but in reality nothing has been accomplished. Wednesday we bounced off $70.48ish and returned to lower prices. See that little dip below the CBL? That is the last pivot low at $69.18 and we need to see price reverse to higher prices before that point breached. We also need to see the overhead resistance at $70.79 brorken through. If we see all those things come true, it will give us the confidence to know that this uptrend structure will continue. 

 

 

 

 

Bonds also ended the week positive, but like the International, nothing has been accomplished. Price has been trapped in a channel since November 7th and we will see next week if we break out the top or if we get more of the same and down we go to the bottom of the channel. Weekly and Monthly, bonds are still a sell. 

 

 

Conclusion: We have 9 more trading left for 2017. It is hard to believe that another year is in the books, but it’s gone. 2017 is going to go down as one of our best years for gains, but what will 2018 bring? First no one knows the answer for that question, so we have a mechanical none emotional solution to help us navigate the unknown. As for the now, other than the S&P 500, 3 out of 4 of our primary indexes are grinding. Grinding sideways sometimes is a sign that something is going to break in a direction very soon. In most ever case, the current trend is the direction that a break will go. My only fear here is that this run uphill has been running so long that a reversal lower is almost expected. I will not exit my position on a theory but will wait once again for a proper signal to make a logical move. Every single time I have tried to out smart my monthly moves, I have failed. So bring on 2018 good or bad, let’s make the most of the moves that are required. 

TSP closing numbers as of 12/8/17

I am sitting in my hotel room in Charleston SC tonight and in the morning I leave on a 7 days cruise. 3 stops in the Bahamas and back. So this could be my last post until the 17th or 18th of December. This week, we reached our lows on Wednesday and then had a nice recovery Thrusday and Friday. I ended the week positive and shaved almost 1% off my losses for the month of December. I’m hoping that while I am enjoying the cruise, warmth, sun, and the islands, my TSP will work hard for me and put back into positive territory for the month. I hope all of you stay warm and snow free while I am gone. Hold the line no matter what till the end of the month. Be brave and do not let news and drama affecting your investing. 

 

 

TSP 2018 contribution reminder

Credit to my son for forwarding this to me yesterday. Even though we have spoken about this, it is time to make your adjustment. 

 

TSP Contribution Limits for 2018

 

For Calendar Year 2018, employees will receive 27 pay checks instead of 26. Therefore instead of contributing $712.00 as previously advised for the maximum amount for TSP, your bi-weekly contribution should be $686.00. Please make the appropriate change by the deadline below.

 

To make changes to your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Traditional or Roth Contributions, or to elect or continue TSP Catch-up Contributions, please log into My Employee Personal Page at www.nfc.usda.gov/epps. Your changes must be submitted no later than December 9, 2017, with an effective date of December 10, 2017, pay period 25, to ensure it is effective the first pay period in 2018.

 

The combined annual calendar year 2018 TSP Contribution limit for Traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (after-tax) is $18,500.  If you want to contribute the maximum amount and receive the Matching Contributions, your per pay period amount is $686.00 . You may also choose to contribute a percentage, up to the maximum amount. If you are covered by FERS and you reach the maximum amount allowed prior to the end of the calendar year, you will not receive the Matching Contributions for the remaining pay periods. You will still receive the Agency Automatic 1% Contribution. It’s best to have equal contributions for each pay period.

 

In addition to the $18,500, you may also participate in TSP Catch-up if you will be age 50 or older in 2018. The annual catch-up contribution limit is $6,000, your pay period amount is $231.00.

 

Note: If you elected Catch-up Contributions in 2017 and would like to continue the contributions into 2018, you MUST make a new election.

Time for a little vacation.

Starting tomorrow there is no guarantee that I will be able to post any charts or updates until December 17th.  I will be taking a short vacation with the wife on our first cruise. 7 days and 70 plus temps to relax and enjoy the reitrement that I earned.

 

Since we do monthly moves and since it always happens at the end of month, you guys will be ok. No matter what happens, don’t panic. Hold the line and ride the wave until 12/31/17. So far this month, I am down 1.37% and every index is red except for Bonds and the G-fund. No new sell signals today and the I-fund still has sell warning 1 in effect.

 

So until I return, stay calm and away from the news.

 

 

 

 

I-fund sell warning

It’s been a rough start to the of December so far. The International index fired sell warning 1 today by closing below the CBL. We need price to reverse and create a high pivot low above $68.28 to keep trend on structure. 

Retirement transition from July 1st to November 26th

Below you will see how my Retirement played out from July 1st until November 26th. I consolidated all my retirement post into one post so it would be easier to find. 

 

July 16th: 

Just a little talk about retirement and what’s been happening. A lot of my peers will retire very soon or will in the next few years. We all wonder how things works, so as the pieces fall into place for me, I will post them here. I just received my last working paycheck. The pay period that I got credit for was only 40 hours. Yes, I was on leave. Did I earn any vacation or sick leave for 40 hours of work pay? No! So if you are doing your math to end up with a zero leave balance for sick or annual leave, remember that. You do not earn leave for half or partial weeks. You must work 80 to earn leave. Just so you know, I ended up with a perfect zero balance for sick leave. Those that know about our sign in system for requesting leave, looking at working shifts and sign in, is called WMT. I was closed out the exact day I retired. If you need to know something, get it before the last day. I just checked it out for fun. As I trasition from working emplyoee to retired employee, I will post the events. 

 

I now officially have crossed that line in the sand where I have ZERO new money going into my retirement account or TSP. Scary times indeed. Will I stay invested and ride the monthly moves. Yes. As of today, I am 100% invested as a 20 year old. Meaning? I have 100% of my money in high risk C, S, and I. I will ride the monthly moves in my retirement as I did when I worked. This is the only thing I know and it’s the only way I know to keep my money growing for my future needs. I chose not take a monthly withdrawel nor did I take a 1 time withdrawel. I left my TSP in the TSP and with the TSP.gov website. Warning if you do not know. If you move your TSP into a TD Ameritrade or that type of account and away from the TSP.gov organization, you will lose you ATC early retriement rules and will have to pay 10% penalty on any monies you withdrawl to spend. That’s all I’ve got for the moment. 

 

July22nd:

I retired from the FAA officially on June 30, 2017. I got my letter to inform me that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has gotten my retirement package from the FAA and it has been certified correct. This as of 7/17/17. As of 7/22/2017 I can still access Employee Express but I assume that will change soon and OPM will give me a new PIN and website address to access my monthly income soon. I am really looking forward to my pay cut, (humor). Since I decided not to withdraw no money from my TSP, I will be curious if I can afford to live off the annuity alone. Those that are young with many years of work in front of them, do not take these litte details serious, but they should. 

 

July 29th: 

You all know that I retired officially June 30th. I spent over half my life in that place and I really didn’t expect anything from Government. I always told people we are just a number and a warm body and once they are down with you, poof forgotten. So take care of yourself and family. So when this showed up in the mail this week, I was surprised. I got a plaque for my 30 years of service. I also got notification from OPM about the transition from employed to retired. I and you eventually will be given a new webiste and CSA number to access your 1099r, address changes, and your annuity stuff. So I’ve been out for almost 1 month and things seem to be moving along nicely. Not sure if I will get a pay check August 1st or not. But I do expect by September 1st, that I will at least start receiving interim checks. 

 

 August 6th:

This week in retirement I got my first interim check. Not to shocking because I did a little math in the beginning and had a pretty good idea of what that amount might look like. The only deduction of pay that I can see today is Federal. The way I understand it, no state taxes with be withheld from the interim checks. I assume my Health Insurance is being paid, but I have no physical proof yet.  I still have access to Employee Express. I now have temporary access to the OPM website to get access to pay info because they mailed me a temporary password. So in one month the transition from Employee Express to OPM CSA page is almost complete. Annual Leave payout check has still not been received. I am officially 5 weeks into retirement. 

 

I need to say this one more time for all my peeps that are already retired or getting ready to retire. You can’t run from stocks. If you run it properly, you will be ok. But you can’t run from stocks. Read please and make sure you click to page 11. 

 

I hope some of the retired peeps and some of the soon to be retired peeps read that short Kiplinger article I linked at the beginning of this blog. Our C, S, and I funds that trade inside the TSP are some of the most tame non-egressive mutual funds in the world. On top of that, they are cheap to run with expensive that are ridicoulosly low. Do not think of our Stock funds as being in stocks. Think of them as being invested in Mutual Funds. No one stock will ever kill your portfolio. Our C-fund has over 500 stocks invested inside. The Small Cap has somewhere bettwen 4500-5000 stocks inside. So watch the trends and watch the percentages. The worst thing you can do is watch the dollar figures inside your account. Why? It’s great when things are good, but the second you have a week or two of bad returns, your gut will tell you jerk your money out. But, if at the end of each month you have a positive return percentage wise, the cash amount in your account will reflect that. Watch you PIP and watch your percentage return monthly. 

 

Example: If I told you in one month you took a 1% loss in your account, would you move your money to safety? If I told you in one month you had a $10,000 loss, would you move your money? Believe me as you age and your account grows, this is going to happen. 1% of 1 million is a $10,000 loss. 

 

Example 2: If you had a gain of 11.87% since the January 1, 2017 and had a $135,000 gain, would that 1% loss of $10,000 in one month really hurt? 

 

Example 2 are my actual numbers since January 1, 2017, but have not taken a loss yet. I am not bragging. Please do not take it that way. Like the Kiplinger article said, you cannot run from stocks. Baby sit your money as I teach here and it will work out. 

 

August 13th:

On the Retirement front this week not much to report, but I can see by logging into Employee Express that my annual leave payout will be made this week. So we will call that 6-7 weeks after retirement date. Also looks like they took out Medicare, Federal, State, and SS. All total for me I got about 67% of the total amount and the rest to taxes. Yes, your annual leave payout does count as YTD income. I am all zero’ed out now, so no more pay for me except retirement annuity checks. In case I didn’t mention it, I chose not to withdrawl any funds from my TSP, so it will be annutiy plus stipend until I feel the urge. 

 

September 3rd:

The only retirement news that I have for you this week is that I got my second paycheck and it is still an interim check. Not a big deal, but I’m sure a few of you are curious how long it takes to begin receiving your permanent payout.

 

September 16th:

etirement news: CSA site has entered it’s final phase on my pay after 78 days. I got an email this week stating this. 

 

Assigned to Specialist:Your retirement application has been assigned to an OPM retirement specialist for calculation of your annuity benefit.

 

So I can only hope that by October 1st or November 1st, I will finally know what my final monthly paycheck will be.

 

October 6th:

On a retirement front, I got a letter from OPM today asking me to finalize my selection of type of retirement. I was a little surprised to see this since I made that selection on the forms when I filled them out and submitted months ago. The form they sent me is a Retirement Provision Election. I have 2 choices. ATC MRA+30 annuity, and Regular ATC annuity. If I select the first choice, no raises on my FERS annuity until I reach the age of 62, but I get 1.7% for each year of service. The second choice gives me 1.7% on the first 20 years and 1% for the remaining and I get raises. I’ll take my chances and select choice 1. I have enough in my TSP account that I will be ok. So the final numbers came in and I was pleased. The estimates that I got 9 months ago compared to the actual reported to me today was within $10. According to some of the previous retirees that I have spoken to in recent months, I will also get back pay on all annuity checks received to date and correct annuity payment when it is all settled. Let’s just say I’m pleased with the actual amount compared to the estimated paymets. I was getting a little worried they had screwed something up. 

 

So it has been 98 days since my actual retirement day and 188 days since I filed. I now have a final reported annuity amount. When I actually start getting that final amount, is still an unknown. 

 

October 15th:

Retirement news: It is final. I submitted my request for a retirement amount back in December 2016. I got my answer about 6-8 weeks later. That estimate was within $4. How awesome is that? I am pleased. I will be able to live on my retirement less all the deductions that I do not have to pay anymore, at almost the same level without withdrawing from TSP. If I took money from my TSP, I could equal or exceed. So from Retirement day, June 30th, it took until October 11th to go through the entire process. 113 days counting weekends to get your final monthly payout with stipend.

 

Your new CSA page will look like this once they have finalized your account. Some other details. Your health insurance is being paid as you move along even though it doesn’t show in the intermin checks. No state tax is being withheld and it still will not be unless you select it with the 3rd item down, first column. You will get back pay for those short Intermin checks, which for me was 3 months worth of back pay. I’ll take it. So now, I just live my life and let the working people do what the working people do. Time for me to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labors. 

 

October 29th:

I had a conversation with one of my peeps this week that just retired and I asked if they were still invested in the C, S, and I. Their reply was, “no, I wimped out and I’m only invested in the L-Income.” Let me be clear here. There is absoultely nothing wrong with that move and every single professional investor would tell a newly retired individual to stay in the stock market, but the majority should be in safe funds. They are doing exactly as they should. Based on my number research of all past action, show all newly retired peeps should be invested in the L-Income or L-2020. As time passes, these two funds will almost be an exact images of each other because the L-2020 will cease to exist after December 2020. So it becomes more conservative as time marches on. Each investor has their own risk tolerance but the only fund that I do not promote unless the markets are all flagged as monthly sells, is the G-fund. You are outright losing money via inflation and if you are making withdrawals, it’s a double whammy. So do your homework and research the numbers. 

 

November 20th:

On November 17, 2017, President Trump signed into law the TSP Modernization Act of 2017, which will provide TSP participants with more flexible withdrawal options. The law eliminates the statutory prohibition on multiple post-separation withdrawals and multiple age-based withdrawals while a participant is still working. It also removes the restriction that participants cannot take partial post-separation withdrawals if they’ve already taken an age-based in-service withdrawal. Though it has no effect on required minimum distributions mandated by the Internal Revenue Code, the law also allows separated participants who are over age 70½ to remain in the TSP, eliminating the requirement to make a withdrawal election on an entire account balance. Participants will also be able to stop monthly payments, change payment frequency, or elect to purchase an annuity while receiving monthly payments.

The Executive Director of the FRTIB has the authority to establish parameters regarding this new ability to take multiple withdrawals, and the law gives the FRTIB up to two years to make the regulatory and operational changes necessary to enact these changes.

November 26th: 

I am going to throw some raw numbers at you to make you think, you cannot invest using fear, but if you have a method that will make you mechanical, you can sleep. I taught myself to be this way before I retired. I wanted to be able to make decisions with my retirement account without having to pay someone to do it for me. I also needed it to be a method that would not be greedy which normally creates dumb decisions. Been there done that. I know eventually all these making new record highs will end and eventually I will be invested 100% G-fund when my monthly moves turn negative. But until that happens, I can sleep and know that my retirement account will continue to grow faster than inflation. Now those numbers. My last deposit in my TSP account was July 18th, 2017 because of retirement. My account has grown $73,217. Since December 31st 2016, my account has grown $200,000. So to my followers, specially those that are retired, you heard me talk when we worked together and you knew I was working on a system that would allow me to run my account once I retired. I am doing that and nothing has changed since retiring. There is no way that these gains I have experienced recently can continue. But it doesn’t matter people, if we have a 5 to 10% drop in prices and I give  $50 to $100,000 back, I still had a major gain that I would have lost being overly conservative. Here is the kicker. The C-fund, S-fund, and I-fund that some think are so risky are nothing more than glorified mutual funds. If the markets get pounded, mutual funds would take a smaller hit. Inversely, you will never get the most gains to the upside. Taking your money out of the TSP and investing into individual stock picks is what I consider insane. That is what I call full risk. I have never considered the C, S, and I risky. So, those that worked with me and talked with me daily knew this about me. For those that follow me now that I have never met, you now understand more about why I do what I do. I am not here to tell you what to do or change your methods, but to teach you how to be calm and mechanical so you can sleep. Listening to the TV or radio news and or banter from someone that will never show your their actual returns, creates fear and bad moves. I put all my numbers out here for all to see and I even copy and paste directly from my TSP account, my PIP. I also let you see first hand how I come to these decisions. Keep it simple. Keep it mechanical. 12 decisions a year. Anyone can do this. 

 

 

 

 

TSP weekly closing number as of 12/1/17

First day of December was a bust. 

 

TSP Novemeber closing numbers and monthly moves for December

We had another awesome month with all indexes finishing positive except for Bonds. I picked up another 2.5% for November bringing 2017 total so far to almost 19%. I expect my PIP to fall from 27.04 to around 23%. Yes it will fall because November 2016 was a 6.31% gain and this year 2.5%. It exceeds my goal of a positive .7 gain per month, so I am very happy. Now to our monthly charts and moves. 

 

 

I do not normally write anything with the monthyl moves, but this time I wanted to point out the last entry and the gain so far. Last buy signal was 3/31/16 and I entered on 4/1/16 and have been riding since that point. That’s a very nice run and gain. The C-fund continues to be a buy at the end of November 2017. No change. 

 

 

 

The last buy signal for the Small Cap monthly was 4/30/16 and I entered on 5/1/16. Another very nice run of 31.9% and the S-fund continues to be a buy today. No change. 

 

 

Last buy signal for the International monthly was 1/31/17 and I entered 2/1/17. Another nice run of 17.5%. The I-fund continues to be a buy today. No Change. 

 

 

 

Last sell signal was 9/30/17. I’ve been out since July 6, 2017. Bonds are still a sell today. No change.

 

Conclusion: No change in my setup, 34% - S, 33% - C, and 33% - I. Since the L-2030, L-2040, and the L-2050 have more than 61% of their portfolio invested in the C,S, and I, they are also buys. The L-income and L-2020 and always buys because they are the safe indexes that help protect you from large pull backs in the stock market, but they also pay less when the stock market has big gains. G-fund by itself is always a buy and safe. 

 

Last year, December was a positive month for us and I had a 2.02% gain.