Losing Money

I am sure that in the recent weeks you have heard about all the troubles that the stock market has had.  It has indeed been painful to watch especially if you are watching the balance of your TSP or other retirement account.  I myself have lost over 6,000 dollars in my TSP in the past few months.  Now I know that isn’t a huge amount, but that is a percentage drop of about 35% (actually better than the 40%+ that the markets are down this year).  This will allow me to buy more.

I’m Not Worried

I can tell you that I am not worried about the value of my retirement account right now at all.  It doesn’t really concern me that I have lost such a huge percentage of my account.  In fact if the price of shares continued to drop a little bit more for a few more months it wouldn’t bother me at all.  In fact I kinda hope it does fall some more.

Why I’m Not Worried

How can losing 6 grand in a few months not worry me you ask?  Well I will tell you why the price of share going down does not bother me and that is because I am 31 years old and I will not be touching the money I have in the TSP for 30+ years.  That’s right I have over 30 years until I will begin drawing on my retirement account as do the majority of all service members.  Right now is the perfect time to put more money into the market as prices are dropping and you are getting more shares for your money than you were just last year.  Buy low sell high.

What I have done

Normally I raise my contributions to my TSP account in December to take effect during January.  The reason that I do it in Dec is due to the fact that we get a yearly pay increase in January.  This way I increase my contribution and still see an increase in my paychecks.  This year I did it just a little bit differently you see about a week and a half ago or so I went ahead and increased the amount of my contribution 1%.  The change in my paychecks will be less thatn 15 dollars which is something I can handle.  I am still undecided if I am going to increase it again come the middle of Dec or not.  If the market stays at the levels that it is now or lower I will probably do it.

Related posts:

  1. The Money is Running Out