S&P 500 heat map, March 10, 2025, approximating the C Fund. The losses in the C and S funds year-to-date have dragged all the L funds into negative territory. Image: Rokas Tenys/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe TSP’s largest fund, the large company stock C fund, has fallen into negative territory year-to-date at -4.28 percent, following a loss of 5.64 percent in March.
The small company stock fund is down 8.94 percent for the year following a drop of 7.92 percent in March. The S fund already had been in negative territory following its loss in February, at -1.1 percent, while the C fund had remained up 1.44 percent through February despite its loss in that month. US Stocks had their worst quarter since 2022 in the face of tariff uncertainty and prospect of a trade war, and also having come into the year with high valuations.
The other stock-based fund, the international stock I fund, posted a 0.02 percent gain in March and is up 4.65 percent for the year. The bond F fund rose 0.04 percent and the government securities G fund gained 0.37 percent in March, for year-to-date gains of 2.77 and 1.12 percent. Some investors are looking to European stocks – especially defense industry stocks or indexes – as a place to hide out since those stocks have been seen as relatively cheap but now could appreciate faster if defense spending spurs the EU. Many of those are in the I Fund, as are emerging market companies throughout Asia that could be poised for growth.
The losses in the C and S funds year-to-date—especially of the C fund, which holds 44 percent of TSP assets, counting its share in the lifecycle L funds—have dragged all the L funds into negative territory for the year except for two most conservative of them, the Income and 2025 funds. The former is up 0.46 percent through March and the latter is up 0.38 percent.
The year-to-date results for the other L funds are: 2030, -0.53; 2035, -0.69; 2040, -0.86; 2045, -1.01; 2050, -1.17; 2050, -1.17; 2055, 2060, 2065, -1.81; 2070, -1.80. All L funds posted losses in March, ranging from -0.81 to -3.94 percent.
But is it a buying opportunity?
I am a 38-year investor in the Thrift Savings Plan (“TSP”). As a federal retiree, I still take my TSP investing seriously. I experimented with all the funds as they became available. Contributing to the maximum of what you can afford and investing as aggressively as you can tolerate is the double edge sword to becoming a TSP millionaire. Moving my TSP balance to the G Fund may have happened perhaps once or twice during my federal career.
During the history of the TSP, there have been many times to invest when the stock market has taken a dip. That dip could be anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent. Those time periods were the Dot.com era, (2000), Financial Crisis of 2008-2009, COVID 2020 and the Ukrainian Crisis 2022. Each time the market dropped it came back higher than before. This is documented on the TSP website, writes Abe Grungold in TSP Fire Sale Buying Opportunities.
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See also,
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
Doubling Your TSP (C Fund vs G Fund)
