PillarWealthContent Hub
203 articles on TSP rules, benchmarks, strategy, pensions and taxes, plus a daily TSP market recap.
Weekly TSP recap email
A short Saturday email with each fund's weekly move, a chart of the funds you pick, and links to the daily recaps.
15 articles
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
C and S Fund vs. Lifecycle: The Allocation Debate That Never Ends
Dana is 44, a GS-13 at a regional Social Security office, and she just got into an argument at the coffee machine. A coworker told her that anyone still in an L Fund is "paying for training wheels." Another said the C Fu...
5 min · 2026-07-01
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
How the G Fund Actually Earns Its Interest
Dale, a 61-year-old Defense Department logistics specialist, called a coworker last spring with a question that sounded like a trick. "My G Fund is paying more than the savings account at my credit union, it never drops,...
5 min · 2026-06-27
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
TSP Expense Ratios vs. Commercial Index Funds
Marcus, a GS-12 at a Defense Logistics Agency office, was three weeks from his 55th birthday when a coworker leaned over a cubicle wall and said, "You know Fidelity has zero-fee index funds now, right? Why are you still ...
5 min · 2026-06-26
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
The 80/20 C/S Split: Approximating the Total Market
Marcus had been at the Navy shipyard for eleven years when a coworker looked over his shoulder at his TSP statement and said, "You're 100% C Fund? You're missing a fifth of the market."
5 min · 2026-06-23
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Is the I Fund Worth Holding?
Marcus pulled up his TSP statement at his kitchen table last spring and frowned. He's 47, a GS-13 with a little over $380,000 in the plan, and he had a spreadsheet open. The I Fund column looked like a rounding error nex...
5 min · 2026-06-18
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
The F Fund and Rising Rates: A Field Guide
Dale, a 56-year-old Army civilian, opened his TSP statement in the spring of 2022 and had to read the F Fund line twice. He had moved a chunk of his balance out of the C Fund the previous fall, nervous about the market a...
5 min · 2026-06-15
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Why Lifecycle Funds Rebalance Quarterly
Dale is a 54-year-old Department of Veterans Affairs program analyst who built his own TSP mix back in 2012: 70 percent C Fund, 10 percent I Fund, 20 percent G Fund. He felt good about it. Then he got busy. Kids, a move,...
5 min · 2026-06-14
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Interfund Transfers: The Two-Per-Month Rule and Market Timing
Dana, a 52-year-old FERS employee with about $380,000 in the TSP, watched the market drop through a rough March week and did what felt sensible. On Monday she moved everything from the C Fund to the G Fund. By Friday the...
5 min · 2026-06-09
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Sequence-of-Returns Risk in the Five Years Before Retirement
Consider a Navy shipyard engineer I'll call Mark. In late 2007 he was 60, with $800,000 in his TSP and a plan to retire in 2009. He had been 90% in the C Fund for years, because it had worked beautifully. Why change?
5 min · 2026-06-08
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Building a Bond Tent With the G Fund
Dale retired from a regional Forest Service office in the spring of 2022 with a healthy TSP balance and a plan he'd been polishing for years. He was 85 percent in stock funds, a posture that had served him well through a...
5 min · 2026-06-05
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Dollar-Cost Averaging Through Every Paycheck
In March 2020, a GS-12 at a regional VA office, I'll call her Dana, opened her TSP account on her lunch break and felt her stomach drop. Her balance had fallen by almost a third in a few weeks. Her contribution was set a...
5 min · 2026-06-01
Investment Strategy Deep-Dives
Contribution Allocation vs. Existing Balance Allocation
Marcus, a 49-year-old FERS employee at a regional VA office, thought he had fixed his TSP years ago. After a rough stretch in the markets, he logged in, changed his allocation to 70 percent C Fund, 15 percent S Fund, and...
5 min · 2026-05-29