The government’s Thrift Savings Plan, the federal employee equivalent of 401(k) retirement savings accounts, saw a continued increase in participants choosing Lifecycle Funds for investments.
Like private-sector “Target Date” funds, the TSP’s L Funds base investment holdings on expected retirement dates.
In 2019, 43% of TSP participants were invested in one of five L Funds, up from 37% in 2018.
All five L Funds posted positive 2019 returns, led by the L 2050, with a 23.33% annual return.
TSP’s star performer in 2019 was the C Fund, or Common Stock Index Investment Fund, whose objective is to match the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Its 12-month return in 2019 was 31.45%.
TSP posts monthly and annual summaries of all its funds online.
TSP ended 2019 with more than 5.8 million participants and almost $633 billion in assets.
The average TSP account balance among participants of all ages at the end of 2019 was $107,775.
