On April 12, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., chairman of the House
Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency
Organization, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D- Md., and Rep. Tom
Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform
Committee, plan to introduce the "REITS" Act, which would add
a real estate investment trust (REIT) fund option to the five
existing funds in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The goal of
the legislation is to improve the retirement benefit
available to federal employees. It will give TSP participants
the choice to diversify their TSP portfolio with a real
estate option to improve their long-term investment outlook
for retirement.
.....................
Seems like it is a little late, with real estate having
done so well these past years. I still think there is a
chance that there is someday soon going to be a period
of time in which all investment vehicles lose money
simultaneously. Unfortunately, savers like me, who are
mostly in treasuries, seem to lose ground too as the
dollar has gone down.
What would be sweet is if you could buy TIPS that were
also hedged against dollar declines (??). I don't
know, maybe hard assets like land and timber and gold
are okay. Never liked gold, can't do much with it,
never liked land for the property taxes, and timber
increasingly is being replaced with recycled and
manufactured materials--the timber stocks have done
well, but they'll decline again with the general
market conditions.
I am mostly paranoid when it comes to investing,
with the exception of the mad money--which did so
much better than my savings, go figure.
Diversification does seem to work well, but it
isn't magic. There are bull markets in every sector--
diversifying simply means that you don't have to
time anything. |
