If you're a federal employee who's invested in the Thrift Savings Plan's C fund, your account balance just keeps getting fatter.
The million-plus workers and retirees with money in the fund received a whopping 47.83 percent return for the 12 months that ended in March, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has reported.
This means that if you invested just $1,000 in the C fund during the year, you would walk away with $1,478.30 (excluding maintenance fees and government contributions). Workers under the Federal Employees Retirement System can invest up to 10 percent of salary and get a 5 percent match from the government. Employees under the Civil Service Retirement System only invest 5 percent of salary with no matching agency contribution.
"It's obvious these returns mean an increase in account balance for investors," a TSP spokesperson said. "The C fund is doing better than both the G fund and the F fund."
For the same 12 months, the return on the F fund was 11.94 percent. The return for the G fund was 6.56 percent.
The C fund's success is a result of the overall strong performance of the stock market, the TSP spokesperson said. The C fund is invested primarily in the Barclay's Equity Index Fund, which tracks the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index.
The C fund has been in operation since 1988. In 1997, the C fund return was 33.17 percent. In 1996, it was 22.85 percent.
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