Thrift Savings Plan investors now have an online tool to help them grow their retirement nest eggs.
The service, an Internet-based computer model that forecasts how individual TSP investments will perform under a variety of economic circumstances, is being offered by Financial Engines (www.financialengines.com), a company founded by Nobel-prize winning economist and former Stanford business professor Bill Sharpe.
At the Financial Engines Web site, federal employees can fill out basic information on their current TSP investments, their risk profile and their retirement goals, and receive a forecast on how close they will come to meeting those goals with their current TSP portfolios. The service is offered free of charge.
By changing any number of variables that affect TSP savings, such as the age at retirement, contribution amount, or risk factor, users of the service will immediately see how their forecast differs based on those changes.
Financial Engines is offering the basic service for free as a means of expanding its reach into the federal market. "Where else can you reach almost 2.5 million employees with one plan?," said the firm's Olena Berg Lacy, former head of the Labor Department's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration.
Users, however, must pay a fee for specific advice on how to rearrange holdings to yield optimum results.
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