All six funds in the Thrift Savings Plan continued to grow in September, and three of them made up losses incurred during the last year.
The S Fund, which invests in small- and mid-size companies and tracks the Dow Jones Wilshire 4500 Index, saw the most growth last month, increasing 5.94 percent. The fund's value is up 28.94 percent since the beginning of January, though overall it's down 5.23 percent since October 2008. The data from 2008 no longer includes losses the funds sustained during the market crash in September of that year.
The I Fund, which invests in overseas companies, rose 3.79 percent in September. The fund has increased 27.34 percent since the beginning of 2009, and is up 1.55 percent during the last 12 months.
The C Fund, which invests in common stocks of large companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, increased 3.74 percent last month. While the C Fund has experienced the biggest losses of any TSP fund during the last year, it has gained 19.45 percent since January.
The F Fund, which invests in fixed-income bonds, continued its steady but modest gains in September, inching up 1.07 percent. The fund is up 5.75 percent since the beginning of 2009, and boasts the largest increases during the past year among the offerings, gaining 10.6 percent.
The TSP's most stable offering, the G Fund, rose 0.26 percent in September. The government securities fund is up 2.19 percent in 2009 so far, and 3.07 percent during the last year.
The life-cycle funds, designed to shift from a riskier mix of investments to a more stable one as plan participants near retirement, all increased in value in September. The L 2040 Fund rose 3.56 percent; the L 2030 Fund grew 3.14 percent; the L 2020 Fund gained 2.63 percent; the L 2010 Fund climbed 1.32 percent; and the L Income Fund rose 1.08 percent.
All the L funds have made positive gains since the beginning of 2009, some of them considerable. The L 2040 Fund is up 20.49 percent for that period; the L 2030 Fund rose 18.28 percent; the L 2020 Fund has grown 15.57 percent; the L 2010 Fund gained 8.11 percent; and the L Income Fund is up 6.86 percent.
The L 2040 Fund, however, still has not recouped its losses during the past 12 months. The fund fell 0.54 percent during that period. The other funds have made gains, however. Since October 2008, the L 2030 Fund is up 0.5 percent, the L 2020 Fund rose 1.5 percent, the L 2010 fund increased 2.3 percent, and the L Income Fund has grown 3.56 percent.