Nice!!!

And my same thoughts as well :) I used to have all my investments w/ USAA too but finally moved them over to Vanguard just cuz you couldn’t beat the costs. But other than that and my wife’s TSP (love it!), all our accounts are still with USAA as well. Even 6 years later from first publishing this article!

Bottom line is USAA is an amazingly good company. Wish their banking rates were better and my emergency savings and mortgage would also be with them

Oh, nice – didn’t know that!

Must be why Warren Buffett owns like 500 Million shares of them through his fund :)

After the Military I worked Cvil Svcfor about 10 years and when they started TSP I joined. Best deal ever I believe. Even proportinately better than military retirement pension. At age 70 1/2 I started IRA MRD (Minimum Required Distrib) from TSP. I have been brawing the distrbution for several years now and the my TSP balance is double what it was when I began drawing. Unbeliveble!! It is extremely well managed is one of the reasons I would stay with it.

Let me say that I believe TSP is a great deal and I would never take the money out for any reason. With good luck and long life you can draw MRD all your life and contrary ro belief you can still have money in the account that you can pass on to your wife or children tax free regardless of actuarians. I have brokerages, IRA’s (Me and spouse) and other investments but I consider TSP The best deal of all. The Treasuries are also special edition with garanteed return. Can’t get that from Fidelity or USAA!!

But the feature I like best is the ease of managing the account. As you know the money is in five sub accounts: Garanteed treasuries, fixed income, S&P 500 type fund , small stock index, and overseas index funds.

At first indication of downturn in stock markets I move all money into bonds. I try to err on the side of caution and safety and not worry if I miss some upside. When markets and economy start to pick up again I move it back into stock funds. the tranfear couldn’t be easier and can be done on line in one minute or two after log in. on 2 August I did just that and that alone saved me $ 6,000 to $ 7,000 in two days during “BlacK Thursday” and today “Wild Friday.” I do the same with Fidelity Standard IRA but it is little more complicated to do.

There is a lot more of this info on line at http://www.tsp.gov
You might want to check that out if youhaven’t yet.

My advise: would never convert the TSP it’s best deal in town even if you have to pay taxes when you withdraw.

Best wishes. and good luck! DV

Yea. Have been with USAA for ages. Years after, I starded to diversify a bit. Put mine and spouses IRA with Fidelity. Bought some Vanguard funds years ago (mid 80’s) . The 4 Vaguard funds I bought made me tons. I still hold them. They have gone down but always recovered nicely plus all the reinvested dividents over time which are the real money makers. Also good if you have long time frame. Had 10 good stocks in USAA like Leeman Brothers, Gen Electric, Dow, etc-phew!! In 07-08 lost my butt and never recovered to today.

OK enouph of that. Just to make a point (Not USAA’s Fault for losses) for some diversity. Consider that back when it was difficuld to buy Vanguard or other funds from a Fidelity or USAA account and if you did it cost arm and a leg. Now it’s different, you can buy many funds from any fund Families like American Century, Vangard and other brokerages and most you can buy without a fee load.

About USAA Brokerage: I just sent them an email two days ago,(I do periodically) telling them to come out of the Jeurassic (sp) age into the 21st Century.

The investment site is just plain bad. It lacks full flexibility of investing accross markets and their tracking tools are just auful. By comparison I trade mostly trough Fidelity and use their streaming Fidelity Trader Pro platform to do instantaneous trades. Helped me last couple days sell some stocks and funds and shift investments around – like to bond funds. Of course to qualify for use of Trader Pro you have to have certein amounts in Fedelity and do a certain number of trades per rolling 12 months period. But even their regular trading and research tools are far superior to those of USAA.

Just wanted to give the other side of the story about USAA Investments and about the lack of flexibility. Not a dad Idea to consolidate accounts but not at expense of flexibility and deversity.

Currently I am with Fidelity (main Broker) Vanguard and USAA. Vanguard because it has the best funds research and USAA because I have USAA banking abd othe great services such as auto and home insurance etc. for which USAA if famous. But not as famous as it was 20 0r 30 years ago (reduced benefits and increased prices, less protection for members higher fees and penalties on credit cards, etc.) and has become very beaurecratic as it has gotten bigger to the point where in some areas it is now undistinquishable from regular for profit “civilian” firms.

Believe me, with over 60 years membership in USAA I have watched with anxiety and regret that USAA has become what it has become. But having said all this it is still a great organization for us military active duty or retired like myself.

Hope this has been helpfull to you and all USAA mambers that read this. My purpose is not to bash USAA but to tell you how I see it today and through time and some advantages of accounts outside USAA.

My retirement is through TSP because the TSP has been great to me. When I get out of the USAF if I don’t go to another gov job I’ll probably transfer it to a USAA Roth IRA.

My auto/renters insurance is through Allstate because they are wayyyyyy cheaper than USAA for some reason.

Savings through Ally because its money market savings account is almost a full percentage point above USAA.

Stocks through sharebuilder because of their rates and automatic investments.

I still keep all my checking and loans through USAA though. I have several checking accounts that automatically move money around on pay day. Then all my bills get automatically paid. This really helps when I deploy without warning… which happens… a lot. If USAA would step it up a bit in those other categories I would have no reason to go elsewhere.

-Sean