Investing in a TSP worth it? Also, my positions

[MaxPowers]

Do yal know much about the military's TSP? I researched it 4 years ago and decided to go with a Roth IRA instead. The only benefit I see from it is that I can add more money to an investment. Unlike a IRA where I am limited to $5000. Does the TSP have a good track record? If you were in my position, 26 y/o, steady job, would you start up a TSP for a couple % of income if you already have an IRA? I save about $1600 a month, which is about 50% of what I make. That is after all bills including IRA investment. This money then goes to my checking account where I get 3.2%. I have been putting some into common stocks lately, but not too much. Would it be more worthwhile to use the TSP or put the money into common stocks like ETFs

checking- 20k
IRA- 20k
Stocks- 38k

While I am making a post, can you take a look at my positions and let me know if anything stands out to you? I know not everyone is an expert but I would still take advice into consideration and use it to point my research into the right directions.
I know I am a little heavy in financials. 80% of my stocks were purchases during oct08-feb09. Do you see any stocks that might be better to sell? Any that I should concentrate on? Anything I should add? Good diversification?

In order of market value. High to low. PQ is the last one with a current value over 1000. Next ones are close.
BAC bank of America up 63%
VNQ vanguard REIT up 36%
VGT vanguard info tech up 16
VFH vanguard financial up 25
GS Goldman sachs up 81
VWO Vanguard emerging markets up 38
VDE Vanguard Energy up 34
MO Altria up 12 <-- just bought several more shares, so lowered %. Good dividends
VTI Vanguard total market up 38
VAW Vanguard materials up 35
C citigroup up 31
PQ Petroque up 59

SBUX starbux up 148 lol
AAPL aple down .38 <-- just got today.
T AT&T up 1 <-- just got today. good dividends
EEB BRIC ETF up 16
CVX chevron up 33
AIG up 4
MCD mcdonalds up 44
COST costco up 19
MSFT up 11
GE down 10 <-- my 1st stock ever. bought before market crash.
FMCC and MTLQQ. =( Didn't loose much here thankfully.

Total up 32.7%

edit: My stocks are for long term investment. Either used as a down payment for a house or held onto for 20 years. What is this I hear about ETF decay? I own a lot of vanguard ETFs.

[kork13]

I personally know quite a bit about the TSP--it makes up about half of my monthly retirement savings. I'm a big fan of the TSP, because it's very simple, has outstanding costs (almost negligible--consistently less than .05%), and as you said, it allows for 3x the contributions as an IRA. Plus, another big factor is that it has the tax advantages available to you, unlike investments outside of retirement accounts. Personally, I invest in my Roth, TSP, and non-retirement accounts about equally. Thus, 2/3 of my money is going into tax advantaged accounts.

That said, as military members, we don't receive any sort of matching. So max out your Roth IRA first. However, if you have more money that you can/want to save for retirement, funneling it to the TSP is a great option. The choice in funds is slim, but it does provide all of the major investment types (Large-cap, Small-cap, Int'l, Gov't bonds, and other bonds/cash products). Personally, I appreciate that simplicity, as I can set up my desired allocations and it's easy to see where it stands at any point.

You should check out the TSP's website. It was recently redesigned, and has some great information on there. As for its 'track record,' because all five of the available funds are indexes, their performance is generally comparable to the performance of those respective markets over the same given period of time.

I DON'T, however, know much about individual stocks, so I'll leave that to the others.

[KTP]

You have some great stocks there. I own some of the exact same ones.

Here is what I have currently (about 170K worth):

MO Altria - love those divys, smoke baby smoke
XOM Exxon
MCD McDonalds
PM Philip Morris
MDT Medtronic
MRK Merck
JNJ Johnson & Johnson
WMT Walmart
PG Procter & Gamble
MSFT Microsoft
SPY S&P 500 index

and recently added
CHOP China Gerui Advanced Materials Group (makes high end steel for china to ship us cheap stuff)
VNDA Biotech with a new approved drug and 80% of market cap in cash
SDRL Deep sea drill rig operator with new high tech equipment and no lawsuits like RIG has

Everything is doing well except JNJ and MRK are a bit sluggish, but they will catch up eventually.

[creditcardfree]

Yes. Invest in the TSP. We max out our Roth IRA's first and contribute 7% to my husband's TSP. The contributions to the TSP reduce your taxable income.

[Snodog]

Depends what you are saving for. A TSP is great if you are saving for retirement.