Personal Investments • TIAA Traditional

But if so, they would be subsidizing those who do.

It can be misleading to view some things as a zero-sum game. For example, people who buy houses in California could be said to be subsidizing existing homeowners who are protected from paying their fair share of increasing costs to pave streets and hire police. But the reduction in income has forced politicians to cut services-which is either an unintended consequence, or the original objective of Prop 13.

I don't blame you for focusing on things that happen within YOUR investing lifetime. But since 1918, TIAA Traditional was built and operated as a pension system that did not allow ANY WITHDRAWALS without annuitization. This was still true when I started teaching in 1974. But around 1989, TIAA was externally forced to develop the "9 years and a day" cashability system for formerly frozen money. ("RA" was the only type of TIAA Traditional at that time.) So it is actually the cashability that is new and different, not the emphasis on annuitization.

There are plenty of benefits remaining for those who do not annuitize, like (roughly) 10-year Treasury yields with ZERO exposure to any loss of principal (from [prevailing-] Interest Rate Risk.) I will admit that I personally resent the fact that my old RA holdings, which used to pay the highest rates of all TIAA types (because of the 9 year lock-up) now pay less than RC/RCP, which are (opinion) being promoted heavily by offering higher interest rates and lower expense ratios for corresponding CREF menu choices.

Here are some additional resources for the OP's reading:

www.tiaa.org/public/pdf/compliance/tiaa ... -paper.pdf
https://www.tiaa.org/public/pdf/TT_FAQ.pdf

What the heck is TIAA?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=324239
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=366802
CREF:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=367072

Why Should I use TIAA Traditional?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=318503
viewtopic.php?t=315414
https://www.tiaa.org/public/pdf/making- ... rement.pdf

Is TIAA Traditional like a Bond Fund?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=277093
viewtopic.php?t=280858
viewtopic.php?t=335670

Is TIAA Traditional safe?
viewtopic.php?t=396502
viewtopic.php?t=422393

Statistics: Posted by crefwatch — Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:01 am — Replies 17 — Views 1803

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