TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Official TSP Center polls.

Moderator: Aitrus

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Aitrus
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TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Aitrus »

I've created a survey for our members to take to help MJ and I decide a few things. Getting your feedback will help us with moving forward on making TSPCenter fiscally stable. As things stand currently all costs to maintain the site come out to roughly $4,000 annually, but the site brings in exactly $0.

Please complete this SurveyMonkey and help us out! It is anonymous (unless you would like to provide additional information below), and can be taken on PC, tablet, or phone. There's 10 questions, so it should take only a few minutes. This survey will run for two weeks - from today until Valentine's Day. The more responses we get, the more information we'll have to make our decisions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VYYF7GN


Thanks for supporting the site, everybody!
Seasonal Musings 2022: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19005
Recommended Reading: http://tspcenter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13474
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters" Epictetus

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Aitrus
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Aitrus »

Hey, everybody. The survey has been up for just a day, and already we've gotten some really good feedback. Keep it coming!
Seasonal Musings 2022: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19005
Recommended Reading: http://tspcenter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13474
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters" Epictetus

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mjedlin66
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by mjedlin66 »

Just got approved for Google Adsense. Should be google ads within threads by tomorrow. After February closes I will have a month worth of data for considering if I will keep using Google Adsense.
Owner/creator of TSPcalc.com - "Know your numbers"

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Aitrus
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Aitrus »

Bump...just a reminder that this survey is still out there until the 14th.
Seasonal Musings 2022: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19005
Recommended Reading: http://tspcenter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13474
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters" Epictetus

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Scarfinger
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Scarfinger »

Bump. My survey submitted
I am just an average Joe. I have no clue to what the market will do.
TimboSlice wrote: "People really need to stop overthinking this."
Paul Merriman 2 fund strat: (age - 25) x2.5 = TDF + balance into S fund or variation of

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Scarfinger
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Scarfinger »

I was thinking, why did I come to and stay with this website? The platform was easy to navigate and it was free.

I did checkout several TSP websites. But the main reasons I came and stayed was, free and easy.

I would certainly pay a subscription now having been a member of the site. I just worry that a subscription may turn away the new Federal employee that is information gathering. I hope that there is a “good balance” that can be found. Best wishes, Joe @ Dept of Veteran Affairs
I am just an average Joe. I have no clue to what the market will do.
TimboSlice wrote: "People really need to stop overthinking this."
Paul Merriman 2 fund strat: (age - 25) x2.5 = TDF + balance into S fund or variation of

Dezracer79
Posts: 49
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 4:20 pm

Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Dezracer79 »

Scarfinger has a point. If I had to pay all those years back I would never have signed up for this site. Knowing what I know now, a small fee is totally worth it, heck a large fee is worth it. It was already a difficult decision to create an account for the free site, let alone to pay. On a side note, Aitrus should charge a for his musings as well. Did the book ever get published? Where can it be purchased from? Thanks guys for all the work keeping this site up.
> $50k on 7 April 2017
>$100k on 8 Jan 2019
>$250k 02 Jun 2023

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Aitrus
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Aitrus »

It seems that I may have worded the survey poorly, my bad. Scarfinger's and Dezracer79's comments align with some of what I'm seeing in the survey answers. Let me clear this up.

We're not considering the idea of a subscription to get to the forums or to use the Fantasy Game. The forums will always be free, just as they are now. What we're considering is adding some advanced features for paying members, that's all. The question for us is 1) do we want to go this route? 2) if we did, what features could we add that would be worth paying for? and 3) is it worth MJ's time and effort to do all the work if only a few people subscribe for those advanced features?

That's what those questions in the survey are asking.
Seasonal Musings 2022: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19005
Recommended Reading: http://tspcenter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13474
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters" Epictetus

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Aitrus
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by Aitrus »

Well, looks like I'll need to close down the survey. Apparently SurveyMonkey allows for only 40 responses per survey on a free basic account, and we hit that limit early on Friday. So you are free to provide more answers, but we won't be able to see them. That said, I think we have enough data to move forward on. MJ and I will go over the results and discuss the options going forward.

Thanks everybody for providing your feedback. If you wish to continue doing so, feel free to make comments in this thread - we'll certainly take them into account.
Seasonal Musings 2022: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=19005
Recommended Reading: http://tspcenter.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13474
"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters" Epictetus

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mjedlin66
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by mjedlin66 »

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Let me offer some thoughts as I read through all of this feedback.

What option do you prefer to make TSPcenter profitable?
40% said in-page ads
62.5% said ads on the sidebars/elsewhere on page
47.5% said subscription
57.5% said donations

Do you have a suggestion to make TSPcenter fiscally stable?
-Perhaps offer "bolt on" services, have a free basic service offering and a menu of additional tools that a user could subscribe to
-Bring in ads if donations/subscriptions fail to pay bills
-Combination of ads and subscription perhaps combined with TSPcalc
-Prefer ads, willing to pay subscription
-Merge with tspcalc.com and raise premium fee to $25

My feedback: The last option is definitely my preferred option. That is exactly something I have considered. However, the amount of effort to get us from here to there is likely to be 6+ months. The two websites are quite different in how they are coded. I am going to work towards that goal. As for the first comment which alluded to free service + bolt on options, that is more likely to be where we are headed. I promise the forum and fantasyTSP will remain free. I am considering requiring subscriptions if you want to receive SMS and Email alerts for fantasyTSP. Subscribers would also get an ad-free site. I'm thinking $20/year, discounted to $10/year if you are also a TSPcalc subscriber.

In terms of advertising, are there any methods that you do not wish to see utilized?
-Politics
-Pop up ads

My feedback: Agree on all points. I am probably going to maintain a hard line on politics. We tried to allow it when I first bought the site but it always inevitably devolved into chaos. I am considering re-opening the "Anything Goes" as just a run-of-the-mill "Off Topic", where basically any topic would be allowed except for a strict "No Politics" policy. And I promise there will never be pop-up ads on any website I own. They are awful and I hate them.

If there were a subscription option, how much would you be willing to pay
-7% said $5/year
-20% said $10/year
-2% said $15/year
-35% said $20/year

My feedback: I am currently thinking $20/year to subscribe to email and SMS alert, discounted to $10/year if you are also a TSPcalc subscriber.

What is your overall satisfaction with TSPcenter, on a 1-10 scale?
-2% answered 3
-7% answered 5
-5% answered 6
-20% answered 7
-25% answered 8
-12% answered 9
-28% answered 10

How important is it to you that TSPcenter remain online, 1-10 scale?
-55% said 10
-7% said 9
-18% said 8
-13% said 7
-2% said 6



There were only a few comments that said they wanted the old site back. I appreciate that most people steered clear of that. For several reasons I explained in the other thread, I cannot go back to the old website. This is a case where this website HAD to innovate or die. That is the reality of capitalism. If I didn't modernize the site, it was going to disappear completely. That's the cold hard truth.

That said, please understand that it's still under development. I know a lot of you are longing for features that seemingly still worked on the old site. But I can't just flip a switch and turn them on again. It is not that simple. I am working to re-develop them and add them to the new website.

Also on that point, I'm not going to be offering subscription service for at least another month, maybe two, while I continue to build-out this site. I did place Google Ads but they don't even seem to be working.

Thank you
Matt
Owner/creator of TSPcalc.com - "Know your numbers"

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bop
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Re: TSPCenter Fiscal Stability Survey

Post by bop »

Looks like you are on the right track, and thanks for letting us offer suggestions.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to see how seamless the inline ads appeared on my PC when you were testing them. They were certainly not as objectionable as sidebar or popup ads. Sorry to hear they aren’t working out.
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. - Geoffrey Chaucer

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Fund Prices2024-03-28

FundPriceDayYTD
G $18.15 0.05% 1.05%
F $19.08 -0.06% -0.74%
C $82.21 0.11% 10.55%
S $82.43 0.30% 6.92%
I $42.57 -0.24% 5.95%
L2065 $16.38 0.02% 8.37%
L2060 $16.39 0.02% 8.38%
L2055 $16.39 0.02% 8.38%
L2050 $32.73 0.01% 6.95%
L2045 $14.91 0.02% 6.58%
L2040 $54.38 0.02% 6.22%
L2035 $14.34 0.02% 5.79%
L2030 $47.67 0.02% 5.38%
L2025 $13.15 0.03% 3.43%
Linc $25.61 0.03% 2.82%

Live Charts

Pending Allocations

Under development. For now, you may view Pending Allocations by going to "fantasy TSP" and selecting "Leaderboard sort" of "Pending Allocations".