Live tracker · Federal retirement
TSP returns since 2003, and the fund that won each year
TSP returns since 31 May 2003 run from 3.07% a year for the G Fund to 11.39% for the C Fund, measured on share prices through 9 September 2026. Across the 22 complete calendar years in that record no fund has finished first in even half of them, and the I Fund leads on that count with 7. This page updates daily from the plan's own price file.
Share prices verified on 10 September 2026 against the plan's own file 23.3 years of daily prices
Returns by horizon
The C Fund has returned 11.39% a year since 2003
Compound annual growth rates from the daily share price file, measured back from the last trading day in it rather than from today. Volatility is annualised from the same daily file.
| Fund | Price | 1 year | 5 years | 10 years | Since 2003 | Volatility | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C Fund | $123.1339 | 18.62% | 12.76% | 15.50% | 11.39% | 18.7% | 0.035% |
| S Fund | $115.2095 | 16.09% | 6.12% | 11.77% | 11.07% | 22.2% | 0.051% |
| I Fund | $66.3260 | 28.68% | 10.71% | 10.44% | 8.47% | 19.0% | 0.048% |
| F Fund | $20.7745 | 0.48% | -0.32% | 1.51% | 3.19% | 4.3% | 0.035% |
| G Fund | $20.1992 | 4.48% | 3.93% | 2.95% | 3.07% | 0.3% | 0.034% |
Ordered by return since 31 May 2003. The five-year column is the one worth reading twice, because it disagrees with the ten-year column for three of the five funds and most people choosing an allocation are looking at the shorter number.
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Every fund, every year
All five TSP funds in every calendar year from 2004 to 2025
December to December returns computed from the share price file. The highlighted cell in each row is the fund that finished first that year.
| Year | G | F | C | S | I | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 10.8 | 18.0 | 20.0 | I |
| 2005 | 4.5 | 2.4 | 5.0 | 10.5 | 13.6 | I |
| 2006 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 15.8 | 15.3 | 26.3 | I |
| 2007 | 4.9 | 7.1 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 11.4 | I |
| 2008 | 3.8 | 5.5 | -37.0 | -38.3 | -42.4 | F |
| 2009 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 26.7 | 34.8 | 30.0 | S |
| 2010 | 2.8 | 6.7 | 15.1 | 29.1 | 7.9 | S |
| 2011 | 2.5 | 7.9 | 2.1 | -3.4 | -11.8 | F |
| 2012 | 1.5 | 4.3 | 16.1 | 18.6 | 18.6 | I |
| 2013 | 1.9 | -1.7 | 32.4 | 38.3 | 22.1 | S |
| 2014 | 2.3 | 6.7 | 13.8 | 7.8 | -5.3 | C |
| 2015 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 1.5 | -2.9 | -0.5 | G |
| 2016 | 1.8 | 2.9 | 12.0 | 16.3 | 2.1 | S |
| 2017 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 21.8 | 18.2 | 25.4 | I |
| 2018 | 2.9 | 0.2 | -4.4 | -9.3 | -13.4 | G |
| 2019 | 2.2 | 8.7 | 31.5 | 28.0 | 22.5 | C |
| 2020 | 1.0 | 7.5 | 18.3 | 31.9 | 8.2 | S |
| 2021 | 1.4 | -1.5 | 28.7 | 12.5 | 11.5 | C |
| 2022 | 3.0 | -12.8 | -18.1 | -26.3 | -13.9 | G |
| 2023 | 4.2 | 5.6 | 26.2 | 25.3 | 18.4 | C |
| 2024 | 4.4 | 1.3 | 25.0 | 16.9 | 4.3 | C |
| 2025 | 4.4 | 7.2 | 17.8 | 11.4 | 32.5 | I |
Percent return for the calendar year, December close to December close. Only years the share price file covers completely for all five funds are included.
Which fund won each year
No TSP fund has finished first in even half of the 22 years on record
Count of calendar years each fund produced the highest return. The spread is the finding, because it is much flatter than the annualised table above implies.
The C Fund has the best return of the five since 2003 at 11.39% a year, and it finished first in 5 of the 22 calendar years. The I Fund finished first in 7, more than any other, while returning 8.47% a year over the full period. Those two facts are both true and they point in different directions, which is what a single annualised number hides.
The part worth sitting with is that the G and F funds, which compound at 3.07% and 3.19% a year and are chosen by participants who want to avoid losses rather than chase returns, finished first in 5 of these years between them. Every one of those was a year the stock funds fell, so this is not evidence that the conservative funds are secretly competitive. It is evidence that they do the job they are there for, in the years that job matters.
For an allocation decision the useful reading is that picking the fund with the best trailing number is picking the winner of the last race. Across 22 years the lead changed hands repeatedly, no fund held it for long, and the two years that hurt most for anyone drawing income were 2008 and 2022, when the C Fund fell more than 15% and the winner both times was a fund most people had written off as the boring option.
After inflation
TSP returns after inflation, fund by fund
The same records measured against CPI-U rather than against zero. This is the version that answers whether a balance will still buy what it buys now.
| Fund | Nominal to July 2026 | After CPI | $100,000 becomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C Fund | 11.35% | 8.51% | $662,784 |
| S Fund | 11.08% | 8.24% | $626,423 |
| I Fund | 8.34% | 5.58% | $351,785 |
| F Fund | 3.20% | 0.57% | $114,112 |
| G Fund | 3.06% | 0.43% | $110,414 |
The final column is what $100,000 left in each fund since May 2003 would buy today, expressed in the purchasing power of that starting month. Every figure in this table stops at July 2026, because CPI publishes later than the share price file does, so the nominal column here runs a little short of the since-2003 column in the table above, which measures to 9 September 2026. The two differ by up to 0.12 points and neither is wrong.
Method
Every return is computed on the daily share price file rather than copied from the plan's published performance page, so the windows are the ones stated rather than whatever period the publisher chose. Calendar years run December close to December close and only years covered completely for all five funds are scored. The inflation comparison resamples the daily file to calendar month-ends before joining it to CPI-U, because an exact-date join between a daily and a monthly series keeps only the dates that coincide and looks like a valid narrow window.
Sources
- Thrift Savings Plan, share price history, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Thrift Savings Plan, expenses and fees, 2025 ratios, retrieved 10 September 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, through July 2026
The full daily series for all five funds is available as CSV.
The Digest Perspective
The lead changed hands almost every year and nobody plans that way
· Gold IRA Digest Editorial Team
Anyone selling a rollover will show you a single annualised number, and every number in the table at the top of this page is one they could use. What the matrix underneath shows is that the ranking those numbers produce held for almost no individual year, and a participant who moved into last year's winner each January would have spent two decades arriving late.
That cuts against the metals pitch as much as it cuts against fund-picking. Gold's own record over the same period is a long flat stretch followed by a sharp run, and the annualised figure that comes out of it tells you as little about the next decade as the 11.39% on the C Fund does.
The strongest argument against us
None of the above is a reason to leave the plan. The five funds cost 0.034% to 0.051% a year, which is $34 to $51 on $100,000. A custodian and a depository together commonly charge $300, which does not scale down for a smaller balance, and that gap compounds against you every year regardless of which asset turns out to have been right.
What we would actually check
Whether the allocation is being reconsidered because something changed in your own position or because a number moved. How many years remain before the first withdrawal, since the 2008 and 2022 kind of year is an inconvenience at 45 and a permanent reduction at 68. And whether the comparison being made is against what gold did or against what somebody says it will do.
We are not a licensed adviser and none of this is a recommendation to buy.
Questions
TSP returns questions
Which TSP fund has the best returns?
Over the full record the C Fund, at 11.39% a year since 31 May 2003, ahead of the S Fund at 11.07%. Year by year the answer is much less settled. Across the 22 complete calendar years on record the I Fund finished first most often with 7 of them, and the C Fund won 5. No fund has won even half the years.
What are the TSP fund returns for the last year?
Over the twelve months to 9 September 2026 the funds returned G 4.48%, F 0.48%, C 18.62%, S 16.09%, I 28.68%. Those figures are annualised from the daily share price file and measured back from the last trading day in it rather than from today, so a page loaded on a Sunday does not report a window two days longer than it says.
Do the safe TSP funds ever beat the stock funds?
Yes, and more often than the headline returns suggest. The G and F funds compound at 3.07% and 3.19% a year, well behind the stock funds, and between them they still finished first in 5 of the 22 calendar years on record. Every one of those was a year the stock funds fell, which is the whole reason a plan offers both.
What do the TSP funds cost?
Between 0.034% and 0.051% a year for 2025, checked against tsp.gov on 10 September 2026. On a $100,000 balance that is $34 to $51 a year. The whole spread across five funds is smaller than the rounding on most retail fund charges, so cost is not a reason to pick one TSP fund over another.
Should I move my TSP into a gold IRA based on these returns?
No table on this page answers that, and a rollover decision made on trailing returns is the decision this page exists to complicate. What the mechanics look like is worth knowing either way. A direct rollover sends the money from the plan straight to the receiving custodian and no tax is withheld, while an indirect rollover pays you first, withholding applies, and the full original amount has to be redeposited inside 60 days out of your own pocket. Once it lands in a self-directed IRA the purity rules apply, so bullion has to meet the fineness standard in section 408(m) and sit at an approved depository rather than at home. The charge is the part that changes most, because a custodian fee plus a depository storage fee commonly runs several hundred dollars a year whatever the balance, against $34 to $51 inside the plan, and the premium over spot on the first purchase sits on top of that.
How do TSP returns compare after inflation?
The gap between the funds widens considerably once inflation comes out, because a low nominal return loses a far larger share of itself than a high one does. After CPI-U between May 2003 and July 2026 the funds returned G 0.43%, F 0.57%, C 8.51%, S 8.24%, I 5.58% a year. The two funds held for safety are the two whose real return rounds to roughly nothing, which is the figure that matters most for anyone planning to draw the balance down over a long retirement.
Each fund has its own record in full: G Fund, F Fund, C Fund, S Fund and I Fund. What you can do with the balance at separation is on TSP rollover options at separation.