TIAA Traditional (GSRA) Interest Crediting Frequency?

[tyros]

I've been contemplating to shift to GSRA for some of my bond allocation. The "never lose principal" aspect is very appealing.

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

The reason for my question is I use GnuCash to track my books and I'd like to know how burdensome it would be to track the interest gains, especially if it magically increases in balance without a transaction. That would mean there's no transaction for me to download and I would have to manually adjust the balance periodically in my books.

Appreciate any answers I can get.

[Harmanic]

It is daily, except weekends and holidays. Then you get a larger deposit on the next working day.

[talzara]

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

There are no interest payments. Earnings are reinvested internally within the TIAA General Fund, and the value of the TIAA Traditional annuity will go up.

It's like the price per unit is going up, but there are no units, only dollars.

[ResearchMed]

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

There are no interest payments. Earnings are reinvested internally within the TIAA General Fund, and the value of the TIAA Traditional annuity will go up.

It's like the price per unit is going up, but there are no units, only dollars.

This ^^ is not correct.

However, the below comment *is* correct:

It is daily, except weekends and holidays. Then you get a larger deposit on the next working day.

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

Every day the market is open, we get a $$ amount credited, added to the balance from the start of the day.
After weekends or holidays, the amount added will reflect more than one day, depending upon the length of the interval. So on most Mondays, there is approximately 3 the amount added as was added on Friday.

It will be shown on the main page that show's each day's change in all of the account holdings. All of the others in our TIAA accounts are mutual funds, but they, too, have daily changes.
It's just that the mutual funds may go up *or* down.
TIAA Trad Ann does not go down.


RM

[tyros]

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

But when you go to download transactions in QFX or CSV, does it have those interest payments listed?

[ResearchMed]

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

But when you go to download transactions in QFX or CSV, does it have those interest payments listed?

I have no idea.
That's not how we track things.

RM

[itsmeagain]

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

But when you go to download transactions in QFX or CSV, does it have those interest payments listed?

No. it's not a transaction. Just the dollar value of the account going up day after day after day ... as the other posters said. (And yes, it works out to what is indicated, if you check the math.)

[crefwatch]

There are at least two foundational problems for your desire. One is that TIAA Traditional is not a fractional-ownership product, like an open-end mutual fund. You don't own anything, you have a contract with TIAA to do certain things. Second, it is an insurance product, and is not regulated by the SEC, like many other investments you may own. So it has no Expense Ratio to report (which does not mean it's provided free of charge!) and does not perform a transaction to provide your daily interest.

I understand that many posters here are unwilling to risk their online credentials with an Aggregation service. You would like to "scrape" your new balance from somewhere. But your balance cannot be seen without a login, which may or may not have Two-Factor demands. I use such an Aggregator, Yodlee, by Envestnet-Money. But even though they can see and show my individual holdings, they don't "perceive" that there has been a daily change in TIAA Traditional.

Alternatively, at the age of 73, my most serious record-keeping is only Quarterly. And you could even wait for your paper/PDF statement from TIAA to transcribe those numbers, if you are patient enough. I never viewed my Retirement/Qualified Accounts as needing daily balance checks. Certainly this newsboard comes down hard on Market Timers! (Ironica typeface.)

[tyros]

Thank you everyone, I've got sufficient information to answer my questions.

[talzara]

There are no interest payments. Earnings are reinvested internally within the TIAA General Fund, and the value of the TIAA Traditional annuity will go up.

It's like the price per unit is going up, but there are no units, only dollars.

This ^^ is not correct.

It is correct because it answers the question that the OP asked:

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

TIAA Traditional is not like a bond fund that pays dividends once a month, and you see 12 dividend reinvestments each year.

The value just changes "magically." You don't see any interest transactions or reinvestment transactions. You only see the value going up. The reinvestment is done internally in the TIAA General Fund.

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

That's not a "transaction under 'activity'." That is the "balance just magically increas[ing]."

[ResearchMed]

This ^^ is not correct.

It is correct because it answers the question that the OP asked:

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

TIAA Traditional is not like a bond fund that pays dividends once a month, and you see 12 dividend reinvestments each year.

The value just changes "magically." You don't see any interest transactions or reinvestment transactions. You only see the value going up. The reinvestment is done internally in the TIAA General Fund.

Yes, the interest payments are "reinvested internally", but one can see each addition if one looks at the daily change.

That's not a transaction. That's the balance magically going up.

RM writes:

I don't know why you think there is a balance that "magically" increases.
EACH market day, each of our Trad Ann accounts shows the exact dollars and cents it increased since the previous amount.
That is the daily interest, and there is nothing "magical" about it.
It gets added to the total from the day before, so the current information for every holding shows the amount changed (plus percentage change) and the new total for each holding.
It is the SAME (same page, same column, same format) as the exact dollars and cents that each mutual fund in that account changed that day.

We have Trad Ann in several different accounts at TIAA; they all show with the same formatting and information. (Those are the 2 TIAA accounts, from Employer and Employee contributions, a TIRA, and a Roth IRA.)

This is posted every single market day after the close, usually in the wee hours.

RM

[neurosphere]

Quicken tells me every day exactly how much my quicken share balance differs from what TIAA is reporting.

[beernutz]

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?

There are no interest payments. Earnings are reinvested internally within the TIAA General Fund, and the value of the TIAA Traditional annuity will go up.

It's like the price per unit is going up, but there are no units, only dollars.

TIAA seems to think there are interest payments.

https://www.tiaa.org/public/investment- ... r=47933633
From the 'More Information' section:

"TIAA Traditional Annuity accumulations are credited with interest based on when contributions and transfers are received, and your performance will reflect your pattern of contributions."

[talzara]

RM writes:

I don't know why you think there is a balance that "magically" increases.
EACH market day, each of our Trad Ann accounts shows the exact dollars and cents it increased since the previous amount.
That is the daily interest, and there is nothing "magical" about it.

The OP asked if the balance "magically increases without showing any transactions under 'activity'."

That's exactly what you just described: a magical increase in balance without any transactions under activity. You can see that the balance went up, and you can even see how much it went up, but you can't see any transactions for that amount.

There is no daily interest transaction. There are no monthly interest transactions. There are no quarterly interest transactions. On the quarterly statement, TIAA Traditional annuities have no transactions for interest at all. In fact, the quarterly statement shows "Net result of transactions" in one column, and it shows "TIAA interest/Gain or loss" in another column. The interest is not a transaction -- it's treated as something different.

What you answered is a different question that the OP didn't ask: How does the magic work?

Since the balance goes up daily, the interest must be credited daily. However, that's internal. That's magic.

The OP is using "magical" to mean "internal." They're not asking if a magician makes the money appear out of thin air in a cloud of smoke. If you can't see a transaction in account activity, then it's magical.

[talzara]

TIAA seems to think there are interest payments.

https://www.tiaa.org/public/investment- ... r=47933633
From the 'More Information' section:

"TIAA Traditional Annuity accumulations are credited with interest based on when contributions and transfers are received, and your performance will reflect your pattern of contributions."

TIAA does not think that there are "interest payments." It thinks that "accumulations are credited with interest."

The OP knows that interest is credited to the TIAA Traditional annuity. They asked about how the interest is credited. Is it like dividend payments from a bond fund, or does the balance go up without any interest transactions under activity?

TIAA Traditional does not credit interest like a bond fund. There are no interest payments that have to be reinvested. The interest is credited internally, and the "balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under 'activity'."

I don't know why so many people are misunderstanding the OP's question. I think the OP asked it very clearly:

For those of you who hold a TIAA Traditional in accumulation phase, how often does it actually credit the interest? I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Does it do it daily? Monthly? Quarterly? And when it does, is it shown like a dividend reinvestment transaction, kind of like when a fund pays out a dividend and reinvests it right back? Or does your GSRA balance just magically increases without showing any transactions under "activity"?