Yes I do remember the thread you initiated with your post.
As I undersand this post you are asking what to do with about $170,000 currently invested with T-C. It is not clear to me what you mean by "after tax." I think but am not sure, that you are trying to say that the funds are not held in a tax deferred account of any type; in this case then the funds are held in a taxable account. Is this correct?
An answer to your question is not in my opinion dependent on the tax status of the account so I will ignore that consideration. The question that we would need, you have to remember we don't remember what you have posted before, is what share these two investments are of you total retirement investments, irrespective where they are invested.
IF the rest of your funds are in theTIA Traditional Account and they are most of your total retirement investments, and these along with other investments escept (excluding) the $170,000 you are talking about here, then you are in a position to accept some market risk for this $170,000. How much risk is something only you can decide and it will determine what you invested these funds in.
You can leave them in the REA but in my opinion there is the risk there will be a negative quarter (or more than one negative quarter) and you could take a loss; I think this is a real possibility so I suggest you conisder it as that. If you can accept such a loss and are interested in the long term (it seems you are) than it would not be unreasonable to leave the funds in the REA. Doing so has the advantage of having funds invested in Real Estate which is a distinct asset class and it would normally add diversification to your portfolio. Holding up to 20% in the REA for its return AND diversificaion benefit it reasonable.
IF you invest the $170,000 in bonds you are subject to interest rate risk. IF interest rates increase (eventually they surely will but what when that will occur is another question) then your investment in the bonds will decline. IF on the other hand the world bears are correct and the world goes into a prolonged recession, your bonds would appreciate. Again it is up to you.
Assuming the funds are taxable you do not want to invest in TIPS - US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities for a reason that is too complex to explain here. If the funds are taxable, than I suggest you buy a mix of 10 and 20-year TIPS at the next auction in Jan. of 09.
IF you can accept the risk associated with stocks, then consider simply investing the funds either in the CREF Stock Account or the CREF Global Account or any other mix of funds that appeal to you, though I would suggest you keep it simple and both of these would achieve that objective (and give you reasonable diversification).
That's about all I could say at this point.
Ray
