My name is Tim. I'm in my 70's, with a B.A. from Bowdoin College (1972, Math) and an M.F.A. from Smith College (1974, Theater and Speech). From 1974 to 1979, I was Assistant Professor of Dramatic Arts at Amherst College. I later taught at Emerson.
This is my personal web domain. To save money, I use the web space that comes with Google Domains at no extra charge.
As soon as I was eligible, I signed up at Amherst for TIAA-CREF. Partly because I started early, it's the best investment I've ever made. I had a few jobs that used Mutual Of America, but later moved those funds to an SRA at TIAA-CREF. I've recruited dozens of friends and family to become TIAA-CREF participants, and agitated successfully for companies where I worked to offer TIAA-CREF as a 403(b) plan. I helped my mother chose TIAA-CREF over AARP for her Long-Term Care Insurance. TIAA promptly exited that line of business! She's retired with TIAA Traditional and CREF Stock Account annuities, which supported her very well.
I retired as a stagehand, in New York City. My theater, where I ran the light board, is operated by a not-for-profit tax-exempt foundation that offered us TIAA-CREF. Before that, I was a house stagehand Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which offered TIAA-CREF (and other company) 403(b)'s.
It breaks my heart to be a TIAA-CREF gadfly. But it's not the same company I originally joined. You can't believe everything you read on the internet, so I don't expect you to take my opinions as fact, or my facts as correct (although I've tried to check everything I've posted here.) But I hope you'll pay close attention, to make sure that your money is well-handled.
I lived to regret promoting TIAA-CREF at the theatre where I ran the light board. Ten years later, TIAA-CREF changed the investment options and increased Expense Ratios ... because we had less than about 150 active employees.
This site is intended to focus on expenses, the ones we pay to TIAA-CREF to invest our money. I don't mean to suggest that any money-management company, even a non-profit, can do business for free. But the company that was originally set up by the Carnegie Foundation to work for a public good may have strayed from that mission. You be the judge.
Conflicts of Interest: TIAA-CREF is my single largest retirement investment. I have no desire to weaken the company, quite the contrary! I don't have any direct investment in a financial services company that might compete with TIAA-CREF. My non TIAA-CREF mutual funds certainly own the stocks of competitors, but I have nothing to do with their investment selections.