Timothy Plan

[Angio333]

Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with the Timothy Plan? They do not invest in companies that violate Christian principles. I was thinking about opening up a Roth IRA with them.

Thanks.

The Timothy PlanŽ (Christian Financial Planning)

[disneysteve]

Just glancing at their homepage, I'm already turned off. I don't support discrimination anywhere so there's no reason why I should support it in my investment portfolio. Of course, I'm also not Christian so that could have something to do with it, though their site mentions "Judeo-Christian principles" and I am Jewish but I clearly don't share their discriminatory views, nor do most of my fellow Jews.

[jpg7n16]

If you are against what they are against, then they seem to have set up some funds with very clear non-financial screening that would prevent you from investing in those areas unknowingly.

I have not invested with them, or have any experience with their company.

Some things to note:
-The fees seem kinda high. A 5.5% load, and 1.85-2.25% management fee.
-The historical returns are not as good as the S&P 500. (TAAGX Timothy Plan Aggressive Growth A, mutual funds, quote, price - Morningstar)


And although your link says 'Christian Financial Planning', they do not do any planning. They only sell investments, and have the ability to set up retirement accounts to hold those investments. {Which I see that the link auto set that up, and you didn't type in; so I'm not blaming you or anything }. That is misleading - which I think it's odd for a Christian company to do that.


It should more accurately be:
The Timothy PlanŽ (Values-Based Mutual Funds)
As it is when linking to their homepage. That is a better description for anyone interested in learning about their company.


They sell mutual funds with a very specific set of very conservative values. They do not sell or create financial plans.
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For comparison, see: NBSRX Neuberger Berman Socially Resp Inv, mutual funds, quote, price - Morningstar

There is no load and a fee of 0.94%.
Historical returns are substantially better over the same timeframe

You can read their prospectus here: EDGAR Filing Documents for 0000898432-10-001631

[KTP]

Some things to note:
-The fees seem kinda high. A 5.5% load, and 1.85-2.25% management fee.

I almost threw up when I saw these fees! How could 5.5% load and 2% a year in fees be Christian?

You might as well just put all of your money in the offering bowl next Sunday.


As an alternative, if you really want to go with the companies in their funds, is to buy the individual stocks listed in their top 10 holdings. If you do this with a brokerage account with free trades, such as Wells Fargo, then your yearly management fee would be 0.00%, which sounds a bit more Christian to me.

[jpg7n16]

I almost threw up when I saw these fees! How could 5.5% load and 2% a year in fees be Christian?

Several of the funds I work with daily have yearly expense ratios of 2.5%. They are not affiliated with any religion. But they are specialized to private equity.

Just because a company claims to be based on Christian principles does not mean they have to give away everything for free. Plus the more speciailty the niche, the more they have to charge to stay in business.

There is a much smaller niche looking for the type of fund they offer than for say... an index fund. There is also more dilligence involved in researching which policies the companys support, meaning higher expenses. Index funds require no management, and there are millions who want to invest in them - so they have very low expense ratios.

The fees are reasonable, but they are on the upper end - I would prefer them to be lower as well.

As an alternative, if you really want to go with the companies in their funds, is to buy the individual stocks listed in their top 10 holdings. If you do this with a brokerage account with free trades, such as Wells Fargo, then your yearly management fee would be 0.00%, which sounds a bit more Christian to me.

I really like this suggestion.

Though you might wanna do the top 12, just to be extra-Biblical

[asmom]

I'm not sure I'm moral enough to invest with them.


Future subject of "American Greed"?

[Angio333]

Thanks everyone. I think I am going to stay away from them.

[Danbo]

Just glancing at their homepage, I'm already turned off. I don't support discrimination anywhere so there's no reason why I should support it in my investment portfolio. Of course, I'm also not Christian so that could have something to do with it, though their site mentions "Judeo-Christian principles" and I am Jewish but I clearly don't share their discriminatory views, nor do most of my fellow Jews.

Are you saying that Jews don't follow the commandments in Leviticus,because they discriminate?

[DaveInPgh]

[disneysteve]

Are you saying that Jews don't follow the commandments in Leviticus,because they discriminate?

Thanks for dredging up a 6-year-old thread.

Okay, I'll play along. Which commandments are you referring to?

[dczech09]

After a quick review of the mutual fund prospectuses, I have determined the following...

• 5.5% load on Class A funds bought through an intermediary
• Expense ratios are a bit high (well over 1% on the low end)
• Most of the funds underperform their benchmarks
• Fairly limited selection of funds

I would personally avoid Timothy Plan and their mutual funds based on performance alone.

However, in addition I really do not see the benefit to "biblical investing" or "socially responsible investing." Perhaps to a person of faith it may have appeal, but to me it does not. I really see our economy as being like a web whereas all companies work with each other in some way shape or form, thus making the idea of biblical investing fundamentally flawed and based more on theory or ideology.

Anyway, not the performance you would hope to see for such expensive mutual funds. Perhaps if their performance was better you could justify the costs. However, the performance just is not there.

And whoops I just realized this was an old thread! Oh well!