TXT/MX SPF Resource Records

I am trying to add mx records and a txt (SPF) record to my GTM zone but it keeps failing.

The MX record reports:

org.xbill.DNS.TextParseException: '.domain.com.': invalid empty label

Trying to add a TXT record like "v=spf1 include:spf.domain.com ~all" returns:

Bad Characters. Only the following special characters are allowed: period, asterisk, forward slash, dash, colon, underscore, question mark, equals, at sign, comma, ampersand and double quote (.*/-:_?=@,&")

The GTM is running version: BIG-IP 10.1.0 Build 3402.0 Hotfix HF2

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong, from what I can tell the MX record is correct, you can't name an MX record same with the TXT record, it needs to be part of the root domain.

For the SPF TXT record, ~ is the only one not in that list but it is a valid SPF text character... I try removing the ~all, but it still says there are invalid characters ...

I find absolutely nothing in google / f5 search for these issues with the GTM so I am hoping someone here can help before I open a case ...