If you answer “no” to either of the following three questions, the last several years of your company 401(k) retirement plan contributions and stock market gains are at risk.
Do you have the time to manage your company 401(k) retirement plan account?
I routinely sit down in front of individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants who don’t know their login and password information. These individual investors don’t pay any attention at all to their largest retirement asset.
I would not last ten minutes as a doctor, lawyer, consultant, airline pilot, or company executive. For the same reasons, the average individual investor does not have the knowledge and experience to pick the lowest-cost and best-performing mutual fund options on their default company 401(k) retirement plan menu.
Individuals investors have been developed a very high false sense of investment management confidence due to the current run of the longest bull market in U.S. history. This confidence will quickly dissipate the stock markets begin to go the opposite direction.
Have you taken a good hard look at your December 2018 company 401(k) retirement plan statement yet? If so, you know what I am talking about.
Do you have an investment management strategy in place to deal with rising interest rates and falling stock prices?
The next time you drive your vehicle, are you going to spend more time looking out the windshield or the rear-view mirror?
If you are trying to manage a company 401(k) account without formal training and experience, you are looking out your rear-view mirror. You are most likely reading only past investment performance data. That information does not improve your future investment management decisions.
Your current investment management strategy is to hope that the last several years of stock market gains continue. You have no plan in place to react to the stock and bond market events going on in front of you.
It is the rare individual investor who can remain calm and collected during periods of uncertainty and stock market volatility. Most individuals need the objective advice of an investment manager to guide them along the way.
Some people may be capable of managing their own company 401(k) retirement plan account. The majority of individual investors would be much better off over the long run using an independent, third-arty, fiduciary level investment advisor.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
