I wrote this article on April 5th, 2012 for my Golden Valley Patch Blog.
With two teenage kids in Minnesota high schools sports year-round, I don’t have the time to spare during the school year. It is a rare weekday evening when I have time to just sit on the couch and watch TV.
I just got back from Spring Break last weekend. While my kids enjoyed the Florida beaches, pools and hot tubs, I did have some time at night to catch up on some TV. To my surprise, I came across what is now my new favorite TV show.
The name of the show is Swamp People and it airs on Thursday nights on the History Channel.
From what I understand, the show is about people who live in the swamps of Louisiana and legally hunt alligators for a living. There are several different local characters in the reality show, and they all hunt alligators in the Louisiana bayou.
About 15 minutes into the show, I was hit by a two seemingly unrelated thoughts. The first thought was, I wonder how many years of experience it takes to gain the courage, knowledge and the skill necessary to be able to hunt alligators for a living?
It is a rare individual who can make the time and energy commitment for several years in order to learn all there is to know about hunting intelligent and ferocious alligators in a swamp.
My second thought was how individual company retirement plan participants must at times feel that they lack the same level of knowledge, experience and skill necessary to navigate their company retirement plan mutual fund menus.
The average individual company retirement plan participant must think the same way about the default mutual fund options in their company retirement plan menu. Mutual funds are dangerous to own. It seems like every few years they rise up and take a huge bite out of your company retirement plan principal.
It does take years, and much retirement plan money lost, for the average individual company retirement plan participant to gain the confidence and knowledge necessary to both grow and protect their company retirement plan account.
There is a constant need to keep your company retirement plan account in sync with the worldwide economic, political, and business environments.
There are plenty of super intelligent people from all over the world you are competing with you when you manage your company retirement plan account menu of mutual funds.
You don’t just get a license, and go out and hunt alligators for a living. In the same way, you can’t just enroll in a company retirement plan and start making a series of consecutive and successful long-term investment management decisions.
There is no “play money” in a company retirement plan account. You can get bitten there just like in the Louisiana bayou.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
