Congratulations are in order for your company 401(k) retirement plan account. I hope.
When you get time later this week, take a minute to log in to your company 401(k) retirement plan account online. If you don’t remember your log-in and password I can’t help you.
Call the 800 number for your company 401(k) retirement plan provider. Be prepared to know your date of hire or your mother’s maiden name. The nice young person on the other end of the phone can get your connected once again to your retirement nest egg.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones are now at all-time highs. U.S. interest rates have likely never been this low in your lifetime. Your personal and company matching contributions for 2016 are continuing to add up in your company 401(k) retirement plan balance.
U.S. stocks are up and interest rates are down. The current investment performance environment is as good as it ever gets in your company 401(k) retirement plan account.
Not so fast. I have a warning for you if your current company 401(k) retirement plan balance is not close to all-time highs.
Maybe you don’t own the right mutual fund options. There is always a handful of mutual funds in every default company 401(k) retirement plan menu that “aren’t working” right now.
Stock market mutual funds are not created equal. You may have just learned that very expensive investment management lesson.
You might not own the best available bond mutual funds. You have likely “diversified” yourself out of any meaningful investment performance.
These company 401(k) retirement plan investment management problems have easy solutions. You need access to an independent, third-party ranking of all of your default company 401(k) retirement plan mutual funds.
Don’t bother asking the person at the 800 number for this list. Your company 401(k) retirement plan provider does not want you to know this information. They would rather have you “diversify,” “rebalance,” and “asset allocate.”
Buy-and-hold-and-hope is how company 401(k) retirement plan providers collect the most investment management fees. Improving your long-term investment performance is not in their mission statement
Your company 401(k) retirement plan investment underperformance problem is bad enough. But there is an even more serious investment management problem on your horizon.
Interest rates will rise as some point. And the U.S. stock markets will fall dramatically. Your current all-time high company 401(k) retirement plan account balances will become a distant memory if you repeat your past stock and bond market risk management mistakes.
The most important reason now to seek out a professional source of independent, third-party company retirement plan advice is to protect the last several years of your stock and bond market investment gains. And to not lose the last several years of your personal and company-matching contributions.
History will very likely repeat itself. The majority of individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants will participate in the next great stock and bond market crash. July 2016 will be a memory for most individual investors.
You can make a very different investment management decision now. The preservation of your all-time high company 401(k) retirement plan levels is the most important event for the remainder of your summer.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
