“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher, 1813-1855
Consider how much you currently pay attention to the investment management decisions you are required to make in your company 401(k) retirement plan account.
Do you know the annual investment performance numbers on the company 401(k) retirement plan mutual funds you currently own?
Do you know how your mutual funds have performed versus the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index benchmark recently?
Do you know the annual rate of mutual fund expenses you pay to own these mutual funds?
Does your company 401(k) retirement plan menu provide access to a SDBA (self-directed brokerage account) option?
If your answers to any of these questions is very close to zero, you are not alone. In my 21+ years of providing investment advice to individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants, I have not met one person that could answer more than one of these questions.
Individual company 401(k) retirement plan participants are routinely charged high annual fees and receive sub-par annual investment performance.
We live in an age of widely available investment management technology and professional advice. There is no longer any excuse to remain uninformed, isolated, and clueless about the critical aspects of your company 401(k) account.
You can turn on your dishwasher via your cell phone from anywhere. You can take a picture of the inside of your refrigerator and send it to your cell phone while you are in the grocery store. And those are only two of the latest technology advances.
You don’t have to continue to buy-and-hold the lagging, underperforming, and expensive mutual funds in your company 401(k) retirement plan account. You are better than that. All that is required is a little bit of extra effort.
There are independent, third-party investment advisors who use investment management technology that can dramatically lower your costs and improve your company 401(k) retirement plan investment management decisions.
A 15-to-20-minute review of your current default company 401(k) menu can add tens of thousands of dollars to your retirement plan savings over the next few years.
Don’t continue to be taken advantage of in your 401(k) account. You are taking 100% of the risk investing in the stock and bonds markets. There is no reason for you not to get the investment returns you deserve.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
