All eyes will be focused on the 2016 NCAA College Basketball Tournament the next three weeks. The official kickoff to “March Madness” begins tonight in Dayton, Ohio.
Every year the most casual college basketball fan is forced fill out a tournament bracket at his or her place of work. Fortunately, the NCAA tournament selection committee includes “seedings” for each team.
The seeding process ensures that the strongest teams don’t end up playing each other too early in the tournament. TV ratings and ad revenues are much too important for the NCAA to have the best teams beat each other early in the tournament.
The NCAA basketball tournament teams make up four regions of the country. Each region has its teams ranked number 1 through number 16. There has never been a number 16 seed that beat a number 1 seed in the history of the 64-team tournament.
The higher a team is seeded, the higher that team has scored based upon evaluation of the quality of the teams played and how many games they have won this season.
From 1985 through 2014, Number 1 seeded teams in the NCAA basketball tournament have won 79.81% of their games. The bottom 3 seeded teams have a combined win total percentage of just 7.46% over the same time period.
This year I want to make you a challenge. Spend the same amount of time filling out your NCAA basketball tournament bracket as you do ranking the mutual fund options on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu.
That’s right. There are database tools available for you to “seed” each of your company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund options. These rankings will help you rank your company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund menu.
Mutual fund investment performance numbers go back several years. All mutual funds are ranked by type of mutual fund and by asset class. You have everything that you need to identify the best company 401(k) retirement plan mutual funds to own.
You will most likely find that you currently own a mutual fund or two that is not highly ranked on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu. These funds are far behind the investment performance of the best mutual fund options on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu.
Sell the worst mutual funds that you currently own. Reinvest the proceeds into the highest ranked mutual funds that fit your stock market risk level.
Long term investment success in your company 401(k) retirement plan comes from owning the highest ranked mutual funds available to you in a good stock market environment. That investment management strategy is the best opportunity to win the company 401(k) retirement plan tournament.
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
