The calls and e-mail began to arrive just before the end of last year. All of them with the same two company 401(k) retirement plan investment management concerns.
“When do we sell? I don’t want to lose the last several years of my stock and bond market gains.”
Worrying about catastrophic stock and bond market events will not save your company 401(k) from the ravages of a stock market decline. Logical, organized, and practical investment management decisions that lead you to “do something” is the only way to limit your stock market losses.
Every individual investor owns at least one company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund that they never should have bought in the first place. This mutual fund has never kept pace with the most popular U.S. stock market benchmarks.
In almost every case, this same underperforming mutual fund is one of the most expensive options on the default company 401(k) retirement plan menu.
The reality is that you own a very expensive mutual fund that has not provided you the investment returns that you should have earned over the last few years. You took all of the risk investing in the stock market but you never received the investment returns you deserved.
Expensive and underperforming are not a good company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund combination.
How are the mutual funds you currently own in your 401(k) ranked versus all your other available mutual fund options? This is the most important company 401(k) retirement plan investment management question to ask yourself right now.
Individual investors can improve their company 401(k) investment management decisions only when they are provided information from an independent, third-party investment advisory source.
The only information you will get from your company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund provider is the same old crap about diversification, dollar cost averaging, and thinking about the long term.
You don’t deserve the same old worn out inaction. Instead, sell the worst company 401(k) retirement plan mutual fund you currently own. Put the proceeds from the sale into the money market account in order to preserve the last several years of your stock market investment gains and annual 401(k) contributions.
When the current stock market decline settles down, reinvest your money market balance into one of the least expensive and best-performing mutual funds on your company 401(k) default retirement plan menu.
It is a lot easier and faster to “get-your-money-back” in one of the best mutual fund options available on your company 401(k) retirement plan menu. It is much harder to do if you own the wrong mutual fund in the first place, and then do nothing to improve your company 401(k) retirement plan account when stocks are “on sale.”
Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.
