05-17-2015, 11:13 AM
401K plans
It's a love and hate affair with me. Company kplans with my experience are very constrictive with what they offer. It drives me nuts that we as investors don't have greater control where our monies are allocated, we get choices and that's it, end of story. I do realize, or maybe I foolishly believe that the powers-to-be are trying to protect us from ourselves from making poor investing decisions, trying to make it more stable for the masses so-to-speak. My plan is not horrible but it's not the best either, it makes some goofy decisions like getting rid of the only value fund offered because it performed poorly for an "X" amount of years? Go figure and thanks a lot for letting me accumulate during a time when value stocks were down and then cutting the fund from the plan, just to watch the fund eventually increase. I lost thousands and thousands of dollars. I really feel bad for people who have high cost funds offered in their kplans, I can't even comprehend who makes these decisions? Why? Drives me nuts. If pensions are gone and what we have are kplans, then let employee's manage their money properly with better choices. I for one would love to invest in individual stocks within the kplan.
I know, if I don't like it I'm more then welcome to not participate but free money (company match) is too hard to give up. Not to mention the money grows tax differed.
Does anything drive you nuts?
It's a love and hate affair with me. Company kplans with my experience are very constrictive with what they offer. It drives me nuts that we as investors don't have greater control where our monies are allocated, we get choices and that's it, end of story. I do realize, or maybe I foolishly believe that the powers-to-be are trying to protect us from ourselves from making poor investing decisions, trying to make it more stable for the masses so-to-speak. My plan is not horrible but it's not the best either, it makes some goofy decisions like getting rid of the only value fund offered because it performed poorly for an "X" amount of years? Go figure and thanks a lot for letting me accumulate during a time when value stocks were down and then cutting the fund from the plan, just to watch the fund eventually increase. I lost thousands and thousands of dollars. I really feel bad for people who have high cost funds offered in their kplans, I can't even comprehend who makes these decisions? Why? Drives me nuts. If pensions are gone and what we have are kplans, then let employee's manage their money properly with better choices. I for one would love to invest in individual stocks within the kplan.
I know, if I don't like it I'm more then welcome to not participate but free money (company match) is too hard to give up. Not to mention the money grows tax differed.
Does anything drive you nuts?
After 50-something years, I'm still trying to learn how to articulate. With what's left of the daily newspaper around here, sometimes I wonder what they teach in those journalism classes. 
Do they still teach English in K-12 anymore?
