Frontline had another revealing program tonight. They concluded that many of the baby bomers may not be able to retire or if they do then Social Security may be their only source of income.
Much of the program examined the strengths and weaknesses of the 401 (k) plans. Anyone who has a 401 (k) or equivalent plan would be well to read the frequently asked questions that PBS have on their web site. Some of the important questions are what are the advantages of 401 (k) for employees, for Companies and what are the pitfalls for employees.
The program also pointed out that those with these plans need to self manage them rather than let them take care of themselves. That is good advice. Why do I say that? Well for the most part I didn't manage mine well enough.
2 comments:
Well... I definitely need to start contibuting more to my 401. The fact that my employer contibutes ZERO to the program makes my contibution even more vital. I didn't necessarily agree with the one advisor named Wray. His comments that the employer will be making the investment decisions for the employee in in the future, and the implication that this is a good thing. I thought that Alicia Munnell's comments were dead on, we are all very busy with many obligations and retirement saving and management doesn't have its proper place. I'll need to read more on this one, I skimmed most of the pages due to time constraints :)
-Roger
This is the one page I read in full:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/world/need.html
You have come to the right conculsion when your empoyer contributes zero. Regarding employer making investment decisions, it certainly has it's down side. My former employer's contribution was in company stock resulting in them making a portion of the 'investment decisions'.
Post a Comment