BUT it ain't worth warm spit, unless, or until, it remains UP until I can get to a certain age and close it out. aka: cash it in while it's high.
If you have any degree of self direction
(That lets you say what funds or stock you own) in a 401k there's no reason it should be subject to going down close to retirement.
I thought it was basic investment philosophy to shift the portfolio ratio of stocks/ bonds/money market to less stock and more bonds/money market the closer to retirement you are.
Possibility of big gains are less but so are possibility of big losses, virtually crash proofing a portfolio. Interest rates going back up, which they will and need to, will only make the safer two
options do even better.
All the 401k's I've been in let you pick where the money goes. Fidelity, at least the plan I'm in, has full access to anything anywhere traded or sold on all the major US exchanges plus some foreign ones.
Are there 401k plans that don't let you participate in the decision making process?
I don't know, I've haven't worked for a small company since these plans came about, I assumed they were all like that but don't really have anything to base that on.
I quit doing it myself a long time ago and signed up with an outfit called smart401k.com and have never looked back.
They do not work on commissions or trades. Its a flat fee per quarter with no motivation to churn or speculate, and a very solid reputation.
I believe it was started the same group who started the "Mutual Fund Store" and it is run with the same philosophy; basing their fee on how much they make for you, not how many trades they make or funds they sell. If you don't make money, they don't make money.
Its the basic difference between a Broker ( bad news, all they want to do is sell and make trade to earn commissions, they aren't working for you, their working for themselves) and an advisor (good news, they are working for you, with no motivation to churn and buy/sell)
I've done much better with them than I ever did trying to figure it out myself.
> 80% of brokers and advisors can't even beat the returns provided by exchange index funds, what makes any amateur think he can do better?
Many folks hire professionals to do easy shit like plumbing and electrical, car repairs etc. yet with many people; the most important decisions they'll ever make they take a DYI approach and try to wing it like they are in Vegas.
Anybody can be a genius in an upmarket, providing further incentive to screw up later.
Smart401k doesn't move your money around for you, nor do they have access to your account.
They just issue quarterly recommendations based on your lengthy risk/goal/ age/ retirement date profile and what you have available to you in your plan, which with 99% of employers they will have the full list simply by knowing the employer and the 401k plan.
The dollar may become weaker and the US may not be the worlds sole superpower forever but I do not think the dollar is "going away".
I say that simply because although we may be faltering at times we are still "the best there is" and still the worlds preferred currency, although admittedly there are signs that position is weakening, its not happening in a hurry, and I believe its not permanent, simply because I still believe in American Exceptionalism.
I think all that end of the world stuff is a bunch of paranoid hype put out there by people with agendas.
I hope I'm right....