Category: 401K

By law, every single 401k plan should have in place an investment committee that decides which mutual funds to offer and which mutual funds to pull (after they’ve been offered). In fact, the criteria they use to make that decision should also be written down on paper as well so that employees are aware of…

It wouldn’t be a full week if a major newspaper or magazine didn’t put out a X Common 401k Mistakes post and this week it’s USA Today’s turn. Their 5 common mistakes aren’t that mind-blowing and you’ve probably seen them before… they are: Rejecting free money: i.e. Not participating. Duh. Participate in your 401k, especially…

This is question 2 of 4 of Money Magazine’s questions and this one is just as important as question number 1. Why should you keep track of your retirement progress? To make sure you are still on track and so you can make any course corrections you may deem necessary. Rebalancing is a very important…

This is question number one in Money Magazine’s four questions you have to answer to get on track for retirement. A very telling graphic is the one where they show you how much you’ll have in retirement if you start maxing out at what age. If you start when you’re 30, given 10% annual growth,…

Looking for a 401k retirement savings calculator? Use this one from Financial Calculators, Inc. It will, given your entry of some assumptions, give you an estimated value of your 401K account come retirement and might be helpful in your retirement planning. Also, by tweaking with the numbers, you can see how small changes now can…

When you contribute money to your 401k, the only way to get the money out before you turn 59.5 is if you borrow the money or activate what’s called a hardship withdrawal. Now, in both cases (borrowing or hardship withdrawing), they are permitted by law but your employer isn’t required to allow you the ability…

Did you just get a letter from your employer about a “True Up” matching change and wondered what the heck that meant? Let me explain what that probably means, though you’ll have to talk to your company HR to find out for sure. Essentially what happens is that when you contribute to your 401k and…

In the first year with my former employer, I contributed a little too much into my 401K and about $300 went into what was called an “after tax 401K.” This was before the advent of the Roth 401K and so I hadn’t even thought about what you would do with a post-tax 401K in the…