Tag: 401K
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Professional Investment Advice for your 401(k)
It’s been reported in Money on CNN Money that approximately 25% of employers with 401(k) plans are now offering professional investment advice for their employees for a fee of 0.4% to 1%. What they’ll do is take a look at all of your funds and help you select the right mix given your situation and…
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Naming Beneficiaries on Retirement Plans
Every retirement plan you own has a spot for you to designate a beneficiary. It seems like a simple problem right? Just pick someone you trust and everything will be okay. Couples name their spouse, singles name their parents or their children, everyone can think of at least one person they’d want to leave their…
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Don’t Use Tax Advantaged Investments in 401K, IRA
Given the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld the tax advantaged status of investments such as municipal bonds, you may be tempted to begin investing in these instruments. If you do, don’t invest in them through a 401K or an IRA (either Roth or Traditional). You want to take full advantage of their tax advantaged…
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Should You Invest In A Non-Matching 401K?
My wife works at a relatively small startup-type company that has a 401(k) plan but offers no employer match. One of the things I had researched was whether it was a good idea to put funds towards a 401(k) plan or if other options were better for her and broke it down to several considerations.…
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Retirement Account Catch-Up Rules
Catching up is hard to do, unless you’re talking retirement savings and you have the power of the US Government behind you. The contribution limits for various retirement accounts are increased if you are over the age of 50 and you can use them to your advantage if you didn’t contribute as much in your…
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Ask Your Company to Match 401(k) Contributions
If your company doesn’t match 401(k) contributions, email them. Email them, write a letter, collect signatures for a petition, do whatever you want but contact them and let them know that it’s important to you and other people in your company for the match to be offered. This is especially true if you don’t have…
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How To Analyze 401(k) Fund Offerings
If you just opened your 401(k) or are investigating where you should be invested, my advice to you is to keep things as simple as possible. If it’s your first 401(k), or your first time looking at it with this company, it can be a little overwhelming to figure out what you should be doing.…
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3 Reasons I Rolled Over My 401(k)
I’ve left two jobs in the last five years and each time I rolled over my 401(k) into a Rollover IRA held at Vanguard. In both cases, I rolled over the IRA within a few months of departing my job and I did so for a small handful of reasons. I know now that I…
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2008 Highly Compensated Employee Limits
For 2008, the Highly Compensated Employee income level was increased from $100,000 to $105,000. If your income is above $105,000 then you are considered “highly compensated” for the purposes of retirement plans. If you are curious as to the rules regarding HCE’s, please read this page that discusses what a highly compensated employee means.