401k, Personal Finance | featured news

A two-income American family with an average income that dutifully invests in a 401(k) plan using typical strategies will lose $155,000 – or about 30 percent of what they should have saved for retirement -- to Wall Street fees, according to a study by an economic justice advocacy organization.

The presence of company stock within a 401k plan is a major red flag. On the other hand, it provides a simple way for employees to assess whether they can trust their employer and any of the products and services offered within a plan. The more company stock within a 401k plan, the less an employer can be trusted. It's that simple.

If you save money by putting cash under your mattress, then inflation does indeed rob you of purchasing power. But if, like most of us, you hold your nest egg in a savings account, a money market fund, real estate, or a 401(k) plan then what you care about is your real rate of return, not the inflation rate per se.