Do you know what investments are in your IRA or 401K ?

[usmcstinger]

Do you choose your investments in a 401K or does someone advise you? Do you understand the mutual funds in it? Are your choices restricted?

Many 401K's have terrible mutual fund choices as well as those made only for a 401Ks.

One should look into Roth IRA's and plain IRA's.

A person with average intelligence who does good research can put together a good portfolio.

Places to learn from: U.S. Fund Rankings - Bloomberg
MarketWatch - Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News
Top Mutual Funds - SmartMoney.com
Mutual Funds - CNNMoney
and morningstar.com my favorite

 

[50_RiaL]

Haven't the faintest

 

[rdean]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

 

[waltky]

Granny got a lot of Blackwater...

... an' Halliburton in hers...

... w/ a lil' bit o' Chinese rickshaw stock...

... just in case.

 

[BillyV]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market.

What in the world does the OP have to do with politics, minimum wage, health or Republican policies? Did you even read it, or just responding on autopilot?

 

[Rocko]

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

 

[Mr Natural]

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

Only if you pull it out before you're 59 1/2.

 

[Rocko]

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

Only if you pull it out before you're 59 1/2.

Most people do.

 

[Mr Natural]

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

Only if you pull it out before you're 59 1/2.

Most people do.

It's an Individual RETIREMENT Account.

Operative word there is RETIREMENT.

 

[Toro]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market.

What in the world does the OP have to do with politics, minimum wage, health or Republican policies? Did you even read it, or just responding on autopilot?

Ah, n00bs!

Let me enlighten you. This is known as "rdeaning."

 

[SteadyMercury]

Do you choose your investments in a 401K or does someone advise you? Do you understand the mutual funds in it? Are your choices restricted?

Many 401K's have terrible mutual fund choices as well as those made only for a 401Ks.

Yes, I understand what investments I'm in for my 401k and of course the choices are restricted. I currently have all 401k in an S&P 500 index fund with a relatively low expense ratio, which can work with IRAs to fit into my overall desired asset allocation.

I'll never understand why people would roll an old 401k into a new one when they change jobs, you will just get higher fees and more limited choices than if you rolled it into an IRA with a company like Fidelity, Vanguard, etc.

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

As someone else mentioned, an IRA is for retirement.

To your point on penalties a Roth IRA is interesting because you can take out what you have contributed before age 59 1/2 without penalty. In other words if you've put in 50k over the years and the account has grown to 70k, you can withdraw 50k right now without paying income taxes (since you've already paid them) or penalties. If you touch the additional 20k that came from earnings before 59 1/2 you would usually pay a penalty.

There is also a way to withdraw money from IRA without penalties if you are retiring early, look up "72t" for more info. It isn't something you can do to just pull all your money out for an emergency, but can allow even distributions over time at younger age.

Good luck everyone.

 

[usmcstinger]

I was never really a big fan of IRA's simply because you pay a penalty when you access your money. I buy T bonds.

Look into a Roth IRA.

 

[usmcstinger]

Haven't the faintest

It would be wise to find out. You may be invested in a bunch of garbage.

 

[boedicca]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

You really are a moron. 401Ks are individual plans; the government has no say as to how each individual invests his funds. Plan options contain a variety of stock, bond and money market options.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

You really are a moron. 401Ks are individual plans; the government has no say as to how each individual invests his funds. Plan options contain a variety of stock, bond and money market options.

Until the Gov't makes it mandatory. There's already an IRS "ruling" on this:

Cooley LLP | News & Insight | Alerts | IRS Approves Mandatory 401(k) Contributions, if Appropriate Notice is Provided to Plan Participants

Oh but they wouldn't do that would they?:

Obama Begins Push to Confiscate IRA's & 401k's | SilverDoctors.com

 

[boedicca]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

You really are a moron. 401Ks are individual plans; the government has no say as to how each individual invests his funds. Plan options contain a variety of stock, bond and money market options.

Until the Gov't makes it mandatory. There's already an IRS "ruling" on this:

Cooley LLP | News & Insight | Alerts | IRS Approves Mandatory 401(k) Contributions, if Appropriate Notice is Provided to Plan Participants

Oh but they wouldn't do that would they?:

Obama Begins Push to Confiscate IRA's & 401k's | SilverDoctors.com

Good catch - this IRA/401K confiscation scheme has been under discussion by the Dems to bail out union pension funds.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Until the Gov't makes it mandatory. There's already an IRS "ruling" on this

Your post was responding to someone who pointed out the government does not control how money in 401ks is invested since most have many investment options, and the links you posted do not refute this nor do they support your claim there is an IRS ruling on it.


The Cooley.com link is referencing a 15 year old ruling that allows 401k plans to be "opt-out" from mandatory contributions and clearly states employees have that right. I'm not sure how you are interpreting that to mean the government is controlling how individuals invest their funds.

"The IRS recently ruled that a 401(k) plan may require mandatory 401(k) contributions to be withheld from eligible employees’ compensation, if the employer gives appropriate notice to its employees and the employees have an opportunity to "elect out" of the mandatory contributions."


Your second link is simply a post of conjecture and fear mongering on a website that sells silver.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Republicans want to end the minimum wage. End health care paid by companies. For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market. Listen to them and they will do to you what they did to the economy and Enron and the Leyman Brothers.

And listening to the Republican base talk about what to do with what they don't have is a "hoot".

For a while, they wanted 401k money to be invested in the stock market.

My 401K money is invested in the stock market.
A smaller investment in the market will give me several times the payoff of the money I was forced to put into Social Security. Of course liberals are bad at math, they think Social Security is a great investment.

 

[MHunterB]

I probably was too heavily into bonds & cash this past year: I only made us 11% Of course that ROI includes all the dividends that were paid out.