http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/ A production of FiLife, a new personal-finance site that goes live later this year. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:32:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-1723 Peter Blanchette Thu, 22 May 2008 22:48:11 +0000 http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-1723 The 401K is so poorly designed in the tax law that it would be amazing if even a bare majority of investors are going to be ready for retirement. The 401K should have been set up so that employees, through payroll deduction, could invest into an account that the employee controls in a vehicle outside of the workplace(Fidelity, Vanguard etc), not an account that is essentially under the supervision of the employer/401K administrator. This necessitates rolling over these funds every time an employee decides to change jobs or is forced to find a job involuntarily. This can be an administrative nightmare and a financially devastating system for people who are not lucky enough to work for a single employer throughout their work life and thus face rolling over their 401K again and again. Those small 401k accounts, less than $5,000 balances, that have to be liquidated can cripple a retirement plan over time if they are not handled properly. The 401K is so poorly designed in the tax law that it would be amazing if even a bare majority of investors are going to be ready for retirement. The 401K should have been set up so that employees, through payroll deduction, could invest into an account that the employee controls in a vehicle outside of the workplace(Fidelity, Vanguard etc), not an account that is essentially under the supervision of the employer/401K administrator. This necessitates rolling over these funds every time an employee decides to change jobs or is forced to find a job involuntarily. This can be an administrative nightmare and a financially devastating system for people who are not lucky enough to work for a single employer throughout their work life and thus face rolling over their 401K again and again. Those small 401k accounts, less than $5,000 balances, that have to be liquidated can cripple a retirement plan over time if they are not handled properly.

]]> http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-456 Rosanne Scalisi Sat, 22 Dec 2007 11:10:53 +0000 http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-456 Thank you for the great pointers! Very interesting. I am sending it to my coworkers! Thank you for the great pointers! Very interesting. I am sending it to my coworkers!

]]> http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-446 steve Heideman Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:33:19 +0000 http://blog.filife.com/holiday-wish-list-7-things-we-want-from-our-401ks/#comment-446 Is that Bob Hope? ;-) Is that Bob Hope?

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