On long driving trips, I love to use cruise control. I just set the speed once and stop worrying about how fast I’m going. Of course, I still need to steer, and watch out for other drivers. Automation can be good for retirement saving, too–but only up to a point. Employers have been adding more [...] [...more]
“Should I stay or should I go?” I’m fairly sure The Clash wasn’t thinking about 401k accounts when they wrote that English punk rock classic. But it’s a good song to sing whenever you leave a job and need to decide where to park your fund balance. Many people naturally lean toward taking their 401(k) [...] [...more]
The respected Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released new research this week that attempts to quantify how much more the average worker will gain through automation of 401(k) retirement savings plans at work. I wrote recently about the surging use of automated retirement portfolio management; the new EBRI study claims to be the first of [...] [...more]
When it comes to your retirement portfolio, you’re in the driver’s seat. At the risk of sounding like a back-seat driver, here’s a thought: Maybe you should put it your plan on cruise control. A majority of employers are adding what amounts to automatic portfolio management to the options you can choose in your workplace [...] [...more]
The economic downturn and mortgage crisis are turning a growing number of Americans into retirement account raiders. The number of Americans tapping into their 401(k) savings accounts to pay debts or to fund other immediate financial needs rose sharply last year. The situation worsened during the first quarter this year as the mortgage crisis heated [...] [...more]
