Friday, July 23, 2021

Most employers are charging you too much for their 401k

 

Most employers are charging you too much for their 401k

Nearly one-third of investors believe they do not pay any fees or expenses at all for their investment accounts or they don’t know how much they are paying. Thirty-seven percent of people with a 401k told TD Ameritrade they didn’t think they paid any fees at all. My former industry has been hiding financial advice and product fees from us all our lives. Since employers should be helping us reach our retirement goals (since they don’t provide pensions anymore), they should be charging us zero. Instead they have not made it easy to decipher 401k 403b plan documents. They are written by legal scholars to protect employers, not help us understand how much we are losing over time. Paying 2% in investment, plan and services fees “will erode 63 percent of what you would have had.” Even worse, if you are using a variable annuity, you may be charged 7%. Small employers often use variable annuities from an insurance agent since this costs your boss nothing. Consider low-cost alternatives: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Pension-Box-tax-FREE-employer/dp/1481945157

 

 

How assets build your Wealth Reserve

Over time, using a low-cost stock mutual fund, you can create your retirement nest egg. And if you use your IRS-approved investment account, you can spend it all without federal and state income taxes. We call this account a Wealth Reserve because after accumulating your assets for a number of years, you can use your reserves to save on insurance premiums and credit card interest. Debt is the biggest wealth killer. Mortgage debt works because it is tax-advantaged for a large asset that “grows by itself.” We use a low-cost stock mutual fund because we can overcome advisor fees and inflation. The Miracle of Compounding helps us convert $250 a month, $3000 a year, into $1,000,000 in about 33 years. After 15, years you can borrow from your Wealth Reserve to buy a used luxury car. If you make the payments back to your Wealth Reserve instead of paying a car loan interest, you can fund a business start-up. The sooner you begin the sooner you can accomplish all your financial goals. dalbar.com/Portals/dalbar/cache/News/PressReleases/DALBAR%20 Pinpoints%20Investor%20Pain%202015.pdf

Start your Wealth Reserve today: https://www.amazon.com/New-American-Retirement-System-Wealth-ReserveTM/dp/1461030072

 

Is a “direct indexing” product right for you?

A direct indexing product is a ‘low-cost’, highly customizable, separately managed account. Your advisor personalizes your portfolio of stocks. It attempts to replicate the performance of an index by purchasing the underlying individual equities instead of using an ETF or mutual fund. So you are paying for each trade (500 index, for instance) instead of just buying the low-cost no commission alternative. There are thousands of index funds already; having your advisor re-create the wheel seems stupid and expensive. One of the benefits, according to one money manager, is that “you can buy part of a share that costs a lot, like Google or Amazon.” But you can do that already via any online broker, even at Vanguard. It is difficult to see how buying and maintaining 500 stocks individually commissioned can be cheaper than using a mutual fund costing 0.04% like the 500 Index. One broker claims that "This concept was developed when the research showed that the active manager fails to beat the market the vast majority of the time, so investors have a higher probability of success if they just own the index," according to one advocate. Tax harvesting, ethical stocks and reduced risk are the benefits, he says. Sounds like Wall Street has come up with another trick marketing scheme to sell managed portfolio management for a fee to ‘compete’ with simple low-cost index funds.

Use real indexing: https://www.amazon.com/Millennials-Investment-Strategy-BEST-journey/dp/1533079242

 

Can the stock market continue to hit new highs?

When the market produces average annual gains of 15.59% since 2009, you must ask how much longer can this continue? The long-term average is 10-12% depending on the period. Every honest advisor and economist (not on TV) will admit they don’t know what will happen. So we all face the same dilemma: hold or try to time the market. Option 1: hold your assets where they are. This requires patience when the market goes down and up. And ‘patience’ is what Warren Buffett advises: "The market is a way to transfer money from the impatient to the patient." Over most periods of time, compounding works best when you don’t trade or re-balance your portfolio. Option 2: Trading requires that you know when the market is at a high point and again when the market is at a low point. You must be right twice. No amateur or professional has been able to know those points over any period of time. Buffett has held some stocks forever: “our holding period is forever.” Since we don’t know when to sell and re-buy, the best strategy is to do nothing—be patient—stocks will rebound. Where else can you put your money? There  is no better asset for the long-term. Fidelity analyzed the outcomes of their long-term investors and found the non-trader accounts had the best investment successes. In fact, the best outcomes were in accounts that were forgotten or the owners had died. Face it; no one can know the future.

“Know thyself:” https://www.amazon.com/Meek-Patient-Shall-Inherit-Earth/dp/1492869538

 

 

**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************

 

 

Like 1776, this period is a test of democracyWe rejected an "American fascist" once

 

 

Our Jan 6 ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission

 

Terrorist gets 8 months for coup attempt

 

GOP big lie: Trump ‘won’: repeat repeat repeat: new “TRUTH”

 

 

 

How Govt wastes our money:

Gov spyware for terrorists put on phones of reporters, human rights, execs, pols, officers

“From a dozen countries, you can spy on the rest of the world.” Gov buys info on anyone.

Millionaire GOP drops IRS audit funding bill: wealthy free to hide income; we pay more

Jeff uses his tax avoidance for $5.5 Billion ride: Amazon pays 0% tax; we pay 32.9%

 

How a society treats its elderly tells you all you need to know about its human values

Biden lets Trumpist Wilbur Ross escape after lying to Congress: Biden’s wrong message

Judge halts Arkansas ban on abortions: “imminent threat” to women constitutional rights

 

SCAMS/SPINS:

We train assassins for the world: we help nations kill people

Terrorists go to the game; to the fire;  Some terrorists named heroes.

Texas stops teaching that Ku Klux Klan was morally wrong: racist culture in TX

 

Jeff could have paid a bonus for every unvax person to get the vax: we all live longer

Trump told America Covid was hoax but got vax himself: now ½ of us on death watch

Covid cases rose 140% in the past two weeks: our health going in wrong direction

Year late, McConnell urges vax after watches 610,000 die: too little too late Mr Hannity

Covid carrier boards plane as woman in ni·qab so he can fly: easier to get vax?

Texas hospital reported its first case of the Lambda COVID-19 variant

LA: On Wednesday, 2,551 new infections were recorded among non-vac people

 

Crypto market Binance has no complaint center so buyer beware: FTC can’t help you

Same price but get less: downsizing raises profits/CEO pay or just raise prices for CEO $

 

Scammers keep our scam money: Supremes vote against recovery: where is Congress?

Rental car scams: demand high; supply low: prices rise. Beware low price scammers.

MoneyGram scam refunds: 300,000 complaints to FTC.

Food package dates: we waste more food than the world combined.

 

UBS caught selling inappropriate funds: ETP linked to short-term market volatility: fine

BlackRock managers take $4.82 billion from higher fees from 15% market gain: no sweat

Joy and Brent Kovar caught stealing from 277 clients: offering “massive returns  crypto

 

Jobs

Fake job scams have skyrocketed: check sent to set up is fake so they can empty account

Since July 2009, when the $7.25 minimum went into effect, it has lost 18% of its value

NFL requires vax so some players may quit: $ millions at stake: hurting teammates?

 

Who owns your account now?

Your iphone is vulnerable despite Apple claims: “hacked multiple times with Pegasus”

Retirement plan business of Prudential Financial to Empower Retirement

Medicare cost and payment problems: report shows areas of concern

 

 

 

Miracles:

Court rules kids in US can buy and use guns: “teens used to serve in militias in 1791”

Fire so overwhelming it’s creating its own weather: OR burns area larger than LA

 

We can apply for Medicare online: https://blog.ssa.gov/apply-for-medicare-online

We can apply for Social Security online: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/

We can apply for health care online: https://www.healthcare.gov/

 

IAN

41 Watchung Plaza, B242

MontclairNJ   07042

973.746.2014

www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com

Alerts available at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/

 

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