Posts tagged as:

401(k) plans

Retirement Planning: Risky business for the risky ones

September 7, 2010

Did you ever wonder why the cost of insuring a driver is much higher when you are younger than 25?  Did you ever wonder why it seems socially acceptable to take on huge amounts of college debt at a time when you have no income to show for it? And even though President Obama’s health [...]

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A Match Made in 401(k) Heaven – Almost

July 30, 2010

We talk about the 401(k) match as the benefit most needed for investors to achieve the kind of retirement they need.  We call it free money – which it really isn’t.  We call it an incentive – which isn’t always the case. We call it a benefit worth considering – which it can be depending [...]

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Mutual Funds: Dividend Growth vs Dividend Yield

July 16, 2010

As investors look for anything that might enhance their portfolio’s overall return, the subject of whether dividends are worth the effort have moved to the forefront.  Many current retirees and those poised to retire understand the nature of what this provides but there are subtle differences in what they actually are, the story they tell [...]

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Making the Financially Clueless More So

June 29, 2010

By now, most of my regular readers know what I do not like in the world of financial products. The annuity galls me (a mix of insurance and mutual funds that doesn’t do either well), the ETF (which mimics the indexed mutual fund but allows you to trade it just like a stock and pay [...]

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Does Auto-Enrollment in 401(k) Plans Work?

February 19, 2010

Auto-enrollment in 401(k) retirement plans was mandated in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The PPA saw the idea as a way to help ensure that employees at least had a jump start at retirement. By enrolling new employees automatically, the theory of getting more workers involved in the plan sooner would them an opportunity [...]

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