Smart Investing - Smart401k.com
Okay, so as you know, I work at Duke University. This means I have a ridiculously nice 403b retirement plan (that's 401k for you for-profit folks!). Regardless of my contribution (as long as it is 5%, I think), Duke puts in something like 7.3% of the first $45,000 of my salary, and 13.3% of everything above that. For me that works out to about 10% of my salary. Since I'm currently contributing 10% myself, that means I'm getting approximately $1 of Duke's money for every $1 of my money. That's a good match.
By comparison, Adrienne gets a 50% match up to 6% of her salary, so even though she's putting 15% into her 401k, she's only getting 3% from Wyeth - meaning she gets 20 cents for every dollar of her money.
Well, we'll take it anyway.
But the fact is, we're not investors. I don't have the time to investigate the 70 different Fidelity funds that I can choose to invest in. I think the vast majority of 401k and 403b investors are not knowledgeable investors. I mean, I know I'm 30 years from retirement and I'm able to be somewhat risky with my investments, and I know how to look at historical returns and such but I really just don't have the time to be a fully-informed invester.
Enter www.Smart401k.com.
Smart401k.com is a company founded by Adam Bold (and others). Adam Bold also founded "The Mutual Fund Store" and has a nationally syndicated radio show dedicated to mutual fund investing. Anyway, the idea is that you sign up - either quarterly or annually - answer a survey about your investment objectives, how willingly you accept risk, etc, and then you tell them how much is in your 401k and what your investment options are.
Once a quarter (or more), Smart401k.com provides you with recommendations for investment allocation. They notify me via email that new recommendations are available, I log into the web site, review the recommendations, then head over to the Fidelity @ Work web site and reallocate my 403b according to their recommendations. It's that easy.
Now I've only been in the service for a month, so I can't tell you how well things are going. Ask me in 5 or 10 years. All I know is that their recommendations are almost certainly better than anything I would come up with.
Check 'em out.
You are not logged in, so your subscription status for this entry is unknown. You can login or register here.
No comments found.