better...

[susandennis]

My company uses a company that should be called Luddite Financial for our 401K. Our only means of tracking is the quarterly paper statement which the office manager brings around. She just did. At least the nums look better.

I've been on this plan for 2 years.

My personal rate of return:

Since joining 2.73%
Last 12 months 7.17%
Last quarter 15.41%

But looking over some of the funds I am not in, I cudda done better. At least it's out of the minus...

Comments

Uggghhh

[pheon.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine only seeing results quarterly. I agree with the concept that you should not try day-trading in a 401(K) :-) and should probably adjust only once a year or so, but to not know where you are seems ludicrous.

One of the advantages of our division moving from Tektronix to Xerox was that the 401(K) access got better. At Tek you could adjust only once a month, which actually happened toward the end of each month on Tek's schedule. At Xerox you could adjust once a day. Every day.

And look at the bright side...

[pheon.livejournal.com]

It's not so bad that you called it Fuckchop Financial.

Re: And look at the bright side...

[susandennis]

Ha! You are right!! That was two quarters ago and probably last quarter. I'm happy to say that the opportunity has moved on by!

When I first joined this outfit, I pitched a fit about their access. They touted their website 'where you can get access to your statement anytime you like!' Yepper - I can download a PDF of the quarterly paper statement 24/7.

Oddly, the quarterly thing really makes me want to change it every quarter. Those investments that I have real 24/7 access to, I'm willing to ride out.

If this continues to grow like this, I may have to get whiney again...

And those aren't bad numbers

[pheon.livejournal.com]

All in all, those are reasonably good numbers for this day and age.

What kind of categories are available to you? [Tek had about 6 generic ones defined as ranging from semi-risky stocks to totally secure bonds (which aren't, of course); Xerox had more specific ones plus you could go into market mode and pick actual mutual funds.]

Re: And those aren't bad numbers

[susandennis]

The selection is actually pretty good. 6 groups like you said ranging from 'about equal to savings account' to 'vegas roulette'.

Within each we can pick from actual funds. There are a total of 50 different funds. And I'll have to say that while getting it once a quarter sucks, the statement is one of the best I've seen. It shows a whole lot of detail - like the track record of each fund - 3 mo, 1 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year.

Re: And those aren't bad numbers

[fj.livejournal.com]

Proving yet again your financial genius.

My 401k is totaqlly available and manageable ovger the web, and the benefits company has linked it to this http://www.mpower.com outfit. It asks you questions about your goals and comfort level and which funds you have available and then suggests allocations (and can even execute them automatically). I too am making returns on my 401k again, 11% in the last 6 months.